Page 103 - 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

consumers, and the families. Health providers will demand integrated
systems when patients arrive at their offices saying things like, “Here
is my electronic health record. Why can’t you download your standard
information to me? Where are my MRIs? You should be able to e-mail
those to me or put them on my thumb drive.” The Commission on Sys-
temic Interoperability took the position that more people need to demand
interoperability. If that were done, health providers would be motivated
to demand integrated systems.
Isham concluded the session by saying that many important ques-
tions remain about the integration of health literacy with developing HIT
systems. For example, do the current methods used for assessing health
literacy apply to the human–IT interface? There were many anecdotes
throughout the day about how people interact with their machines and
their PDAs and about how games are important. Are the NAALs and the
other tools for assessing health literacy valid for assessing how effectively
people understand and use information to improve health when that
information is mediated through technology?
Another question for future exploration relates to the source of the
$86.6 billion in savings spoken of earlier that it is estimated will be real-
ized from the implementation of health care IT systems. While some
might find it difficult to understand how such savings will accrue, it is
likely that the interface between people and IT machines is a critical com-
ponent in harvesting that savings. Perhaps if we understood that interface
better, many would think that health literacy contributes more to savings
than is currently realized and, therefore, would conclude that it is a much
more important objective for Healthy People 2020 and other efforts.

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