Hi folks! My name is Bran LeFae. Thank you for taking time to learn a bit about me today. I’ve described some of my career path below. If you’d like a more traditional overview of my background, here is my LinkedIn profile.

I’ve worked in research for much of my career. And I learned early on that few people understood research or why it matters. That inspired me to learn to communicate about science in a way that everyone can understand. But I wasn’t sure how to do that effectively.

But then I found plain language! I was working at an Institutional Review Board, which oversees research that studies people, like clinical trials. I saw that many of the informed consent forms (ICFs) used in these studies weren’t written in a way that everyone could easily understand. I thought this was a critical miss. This led me to discovering plain language, a writing style that uses specific techniques to create clear communication about complicated topics. I learned everything I could about it and started coaching study staff on using plain language to write clear ICFs.

When I found plain language, I also became interested in Medical Writing. Every clinical trial or research study needs certain documents to guide how the research is run. Medical Writers help prepare these documents and are key contributors to the regulatory filings that are essential for clinical trials and drug development. When I moved to a role in clinical oncology research at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, I also had an opportunity to explore writing ICFs in plain language for that research team. This combined my interest in research with my growing expertise in ICFs and plain language. It was a fascinating and challenging job!

I found that there was a keen interest in plain language at clinical trial sites. But I also learned that clinical trial staff were extremely busy. It typically takes a new writer about 6 months of consistent plain language writing to become skilled in the techniques. Study staff didn’t have the time to learn a new skill to write ICFs in plain language. 

I thought it would be more effective to train Medical Writers to write in plain language. Then the ICF from the study sponsor would already be in plain language by the time it got to the study site. I decided to pursue Medical Writing positions and found a role at Seagen Inc. I began a plain language initiative a couple of weeks after starting my new role.

That initiative grew and evolved into a small in-house team of plain language writers. We managed the ICFs for most of the clinical trials. My role focused on plain language, ICFs, and health literacy communication. My small but mighty team produced hundreds of plain language documents annually. I also worked with other departments on a wide variety of plain language projects. I helped write educational materials for staff and for external use. I worked with our labeling team on the language used in several drug labels. And I advocated across the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for the use of plain language in all patient-facing materials.

Plain language is a flexible writing style. It uses techniques that can be applied objectively to almost any communication. I’ve seen it work well for patients seeking medical information. And I’ve seen it put to good use in business communications. It is efficient and always written with the audience in mind.

My partner and I have started this business to help folks create clear communication about complicated information. We offer training for businesses who want to have in-house plain language writers and editors. We also provide plain language writing and editing and graphic design services. I’m thrilled to work with folks on projects with one goal in mind – creating content that everyone will understand. Whether it’s healthcare information, ICFs for research studies or clinical care, or business communications, the challenge of making the complicated clear brings me to work each day.