Page 95 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

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

0 HeALtH LiteRACY, eHeALtH, AnD CoMMUniCAtion

Harris said that the Federal Interagency Advisory Group will be the
decision maker for Healthy People 2020. Current members of the group
include only agencies from HHS, but the membership will soon expand
to other agencies. As mentioned earlier, there is a Health Communica-
tion and Health Information Technology subgroup. The group’s task is
to determine how health communication, health literacy, and HIT can
provide an infrastructure for the achievement of Healthy People 2020.
The strategic thinking presented in the ONC strategic plan will be woven
throughout the work of this subgroup. Questions to be addressed include,
What should be measured in health literacy and how should that be
measured?
Harris concluded by saying that an effort to envision the future of
an integrated system of health literacy, health communication, and HIT
has begun. The subgroup will be advising the Secretary of HHS. Input is
needed from those who are expert in the area of health literacy as well as
from the public in general.

DISCuSSION
George isham, M.D., M.S.
HealthPartners
Moderator

One audience member from a private health system said that his
system has had a series of 5-year goals and each time it prepared for the
next set, the system attempted to evaluate what had been learned from
the previous set of goals. What information from Healthy People 2010,
he asked, is being used as input to Healthy People 2020 in terms of the
communication objectives and, more specifically, health literacy? Harris
responded that it is not clear that Healthy People 2020 should measure
the same things that Healthy People 2010 measured. At present the health
literacy of the population is being measured. But if one thinks in terms of
infrastructure, one could measure other things, such as how many physi-
cians are trained in health literacy. One might set an objective to have all
providers obtain continuing medical education credit for health commu-
nication or health literacy training. This is the kind of objective that could
be incorporated into Healthy People if one thinks of it as representing an
integrated infrastructure with skills, tools, and best practices.
Friedman asked for input from members of the audience about
whether they believed that Healthy People 2020 should include objec-
tives directly related to HIT, health literacy, or health communication or
whether those three components should be viewed in a more integrated
fashion as a means to an end. One audience member replied that objec-

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