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House Style

House Style

UW Medicine follows the Associated Press Stylebook (AP) for topics not covered here. UW Libraries also provides limited AP Stylebook access for employees with NET IDs. 

About UW Medicine

UW Medicine is the trademarked brand name. It is not University of Washington Medicine. Do not use UWM. 

The UW School of Medicine is part of UW Medicine’s integrated health system. Use UW Medicine hospitals and clinics to indicate the locations for patient care within this health system.

Use “UW Medicine, the University of Washington’s health system” as the first reference when it makes sense. Do not use “UW Medicine/University of Washington” as a shorthand description.

Academic degrees and certifications

  • In general text and news releases, do not use degrees or certifications with a person’s name.  
  • When identifying healthcare professionals in a listing or directory (such as online bios), academic degrees and professional certifications are acceptable.
    • MD, PhD, RN, MPH, MHA, ARNP, CRNA, MSW, PA
    • Use commas to separate degrees: MD, PhD.
  • Do not use periods in degrees.
    • Note: This is a change from previous editions of the editorial style guide. 
    • Exception: Follow AP style and use periods in news releases. 
  • If degrees are used, the name should not be preceded by “Dr.” or another title. 
  • Do not include academic degrees below a master’s level. 

Addresses

  • Addresses on uwmedicine.org, such as location pages, will follow the USPS and Google Maps best practices for address formatting instead of AP Style. This is to allow the optimization of digital navigation maps, as well as accessibility and scan-ability.  
  • The key distinction is that the USPS allows common street term abbreviations, such as “Ave,” “Blvd,” and “St,” whereas the AP Style Guide typically spells these out fully (unless part of a numbered address).  

Digital Health

Telemedicine refers to 1:1 video visits with a healthcare professional; telehealth and virtual care refer to the larger body of virtual modes of healthcare.

  • On-demand virtual care (instead of virtual clinic care) 
  • Specific types of telehealth/virtual care offered by UW Medicine  
  • Telemedicine Visit with UW Medicine experts 
    • Uses Zoom on mobile phone, tablet or computer
    • Typically is a covered benefit of health insurance
    • Includes interpreter services
    • Lowercase “telemedicine visit” for general usage

MyChart

  • Online patient portal for UW Medicine (replaced eCare)

Headlines and bulleted items

  • Use AP Title Case capitalization for first headline:
    • Capitalize the first word and the last word of the title 
    • Capitalize the principal words 
    • Capitalize all words of four letters or more 
    • Capitalize verbs, including to-be verbs under four letters
      • is, are, was, be, etc.
    • Do not capitalize articles, conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer 
  • Use sentence case capitalization for subsequent headings, sub-headlines, information boxes and bulleted items. Sentence case means only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
  • Bulleted lists:
    • If you are using full sentences, end the bulleted line with a period.
    • If you are using phrases, do not use a period at the end of the bulleted line (e.g., the headline section above).
    • Do not use semicolons or colons at the end of your bulleted lines.

Healthcare and medical terms

  • Academic Medical Center: Avoid using in marketing copy to describe UW Medicine.
    • Correct: Patients of health systems that integrate patient care with teaching and research, like UW Medicine, have better outcomes.
    • Incorrect: Patients of academic medical centers, like UW Medicine, have better outcomes.
  • Board certified or board-certified: Do not capitalize.
    • Dr. Johnson is board certified in family medicine.
    • Dr. Johnson is a board-certified family doctor.
  • Diseases or conditions:
    • Do not capitalize unless a person’s name is included. Even if a condition is commonly referred to by initials, the full name should still be lowercase.
      • Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, peripheral artery disease (PAD).
    • Substance use disorder. Not substance abuse disorder.
  • Designated levels of care: Use Roman numerals. Note that the levels of care are different for trauma and neonatal intensive care; Level I is the highest level for trauma care and Level IV is the highest level for neonatal care.
    • Harborview is a Level I adult and pediatric trauma center. 
    • The UW Medical Center – Montlake Level IV neonatal intensive care unit is one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest. 
  • Healthcare is one word, whether used as noun or adjective.
    • Sam Smith argues for universal healthcare.
    • Sam Smith is an expert in healthcare finance.
    • Note: One exception to this is mental health care which is three words. 
  • Obstetrician-gynecologist: OB-GYN is the preferred abbreviation. May use on first reference if the context is clear to the reader.
  • Procedures: Do not capitalize unless the procedure was named after a person.
    • Bruce protocol, treadmill test
  • Provider: Avoid using the term provider to describe physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, dentists, mental health workers, clinical social workers, etc.
    • Most people use doctor to describe a person who provides medical care.
    • Other alternatives: medical professionals, healthcare professionals, care team
  • See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Plain Language Materials & Resources to find accurate, simple options for common healthcare terms.

