Health Literacy Out Loud (HLOL) Podcast Transcripts

In this podcast, Dr. Erin Marcus talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Challenges when communicating test results by mail or online.
• Strategies to make this information more understandable.
• Ways to help patients be more activated when learning about health.

In this podcast, Dr. DeWalt talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Universal precautions and health literacy. How combining these concepts can help patients better understand health information.
• A tool to “diagnose” if your practice has low health literacy.
• Ways to prioritize health literacy problems and implement effective solutions.

In this podcast, Dr. Dean Schillinger talks with Helen Osborne about:

• What jargon is and why it is often a problem in health communication.
• A study showing that patients often do not understand jargon, even when jargon is clarified.
• Recommendations about ways to more clearly communicate about health, along with a suggestion for more research.

In this podcast, Helen Osborne talks with Mary Ann Abrams MD, Suzanne Rita, and Gail Neilsen about:

• What the teach-back technique is, who should use it, and why.
• How to help others make a habit of the teach-back technique.
• Features of the Always Use Teach-Back! Toolkit
• Ways that individuals, systems, and organizations can use the toolkit.

In this podcast, Candace McNaughton MD, MPH, talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Numeracy and chronic disease. Number-based tasks that patients must do to care for themselves at home.
• Return ER visits and hospitalizations. Patients with low numeracy skills appear to be at more risk for acute exacerbation of heart failure symptoms.
• What can all of us do to help? Recommendations for clinicians, patients, and healthcare systems. 

Aniruddha Malpani MD is a long-time health literacy advocate. He not only is an IVF (fertility) specialist in Mumbai, India but also runs the world’s largest free patient education library, HELP: Health Education Library for People. Dr. Malpani believes that empowered patients can help heal “sick” healthcare systems. In this video, Dr. Malpani talks with Helen Osborne about how this vision is happening in India.

In this podcast, Theresa Brown BSN, RN, OCN, talks with Helen Osborne about:

• How she got started as a nurse. And as a writer.
• How writing for the public differs from writing for professionals.
• Issues to consider including: finding topics, protecting patient confidentiality, and receiving reader feedback.

• Understanding the learning challenges of students who are blind, deaf-blind, or have other physical and cognitive disabilities.
• Using tactile objects, picture books, technology, clear explanations, and other strategies to teach about health.
• Working as a team with the student, family members, teachers, and interpreters.

In this podcast, Paula Griswold talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Ways that patient safety and health literacy interests intersect.
• Reconciling medication: strategies and tools to improve understanding.
• Reducing hospital readmissions: advocating for system-wide solutions.

In this podcast, Lynn Quincy talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Choosing a health plan. Why this task is often so hard for consumers.
• Ways to make this experience easier and more consumer-friendly.
• Strategies to help, including: choice architecture, cognitive shortcuts, stories, visuals, and doing the math for consumers. 

In this podcast, Kris Griffith talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Why research consent forms are so very difficult to write. And understand.
• Strategies to help, including: listing side effects, using consistent and clear wording, formatting pages, and writing short summaries.
• Useful tools, resources, and ways to learn more.

Stanley talks with Helen Osborne about planning a first, and now, second health literacy conference. Topics include:

• Creating a plan with specific goals and metrics.
• Leading a team that organizes the conference.
• Choosing topics and vetting speakers so as to meet learning needs.
• Funding the conference, choosing a venue, and managing other logistics.
• Assessing success, following-up, and building enthusiasm for next year.

Professor Joe Kimble talks with Helen Osborne about:

• What plain language is and why it matters in law, as well as in health.
• Ways to answer critics and skeptics with truths about plain language.
• Examples of how plain language can save time and money.

• Why it can be hard to communicate scientific information to lay audiences.
• Ways to communicate clearly–beginning with an understanding of your audience, their beliefs, and communication goals.
• How to tell a scientific story using data, metaphor, visuals, and examples.
• What to consider when weighing the “ethics of simplicity.”

In this podcast, Cindy Brach talks with Helen Osborne about:

• What “health literate organizations” are and why they matter.
• How this paper was inspired by the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) from the HHS Office of Minority Health
• Ten attributes of health literate health care organizations, along with examples and resources to learn more.

In this podcast, Dr. Tim Johnson (of ABC News) talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Three big problems facing US healthcare today. And how these problems compare to those in other developed countries.
• Ways that patients, family members, health literacy advocates, healthcare providers, librarians, business leaders, the media, and others can help.
• Outlook for years ahead—with a dose of pessimism and glimmers of hope.

In this podcast, Dr. Kristiansen talks with Helen Osborne about:

Dr. Koh talks with Helen Osborne about:

Karen Jacobs talks with Helen Osborne about:

In this podcast, Annetta Cheek talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Plain language: What it is and why it is needed for all types of documents.
• Plain language legislation: How government communications affect everyone.
• Practical ways to help overcome a "culture of complex communication."

In this podcast, Marlene Fondrick talks with Helen Osborne about:

• The power of stories in patient- and family-centered care.
• Examples of real-life stories that have made a difference in patient care.
• Ways to help patients share their stories, including the most important questions to ask.

In this podcast, Erin Moaratty talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Medical debt: What this term means, who it affects, why it matters so much.
• Patient Advocacy Foundation (PAF): Services, resources, and examples of how PAF helps patients with catastrophic illnesses.
• Ways you can help: Strategies for professionals, friends, family members, and organizations.

• How the animal-human bond enriches people, pets, and the environment.
• Ways that animals help humans during sickness as well as health.
• Strategies practitioners can use when talking with patients who have pets.

In this podcast Jessica Ridpath talks with Helen Osborne about:

• Informed consent forms for research. Why these forms can be difficult to read and ways to make them easier for the lay public to understand.
• Problematic words. Examples of words and terms that may cause confusion even though these words are short and familiar.
• Strategies and tools to improve understanding of health research concepts.