EdLogics and Global Action Platform recently hosted a conference focused on the economic benefits of improving health literacy in communities.
The event, held November 5 in Norfolk, Virginia, highlighted the specific needs and benefits to the Hampton Roads and Nashville areas.
EdLogics Founder and CEO Thomas M. Chamberlain, PharmD, opened the event by sharing the economic impact of low health literacy.
“Low health literacy is a multibillion-dollar problem,” he said. “Patients with low health literacy are more likely to visit an emergency room, less likely to follow a doctor’s instructions, and have higher mortality rates.”
Patients with low health literacy are more likely to visit an emergency room, less likely to follow a doctor’s instructions, and have higher mortality rates.
To address this crisis, Global Action Platform and EdLogics are creating Empower Community Health, an initiative utilizing technology to improve health literacy. This platform, through which communities can connect health and prosperity, will in turn create a competitive economic advantage for their regions in the ongoing competition for investments, talent and markets.
The EdLogics Platform will serve as the technological backbone of Empower Community Health. The Platform features:
“The Platform is proven, easy-to-use, and can be accessed on desktop and mobile devices, making it readily accessible to anyone with access to the internet,” added presenter James Spore, President and CEO of Reinvent Hampton Roads.
Through Empower Community Health, the EdLogics Platform will be available to the citizens of Hampton Roads and Nashville, including underserved populations, the public school system, and university students. EdLogics and Global Action Platform will work with schools, libraries, community health clinics, churches, YMCAs and other civic organizations to provide access.
The comprehensive community implementation has many innovative and important features, including:
At the community level, Global Action Platform will provide regional program managers to work with sponsors, community organizations, and other stakeholders to leverage local resources, networks, and existing programs to drive awareness. Local universities will serve as strategic outreach partners and provide academic research expertise.
A version of this article was originally published 11/29/2018.
There’s no end in sight.
Total costs of providing medical and pharmacy benefits are expected to rise 5%, according to an annual survey by the National Business Group on Health.
That means employers at big companies can expect to pay around $15,000 per worker in the coming year. Blame it on costly claims, specialty medications, and certain diseases, say many employers.
Health literacy — the ability to understand and act on health information — plays a role, too. According to a University of Connecticut study, low health literacy costs the US healthcare system about $238 billion a year.
Simply put, when people don’t have the knowledge they need to make good decisions about their health, they make poorer decisions — choices that lead to poorer health and higher costs.
Consider these scenarios:
In each scenario, improving health literacy could mean better health for less money. Studies show that people with low health literacy tend to have more health claims, more hospital stays, more trips to the ER, less compliance with treatment plans, and higher death rates.
In contrast, people with high health literacy tend to have fewer health claims, fewer needs for special services, more compliance with medication and treatment plans, and better health overall.
People with high health literacy tend to have fewer health claims, fewer needs for special services, more compliance with medication and treatment plans, and better health overall.
Improving health literacy isn’t easy. “There’s no quick fix,” said EdLogics advisor Brian Primack, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Research, Media, Technology, and Health at the University of Pittsburgh, in a recent EdLogics webinar. Still, Dr. Primack added, “We are moving the needle.”
If you’re an employer, a human resources manager, or other business leader who’s committed to finding ways to improve health literacy in your organization, these resources can help:
Use the CDC’s workbook, sample action plan, and links to government sites to create your organization’s health literacy plan. Includes state and county estimates of low literacy.
You know your company needs a health literacy program, but you’re not sure where to start? This guide will walk you through the basics, including best practices and simple, concrete tips for writing and designing good content.
The first rule in developing health content for low-literacy users: Avoid doctor-speak. This simple tool shows you how, with an index of commonly used medical terms and their plain-language alternatives.
Health literacy expert Russell Rothman, MD, MPP, of Vanderbilt University and gamification expert Brian Primack, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh share an overview of what makes health literacy programs effective.
EdLogics’ gamified learning platform combines engaging, personalized content and activities with unique incentives to help users improve their health literacy. Want a demo? Contact us!
A version of this article was originally published 10/25/2018.
ecently, Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, issued some harsh criticism of social networks in an interview on Axios.
He claims they work to exploit “a vulnerability in human psychology” and that those networks will eventually “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.” He claims the networks do this by creating a system to generate addictive loops that “sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.”
It's very powerful and used by all of the major social media sites which continue to grow and consume our time and attention.
But what if we could take those same techniques Facebook used to grow to over 2 billion active users a month and applied them to something positive, like health education?
Recently, Tom Chamberlain, PharmD, CEO and Founder of EdLogics, gave a presentation to the Global Action Summit on the gamification of health. In his presentation, Dr. Chamberlain described various types of gaming technologies, such as video games, mobile apps, virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive learning, and how they are being used in the medical field.
