Tutorial: Drafting Your First Medication Explanation Letter

This tutorial walks you through a complete session with an AI tool. The task: draft a letter explaining the medication regimen for a patient who has just been discharged after a myocardial infarction (MI). He is going home on five medications, some of which are new. He is an anxious man in his early sixties who asked in the consultation: "Do I really have to take all of these?"

From opening the tool to reviewing a finished draft, the whole process takes around fifteen minutes the first time. By the third time, five.

You do not need any technical knowledge. You need a free account at claude.ai or chat.openai.com.

Step 1: Open the tool and start a fresh conversation

Go to claude.ai or chat.openai.com. Sign in. You will see a text box — usually at the bottom of the screen. Click inside it. Start a fresh conversation so nothing from a previous session carries over.

Step 2: Set the context before you give any clinical content

Type the following. This is your instruction to the tool — not the clinical content yet.

You are helping a cardiologist write a patient medication explanation 
letter. I will give you a list of medication categories with the reason 
each has been prescribed. For each medication, write a two- to three-
sentence explanation in plain English. Assume the patient has no medical 
background. Do not include specific drug names or doses — I will add 
those. Do not include clinical decision rules or dose adjustment advice.

Press Enter. The tool will acknowledge. Something like: "Understood. Please share the medications and their reasons."

Step 3: Provide your medication list

Type your anonymised list. For this tutorial, use this example:

Medications and reasons:

1. Antiplatelet medication (aspirin type) — to prevent blood clots 
   forming on the stents placed during the procedure
2. Second antiplatelet medication — to work alongside the first one 
   for at least 12 months after the stent procedure
3. Beta-blocker — to protect the heart muscle, reduce the workload 
   on the heart, and help prevent dangerous heart rhythms
4. Statin — to lower LDL (a Low Density Lipoprotein — the harmful 
   cholesterol) and reduce the risk of another heart attack
5. ACE inhibitor (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme inhibitor) — to 
   protect the heart muscle and support long-term recovery after 
   the heart attack

Also add a general section at the end:
- The importance of not stopping any medication without speaking to 
  the cardiology team first
- What to do if he experiences side effects: report them — do not 
  just stop the medicine

Step 4: Read the first draft

The tool will produce a draft in under thirty seconds. Here is the kind of thing it might return:

Your Medicines After a Heart Attack

After your heart attack and stent procedure, you have been prescribed five medicines. Each one does a specific job to protect your heart. Here is what each one is for.

Blood-thinning tablet (first) This medicine helps prevent blood clots forming on or near the stent that was placed in your heart artery. Keeping the stent open and clear is important for your recovery. You will take this for the long term.

Blood-thinning tablet (second) This medicine works alongside the first to give your stent the best protection, especially in the early months after the procedure. Your cardiologist will tell you how long you need to take both medicines together.

Heart rate and protection tablet This medicine slows your heart rate slightly and reduces the strain on the heart. It also helps protect against certain dangerous heart rhythms. It is an important part of your long-term recovery.

Cholesterol-lowering tablet This medicine reduces the level of harmful cholesterol in your blood. High cholesterol contributed to the build-up in your heart arteries that led to your heart attack. Taking this consistently reduces the risk of this happening again.

Heart protection tablet This medicine helps your heart recover from the damage it has experienced. It reduces the workload on the heart and helps protect the heart muscle over time. You will take it long term.

Important — please read

Do not stop any of these medicines without speaking to your cardiologist or GP first. Some medicines need to be reduced gradually rather than stopped suddenly. If you experience any side effects — dizziness, muscle pain, a new symptom — please call us rather than stopping the medicine on your own. There may be an alternative that suits you better.

Step 5: Read the draft as a clinician

Ask yourself:

• Is every description of the medication's purpose accurate?
• Is anything misleading?
• Is the description of the dual antiplatelet therapy clear enough — does the patient understand they should not stop the second antiplatelet without advice?
• Does the closing section communicate the safety message clearly?

In this draft, the description of the ACE inhibitor is slightly general. You might want more specific language about what "reduces the workload on the heart" means for this patient. Ask the tool to revise:

The section on the heart protection tablet is slightly vague. 
Rewrite it to make clear that this medicine helps prevent the heart 
from enlarging or weakening further after a heart attack, and that 
it is a key part of the recovery plan.

Step 6: Personalise for this patient

This patient asked: "Do I really have to take all of these?" His ambivalence is worth acknowledging. Ask the tool:

Add a brief opening paragraph that acknowledges that taking five 
medicines at once can feel like a lot, but explains clearly that 
each one has a specific and important job to do. Keep it brief — 
two sentences. Respectful, not condescending.

Read the addition. Does it sound like something you would say? If not, adjust the language in your own words. The tool has given you a starting point.

Step 7: Copy the draft into your clinical system

Copy the complete draft and paste it into your letter template. Now add:

• The patient's name and address
• The specific drug names and doses from the discharge medication reconciliation
• Your name, title, and contact details
• The date
• Your unit's helpline number and hours

None of these details ever went into the AI tool. They come from you, in your system.

Step 8: Read the complete letter one final time

Read it aloud — slowly. A patient who has just had a heart attack, who is anxious, who is going home with five new medicines, will read this at the kitchen table, probably more than once. Every sentence needs to be clear on first reading.

Remove any sentence that is ambiguous. Remove any sentence that implies the patient has a choice about taking a medication that carries significant risk if stopped. Make sure the safety message at the end is visible and unambiguous.

What the tool does badly

Drug explanations sometimes involve clinical trade-offs that the tool cannot know about — for example, a patient who needs antiplatelet therapy but has a high bleeding risk. The tool writes for the general case. You know the specific patient. Read every sentence with that specific patient in mind.

The tool also sometimes produces language about "protecting your heart" that is accurate but vague. Where precision matters — particularly around the dual antiplatelet duration and the importance of not stopping without advice — make sure the draft is specific and unambiguous. Adjust any vague language yourself.

What to try next

Apply the same approach to a lifestyle counselling letter for the same patient — a separate document covering smoking cessation, diet, activity, and cardiac rehabilitation. The workflow is identical. The clinical content changes.

Remember: AI is a helpful assistant, not a clinician. You make the call.