This educational activity consists of recorded presentations from 20th Annual National Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 4-6, 2011.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, health literacy is the ability to understand health information and to use that information to make good decisions about your health and medical care. Health information can overwhelm even people with advanced literacy skills. About one-third of the adult population in the United States has limited health literacy. This impacts, overall, a patient’s ability to fill out forms, locate providers and services, provide health histories, manage complex illness, and take medications appropriately. This session will offer education and insight about how health literacy is dependent on individuals and various health care system factors.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this educational activity, participants should be able to

1. Recognize the individual and systemic factors that influence health literacy
2. List the tools and resources available to improve health care outcomes by promoting health literacy

Faculty
Michael Wolf, PhD, MPH
Director, Center for Communication in Healthcare
Institute for Healthcare Studies;
Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, Illinois

Disclosures
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Method of Participation
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Participants will receive a certificate upon successful completion of the activity, which includes the following:

• Completing the entire activity
• Completing the Pre- and Post-Activity Assessments, Activity Evaluation, and Application for Certificate of Credit forms

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Sponsor
This activity is sponsored by OptumHealth Education.

Commercial Support
This activity is supported by Purdue Pharma LP.

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