9th Annual Health Literacy Conference
Posted on May 20, 2010 by kcarlson | No Comments
By Kathleen Carlson, MLGSCA Newsletter Co-Chair
Interested in health literacy? Then the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) Annual Conference may be for you. This year, the 9th Annual Conference “Health Literacy in the Real World: Programs & Solutions That Work,” was held in Irvine, California May 6-7th. There was a Pre-Conference Workshop, Health Literacy 101: An Introduction to the Field” on Wednesday evening. During this 90 minute session by Michael Villaire, Director of Programs & Operations at IHA, explained the basics of health literacy while fielding questions and comments from the audience.
The Opening Keynote address was “Beyond Plain Language: Advances in the Design of Health Literacy Tools” by David Baker, M.D., Northwestern University. Dr. Baker touched on simplifying communication tools that are used in everyday situations: e.g. handouts, printed brochures, and videos. He illustrated his point with an explanation of colon cancer screening. What health care providers say and what they found patients actually heard are entirely different. Many people do not think they need to be screened for colon cancer because they are asymptomatic. “How can I have something as bad as cancer in me and not know it?” Dr. Baker says it all goes back to communication, the ability to understand written health information and the ability to communicate verbally about one’s personal health.
“Positive Results from Easy-to-Use Tools” was presented by a panels of experts Linda Neuhauser, Dr.P.H., University of California-Berkeley, James Glauber, M.D., MPH, Neighborhood Health Plan, Massachusetts, and Kara Jacobson, MPH, CHES, Emory University. Each demonstrated and explained the tools they used to convey health information to reach a certain population.
- Breakout session: “Using Social Media to Reach People with Health Information.” Elisheba Muturi, M.Sc., MLIS from the British Columbia Ministry of Health Services explained how she used social media to assist her get information out about HIV/AIDS in Africa. Muturi also sent out a pre-conference survey to participants to show how social media can be effectively used to find out the healthcare knowledge of her audience
- Breakout session: “Improving Readability with Appropriate Design: 7 Critical Elements,” presented by Douglas Seubert, of the Marshfield Clinic, Wisconsin. Seubert distributed two handouts that attendees were asked to evaluate according to the 7 critical design elements: font, paragraphs, line length, grouping, graphics, color, and white space.
On Friday May 7th James G. Hodge, Jr., J.D., LL.M., Arizona State University presented “Can I Rewrite This? Medical Documents and Low Literacy.” His presentation was from the lawyers and courts point of view. Many in the audience wanted him to represent them in court because of his expertise in healthcare law and ethics.
- Breakout session: “Using New Technology to Improve Providers’ Health Literacy Skills,” presented by Cliff Coleman, M.D., MPH. This was Dr. Coleman’s 7th conference and he presented information that he is incorporates into teaching medical students in pediatric and family practice at the Oregon Health & Science University.
- Breakout session: “Looking for Health Literacy Solutions? Ask A Librarian.” A panel of our colleagues Jean Shipman, MSLS, University of Utah, Gail Kouame, MLIS, NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region, and Kelli Ham, MLIS, NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region discussed what your hospital and medical librarian can do for those looking for information and why someone should consider getting help from them, examples of the tools librarians use, and how to get in contact with a medical librarian.
In summary momentum is on the side of health literacy with the passing of the Healthcare Reform Bill. There is a need to coordinate current and future activities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of those who are interested in health literacy.
Posted 05/20/10
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