Page 17 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

HeALtH LiteRACY, eHeALtH, AnD CoMMUniCAtion

socioeconomic groups, and people with lower educational and reading
levels. These populations also tend to have limited access to computer
technology (Eng et al., 1998).
Furthermore, even if it were possible to ensure equal access to tech-
nology, some user groups find it extremely difficult to take advantage of
such technology. The average U.S. adult reads on just an eighth-grade
level, for example, while most websites are designed for people whose
reading level is much higher (Berland et al., 2001). In particular it is the
elderly and those with limited literacy and number skills who are most
likely to have low health literacy and thus be least able to take advantage
of new health technologies.
The Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy serves to
educate the public, press, and policy makers regarding issues of health
literacy. Given the importance of health literacy issues in eHealth, the
Roundtable decided to hold a workshop to explore and discuss strategies
for improving the ways in which information and communication tech-
nologies address the needs of those with low health literacy and language
barriers. A planning group designed a workshop to answer the following
questions:

• What is the current status of communications technology, particu-
larly electronic records systems?
• What are the challenges of communication technology used for
populations with low health literacy?
• What are the strategies for increasing the benefit of these technolo-
gies for populations with low health literacy?

The workshop was moderated by George Isham. As the presentations
in this workshop demonstrate, tremendous resources are being directed
toward the development of health information technologies. While the
vast majority of these resources are being devoted to systems that focus
on physicians and health institutions, some notable efforts, such as those
presented in this workshop, have been made to extend the use of these
new technologies to patients. The first panel provided an overview of
the issues, including a broad examination of eHealth, skills essential for
eHealth, and a discussion of communication inequalities. The next two
panels used specific examples to explore the challenges and outcomes of
different strategies for addressing health literacy issues in eHealth. The
final panel discussed the use of emerging tools in developing eHealth
systems. The following workshop summary is organized according to the
panel presentations.

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