Chamberlain went on to discuss the key principles of gamification, including instant rewards, milestones, status, and competition. He described how a “little dopamine hit” is generated through playing these games and through the use of gamification technologies.
Driving engagement and facilitating behavior changes are the “holy grails” of health improvement programs. If we can get individuals, employees, plan members, and/or communities more engaged in understanding and acting on their own health, we can see vast improvements in a population’s health and lowered costs. This is why applying gamification principles to health education is so exciting.
Low health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes and higher costs. It’s pretty clear that if a person does not understand their health, their health issues, the healthcare system, or their health insurance, they won’t be able to maintain or improve their health, select the right provider, adhere to treatment, and more.
These approaches are not just fun and games when it comes to health — they are using real science in an effort to drive behavior change and improve one’s life.
If you’d like more information on the EdLogics platform for your employees, health plan or as a broker/consultant, please contact us.
A version of this article was originally published 11/11/2017.
igh blood pressure, or hypertension, is also called the Silent Killer. It has very few symptoms that you can see or feel. But the health problems that can result from untreated high blood pressure — like a stroke, heart attack, memory loss, or heart failure — are very real.
You might think that if high blood pressure runs in your family, there’s nothing you can do about it.
You might not want to give up your favorite foods or not-so-healthy habits.
You could choose not to do anything at all about it.
You can’t control everything that raises high blood pressure risk, but there is a lot you can control.
Choose to act. It’s never too late to get your blood pressure checked and start treatment if you need it.
This is an example of the engaging healthcare infographics available to users of The EdLogics Platform, a gamified space that improves employee engagement and health literacy.
View, share, download, and print our huge collection of free infographics on a variety of topics, from preventing and managing common health problems tonavigating the healthcare system.
Contact us to learn how to get access for your organization.
Mr. Garcia is a 65-year-old man with prediabetes.
He’s just retired and moved to a new area. At his first visit with his new primary care doctor, a nurse asks if he can usually understand a doctor’s instructions.
“Absolutely,” he says. “I understand perfectly.”
But does he really?
Situations like this highlight the importance of measuring two kinds of health literacy — how much a patient thinks they know compared to how much they actually know. If doctors measure just one kind of health literacy, they may not realize how much a patient understands and how well they can follow basic health advice..
Better understanding might allow Mr. Garcia to act sooner. He might get treatment or make healthier choices — and avoid diabetes. Smart changes now could mean avoiding the pain and expense of a chronic health problem later.
That’s why, when possible, it’s best to measure both subjective and objective health literacy.
Subjective health literacy measures how health literate someone thinks they are.
You can gauge subjective health literacy with questions like:
“How confident are you in filling out medical forms by yourself?”
The nurse in the story above was measuring subjective health literacy, albeit informally. The questions don’t have objectively correct answers, which may feel less threatening to the patient. It doesn’t feel like a test you’d take in school.
But there are disadvantages too. People often overestimate their own ability. And they may tell you what they think you want to hear. In other words, they may report strong health literacy even if they rarely understand or act on what a doctor tells them.
A patient has to actually demonstrate factual knowledge to measure objective health literacy. One popular tool, The Newest Vital Sign, shows the patient a nutrition label and asks how many calories they’d get by eating multiple servings, as well as other basic questions.
With objective health literacy, you know patients aren’t overestimating their own ability, or telling you what they think you want to hear. But because there are right and wrong answers, some patients feel like they’re back in school, and the memories aren’t always pleasant.
EdLogics measures — and strives to cultivate — improvements in both kinds of health literacy.
We use only validated surveys. When we measure objective health literacy, we present questions a little differently, making them fun, adding graphics, and incorporating great design. It’s all gamified and has fun incentives to encourage continued engagement. You can even win cash drawings, where the more you play, the more likely you are to win.
Users do not feel like they’re back in school.
By measuring both types of health literacy, we put ourselves in the best position to understand how health literacy changes over time. This can help us further refine our suite of health literacy education games, and be even more effective in our mission to improve health literacy.
A version of this article was originally published 7/6/2017.
ospital emergency departments, as the name implies, are meant to be used for true emergencies.
Unfortunately many trips to the ER are not life-threatening. Many are, in fact, both unnecessary and avoidable.
A study published in 2013 found that:
Low health literacy leads many patients to the ER when they could have received care at a less expensive setting – like at their doctor’s office or at a walk-in clinic. It’s also known that patients with low health literacy are more likely to make return visits to ERs within two weeks.
Some barriers for patients with low literacy include:
More recent research, presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting in Orlando, explored how low health literacy was related to preventable ER visits. The study looked at over 1,200 participants and a total of 4,444 ER visits. Over 10% of the visits were found to have been preventable.
