“Well, like the food for instance, it wasn’t a very extensive list of what you could eat, it was very limited and most of the food I eat wasn’t on it…” (participant, Carolan Gill & Steele 2012) You can’t be in health communication and health literacy without hearing about chronic disease, non-communicable diseases, and disease […]
Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate
Linking everyday conversations and health disparities
Recent research has shown how public health, medical care, and human service providers can unintentionally contribute to racial and ethnic health disparities. This is distressing, and almost unbelievable, considering that most health professionals genuinely seek to give good care to all patients and clients. Yet, there are documented links between health care professionals’ unconscious bias, and […]
Being mindful of your metaphors in medicine
The genetic program. The tree of life. A battle against cancer. These health-related metaphors have become so ubiquitous that they can slip past our notice. Metaphor has been recognized as one of the most important rhetorical devices of all time, ever since Aristotle treated it in his Art of rhetoric. Metaphors are as sophisticated as […]
“We’re always, always being asked to do one more thing.”
Several months ago, I was talking to an oncologist about provider education. He told me about his usual experience with provider education at his organization, with an edge to his voice: “We are always, always being asked to do one more thing. Things added on. Little things…and it’s constant and it’s so frustrating.” This ‘one […]
5 quick wins for your patient communication
Sometimes you just need a quick win. A panel I attended last week spent about 90 minutes really getting into the weeds of some serious issues around patient communication. Toward the end, the moderator turned to the panel and said, “Well, everyone wants a quick win.” He then put the panel members on the spot: […]
3 communication hints for hotspotting teams
Hotspotting is hot! I have had friends on hotspotting teams telling me about it for some time now. Certainly there are other terms for the process of using claims data to identify those patients who frequently use healthcare systems, but are poorly served by them. It’s probably happening in a health system near you. Whatever […]