Unfortunately, half of these patients leave not knowing how to properly manage their diagnoses or how to follow their doctors’ instructions.1
Although technology is driving rapid change in healthcare – from electronic health records and telehealth to wearable health trackers – Americans still have extremely low levels of health literacy. Health literacy is defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”2
From MBAs to those who read at a basic level, we have a crisis on our hands: 99 percent of Americans can read3, but only 12 percent have proficient health literacy4, and nine in 10 have difficulty using everyday health information.5
Patient-centric healthcare is now taking center stage in today’s post-ACA world. We must ensure that patients understand healthcare information in order to achieve better outcomes. Three simple health “hacks” can help:
• Simplify: Break down complex language and create a story that is easy to understand. Have you ever heard of a pomegranate? There are many people who have not. Pom Wonderful® created a step-by-step process to help the pom-naïve understand what to do with this strange red fruit. This is a model we can mirror in the health arena.
• Visualize: Organizations should look for ways to illustrate information to improve comprehension. Each day, patients are given long brochures filled with complex details about their diagnosis/medications. Organizations can make small adjustments to this literature by adding icons or images to improve understanding. For highly complex diseases such as the rare blood disease polycythemia vera, infographics can transform text-laden, confusing medical data into visual storylines that clearly define and illustrate what a disease is and how to treat it.
• Play: According to Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, there are seven different learning styles: linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Digital tools are able to utilize all of these styles by providing interactivity via quizzes, videos, games and more.
For those of us on the frontlines, it is our responsibility to be part of changing the way health information is communicated to patients. If we each take steps to make its ever-growing complexity simple to digest, we may just start to see these bleak numbers change.
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Sources
[1] Are You Health Literate? iTriage Blog
[2] National Network of Libraries of Medicine
[3] The National Assessment of Health Literacy
[4] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: America’s Health Literacy – Why We Need Accessible Health Information
[5] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
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