Health Communication: Integrating information technology and health literacy principles into Healthy People 2020

This year, Healthy People 2020 stakeholders are developing a framework for organizing objectives for the coming decade. The Division of Health Communication and Marketing Communication at CDC, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the National Health Information Center are key Federal stakeholders in this process. Together, they are working with stakeholders in health communication, health literacy, social marketing, and health information technology to develop a vision of how health communication and HIT can best inform the Healthy People 2020 process.

Research and best practices, over the decade, have yielded an expanding body of health literacy principles that hold promise for increasing the appropriate use of preventive services while decreasing the inappropriate use of hospitalization among people with limited literacy. In the meantime, health information technologies, including such applications as electronic medical records, personal health records, real time decision support, remote monitoring and symptom management are advancing at a rapid rate. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has identified health information technologies as one of the key areas to address in Healthy People 2020.

In this session panelists will report on the latest Healthy People 2020 draft framework and goals and will discuss health literacy principles and health information technologies that hold promise for informing the Healthy People 2020 process. The panelists will then facilitate an audience discussion of the synergies that can occur when health literacy principles and health information technologies work together to inform the Healthy People 2020 process.