Join Comagine Health for a three-part series on health literacy. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), organizational health literacy is "the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others." As health care professionals, we can have a positive impact on health literacy in our approach to patient communications.
This series will cover health literacy basics and best practices for both written and verbal communication. All three sessions are relevant to any health care professional who provides health information to patients.
Session 3: Written Communication
The third and final session of this series will focus on written communication. You will learn tips for writing clear health materials for residents and patients through five main strategies:
- Defining your purpose and audience
- Organizing your information
- Using plain language
- Designing your information to be easy to read
- Using clear numbers
Attendance at previous webinars in the series is not required to join this session.
About the Speakers
Megan Rooney, LMSW, MEd, MWC serves as director of health education at Health Literacy Media. She leads educational efforts on a wide range of topics in health literacy. As a health educator, her work includes training and e-Learning development for professionals, as well as patient health education content development. As a Licensed Master Social Worker, Megan has delivered culturally-sensitive therapy to refugees newly settling in the U.S. and evidence-based behavioral interventions to children on the autism spectrum. She has also worked in behavioral and mental health research at Washington University in St. Louis, and is well-versed in research and evaluation methodologies. Megan brings a unique perspective on communicating health information to diverse communities in innovative, thoughtful and sensitive ways.
Stephanie Gonzalez, PhD has a passion is public health was drawn to health literacy for its intellectual challenge and public impact. As the transplant education manager at Health Literacy Media, Stephanie provides curricular development expertise and technical support to educational initiatives centering upon organ transplant and living donation. Prior to working at HLM, Stephanie taught global history and the history of public health at colleges in New York City and St. Louis. Her background in higher education brings best practice in public engagement and data-driven clarity to Health Literacy Media’s many educational initiatives and health communication materials. Stephanie's dedication to equity and inclusion ensures the production of culturally sensitive materials and diverse representation in public health. Stephanie holds a doctorate (PhD) in History from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Lisa Cary, senior health literacy writer and training manager, oversees the development and delivery of Health Literacy Media’s extensive portfolio of health literacy and plain language trainings. Lisa reviews hundreds of pages of content every year. She uses health literacy principles to translate health content into plain language, lends an expert eye to everything health insurance-related and uses her design background to contribute to videography. She holds a BA in English from Illinois Wesleyan University.