Patient Health Literacy

Using the PEMAT to assess patient education materials

March 14, 2024 - As the push for greater patient health literacy gets stronger, the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) could be helpful to healthcare providers. Increasingly, healthcare industry experts are touting the role that patient education plays in good patient engagement and activation. An informed patient is an engaged patient, and patient education can help individuals take...

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Using gen AI to translate medical jargon in discharge notes

by Sara Heath

Using too much medical jargon in discharge notes may not be conducive to patient engagement, but researchers from NYU Langone are exploring how generative AI can fix that problem. In a new study...

Patient Engagement Strategies for Improving Patient Activation

by Sara Heath

Clinical care is only one step along the path to helping a patient achieve her optimal state of health. While cutting-edge procedures and innovative therapeutics play a critical role in treating or managing diseases, they typically...

Health Literacy Stands in the Way of Adequate Breast Cancer Screening

by Sara Heath

Fewer than half of adults are aware of the common signs of breast cancer, save for having a lump, a clear signal that patient health literacy is faltering, researchers from The Ohio State University...

Using Patient Teach-Back to Improve Patient Education

by Sara Heath

Patient education and health literacy strategies are incomplete without patient teach-back, a practice many providers use to make sure their patients understand health information. As the healthcare industry confronts a growing population...

How Providers Can Meet Varying Levels of Patient Health Literacy

by Sara Heath

To say patient health literacy is important to patient engagement, activation, and experience is not a particularly blistering-hot take. Patient health literacy, or more specifically, personal health literacy, refers to an...

Best Practices for Improving Patient-Provider Communication

by Sara Heath

Patient-provider communication is at the forefront of the healthcare experience. Good communication has far-reaching impacts ranging from poor patient satisfaction to a misunderstanding of treatments...

What Is the Difference Between Organizational & Personal Health Literacy?

by Sara Heath

Healthcare providers looking into the concept of health literacy need to be aware of its two key caveats: organizational health literacy and personal health literacy. In its latest update, Healthy People, an initiative under the...

Reproductive Health Literacy Trends Down as Post-Dobbs Ruling Unfolds

by Sarai Rodriguez

While women’s need for better reproductive health understanding is imperative, a recent survey highlights significant shortfalls in health literacy. The reversal of Roe v. Wade, removing...

ChatGPT AI Chatbot Proves Effective for Patient Queries, Health Literacy

by Sara Heath

ChatGPT is an effective solution for online medical search for patients, with the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot accurately answering patient queries around 88 percent of the time, according to a...

Low Health Literacy Prevents Cancer Screening for Many Hispanic Patients

by Sarai Rodriguez

A new study out of the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University presents a snapshot of cancer health literacy, revealing mixed knowledge of cancer adherence screening guidelines that...

Immigration, Birth Status Predicts Limited Patient Health Literacy

by Sara Heath

Limited patient health literacy is 81 percent more common in racial and ethnic minority patients who are also immigrants, according to new UC Irvine data, shedding new light on how health literacy can...

94% of Patients Want Patient Education Content, But a Third Don’t Get It

by Sara Heath

Nearly everyone wants patient education materials from their healthcare providers, but only two-thirds are actually getting them, according to new data from Wolters Kluwer Health. That leaves some...

Nursing Home Care Compare Limits Effective Patient Navigation

by Sara Heath

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is calling into question the utility of the Nursing Home Care Compare website, indicating that it obscures information about nursing home ownership...

50% of Patients Forget Treatment Plans, Need Better Patient Education

by Sara Heath

Despite near-universal confidence, patients are forgetting most of the key information following an inpatient hospital stay, leading experts from the University of Michigan School of Medicine to call...

Do Patients Get Enough Patient Education About Their Blood Pressure?

by Sara Heath

Taking blood pressure is standard procedure for nearly any healthcare encounter, but it might be lulling some patients into a sense of false confidence about when to access care, according to a new...

Health Literacy, Care Access Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening

by Sara Heath

Nearly one in 10 women have never had a common cervical cancer screening, like a Pap test, with issues such as limited health literacy and poor access to care getting in the way, according to a Harris...

Digital Divide Goes Beyond Broadband, Rests with Digital Health Literacy

by Sara Heath

New data is shedding light on the digital divide in healthcare, with researchers from The Ohio State University revealing that it’s not just broadband access stymying connectivity for...

Understanding COVID-19 Testing Options Calls for Patient Education

by Sarai Rodriguez

Americans need more patient education to understand COVID-19 testing options, especially as higher rates of respiratory viruses like COVID-19 pose a risk to patients, according...

Using Medical Jargon Confuses Patients Amid Low Health Literacy Trends

by Sara Heath

In perhaps an unsurprising clue into navigating low levels of patient health literacy, new research published in JAMA Network Open found that patients have a far better understanding of their health...