February 6th, 2011
publichealthroll

Patients should not need a doctor and a lawyer in the family in order to get appropriate medical care. My mother survived her near fatal illness because she had knowledgeable, relentless insiders to advocate and communicate for her.

The health reform law and its groundbreaking accountable care organizations are under attack. This reform deserves public support. Otherwise, next time you need care, be prepared to take a lawyer and a doctor with you.

A Deadly Information Gap

Recent op-ed/ health literacy call to arms in The Boston Globe.

More on accountable care organizations

Also see:

A Health Care Nightmare on the  The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Health Care blog.

4 notes·
health literacy
health care reform
February 6th, 2011
publichealthroll
The usual experience of a sick older person today is similar to that of an American traveling in a foreign country with no passport, no ability to speak or read the language, and no tour guide, all while deathly ill, often hungry and thirsty, exhausted, confused, and frightened. During my mother’s illness, my sister (a lawyer) and I were her “health care navigators,’’ and together we managed the treacherous voyage.

A Deadly Information Gap

Recent op-ed/ health literacy call to arms in The Boston Globe.

Also see:

A Health Care Nightmare on the  The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Health Care blog.

health care reform
health literacy
primary care
December 26th, 2010
publichealthroll
Our job as doctors is to meet our patients “where they’re at”, as people say around here. That’s not the English I learned in school, just like the explanations and analogies I use with my patients aren’t exactly the ones I learned at Europe’s second oldest university. But all the book knowledge in the world won’t help you be a better doctor if people don’t like or understand the way you speak.

An excellent post by A Country Doctor Writes with many useful analogies that translate complicated medical problems into plain language.

Here are a few of his examples…

Why some people with high cholesterol escape heart disease while others get more atherosclerosis than expected because of inflammation, as measured by C-reactive protein (CRP):

Some people’s arteries are like Teflon, nothing sticks, and other people’s arteries are like a scratched-up aluminum pan, everything sticks to the bottom.

Why some people can take an antibiotic several times before they get a rash from it:

Just because your neighbor’s pit bull doesn’t bite you the first time you see it, do you really know it won’t bite you the second time?

3 notes·
health literacy
public health
December 11th, 2010
publichealthroll
Today, a nurse I work with at the nursing home gave me the nicest compliment. Her husband had, reluctantly, been in to see me a few weeks ago. She told me that her husband thought that now, for the first time ever, he had a doctor he could talk to – one that talked the way he did and laid things out plain and simple without putting on airs or making things complicated.
A thoughtful post reminding providers to “meet patients where they’re at”, and to explain complicated medical issues using clear and plain language from A Country Doctor Writes,
1 note·
health literacy
November 4th, 2010
publichealthroll
White Coat Wanderlust: Some shocking stats on health (il)literacy

whitecoatwanderlust:

A couple of weeks ago, one of the family medicine residents came to talk to us about health literacy (basically, the ability to understand health care information). Check out these statistics from the American Medical Association:

  • 47% of American adults read below an 8th-grade level.
  • 1 in…
Reblogged from White Coat Wanderlust
2 notes·
health literacy
public health
October 18th, 2010
publichealthroll
The Health Literacy Environment Activity Packet: First Impressions & Walking Interview

The exercises in this packet are designed to help hospitals and health center staff members begin to consider some of the characteristics of their workplace that help or hinder a visitor’s ability to make his or her way about. This initial focus is on physical navigation.

From Harvard School of Public Health Health Literacy Studies.

1 note·
health literacy
public health
October 17th, 2010
publichealthroll
We have to start thinking about health literacy in a broader framework. We cannot approach health literacy in isolation, because rarely do we encounter limited health literacy in isolation. We see limited health literacy in the context of poverty, or dementia, or limited English proficiency, or depression. So our clinical responses to health literacy must be similarly broad.
Hilary Seligman, MD MAS,Assistant professor of medicine University of California San Francisco, in a post for health literacy month in Engaging the Patient.
3 notes·
health literacy
public health
October 17th, 2010
publichealthroll

Before we simply decry the failure of our education system, we must also look in the mirror.

A substantial body of medical and public health literature – over 1,000 studies, yields consistent findings that the reading level of health materials far exceeds the reading skills of high school graduates and clearly ignoring the needs of the public for whom they were developed.

Dr. Rima Rudd, of Harvard School of Public Health in a post for health literacy month in Engaging the Patient.

2 notes·
health literacy
public health
October 10th, 2010
publichealthroll
October is Health Literacy Month Engaging the Patient, collected a roster of national experts to blog their own takes on the challenges of health literacy in America during the month of October.

October is Health Literacy Month

Engaging the Patient, collected a roster of national experts to blog their own takes on the challenges of health literacy in America during the month of October.

4 notes·
public health
health literacy
September 21st, 2010
publichealthroll
Health Care Reform: Will it empower or perplex consumers?
health literacy
health care reform
public health
Loading tweets...

@jessicaeder

Likes

Streaming the latest public health-related links.

Following