Developing a Health Literacy Curriculum for Osteopathic Medicine Students DO/HL

The need for healthcare professionals to recognize low health literacy patients and to communicate with them effectively has been well recognized and widely reported. The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine is a fully accredited four year school of medicine leading to the granting of the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree DO. We offer a comprehensive educational program that prepares our graduates to enter residencies throughout the country and to become licensed physicians in the 50 states and District of Columbia. Our evidence and experience demonstrates that more than 50% of our graduates become primary care physicians. In this role, they are in a position to have major impact on health and disease outcomes. The introduction and continued emphasis and reinforcement of health literacy across the curriculum will prepare and educate more primary care physicians who are better able to communicate with their patients. It will also a test a curriculum template for other medical schools to use in integrating health literacy into their own curricula. This grant application is for funding to acquire resources to support the review and revision of the current curriculum of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine to include health literacy issues, concepts or skills in appropriate pre-clinical courses required of first and second year Osteopathic Medicine students.