Phone numbers

  • Always include area codes; use periods between numbers, not brackets or dashes: 206.543.3620.

Publications (Referencing)

  • Italics: Do not use italics for publication titles, but do use italics for scientific terms.
    • E. coli  
  • Quotation marks: Use quotation marks for titles of articles in magazines or periodicals, book chapters, essays, individual blog posts, individual episodes of radio or TV shows, poems, songs, stories and unpublished works.
    • “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “The Purloined Letter”
  • Plain text: Bible, Quran, Talmud
  • Right as Rain by UW Medicine: Right as Rain on second reference. 
  • Vitals: Should context be needed, “Vitals, UW Medicine’s intranet”
  • UW Medicine Newsroom: The Newsroom on second reference. 

Punctuation

  • Ampersands: Do not use ampersands (&) in running text as they are confusing for nonnative English speakers and screen readers. Use the word “and” instead.
    • Exceptions: It’s OK to use an ampersand if it is part of a proper name (U.S. News & World Report) or in social media posts when limited by a character count.
  • Commas: Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in most simple series.
    • The flag is red, white and blue.
    • He would nominate Tom, Dick, Harry or Jeannette.
  • Dashes: Use dashes to signal a break in the sentence flow; add a space before and after the dash.
    • Jane wanted him to use the most recent — and, in her view, best — version of the document.
  • Exclamation points: Avoid use of exclamation points.
  • Hyphens: Use hyphens as joiners for compound modifiers and for ranges. No hyphen is needed if the modifier is commonly recognized as one phrase, and if the meaning is clear and unambiguous without the hyphen. Do use a hyphen if it’s needed to make the meaning clear and avoid unintended meanings.
    • physician-researcher 
    • 2002-2003 
    • third grade teacher, chocolate chip cookie, early morning traffic 
    • small-business owner, better-qualified candidate, little-known song 
  • Periods: The period at the end of a sentence is followed by one space, not two.  
  • Quotation marks: Do not use quotation marks for emphasis or adornment, as they can convey sarcasm. If emphasis is needed, use bold instead.

Schools, departments, divisions, institutes and units

  • Capitalize the full names of schools, departments, divisions, institutes and centers.
    • School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiology
    • Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, The Sports Institute
    • Center for AIDS Research, Vision Science Center
  • Unit names are lowercase:
    • John Smith is a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit.
  • “Orthopaedics” is the correct spelling when referencing the academic department.
    • UW Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine.
    • Use “orthopedics” in all other cases.
  • General language is preferred to using an acronym for the second reference of a specific clinic, center, department or institute.
    • The Institute for Medical Data Science was developed to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into healthcare and to study it. The institute has a unique opportunity to study operational models in practice to improve patient health.
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology is the name of the service line formerly known as Center for Women & Children. Obstetrics & Gynecology may be used when there is limited space.  

Titles

  • Identify healthcare professionals such as nurses, therapists, physician assistants or nurse practitioners by their professional title, not by their degree.
    • Correct: Nurse Jane Smith and physical therapist Sally Smith tended to the patient. 
    • Incorrect: Jane Smith, RN, and Sally Smith, PT, tended to the patient.
  • When identifying healthcare professionals in a listing or directory (such as online bios), academic degrees and professional certifications are acceptable.
    • See also “Academic degrees and certifications” in Section 3. 
  • Capitalize a title before a proper name but not after.
    • UW Medical Center Executive Director John Smith 
    • John Smith, executive director, UW Medical Center

