Health Literacy Consulting

Health literacy is about mutual understanding. It happens when patients (or caregivers, the public, or anyone on the receiving end of health communication) and providers (clinicians, public health specialists, organizations, and others on the giving end of this communication) truly understand each other. Health literacy can be hard to accomplish.

Helen Osborne can help.

She does this by raising awareness about health literacy, teaching strategies to help, and sharing stories about why this matters. Helen also serves as a plain language writer and editor on a wide range of health materials.

Health Literacy Consultant Helen Osborne
Helen Osborne Health Literacy Communication

Helen Osborne can help you communicate clearly!

Helen Osborne, M.Ed, OTR/L helps helps professionals communicate health information in ways that patients and the public can understand. Helen brings to this work her experience as an occupational therapist, training as an educator, and perspective as a patient and caregiver.

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“Thank you for your excellent work on this script as well as all the others! You make the scripts and projects even better. We greatly appreciate your expertise and collaborating with us to improve medical care for those who most need it.”

Aretha Delight Davis MD, JD & Angelo Volandes MD, MPH
Co-founders and chief executives of ACP Decisions

“Everyone who attended your workshop really, really liked it and found it immensely useful. The evaluations were stellar and people thought it really helped them think in new, useful, and concrete ways. We all now understand that we don’t need to be artists to communicate in pictures!”
Jeannie Hess, Community Service Program Liaison
Harvard Medical School
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Health Literacy Out Loud Podcast

Health Literacy Out Loud (HLOL) podcasts are a lot like radio shows. You can listen in as Helen Osborne interviews those in-the-know about health literacy. You will hear why health literacy matters and learn practical ways to help.

  • Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D. is President of the National Center for Health Research, a nonprofit think tank that conducts and analyzes research on a wide range of healthcare and health policy issues. She and a team use this research to inform policies and programs that affect the health of adults and children. Among her many accomplishments, Diana […]
  • Karen Komondor RN, BSN, CCRN is passionate about health literacy. This comes from knowing why understandable health communication matters so much to her, both personally and professionally. Karen is Founder and President of Health Literacy 360, LLC. Her work includes chairing health literacy programs at an urban teaching hospital, leading health literacy training sessions, and […]

About the Book

Health Literacy from A to Z: Practical Ways to Communicate Your Health Message, Third Edition (updated 2022) is written for someone who cares a lot about communicating health messages clearly and simply. It is also written for someone to whom health literacy is just one of many projects competing for time and attention. Whether you are a physician, nurse, pharmacist, allied health professional, case manager, public health specialist, practice manager, health educator, student, or family caregiver–this book is for you.

Health Literacy from A to Z, 3rd Edition by Helen Osborne

How-to Tips and Articles

Confirm Understanding: Teach-Back

It is vital that we as health communicators confirm that our messages are truly understood. Two important ways to do this are with teach-back (for the spoken word) and feedback (for print and web information).  This month’s How-To Tip looks at teach-back. This is...

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Communicating with People Who Have Mild Memory Loss

Health communication is often a challenge. There can be new terms for patients to learn, numbers to understand, and hard choices to make about treatment and care. When a person has mild memory loss or other cognitive challenge, communication...

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