The Universal Patient Language is BMS’s enterprise-wide approach to making health communication clearer, more compassionate, and more actionable for every patient. It's a set of principles, tools, and templates that help simplify complex science without losing accuracy.
Even the best medicine can’t help a patient who doesn’t understand it. Nearly nine in 10 U.S. adults struggle with health literacy.
UPL ensures that our science is not just innovative, it’s understandable too.
No, UPL is a communication framework. It includes formatting, visuals, tone, and layout strategies that increase comprehension and build trust across all patient-facing materials.
That means UPL can support not only written documents, but also videos, verbal scripts, patient-facing websites, presentations, and health education materials. It is about communication as a whole, and how we connect with patients in every format.
UPL goes beyond basic readability. It was co-created with patients, tested in real-world contexts, and designed for healthcare-specific challenges, including clinical trials, informed consent, and adherence support.
The goal is to look at the content as a whole, including visuals, icons, and accessibility measures, to maximize putting health into every hand.
UPL can be used by anyone who is creating, writing, revising, or updating any piece of communication that reaches a patient, caregiver, or general audience. UPL is used across Commercial, R&D, Medical, Legal, Corporate Affairs, and more. Partners (creative vendors, CROs) who support BMS work are also trained on UPL and are encouraged to apply the UPL principle when developing any patient-facing materials.
Externally, advocacy organizations, health systems, and other industry companies are using it to upskill and improve communication with their own communities.
UPL has had measurable reach and strategic impact. We know the impact of UPL is immense as shown in small-scale studies like the below, comparing a traditional document versus a document with the UPL principles applied.
We have found that patients have greater ease of understanding (92% versus 8%), found the materials more useful (83% versus 17%), engaged more online (38% versus 9%), and higher confidence in treatment (85% versus 15%).
You are in the right place! Start small by identifying the content you need to create and which audience you are trying to reach. Now, seat yourself as the patient, caregiver, or member of the audience you are trying to reach, and think about how you would want to receive the information.
Read our best practices, leverage our style guide, and start by applying one principle. We suggest use plain language! As you get comfortable, reiterate your content by folding in visuals, icons, and accessibility.
UPL is here to offer guidance from feedback given by patients, caregivers, and advocacy organizations; however, it does not replace the guidance of your Medical, Clinical, Legal, or Regulatory reviews.
As a best practice, it is important to bring your reviewers or advisors along the journey early, so the team can collaborate and align before materials are finalized. This saves time, minimizes rework, and creates clarity–and consistency–from the start.
Yes. While UPL was originally co-created with U.S. patients, its core principles have now been reviewed and validated for global relevance by advocacy leaders from across Europe and other regions. In 2025, BMS hosted an EU summit where leaders from 8+ advocacy organizations engaged with UPL principles and affirmed their global applicability.
That said, we also heard clearly that successful global use requires local context. Language, cultural references, health systems, and even tone must be tailored to reflect local norms. As one participant shared, “Nothing for the patient without the patient–but not every patient is the same.”