|
THE PARTNERSHIP FOR CLEAR HEALTH COMMUNICATION ANNOUNCES HEALTH LITERACY GRANT WINNERS
Recipients Will Use Funding to Create Solutions for Improving Patient and Provider Communication
WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 12, 2004 – The Partnership for Clear Health Communication today announced the recipients of its health literacy research grants. The grants will enable three prestigious university medical centers to explore the efficacy of the Partnership’s health literacy communication tools and recommend enhancements that will further improve health literacy throughout the United States.
Low health literacy – the inability to read, understand and act on health information – affects nearly one in two Americans and by some estimates costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $58 billion annually, according to a recent report issued by the Institute of Medicine. The condition is often referred to as a “silent epidemic” because it can affect any population segment, regardless of age, race, education or income, and cannot be detected by physical symptoms or examinations.
“We are happy to present the Ask Me 3 Grants to these researchers who are getting to the root of the health literacy problem and how to solve it,” said Barbara DeBuono, MD, MPH, Senior Medical Director/Group Leader, Public Health at Pfizer Inc and Chair of the Partnership’s Board of Directors. “Through expanding upon practical tools and solutions such as the Ask Me 3 program, we hope to share these and other new approaches for implementing better communication techniques and improving health outcomes.”
The recipients of the grants are: the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Each recipient will receive a $70,000 health literacy research grant to conduct a one-year research project that explores the use of Ask Me 3, a patient and provider communication tool developed by the Partnership to improve communication between patients and physicians with the goal of improving health outcomes.
"The winners were selected based on the strength of their research to examine how using Ask Me 3 affects physician-patient interactions and resulting health outcomes. We were pleased to see the broad range of settings and patient populations being studied – including low-income populations, patients with limited literacy skills, children's health care, and self-management of medical problems," said Barry D. Weiss, MD, chair of the expert panel that reviewed the proposals and selected the winners. “We look forward to reviewing the results of the research, which will contribute to our understanding of how Ask Me 3 and other improvement in physician-patient communication can affect health outcomes.”
The three grant winners were selected among twenty-five proposals submitted in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) posted on the Partnership’s Web site, www.askme3.org. The finalists were reviewed and selected by a Grant Review Committee comprised of national health literacy experts. The three grants are sponsored by Pfizer Inc, a founding member of the Partnership.
"We are happy to be selected as one of the Ask Me 3 grant winners," said Duncan Howe of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. "The communication skills learned from the Ask Me 3 Model should help patients understand their health situation better. It should also empower them to become more active in their own health care. We will be measuring its effect on patients' satisfaction with their office visits, their health outcomes and their quality of life.”
About Ask Me 3
Ask Me 3 was developed by leading health literacy experts in the fall of 2002 and promotes three simple but essential questions that patients should ask their providers in every health care interaction:
- What is my main problem?
- What do I need to do?
- Why is it important for me to do this?
Since its launch in May 2003, more than 200,000 Ask Me 3 educational materials – including patient, provider and organization-based brochures; posters; and program implementation guides – have been distributed to hospitals and clinics, healthcare organizations and patient groups nationwide. Using the results of the grants research, the PCHC will examine the use of Ask Me 3 in practice to determine best practices and new opportunities for the initiative.
About the Partnership for Clear Health Communication
The Partnership for Clear Health Communication is a national coalition of more than 100 organizations that are working together to promote awareness and solutions around the issue of low health literacy and its effect on health outcomes. The Partnership serves consumers, public health officials, health care professionals, health educators, literacy specialists, patient advocates and caregivers, health associations and policy makers.
Partnership for Clear Health Communication Board Members:
Sharon Allison-Ottey, MD, National Medical Association
David Baker, MD
Lisa Bennett-Garrison, California Literacy, Inc.
Marc Boutin, JD, National Health Council
Linda Church, ProLiteracy Worldwide
John Clymer, Partnership for Prevention
Barbara Correll, American Medical Association Foundation
Barbara DeBuono, MD, MPH, Pfizer Inc
Carol Easley-Allen, American Public Health Association
Marcela Gaitan, MPH, MA, National Alliance for Hispanic Health
Kathy McNamara, National Association for Community Health Centers
Janet Ohene-Frempong, MS, JO Frempong & Associates
Donna Phillips, The National Council on the Aging
Adele Pietrantoni, RPh, American Pharmacists Association
Susan Pisano, America’s Health Insurance Plans
Les Plooster, National Alliance for Caregiving
Lillian Rivera, RN, MSN, Miami-Dade County Health Department
Laurie Scudder, MS, RN-C, PNP, American College of Nurse Practitioners
Nora Stelter, PharmD, National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation
For more information on the Partnership for Clear Health Communication or Ask Me 3,
please visit our Web site: www.npsf.org/askme3
|