Of the preventable visits, over 60% led to hospital admission. The average cost of a hospital stay is estimated to be close to $10,000.
When researchers looked at the health literacy of the participants, those with lower health literacy were over twice as likely to have made a preventable ER visit. Having below an eighth-grade reading level was the definition used for low literacy.
The most common preventable conditions leading to ER visits included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), urinary tract infections and long-term complications from diabetes.
While not surprising, the study illustrates that patients with low literacy are more likely to make preventable visits to ER and other emergency services. And increasing the literacy of patients can help dramatically decrease unnecessary healthcare costs.
A version of this article was originally publshed 10/09/2017.
doctor prescribes an antibiotic for a toddler’s first ear infection. Eager to help their daughter, the girl’s parents pick up the medicine on their way home. Frantically, they open the bottle and start to pour the thick pink liquid into the crying child’s ear.
The problem: It should have gone in her mouth.
This story is a classic in the health literacy community. While obvious errors like this aren’t the norm, millions of patients do make dangerous healthcare mistakes every year.
That means they have trouble finding, understanding, and using health information to make informed decisions about their health.
You can’t blame them. Even though most healthcare professionals are committed to educating their patients — including those with limited health literacy — we don’t always do a great job of it.
Here’s one example:
In a 2009 New England Journal article, Ruth Parker tells the story of two parents—one of whom was a physician—who struggled to understand the instructions for their child’s flu medication. The directions were so unclear that the physician had to solve a complex equation to figure out the right dose.
It’s not surprising that millions of patients with limited health literacy can’t interpret medication labels correctly, or use other health information to help prevent and manage disease.
These health literacy issues have been linked to serious health consequences. Adults with limited health literacy get fewer mammograms and flu shots. They have more ER visits and hospitalizations. They cost much more to the healthcare system. And they don’t understand their health conditions as well as people who are health literate.
Health literacy should matter to you if:
1. You have a chronic condition. If you or a loved one has a chronic condition, you know there’s a lot to learn. You need to use health information to help manage conditions like diabetes, heart disease, COPD, and many others.
2. You’re a parent. Once you become a mom or dad, you’ll need to use health information to learn how to care for your child.
3. You can’t get health insurance. Patients with limited health literacy cost more, so insurers pay more. That drives up premiums, which can quickly become unaffordable.
4. You have insurance. If you pay health insurance premiums, the price is based on the cost of caring for a large group of people. The extra costs linked to limited health literacy mean the group’s costs go up. That means you pay more in premiums.
5. You’ll someday die. Every mortal adult should have advance directives. These documents list the treatments you would or wouldn’t want if you got too sick to share your wishes. They also let you name someone to make medical decisions for you if you get too sick to communicate. To understand advance directives, you need to understand some basic health information.
If you’re not in any of these groups, stop reading.
If you do fall into one of these categories, you need to educate yourself on health literacy — and learn how to become more health literate. This blog is a good place to start. We’ll help you learn what you need to know about health literacy.
A version of this article was originally published 2/27/2017.
n estimated 80% of large US employers offer wellness programs for their employees. In fact, wellness programs are often touted as key employee benefits.
But new research questions if wellness programs actually do reduce health care costs. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association was jointly conducted by Harvard and the University of Chicago.
The researchers randomly offered different wellness programs at various work sites and then tracked the results. Specifically, they offered new wellness programs at randomly selected locations of BJ’s Wholesale Clubs. Those results were compared to existing programs at other locations to identify any changes in individual behavior as well as any changes in the corporate culture.
The results showed some demonstrated behavior changes ... but little effect on other outcomes.
Behavior changes recorded at sites offering Wellness Programs:
Outcomes showing no significant impacts included:
Researchers noted that the field of studying wellness programs is still relatively new. Others have commented that 18 months might not be enough time to effectively measure the success/impact of wellness programs. Might it not take decades?
One of the coauthors of the study, Zirui Song, MD, PhD, assistant professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Blavatnik Institute, stated her summary.
As we grow to understand how best to encourage healthy behavior, it may be that workplace wellness programs will play an important role in improving health and lowering the cost of health care. ... For now, however, we should remain cautious about our expectations from such interventions. Rigorous research to measure the effects of such programs can help make sure we’re spending society’s health and wellness dollars in the most effective way.
One missing variable is the role that education plays. Would behavior change absent of an increase in health literacy even be sustainable? Conversely, if employees better understand their personal health — how to properly use an asthma inhaler, for example – would behavior change persist longer?
We’ll be fielding these questions to several health literacy experts so check back for their responses.
A version of this article was originally published 4/19/2019.
