The Penn Medicine style

Overview

Penn Medicine specific guidelines help ensure a consistent user experience across patient-facing web and digital products.

The elements of the Penn Medicine style that we will cover in this guidance include:

• Penn Medicine voice and tone
• Capitalization
• Naming conventions
• Terminology
• Approved boilerplate
  

Penn Medicine voice and tone

At Penn Medicine, we are committed to providing exceptional care to our patients, transforming health care and advancing science through innovative research, improving the health and well-being of our community, and embracing inclusivity and diversity in everything we do. Our brand is the embodiment of this commitment, and our editorial voice and tone should reflect it.

Voice

Penn Medicine’s voice should inspire trust and loyalty. Our voice is always helpful, informative, relevant, clear, and inclusive.  It is driven by our passion for improving the well-being of our patients and the broader community. Penn Medicine centers around people—from our talented medical staff to the patients we serve–and so, we are inclusive of people of all backgrounds and education levels in our writing. We are here to serve as a resource for our readers, providing clarity and the latest information on treatments, medical breakthroughs, and research findings.

Tone

When writing informational content to patients and consumers, our tone is reassuring, compassionate, and confident. We understand that health care involves sensitive and personal interactions, and thus we aim to address patients’ and consumers’ concerns with empathy and understanding. We speak with confidence, reflecting the longstanding history, academic roots, ongoing education, and world-changing leadership of our institution.

When writing stories and articles to health care professionals, thought leaders, and the public, our tone remains confident, as well as compelling and inspiring. We aim to elicit emotion and a feeling of connection from our readers, ultimately motivating and moving them to understand and feel the impact of Penn Medicine’s work.

Point of View

The first-person (using the word “we” to describe Penn Medicine, for example) is acceptable in informational web copy such as a location or condition page. For articles and news stories, a third-person point of view should be used when referring to Penn Medicine or any part of the organization.

Capitalization

Refer to the following guidance for consistent capitalization practices across our Penn Medicine properties.

Header (H1) and page title

A header is the headline for the story, news release, or article. From a web design perspective, a header is also referred to as H1 (Heading 1), the highest-level heading on a webpage. We are adopting the same style for headers as for page titles, which are the title of the page as it appears at the top of the user’s web browser window.

• Use sentence case capitalization for all headers and page titles. This style is primarily lower-case, where the initial letter of the first word is capitalized, as well as any proper nouns. (Example: Penn Medicine develops mRNA vaccine against Lyme disease)
• Exceptions to the above include some Penn Medicine-branded programs or initiatives such as “Penn Medicine At Home”.
• Headers and titles should not include quotation marks, unless the header has a direct quotation or is being used to highlight a newly created word or portmanteau. Use single quotation marks in this instance. (Example: ‘Do you have a food sensitivity?’ and other questions answered)
• End punctuation should not be included at the end of a header or title.

Subhead (H2, H3, etc)

Subheads, sometimes referred to as subsections or in-page section headers, are concise, intermittent titles within the text that break up the story. From a web design perspective, a subhead is also referred to as H2 (Heading 2), which is used to introduce major sections or themes within the content or H3 (Heading 3) if content is further subdivided into subsections within those major sections.

• Use sentence case capitalization for subheads. (Example: Articulating a unique path at Penn Medicine)
• In general, subheads should not include quotation marks, unless the header includes a direct quotation, or is being used to highlight a newly created word or portmanteau. Use single quotation marks in this instance. (Example: Reducing ‘anxiety’ and a new outlook)
• End punctuation should not be included in the subhead.

Dek (for article pages only)

The dek, sometimes referred to as the subtitle or summary, is a short, complete sentence that summarizes what the news article is about and appears directly under the header.

• Use sentence case for the dek, capitalizing only the first word in the sentence and any proper nouns.
• Example: Penn study identifies chain reaction in cells that helps cancer survive treatments that target BRAF mutations
• Include end punctuation in the dek.
• The dek can be the same as the teaser text if appropriate to the content.

Navigation items and calls to action

Use sentence case capitalization for all navigation items; labels, tags, and filters; call-to-action buttons and link text; and UI text. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word, with the exception of proper nouns/terms, as you would when writing a sentence. (Example: Find a doctor)

Naming conventions

Reference the following guidelines for Penn Medicine specific naming conventions.

The Penn Medicine brand

• “Penn Medicine”: refers to the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Perelman School of Medicine and is the preferred term in most circumstances where we are describing general principles that are true to our brand identity.
• Use “University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS)” for matters that do not include the medical school (for example, Kevin Mahoney is CEO of UPHS).
• Only specify ‘University of Pennsylvania Health System’ if there's a need to distinguish that the school is uninvolved.
• Generally, use “Penn Medicine” in most circumstances, but in some instances, it is permissible to use Penn when brevity is preferred.
• Include “the Perelman School of Medicine” on the first reference within a faculty member’s title.
• When writing email addresses, capitalize the first letter of the first and last names, while keeping the domain name entirely lowercase. Ensure there are no additional spaces or punctuation before or after the email address. (e.g. John.Doe@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)

Conditions, specialties, departments, and centers

• Penn has many named centers, institutes, and enterprises, and in some cases, gift agreements with donors for whom centers are named and stipulate how the centers must be referred to in written materials and signage – examples include the Abramson Cancer Center, the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, and the Basser Center for BRCA.
• Use the term “orthopaedics” in all mentions including the name of the department
• Capitalize formal service line names in text or titles (e.g, Penn Heart & Vascular or Penn Orthopaedics)
• If a condition is named after a person (Wilson’s disease, Gilbert’s syndrome), the condition name should always contain an apostrophe, and the word “disease” or “syndrome” is lowercase.

