Med CPD Provider Spotlight – Biotext

Biotext: Making Complex Health Information Clear and Accessible

Healthcare professionals work with complex information every day. Whether explaining findings to patients, preparing research reports or sharing recommendations with colleagues, communicating clearly is essential.

But how do you make technical information easier to understand without losing the detail, nuance or accuracy that matters?

This is the focus of Biotext, an Australian company that helps organisations and individuals communicate scientific and complex information clearly and effectively. Through practical training workshops, Biotext helps people develop the skills to write, edit and present information in ways that are accurate, accessible and useful.

Who is Biotext?

Established in 1999, Biotext is an employee-owned company based in Canberra, with team members across the ACT, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. It works with national and international clients across health, government, research and other sectors.

Biotext supports communication projects from strategy and planning through to writing, quality assurance and visual design. Its work includes websites, reports, fact sheets, policy documents and governance materials.

Alongside this work, Biotext shares its expertise through practical, interactive training workshops. These sessions draw on the team’s experience working with scientific and technical content, giving participants approaches they can apply to their own communication tasks.

Why clear health communication matters

Health professionals communicate with a wide range of audiences, including patients, colleagues, research bodies, organisations and policy makers. Each audience may have different levels of knowledge and different needs.

Clear communication helps people find, understand and act on information. It can support patient understanding and health literacy, build trust with patients and communities, strengthen collaboration between professionals, and help research findings contribute to evidence-based practice.

It also matters when preparing funding applications, business cases and other documents where information needs to be precise and persuasive.

The challenge is to simplify information without oversimplifying it. Technical content can involve data, tables, diagrams, equations and references, all of which need careful handling. Biotext helps people understand these demands and communicate complex material in a way that remains accurate while becoming easier to follow.

Building practical skills through health communication training

Biotext offers a series of live, online workshops for people who need to communicate clearly. Sessions are facilitated by a qualified editor with experience in data analysis and visualisation, and groups are kept small — around 10 participants — so people can raise specific questions and discuss their own communication challenges.

Writing and editing complex content

This workshop is particularly relevant to health professionals who prepare reports, research materials, technical documents or other content where accuracy and readability are equally important.

Participants learn how to write and edit complex health content so it remains precise and accurate while becoming simpler, more direct and easier to read.

The focus is not on removing important detail. It is on presenting information in a way that helps readers understand the message without getting lost in unnecessary complexity.

Creating accessible documents

Information is most useful when people can access it. Biotext’s workshop on accessible documents introduces ways to make content available to the widest possible audience, including practical tips for making documents work with screen readers.

This can be valuable for professionals who create reports, guidance materials, educational resources and other documents that need to be accessible to different readers.

Creating effective infographics

Data and complex concepts can sometimes be easier to understand when presented visually. Biotext’s infographic workshop explores how to use images and graphics to communicate data persuasively and accurately.

Participants learn key principles of data visualisation and how to conceptualise infographics, with an emphasis on presenting information clearly without compromising its integrity.

Experience that informs the training

Biotext’s workshops are designed and delivered by people who work with complex information every day. The team includes content strategists, writers, editors and data specialists with science backgrounds and decades of experience in communication.

The training manager and lead facilitator, Dr Darren Goossens, is a former university lecturer and teacher. His experience helps shape the workshops around practical skill development, interactive activities and group work.

Other members of the training team contribute expertise in science communication, visual design, infographics and accessibility.

This connection between professional practice and training means the workshops draw on techniques and approaches used in real communication work. Sessions are delivered live online, and Biotext can also provide face-to-face training within organisations.

Looking ahead: Communicating complex information in the age of AI

As generative artificial intelligence becomes more widely used, questions about the accuracy and interpretation of complex information are increasingly important.

Biotext is applying its expertise to advise on how to ensure AI-generated content is accurate and how to make information easier for AI systems to find, understand and present correctly.

This work builds on a central theme of Biotext’s communication practice: information needs to be clear and accessible, but it must also remain accurate and meaningful.

Learn more about Biotext

For healthcare professionals and teams looking to strengthen their communication skills, Biotext offers practical workshops in writing and editing complex content, accessible documents and effective infographics.

The workshops are informed by the team’s experience in health and scientific communication, with an emphasis on techniques that can be applied in everyday work.

Explore Biotext’s education on Med CPD

Organisations interested in customised training, writing and editing services, or developing a new workshop can find out more through the Biotext website