• There are countless adjectives that can be used to describe patients:
• elderly patients (age)
• cancer patients (specific disease or condition)
• our patients/their patients (pronoun)
• 17 patients (number)
• Japanese patients (nationality)

Certainly when there is only one adjective being used, the description is quite simple.  But sometimes it is necessary to describe two or more facts about the patient.  In such cases, placing the adjectives in proper order is important. Too often I have seen descriptions such as “Japanese elderly patients” (incorrect order)

By category, the correct order of adjectives is:

(article or pronoun)>(number)>(general condition)>(age)>(nationality or race)>(specific disease or condition) patients

Therefore, if it were necessary to combine the list shown above, the correct order would be:

• our 17 elderly Japanese cancer patients

Of course, it is not necessary to fill in every category, only those that suit your purpose. The important point is that the order must remain correct:

• these 95 hemodialysis patients (article + number + condition)
• a healthy 45-year-old Swiss man (article + general condition + age + nationality)
• 23 obese teenage nephropathy patients (number + general condition + age + disease)

It is possible to use a noun other than “patients”.  One of the examples above refers to “a healthy 45-year-old Swiss man”.  The age group or nationality might also be used as the noun:

• 23 obese teenagers
• 17 elderly Japanese

But in such cases, the specific disease name or condition should not be used as an adjective listed before the noun.  Rather the disease name is shown as part of a prepositional phrase following the noun.

• 23 obese teenagers on nephropathy (preposition: with + disease name)
• 17 elderly Japanese with cancer (preposition: with + disease name)