In This Issue:

• Home
  
  
• Director's CorNER
  
  
• ILL Advised
  
  
• PubMed Particulars
  
  
• Chic Chat
  
  
• Announcements
  
  
• Links
  
  

If you would like me to present a workshop on consumer health for your consortium or institution, please contact me at michelle.eberle@umassmed.edu or 508-856-2435. I am looking forward to creative collaborations with librarians, health professionals and consumers all throughout the New England region.

Yours Truly,

Michelle Eberle, Counsumer Health Coordinator

Reading Between the Lines — An MLA Satellite Teleconference Program

On September 10, 2003, the New England Regional Medical Library (RML), along with several other sites throughout New England Region, hosted the MLA satellite teleconference "Reading Between the Lines: Focusing on Health Information Literacy".

The goals of the teleconference were:

"To enhance the knowledge of information professionals about the concepts of health information literacy and to highlight opportunities for using these principles in the provision of quality health care."

For those of you who did not have an opportunity to attend the teleconference, below is an overview of the session. In addition, the RML has a videotape of the two-hour conference available for short-term loan.

Please feel free to contact Rebecca.Chlapowski@umassmed.edu if you are interested in borrowing the videotape. You will also receive the Participants Manual, which includes many of the slides from the presentations, along with a detailed bibliography.

Overview of the Satellite Teleconference

• Sandy Cornett, R.N., Ph.D., Director, OSU/AHEC Literacy Program, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
• Liz Gordon, Executive Director, Libraries for the Future, New York, NY
• Neil Rambo, Associate Director, National Network of Libraries of Medicine—Pacific Northwest Region, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
• Eris Weaver, AHIP, Director, Redwood Health Library, Petaluma Health Care District, Petaluma, CA
• Michele Spatz, Director, Planetree Health Resource Center, Mid-Columbia Medical Center, The Dalles, OR

The Agenda and Goals and Objectives for the teleconference are available on the MLA Web site.

The session began with a discussion about the definition of health literacy and health information literacy. Sandy Cornett began with some definitions of health literacy:

1. The ability to read, understand, and act upon health care information.
2. The ability to obtain, process, and understand health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. (Healthy People 2010)
3. Skills needed to be health literate and make informed choices about health care: reading, listening, reasoning or problem solving, and decision-making.

Sandy presented some astounding statistics concerning adult literacy levels. The 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey measured functional literacy and scored the results into five levels. Please refer to the National Center for Educational Statistics, web site, which includes detailed information about the 1993 report and plans for publishing an updated report in 2003/2004.

According to the 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS):

According to a National Academy on an Aging Society estimate, there is a significant cost related to poor health literacy:

• More Hospitalizations
• Longer Hospital Stays
• At Least One More Doctor Visit
• More Medication and Treatment Errors
• Lack of Needed Skills to Negotiate the Health Care System

As health science librarians, we need to take literacy levels into consideration, whether we are dealing directly with patients and families in a consumer health setting, or training health care professionals who deal directly with these populations. Low literacy can be missed. Sometimes people don't fit the stereotypes. Often they are embarrassed and therefore do not volunteer the information, or may even hide their literacy level.

Several strategies were mentioned if we suspect a user may have difficulty with the printed word:

• Select several pieces of material at different reading levels. This will enable the person to select the item(s) they are most comfortable reading.



• Offer information in another media, for example audio or videotape.



• Interactive tutorials, like the ones available on MEDLINEplus, are a great source of information. Make sure public computers have speakers and sound cards installed, so the individual may listen to the program. Also consider having headphones available for patient privacy and to reduce noise levels.



• Keep printed material at a minimum. Focus on "need to know" information rather than "nice to know".



• Use plain language and simple phrases, such as "high blood pressure" rather than "hypertension" and "heart attack" rather than "myocardial infarction".

Several videotaped interviews highlighted health literacy projects throughout the country:

• David Boilard, Director, Raymon H. Mulford Library, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH.
  Spoke about Health Literacy Sessions offered at the Medical College of Ohio. The program objective is to make students aware of the importance of health literacy in producing positive patient outcomes, of how to recognize patients having low literacy levels, and how to provide effective communications with them.



• Jane Fisher, Coordinator, Office of Information Services, New York Public Library, New York, NY
  Spoke about the role of public libraries in disseminating health and public health information.



• Kerry Harwood, Director, Cancer Patient Education Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
  Spoke on setting standards for written patient education materials.



• Janet Petty, Associate Librarian, Craig Memorial Library, Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, OH
  Spoke about the Ohio Health Literacy Initiative. This is collaboration between the Ohio State University School of Public Health, the Ohio Statewide AHEC Program, and the Ohio Department of Health, which created an ongoing training Institute on Health Literacy.

Partnerships

There was a discussion about the importance of building partnerships for outreach projects. Examples include partnerships between different types of libraries (e.g. academic medical libraries, hospital libraries, public libraries, etc.) and between health science libraries and other departments within the same organization. (e.g. continuing education, clinical staff, clinical faculty, etc.)

When targeting populations with low literacy levels, librarians should consider partnerships between health science libraries and community organizations:

• County Health Departments
• Adult Schools
• Literacy Programs
• English as a Second Language Programs
• School Districts
• Community Colleges
• Child Care Providers
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Media Outlets

Many of these community groups already offer programs, training sessions, and classes to low literacy level populations. Building upon the resources already available in the community is a great way to develop outreach programs that have a significant and positive impact on the participants.

Funding Opportunities

The NN/LM NER offers a variety of funding opportunities for people interested in developing outreach programs, whether geared directly towards low literacy level populations, or to health care professions who come in contact with this group.

Express Outreach Awards are for short-term projects that improve access to health information and promote awareness and the use of National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources. Target audiences include health care and public health professionals, (including personnel at a health care facility or community agency), members of the public, populations with poor health status, and geographic areas (rural, inner city, etc.) without adequate access to information resources.

Later this fall, the NER will announce the availability of Requests for Proposals for Health Information for the Public Outreach Subcontracts and Health Information and Outreach for Public Health Professionals Subcontracts. These are excellent funding opportunities for larger outreach projects.

Start thinking about possible collaborative projects between your library and other organizations!

Go to Funding Opportunities to learn more about our awards and subcontracts.

Email Javier Crespo, the Associate Director of the NER, or call him at 508-856-2223 to discuss your outreach project.