AMA Foundation holds literacy symposium
When the Chicago-based American Medical Association’s AMA Foundation refers to the battle against low health literacy as its signature program, it isn’t kidding. On March 3, 2001, the foundation convened a symposium in Washington, DC — Low Health Literacy: You Can’t Tell By Looking — as part of its National Leadership Conference. Its goal was to provide physicians with the tools they need to help patients with low health literacy better manage their health care. The symposium was facilitated by experts in health literacy and communications, physicians, community leaders, and a patient.
"We are now at the point in medicine where we must be more intent on helping patients attain better health by tailoring our communications so they are able to understand and act on health information," said Scott Ratzan, MD, MPH, MA, editor of the Journal of Health Communications and senior technical advisor at the U.S. Agency of International Development. Ratzan, who is also a member of the AMA Foundation Steering Committee on Health Literacy, was one of the main presenters at the symposium.
Another presenter, Mark Williams, MD, underscored the importance of building a relationship of trust among patients and physicians. Williams is a health literacy researcher and associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
One strategy mentioned by Williams was that physicians should not ask patients directly if they understand what they have been told. "Patients typically will say yes,’ even though they may not understand," he said. "Instead, physicians should tell patients that they, as the physician, want to make sure they’ve done a good job explaining things. The burden should be placed on the physician, not the patient." Asking patients to "show us" how they are supposed to take their medications, what diet they are supposed to follow, or how often they should exercise will stimulate interest and learning, Williams explained.
[For more information, contact the AMA Foundation at (312) 464-5357, or e-mail at [email protected].]
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content