Online Outside Resources

Online links for health educators and clinicians.

(If you would like to submit a resource, e-mail the information to jpollara@milner-fenwick.com.)

JCAHO’s Patients as Partners

If you're looking for new ways to improve communication with patients and their families, JCAHO is offering a new book Patients as Partners, How to Involve Patients and Families in Their Own Care.

As the patient's role as part of the healthcare team expands, patient and family involvement is more important than ever. Patients as Partners teaches health care workers how to create an interactive relationship and in turn improve the quality of care.

It’s available for $49.00 at http://store.trihost.com/jcaho/product.asp.

National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute’s Web site, www.cancer.gov, offers valuable cancer-related health information and much more for the general public and health professionals. If you’re looking for the latest news on work being conducted by NCI-supported scientists or if you want news on funding opportunities, it’s here

For patient information, there is a comprehensive Dictionary of Cancer Terms and The National Cancer Institute Publications Locator. It gives access to information on types of cancer, treatment options, coping, testing, clinical trials, and smoking.

Ask Me 3

According to the Partnership for Clear Health Communication, the strongest predictor of a person's health status is not age, income, employment status, or ethnicity. It is health literacy.

That's why they've launched a solution-based initiative called Ask Me 3. It promotes three simple but essential questions that patients should ask their providers in every health care interaction:

1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this?

They also offer free downloadable resources free of charge and you may print and reproduce as many copies as you need. You can also join PCHC and be kept up to date on their resources and initiatives. The site is at www.askme3.org.

Helping Uninsured children and Adults

Millions of uninsured Americans including a significant numbers of children are currently eligible for publicly funded health care coverage programs but are not enrolled. Over half of these uninsured children are Hispanic or African American.

Covering Kids and Families is a national health access initiative to help with this problem. Their Communications Team offers a wealth of free materials to assist in your efforts to raise awareness and enroll children and adults in your state's Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP) program.

All the products are available online by going to http://coveringkidsandfamilies.org/.

Healthy Heart for Latinos

The American College of Physicians representing over 115,000 internal medicine physicians offers many free resources that patients can download. Their site, www.doctorsforadults.com, is now featuring a Guide to a Healthy Heart for Latinos.

This includes a large text guidebook and companion video. Both are available in English and Spanish and feature bi-lingual celebrities Rita Moreno and Esai Morales. Key messages are:

• Work with your doctor or other health care professional
• Manage your blood pressure and cholesterol
• Control your weight
• Follow a healthy lifestyle

The site also offers downloadable PDFs on many other topics including diabetes, HIV, heart failure, hypertension, stroke, and asthma. All use easy-to-understand language and provide references to other print and Internet resources. All content is reviewed and approved by ACP.

Pfizer Clear Health Communication Initiative

The Pfizer Principles for Clear Health Communication Handbook is available as a free PDF download at www.pfizerhealthliteracy.com. Leading health literacy experts Leonard and Cecilia Doak and Pfizer developed it to provide guidelines for creating health information that is accessible to a broad consumer audience.

The site also offers guidelines, using the Fry formula, to determine literacy levels of materials. It also outlines important ways to make health information more accessible by stressing these key principles:

• Explain purpose and limit content.
• Involve the reader.
• Make it easy to read.
• Make it look easy to read.
• Select visuals that clarify and motivate.