Creating health literacy tools for professionals
National Library of Medicine, Network of the National Library of Medicine
CommunicateHealth is moving the field of health literacy forward by creating tools that empower professionals to implement health literacy best practices in their work. We teamed up with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) to develop research-based health literacy frameworks and tools. These resources help libraries and community organizations learn about health literacy best practices, increase participation in medical research, and create content that’s easy to access, understand, and use.
Our approach
Conversations about health literacy often focus on personal health literacy — an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use health information. But if we only look at personal health literacy, we’re missing half the picture. To address systemic barriers to well-being, we also need to consider organizational health literacy — whether organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use the health information they provide.
In our collaboration with NLM and NNLM, we conducted formative research to learn about the needs of professionals and the audiences they want to reach. With this approach, we were able to design tools and frameworks that are easy for professionals to use and reflect the needs of diverse priority audiences.
Impact
We’ve developed tools and frameworks that professionals can use to create impactful health content and foster community engagement.
Created an assessment tool for health education materials
We worked with NLM to develop the research-based Health Education Materials Assessment Tool (HEMAT). Originally conceived as an assessment tool for MedlinePlus resources, the HEMAT features health literacy-focused criteria that professionals can apply to any health education material.
We conducted a variety of research studies to inform the HEMAT’s development — including formative research with people with limited literacy skills, environmental scans, literature reviews, subject matter expert (SME) interviews, and A/B tests. Leveraging our findings, NLM has developed a Spanish-language version of the tool and added content on numeracy best practices and visual aids. And we’ve created and led customized trainings to help NLM and NNLM staff apply health literacy principles using the HEMAT.
Developed a medical research readiness framework to increase engagement with underrepresented communities
NNLM’s All of Us Program Center works to build trust and increase participation in medical research among historically underrepresented groups, including people of color, disabled adults, and LGBTQ+ adults. To support this important work, we conducted formative research to learn about research literacy and perceptions of medical research within these communities, including SME interviews and focus groups with community members.
Through these conversations, we learned about information gaps, barriers, and motivators that may influence community members’ decisions about participating in medical research. We used these findings to develop a research readiness framework, which highlights steps that health research organizations can take to help people understand and trust the health research process
Crafted a health literacy framework to support capacity-building for community organizations
We developed the NNLM Health Literacy Framework to help NNLM educate community organizations about health literacy best practices. As a first step, we scanned existing health literacy resources to identify common threads and pinpoint knowledge gaps that our framework could fill. Then we interviewed NNLM SMEs to learn about the health literacy needs of the organizations they support.
Building on insights from these conversations, we worked closely with SMEs to develop the framework, which outlines key factors that influence individual and organizational ability to access, understand, and use health information. NNLM uses the framework to identify topics for new trainings and programs that support health literacy.
