Blogs

Blogs

Q&A: The Health Literacy Collaborative Summit IHA’s Stan Hudson talks with Wisconsin Literacy’s Michele Erikson about the organization’s next-generation event. By Stan Hudson, MA, CDFT Health literacy is a constantly changing and expanding field, and the same is true of the organizations and events that support its evolution. As the new director of professional development and training for the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) — and the former director of health literacy at Wisconsin Literacy — I’ve had the privilege of participating in this change and working with some of health literacy’s brightest lights. ...

The Health Fluency Project

The Health Fluency Project How two Harvard students are increasing the health literacy and communication skills of non-native English speakers to improve health outcomes By Beier Nelson Student, Harvard College and Aditya Tummala Student, Harvard College More than 25 million people in the United States, or 8 percent of the nation’s population, have limited English proficiency ( LEP ), meaning that they do not speak English as their primary language and have a limited ability to read, write, speak, and understand English. Individuals with such language barriers suffer substantially worse health outcomes than their fluent counterparts, including ...
What Is Cultural Humility, and How Does It Support Health Literacy? By Annaleise Tripp , MPH Candidate Do you ever think about what makes people different and stand out from each other? You might think about someone’s haircut or outfit, the language they speak, their accent, or maybe where they live and work. These can all be reflections of someone’s cultural background. Our lives are shaped by culture . Culture refers to shared beliefs, values, and ideas, but also refers to shared racial or ethnic backgrounds, languages and communication, geographic locations, or traditions and customs. Culture plays a significant role in how ...
Explained: AI + Health Literacy Will Large Language Models Ever Really Be Trustworthy Enough for Health Literacy? An Artificial Intelligence Practitioner’s Perspective on Trustworthiness and Responsibility, Part 4 By Temese Szalai | December 7, 2023 Read more in the series: Part 1 | Can — and Should — We Trust Large Language Models for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 28, 2023 Part 2 | How Reliable Are Large Language Models for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 30, 2023 Part 3 | When LLMs May Not Be Appropriate for Health Literacy | Publish Date: December 5, 2023 In our last post in this series, ...
Explained: AI + Health Literacy When Large Language Models May Not Be Appropriate for Health Literacy An Artificial Intelligence Practitioner’s Perspective on Trustworthiness and Responsibility, Part 3 By Temese Szalai | December 5, 2023 Read more in the series: Part 1 | Can — and Should — We Trust Large Language Models for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 28, 2023 Part 2 | How Reliable Are Large Language Models for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 30, 2023 Part 4 | Will LLMs Ever Really Be Trustworthy Enough for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: December 7, 2023 This post is the third in a series ...
Explained: AI + Health Literacy How Reliable Are Large Language Models for Health Literacy? An Artificial Intelligence Practitioner’s Perspective on Trustworthiness and Responsibility, Part 2 By Temese Szalai | November 30, 2023 Read more in the series: Part 1 | Can — and Should — We Trust Large Language Models for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 28, 2023 Part 3 | When LLMs May Not Be Appropriate for Health Literacy | Publish Date: December 5, 2023 Part 4 | Will LLMs Ever Really Be Trustworthy Enough for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: December 7, 2023 Today, we’ll continue our discussion of trustworthiness ...
Explained: AI + Health Literacy Can — and Should — We Trust Large Language Models for Health Literacy? An Artificial Intelligence Practitioner’s Perspective on Trustworthiness and Responsibility, Part 1 By Temese Szalai | November 28, 2023 Read more in the series: Part 2 | How Reliable Are LLMs for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: November 30, 2023 Part 3 | When LLMs May Not Be Appropriate for Health Literacy | Publish Date: December 5, 2023 Part 4 | Will LLMs Ever Really Be Trustworthy Enough for Health Literacy? | Publish Date: December 7, 2023 Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, there’s been a ...
Improving Organizational Health Literacy: A Systemic Approach for Fighting Workplace Burnout By Somkene Igboanugo , MD, MSc, PhD Burnout among healthcare practitioners (HCPs) is a significant issue within healthcare. Current trends show that HCP burnout has worsened globally. 1, 2 For example, in Canada, worrying data from the Ontario Medical Association in 2021 show that 73% of the 2,649 doctors surveyed expressed varying degrees of burnout, up from the 66% reported in 2020. Similarly, other health professions are experiencing high rates of burnout; for example, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union in 2022 reported severe burnout in ...
October is Health Literacy Month by Helen Osborne, M.Ed., OTR/L October is Health Literacy Month. This annual event is a time when organizations and individuals worldwide raise awareness about the importance of understandable health information. The idea behind Health Literacy Month is the same now as it was when I first proposed it in 1999--for health literacy advocates everywhere to speak with a shared voice about why health literacy matters. Doing so together not only conveys a sense of urgency but also can generate media attention when many people speak about the same topic at the same time. There are infinite ways to participate in ...
Celebrating Health Literacy Month: 7 Ways to Raise Awareness by Julie McKinney , What is Health Literacy Month? Every October for the past 24 years, we’ve been celebrating Health Literacy Month ! Maybe it doesn’t come with pumpkins, fireworks, dancing, or gift-giving...but it’s an exciting month with lots going on in the health literacy (HL) community! Health Literacy Month is a way to recognize the importance of making health information easier to understand and act on; and to come together as organizations and communities to raise health literacy awareness and help make that happen. Many organizations plan special events or projects at ...
