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Leading
the Way for 20 Years
We have been leaders in defining
and building the health literacy field. See key historical
activities listed
below as well as our work on national boards and awards
received.
The Early Years: Before Health Literacy was
a Familiar Term
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1987. Established the Health Literacy
Project at Health Promotion Council in Philadelphia. |
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1989. Co-founded a health literacy initiative
in Maine in partnership with the late Jane Root. |
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1991. Established Latino Health
Literacy Project in Philadelphia—the first national
effort to focus
on both language and literacy barriers. |
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1991. Conducted first health literacy training
for national staff at the Centers for Disease Control. |
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1992. Co-founded and co-chaired
the National Work Group on Cancer and Literacy—the
first federal
government-sponsored meeting of health and literacy
experts. |
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1992. Sponsored and conducted 1st Annual National
Summer Institute, Write It Easy to Read, at the
University of New England, Biddeford, Maine. |
Expanding the Field
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1994. Charged with
developing a list of interchangeable terms and
the standard order
of all package labels on over-the-counter drugs
as members of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
expert team. The FDA started this initiative to
help the public safely navigate OTC products. |
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1995. Contracted with U.S. Pharmacopeia to conduct
the first large scale field testing of pictograms
among multi-ethnic limited readers. |
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1995. Established Asian Health
Literacy Project in Philadelphia to bring easy-to-read
educational
materials and programs to four Asian language groups—one
of the first programs in the nation to combine
literacy and health education in Asian publications. |
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1996. Developed, published and distributed Literacy,
Health and the Law: An Exploration of the Law and
the Plight of Marginal Readers within the Health
Care System. This was one of the first attempts
to effect system-wide changes in health communications. |
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1996. Conducted three national
seminars for Medicaid personnel as part of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s
Medicaid Managed Care Initiative—one of
the first federal initiatives of the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services to bring health
literacy principles into their efforts. |
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1998. Established a Community Healthcare Interpreter
Training program to serve the Mid-Atlantic Region
in recognition that the written word will never
serve all people. |
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1998. Created the first-ever “plain language” application
for federal funds created for Special Diabetes
Program grants through Indian Health Service. |
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1999. Designed materials and
a comprehensive health initiative for the National
Library of Medicine
on how to help older adults use the Internet to
get medical information. |
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1999. Established Clear Language Group as a consortium. |
A
New Century—Increasing the Depth and Scope of Health
Literacy
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2000. Began on-going service to Pfizer’s
Clear Health Communication efforts as a health
literacy consortium – training, editing,
writing, materials review and advising. |
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2000. Organized first-time collaboration of adult
literacy students and health care providers and
conducted the presentation at the American Academy
of Family Physicians’ Conference on Patient
Education. |
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2002. Created the templates for SAMSHA and the
CDC to write easy-to-read RFP’s to aid people
to apply for government grants. |
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2002. Published and disseminated Literacy,
Health and the Law Update. |
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2003. Named by the National
Sickle Cell Association as their limited literacy
and plain language expert—a
continuing role. |
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2003. Facilitated on-going working collaboration
of New Readers of Iowa (state adult literacy group)
with
Iowa Health System. |
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2004. Rewrote National Cancer Institute’s
Informed Consent Template for cancer treatment
trials. |
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2004. Created and implemented “Take
Your Legislator to the Doctor” conference
in Baltimore—an initiative introducing legislators
to day-to-day
issues faced by patients. |
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2004. Established $5,000 scholarship fund for
a fellow to work on a demonstration project in
the fields
of health literacy and health disparities. |
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2005. Sponsored and conducted
13th Annual National Health Literacy Summer Institute
in Portland, Maine. |
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2002 and 2005. Co-sponsored and
presented at 1st and 2nd Regional Conferences: “System
Change for Better Communication—Translation Across
Language, Culture and Literacy Levels,” Philadelphia. |
Service
on National and International Boards
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Partnership for Clear Health Communication,
Steering Committee |
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CDC Diabetes Today National Training Center,
Latino Advisory Group |
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American Diabetes Association, Editorial Board
and National Inclusion Committee |
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Plain Language Association International, Steering
Committee |
Awards
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1990. Health Literacy Project in
Philadelphia receives the Department of Health
and Human Services Outstanding Community Health
Promotion Award. |
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1996. Government’s Blue Pencil Award
for outstanding plain language writing for a
series on Latino CVD challenges. |
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2004. Governor’s Award, a House of Delegate
Citation and a Black Caucus Foundation Citation
for working to reduce health literacy challenges
and health disparity in the state of Maryland. |
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2002-2007. CLG members receive 15 of the
national Pfizer Health Literacy Visiting Lecturer/Professor
Grant awards. |
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2004 and 2005. National Institutes for Health
Plain Language Awards. |
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