Tim Dellit titles

  • Tim Dellit, MD, CEO, UW Medicine, executive vice president for medical affairs and the Paul G. Ramsey Endowed Dean of the UW School of Medicine, University of Washington (full title for lists and directories)
  • Dr. Tim Dellit, chief executive officer (or CEO) of UW Medicine (in articles and quotations)
  • Tim Dellit, CEO, UW Medicine (short title)

Tim Dellit email title

Timothy H. Dellit, MD
Chief Executive Officer, UW Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Washington
Paul G. Ramsey Endowed Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Washington 

Paul Ramsey titles

Paul Ramsey was CEO of UW Medicine from November 2006 to June 2022 and vice president of medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine from June 1997 to June 2022. Appropriate titles include:

  • Paul G. Ramsey, MD, former CEO, UW Medicine, former executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, University of Washington (full title)
  • Dr. Paul Ramsey, former chief executive officer (or CEO) of UW Medicine (in articles and quotations)
  • Paul G. Ramsey, former CEO, UW Medicine (short title)

An alternative is to leave out “former” when writing in the past tense: Paul Ramsey was CEO of UW Medicine from November 2006 to June 2022.

Faculty and clinician titles

  • The titles of faculty and clinicians should include “UW Medicine” or “University of Washington School of Medicine.”
    • Dr. Jane Smith, UW Medicine surgeon at Harborview Medical Center.
    • Dr. Jane Smith, professor of surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
  • The titles of faculty at Seattle Children’s, Fred Hutch, SCCA, VA Puget Sound and Boise VAMC should include their UW Medicine affiliation.
    • Dr. John Smith, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and chief of Seattle Children’s cardiology unit.
  • Many faculty have multiple titles: academic, clinical and administrative. Not all titles need to be in every article — just the relevant ones.
  • Do not capitalize a specialist’s field, such as “vascular surgeon,” even if it comes before the name. 
  • Use chair rather than chairman or chairwoman. 
  • Do not use periods in degrees.
    • Exception: Follow AP style and use periods in news releases.
    • See also “Academic degrees and certifications” in Section 2.

Use of “Dr.”

  • Use the title “Dr.” if the person holds a doctoral degree, including dental surgery (DDS), medicine (MD), optometry (OD), osteopathic medicine (DO), podiatric medicine (DPM), or veterinary medicine (DVM). On second reference, use Dr. and last name.
    • Exception: Follow AP style and use only last name on second reference in news releases and articles. 
  • If appropriate in the context, “Dr.” also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of doctoral degrees, including education (EdD) naturopathic medicine (ND), nursing practice (DNP), pharmacy (PharmD), philosophy (PhD), and physical therapy (DPT). This is an exception to AP Style. 
  • Since patients frequently identify Dr. with physicians only, a person’s specialty should be stated in first or second reference to avoid confusion:
    • Dr. John Smith, a doctoral-prepared nurse practitioner, recently published a book on patient care. 
    • Dr. Jane Smith is a nurse practitioner who specializes in geriatric medicine. She received her doctoral degree in advanced nursing practice from the School of Nursing at University of Washington. 
  • Sometimes it may be necessary to specify that an individual identified as Dr. is a physician, such as a story about joint research by physicians and scientists.  

Use of degrees 

  • As a general rule, use Dr. when appropriate (see “Use of ‘Dr.’” section above). 
  • Listing degrees should be done intentionally and at the discretion of the writer/editor.
    • Jessica Jones, PhD, recently published a book on patient care.  

Website links

  • Hyperlinks: Use descriptive words rather than a URL to link text whenever possible.
    • If the URL needs to be written out, do not include http:// or www.
    • Do not use “click here” to indicate website links. 
  • Lowercase website URLs.
    • CORRECT: uwmedicine.org 
    • INCORRECT: UWMedicine.org 

Other usage notes

  • Pacific Northwest: Includes British Columbia and the states of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. Take caution when using this to describe the region. For example, we are not the only Level I trauma center in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) Hospital and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center are Level I trauma centers in Portland, which is in the Pacific Northwest.
  • Time: Use am/pm for website lists. In running text, use a.m./p.m.