Creating Effective Patient Education Materials by Tiffany Vo , MPH, CHES It’s typical for healthcare professionals to create patient education materials. This means that most people making these items are nurses, doctors, administrators, or health educators. These individuals are often highly educated, with a vast understanding of medical language. As a result, many of the patient education materials I’ve seen in my 10-plus years in education are text-heavy, have complex word choices, and are not easy for patients to understand. Yet materials for patients should be written at a 6 th grade reading level or below. Most patients and families are ...
Infodemic Management: Closing the Information Literacy Skills Gap by Renata Mares , MIPH, BSN, BAKin, WHO IM On May 5, 2023 , the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) “declared ‘with great hope’ an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, stressing that it does not mean the disease is no longer a global threat.” The Problem: Information Literacy Skills Gap But the infodemic (which WHO defines as “too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak”) rages on. It has been fueled by the 21st-century digital information age, and has moved way beyond the ...
How CHWs Improve Equity Through Health Literacy By Teresa Wagner , DrPH, MS, CPH, RD/LD, CPPS, CHWI, DipACLM, CHWC Community health workers (CHWs) bridge gaps in healthcare that lead to health disparities and help people navigate disconnected healthcare systems that marginalize racial and other vulnerable populations. Recent research reveals that our country continues to be plagued by health disparities based on structural inequities such as residential segregation and other social determinants of health. These issues can be compounded by low health literacy as a social determinant and other communication barriers. Low Health Literacy: ...
What It’s Like To Be a Health Literacy Designer Gilberto Velazquez, BFA, is a creative/art director and a health literacy designer. He’s the founder of GV CERV Communications , a digital design and creative development studio. He has published several Medium articles on such topics as health literacy during COVID-19, design principles, color blindness, and patient education . Gilberto spoke with IHA on March 22, 2023. His answers have been lightly edited. How did you get into the field of health literacy design? Gilberto Velazquez: It actually happened in two different ways at two different times. My background was initially in pharmaceutical ...
How Occupational Therapists Can Promote Health Literacy By Barbara Fahmy, MS, OTR, MPA Although my training and education as an occupational therapist (OT) included the concept of health literacy as an essential element of therapeutic intervention, the realization of just how important health literacy is hit me most significantly when I was working as a home care therapist. Going Home Is Challenging After a hospital stay, patients may spend time in rehab or assisted living facility. However, most patients eventually return home. Even though it’s a positive step to be able to return to your own home, it’s undeniably a difficult journey. There ...
Why Advancing Health Literacy Equals Better Public Health by Suzanne Manneh, MPH, I had never seen her so demoralized. My former client—I’ll call her Crystal—was indignantly, and understandably so, describing her recent emergency room encounter. It reinforced what my public health studies and professional experience had taught me about access to healthcare and health outcomes. Crystal’s proficiency in English was minimal, and she had a middle-school education. A single mother, she was struggling to support her toddler son and obtain asylum for a more stable life in the United States. In the hospital, there were no translators—nor documents ...
Time to Refocus Our Efforts on Plain and Clear COVID-19 Messaging: Introducing the Clear Health Communication Collaborative (CHCC) by Michael Villaire , MSLM and Barbra Kingsley , Ph.D. The third anniversary of the onset of COVID-19 is approaching, and here in the United States, as in much of the world, COVID-19 fatigue is a real thing. And there are troubling signs: About 63% of U.S. adults say they only occasionally or never wear a mask outside their home. Infections are on the rise in Europe , which has previously served as a bellwether for the United States. Increased levels of the virus in wastewater , another harbinger of ...
Celebrating Health Literacy Month: 7 Ways to Raise Awareness by Julie McKinney , What is Health Literacy Month? Every October for the past 23 years, we’ve been celebrating Health Literacy Month ! Maybe it doesn’t come with pumpkins, fireworks, dancing, or gift-giving...but it’s an exciting month with lots going on in the health literacy (HL) community! Health Literacy Month is a way to recognize the importance of making health information easier to understand and act on; and to come together as organizations and communities to raise health literacy awareness and help make that happen. Many organizations plan special events or projects at ...
October is Health Literacy Month by Helen Osborne, M.Ed., OTR/L October is Health Literacy Month. This annual event is a time when organizations and individuals worldwide raise awareness about the importance of understandable health information. The idea behind Health Literacy Month is the same now as it was when I first proposed it in 1999--for health literacy advocates everywhere to speak with a shared voice about why health literacy matters. Doing so together not only conveys a sense of urgency but also can generate media attention when many people speak about the same topic at the same time. There are infinite ways to participate in ...
Community Health Workers and Promotores/Promotoras – Bridging the Health Literacy Gap by Russell Bennett, MBA, CHIE Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with community health workers (CHWs), known in Spanish as “promotores” or “promotoras.” These workers play a critical role in the community as patient educators, advocates, mentors, and outreach workers. In addition, they help bridge the health literacy gap between patients and healthcare providers. Being Part of the Community Most CHWs are part of the community they serve. This helps them win patients’ trust and makes them more effective in all they do. Serving as Translators ...