Locations and facilities

• First reference: Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health or Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital; Second reference: Lancaster General Health/Lancaster General Hospital is acceptable due to space
• First reference: Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Women & Babies Hospital; Second reference: Women & Babies Hospital
• Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute
• First reference: Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital; Second reference: Chester County Hospital
• First reference: Penn Medicine Doylestown Health or Penn Medicine Doylestown Hospital; Second reference: Doylestown Health or Doylestown Hospital
• First reference: Penn Medicine Princeton Health or Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center; Second reference: Princeton Health or Princeton Medical Center
• ICUs: Use abbreviation unless it is the first mention of a named facility (i.e., Heart and Vascular Intensive Care Unit).
• PHMC Public Health Campus at Cedar is the full name of the former Mercy Philadelphia campus at 54th and Spruce. HUP-Cedar is located on that campus.
• If referencing a location within HUP that is not The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs, first mention Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and then specify the building/unit that is referenced. On second reference, use the acronym HUP with a hyphen, followed by the building/unit.
• First reference: The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs; Second reference: The Clifton Center. Always capitalize The.
• When referencing the geographical area served by Penn Medicine, it is recommended to use “southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey” or “Greater Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Princeton” areas/regions, depending on the context. Do not use “Delaware Valley”.
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Providers and other employees

• For the first mention only: Penn Medicine experts, researchers, employees, and providers should have their full names with appropriate titles and credentials listed, with their name hyperlinked to their provider page if they have one.
• Use degrees, including MD or DO, in first reference to doctor (e.g., John Smith, MD)
• If a provider’s name is hyperlinked, also hyperlink their degrees/credentials but not their job title.
• Do not include professional fellowships like FACS, FAHA or FACP.
• Cap the number of credentials to three maximum/total. (Example: “Margaret Jones, MD, PhD, MSCE,” not “Margaret Jones, MD, MSCE, MBA, PhD, FACP”)
• Do not use periods with degrees (e.g., MD, DO, RN, MSN, BSN, PsyD, PhD, etc.)
• For physicians, list medical degree first, followed next by other doctoral degrees (e.g., PhD, PsyD) and any medicine-related master’s degrees last, (e.g., Jane Smith, MD, PhD, MPH or Joel Schmidt, DO, MSCE.)
• For most faculty and staff, limit credentials to terminal degrees in their field (MD, PhD, and a master’s degree if it’s something specific to health sciences, like MPH). Avoid specifying a general “MA” or “MS” master’s degree. (e.g., Maria J. Ricardo, MD, MSc)
• For the second mention, use surnames only for anyone in a story, including providers, other staff or patients.
• Exceptions include:
• When talking about multiple people in the same family repeatedly throughout a story, use their first names for clarity.
• When talking about people with the same last name, use first and last names for second reference.
• Generally, refer to minors under the age of 15 by their first name.
• In some cases, it is appropriate to use first names only if it is a strictly patient-centric story, with no mention of their providers or other members of their healthcare team
• When listing a group of physicians:
• For first reference, list full name with degrees and honorifics, including MD or DO (e.g., John Smith, MD)
• For second reference, use last name unless listing multiple physicians. When listing multiple physicians, use “Drs.” followed by the list of last names (e.g., “Drs. Smith, Schmidt and Jones.”)
• Note: There are exceptions to this for provider-focused communications, social media and internal communications.
• For faculty members in the Perelman School of Medicine, list their title using their academic department and the full name of the school on first reference, (e.g., Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, an associate professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. For faculty members in the department of Medicine, list the specific division instead.
• For nurses, list the highest-level credential first. We will also include BSN and RN if requested. For example, “Gary Paczki, MSN, RN-BC" or "Latisha Waterman, BSN, RN”
• Capitalize formal titles when they precede a name, otherwise use lowercase. Please note that the terms "board of directors" and "board of trustees" are usually lowercase. (Example: Division Chief Michael Smith, not Michael Smith, division chief)
• Academic rank is lowercase unless it precedes the person’s name. Examples: “John Smith, MD, an assistant professor of Hematology-Oncology" or “Assistant Professor of Hematology-Oncology John Smith, MD”
• Center, institute, or department leadership titles are lowercase unless they precede the person’s name, but the name of the center itself is always capitalized. Examples: “Craig A. Umscheid, MD, MSCE, director of the Center for Evidence-based Practice,” or “Center for Evidence-based Practice Director Craig A. Umscheid, MD, MSCE.”
• When referring to chiefs or chairs, use this style for maximum clarity: “Sally Brown, MD, chair of the department of Emergency Medicine.
• When referring to a regular faculty title, it’s also acceptable to not use “division of” and “department of” for chiefs and chairs, especially if brevity is the preferred context. (e.g., “associate professor of Emergency Medicine” (instead of “associate professor of the department of Emergency Medicine”),
• Use “staff” or “team” instead of “employees”.
• Staff will often acknowledge departmental and hospital “leadership,” but use “leaders” instead if referring to human beings, rather than the quality imbued in such a person. (e.g., “We couldn’t have done this without such supportive leaders.”)

