Health literacy is such a varied topic because obviously so many different things come into play that’s going to help a patient understand or not what a doctor or anybody else on their medical team is trying to communicate. And what I mean by that is culture comes into play, what their friends and family think. I think most people, when they think of health literacy is just like, how well did I explain that? But that is so much more than that...
Health literacy is such a varied topic because obviously so many different things come into play that’s going to help a patient understand or not what a doctor or anybody else on their medical team is trying to communicate. And what I mean by that is culture comes into play, what their friends and family think. I think most people, when they think of health literacy is just like, how well did I explain that? But that is so much more than that. And, you know, my background is actually in education, and I’ve worked with and have a specialty in special education or working with people with learning disabilities. And learning styles can vary so differently from person to person; some people are very visual, some people like facts and figures and love to see those charts, other people need to have more of a conversational style to help them learn. Others, you know, learn through such a myriad of different ways, like videos perhaps. So when we’re talking about health literacy, what a doctor may be doing in one situation is not going to necessarily work for all of their patients. And so then it becomes a case of how do we make sure that the patient is getting information that they understand in a usable way, so that it’ll actually help them understand their disease overall, and then also help them participate in decisions about their care. And again, cultural differences, making sure, you know, when we talk about health literacy in, in certain parts of Asia versus other parts of the Pacific versus what’s used a lot in North America, like those things are very, very different. So how do we actually think about in a broader way, the best ways to communicate?
