• JAMA Patient Page The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) provides the full text of the journal's patient education handouts, many in Spanish as well as English.
• MedlinePlus Easy-to-Read (National Library of Medicine) includes patient education handouts, many in Spanish as well as English. Also, see MedlinePlus Interactive Tutorials, health education materials describing conditions and procedures in plain language with animated graphics and audio. (Flash plug-in, version 6, is available for free download at the site.)

• AMA (AMA Foundation) Health Literacy project aims to raise awareness within the healthcare community. Two videos, Help Your Patients Understand (2003) and You Can't Tell By Looking (2001). (Scroll down to find both videos and to download the software to view.)
• AskMe3, a partnership of national organizations, includes tips for writing clearly as well as statistics, research reports, and practical advice for healthcare providers and patients.
• California Health Literacy Initiative includes the results of a recent California pilot study, health literacy statistics, and many links to online resources.
• The Canadian Public Health Association's National Literacy and Health Program "promotes awareness among health professionals." In English and French.
• Clear Health Communication Initiative from Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, supports research on low health literacy and ways to improve healthcare information. The Newest Vital Sign (NVS) is 3-minute bilingual assessement tool based on a nutrition label. A study in the Annals of Family Medicine (Dec. 2005) concluded that "NVS is suitable for use as a quick screening test for limited literacy in primary health care settings." Check it out in English or Spanish.
• The El Paso Collaborative Health Literacy Curriculum, El Paso Community College, Texas, offers health literacy lessons as guides for teachers.
• Expecting the Best, from a collaborative group in North Carolina, gives a health and wellness curriculum guide for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.
• Harvard School of Public Health/Health Literacy Studies provides teaching guides, online resources,and research reports.
• Healthy Roads Media, from a partnership of organizations in North Dakota and Minnesota, offers free audio, written, and multimedia materials in plain language. Health information is available in over a dozen languages.
• Medical Library Association (MLA): Health Literacy section provides resources and reports, including a recently published article on "Low Health Literacy: How it Impacts your Patients" by Jean Blackwell of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
• Plain Language.gov, from an initiative to improve communication from the Federal government to the public, this page includes links to resources.
• The Plain Language Association International includes articles, tutorials, Web links, news, and e-mail discussion group.
• The Plain Language Initiative: Training and Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), intended for use within a government agency, offers tips for writers.
• The University of Virginia Health System: Building a Health Literacy Curriculum suggests content development for medical school lectures or courses.
• Virginia Adult Education Health Literacy Toolkit includes information about cultural issues related to health and suggests ways to create simple health lessons.
• World Education, Inc.'s Health & Literacy Special Collection offers resources about teaching health to people with low literacy skills.

• Adequate Literacy and Health Literacy: Prerequisites for Informed Health Care Decision Making" (2004) by Joyce Dubow is an overview from the AARP Public Policy Institute (11 pages in pdf.)
• Beyond the Brochure: Alternative Approaches to Effective Health Communication (1994) presents ideas for needs assessments as well as teaching methods for all audiences, including "low-literacy" adults (80 pages in pdf.)
• Current Bibliographies in Medicine: Understanding Health Literacy and its Barriers (2004) from the National Library of Medicine lists more than 600 articles and resources, some with web links. An earlier bibliography, Current Bibliographies in Medicine: Health Literacy (2000) covers resources from 1990 to 1999.
• Health Literacy: A Key Ingredient for Managing Personal Health by Barbara F. Schloman, Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, February 2004.
• Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion (2004) is a report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM): Health Literacy Project (332 pages in pdf.) Report is also available in print in Treadwell Library.
• Health Literacy and Cancer Communication by Terry C. Davis, Mark V. Williams, Estela Marin, Ruth Parker, and Jonathan Glass in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (2002) reviews recent research and identifies a "cancer communication gap."
• "In Other Words...Helping Patients Ask Questions" and other articles by Helen Osborne suggest ways that health providers can tell if they are saying what they mean to say. These articles are published in the author's column in OnCall, a Boston Globe publication.
• Literacy and Health Outcomes Evidence Report/Technology Assessment: Number 87 (2004) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) summarizes the literature related to outcomes, interventions, and socioeconomic factors.
• Literacy Toolkit: Better Communication For Better CareRhode Island's Health Literacy Project offers resources to help physicians/providers and their staffs address communication challenges that may result from patients’ literacy levels or language/cultural barriers.
• Plain Language Principles and Thesaurus for Making HIPPA Privacy Notices More Readable, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, is a comprehensive guide to writing privacy notices in easy-to-read ways.
• Recognizing and Overcoming Inadequate Health Literacy, a Barrier to Care by Mark V. Williams in Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, May 2002, 69(5): 415-418.
• Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (2003) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), includes many tips for creating web-based material and an extensive list of resources (128 pages in pdf.)
• Simply Put (1999), from the Center for Disease Control, contains tips for creating easy-to-read print materials (48 pages in pdf.)
• Why Johnny is Sick: Researcher Strengthens Health, Literacy Link (2003), from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), describes recent research showing a connection between health literacy and successful management of chronic illness.

• Creating plain language form for seniors: a guide for the public, private and not-for-profit sectors/ Canadian Public Health Association (1998)
• Don't make me think! A common sense approach to web usability/ S. Krug; New Riders Publishing (2000)
• Easy does it! : plain language and clear verbal communication training manual/ Canadian Public Health Association (1998)
• Health literacy from A to Z: practical ways to communicate your health message/H. Osborne; Jones and Bartlett (2005)
• Health literacy in primary care : a clinician's guide / Gloria G. Mayer and Michael Villaire ; with a foreword by Albert E. Barnett (2007)
• Health literacy [kit with video and cd]: help your patients understand/ American Medical Association (2003)
• Health literacy: a prescription to end confusion/L. Nielsen-Bohlman, A. Panzer, and D. Kindig, ed; Committee on Health Literacy, Board of Neuroscience and Behavioral Health (2004)
• Making health communication programs work/ U.S.Department of Health & Human Services (2001)
• Teaching patients with low literacy skills, 2nd ed./ C. Doak, L. Doak, and J. Root; Lippincott (1996)
• Understanding health literacy: implications for medicine and public health /J. Schwartzberg, J. VanGeest, C. Wang,ed; American Medical Association (2005)
• Working with low literacy seniors: practical strategies/ Canadian Public Health Association (1998)
• Writing and designing print materials for beneficiaries/ J. McGee; U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (1999)

• The Health Literacy Institute - Director, Sue Stableford, has trained more than 150 people at MGH. If you are interested in attending a plain language workshop at MGH in 2007, please contact Elizabeth Schneider, Director, Treadwell Library.
• Health Literacy Consulting - Private consulting group founded by Helen Osborne and based in Natick, MA.

Revised Octobert 4, 2007. This page maintained by Deborah Jameson.
Copyright© 2002-2003 Treadwell Library MGH