Entity acronyms

• In public-facing materials, avoid the use of acronyms for Penn Medicine entities, with the exceptions of HUP and CHOP. (Acronyms are OK to use for internal communications and publications.)
• Always spell out on first reference if necessary to include.
• Entity acronyms include:
• PAH = Pennsylvania Hospital
• PPMC = Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
• HUP = the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
• CCH = Chester County Hospital
• LGH = Lancaster General Hospital
• PMPH = Penn Medicine Princeton Health
• GSPP = Good Shepherd Penn Partners
• CCA = Clinical Care Associates
• CPUP = Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania
• JMEC = Jordan Medical Education Center
• CHOP = Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia -- It should be written "Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)" (no "The" in front) for the first mention and then CHOP everywhere else on the page.
• PMAH = Penn Medicine at Home
• PSOM = Perelman School of Medicine
• PCAM = Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

Terminology

Reference the following specific guidance for Penn Medicine.

Healthcare vs. health care

Our style is “health care”. When used as a descriptor, hyphenate it (e.g., “health-care costs”).

COVID-related editorial content

• Use all-caps COVID, not Covid.
• Use the full name COVID-19 most of the time but it is acceptable to use just "COVID" on some subsequent references if better for the flow of ideas.
• Differentiate between SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes the disease) vs. COVID-19 (the clinical disease), especially in basic science contexts.
• Be mindful of word choice when talking about COVID-19 (the clinical disease) vs. the pandemic (social circumstances/changes in the way people's lives functioned from 2020-2023 as a result of widespread disease and/or behavioral changes for avoidance or prevention and/or changes to the regulatory environment). A common error is describing how something has changed "post-COVID" like an in-person event that has resumed. This would be correctly described as a pandemic-related change. Save the term "post-COVID" for references about the period after having the disease, like patients with long COVID.

CAR T cell therapy

• At the first mention, use the full phrase “CAR T cell therapy” with no hyphen, and then any of the following in subsequent mentions, where appropriate:
• T cell therapy
• CAR T therapy
• CAR T treatment
• It is also acceptable to use “Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy” in the first mention, and then use the abbreviation “CAR T cell therapy” in subsequent mentions.

Inclusive and equitable language

Language should be welcoming and accessible to all readers, regardless of their background or identity.

• Avoid “pregnant woman/mother” when describing individuals in these stages of life collectively, or for an individual whose gender is not known to you. Instead use “pregnant or birthing person.” “Parent” can be used when collectively referencing people caring for newborns and children, but not for pregnant persons. In cases of perinatal loss, respect an individual’s preference if they self-identify as a parent, even if they do not have other children.
• When conducting an interview, ask interviewees about their pronoun preference. Use gender neutral language when describing groups generically or when pronoun preferences are not known to the writer (i.e., they/them and not he/she/him/her).
• This also applies to pregnant persons and parents, i.e. if the person specifies their gender and identifies as a “mother” it is okay to describe that specific person as a mother.
• When it’s necessary to refer to gender or sex, such as if you’re writing about a condition that has higher incidence rates in women or men, use the phrase “assigned female at birth” or “assigned male at birth”.
• When writing about a culture or ethnicity, capitalize the name.
• Note: Capitalize Black as it refers to a group of people. Lowercase white because it refers to the color of a person’s skin.
• LGBTQ+ is acceptable in all references for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning and/or queer. Use of LGBTQ+ is best as an adjective and an umbrella term. Queer is an umbrella term covering people who are not heterosexual and is acceptable for people and organizations that use the term to identify themselves.
• Avoid using elderly or senior. Instead use older adults (aged ≥ 65 years); numeric age groups (e.g., persons aged 55-64 years).
• Refrain from using terms that may perpetuate ableism or reinforce stereotypes related to abilities or disabilities. Instead, use person-first language that emphasizes the individual over their abilities or disabilities (e.g., “person with a disability” instead of “disabled person”).
• Avoid using terms associated with violence or pain (e.g., target, tackle, combat, cutting-edge), instead choosing words like engage, prioritize, advanced/latest.

Approved boilerplate

Reference the following approved content when describing Penn Medicine.

Current boilerplate (Rev Feb 2025)

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $580 million awarded in the 2023 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts,” Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries that have shaped modern medicine, including CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System cares for patients in facilities and their homes stretching from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. UPHS facilities include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, chartered in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Penn Medicine at Home, GSPP Rehabilitation, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.9 billion enterprise powered by nearly 49,000 talented faculty and staff.

Related resources

Penn Medicine Editorial Style Guide (requires VPN access)
‍AMA Manual of Style

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