Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Tip Sheet on Creating Oral Health Patient Handouts

The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) is pleased to announce the availability of "A Way with Words: Guidelines for Writing Oral Health Materials for Audiences with Limited Literacy".

This resource was developed to assist professionals working to improvethe oral health of infants, children, adolescents, and their families.

"A Way with Words" provides tips to help those who produce educational materials make them easy for everyone to understand, and thus more useful. The tip sheet offers suggestions for how to choose words; set an appropriate tone; and craft sentences, paragraphs, lists, and headings that communicate most effectively with people with limited literacy.

Ideas for how to design documents and how to present unfamiliar terminology are also presented. A list of resources for more information is included.

Single or multiple print copies of this resource are available at no charge from the HRSA Information Center, P.O. Box 2910, Merrifield, VA22116, phone: (888) ASK-HRSA (275-4772), fax: (703) 821-2098, e-mail: ask@hrsa.gov

Electronic copies, in .pdf format, are available at no cost from OHRC's Web site and can be photocopied for use.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Patient Handout in Korean on Neonatal Jaundice

Today The Librarians were asked to find a handout in Korean on neonatal jaundice. Fortunately the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service, New South Wales Government, Department of Health, has a plethora of patient handouts in a variety of languages.

Sure enough, there was a handout, in .PDF format, entitled Jaundice in Newborn Babies. A nice "resource details" page gives you a one sentence description of the handout, the date it was last updated, and a list of the handout's availability in other languages. A great resource!

Do you have any handouts in Korean on neonatal jaundice? Let us know by commenting below or emailing us.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Web-Based, Self-Paced Course on Health Literacy

"Unified Health Communication 101: Addressing Health Literacy,Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency" is a free online course designed to help health professionals improve their patient-communication skills, increase their awareness and knowledge of factors that affect their communication with patients, and implement patient-centered communication practices.

The course, developed by the Health Resources and Services Administration, comprises five modules and is estimated to take a total of 5 hours to complete.

The course may be completed at the user's own pace and may be taken for credit (CEU/CE,CHES, CME, and CNE) or not for credit.

More information, including registration instructions, is available at the health literacy training website.

Friday, January 4, 2008

"Neurology Now": Free Newsletter from the American Academy of Neurology

"Neurology Now" is a free bimonthly newsletter available to patients and their families, focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases, such as migraine, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and other disorders.

Previous issues include essays and articles covering topics such as exercising with epilepsy, yoga and tai chi for controlling pain, an "Ask the Experts" column, avoiding caregiver burnout, and depression. Articles can also be browsed by condition. This newsletter is available in English only.

A publication of the American Academy of Neurology, "Neurology Now" is available online in .pdf format or html format at
Patients and their families can also receive a free print subscription by filling out the subscription request form at https://www.aan.com/apps/neurologynow/