A few months ago, I decided to conduct an informal survey. I’d begun thinking about the relationships between health literacy research and health care workers’ everyday practice. Since I often get to talk with physicians one-on-one, I decided to ask the next few physicians I encountered a simple question: When you hear the phrase ‘health […]
Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate
A practical way to address unconscious bias in language
Over the course of last year, I spoke several times with an African American male physician. At one point, we were talking about his professional journey in medicine. He mentioned that he had learned to be more comfortable with, as he put it, “…being the only Black person in the room. Hearing ‘How did YOU […]
Make this one change to improve your patient education
A while ago, I wrote a piece called 5 steps to improve your patient education. I promised I would gradually dig deeper into each of the 5 steps. Last month I dove into the topic of patients’ background knowledge and how it can help you. This time, it’s about your subject matter. Your medical knowledge. […]
Why addressing unconscious bias can make people nervous
Last week I was in Baltimore, at the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare/Health Literacy Annual Research Conference. Every one of the keynote addresses discussed biases and stereotypes. Every one. (Biases and stereotypes was not the conference theme.) The importance of examining and addressing unconscious biases seems to be well understood in the research community. […]
Reach more patients by reducing cultural bias in your metaphors and analogies
Metaphors and analogies are favored tools of poets — and doctors. They invite us to see a person, idea, or object differently, by inviting comparisons. Providers use them often, to explain complex physiological phenomena to patients. They may even improve physicians’ communication. So what’s the problem? Sometimes they don’t work. They can even give patients […]