Health Literacy Innovations Launches the 2011 National Health Literacy Innovators Contest
Bethesda, Maryland, June 22, 2011—Health Literacy Innovations, creator of the Health Literacy Advisor, the nation’s first and most comprehensive health literacy software tool, announced the launch of the 2011 National Health Literacy Innovators Award.
The contest, a national competition to reward innovators in health literacy, seeks the nation’s best health literacy practices in print, in practice, and in the media. It is open to any company, organization or individual that can demonstrate excellence in health literacy in one of the three contest categories. Contest winners, one per category, receive three annual licenses of the Health Literacy Advisor.
“We are thrilled to launch the 2011 National Health Literacy Innovators Award and looking forward to seeing the year’s best health literacy practices,” said HLA Chief Content Expert and Multilingual Director Aracely Rosales”. “This year, with HHS’ Health Literacy Action Plan, the new reform bill, and the new Joint Commission standards for health literacy approaching, we anticipate even more innovation in health literacy programs and strategies,” said Rosales.
For information on contest rules and application forms, visit http://healthliteracyinnovations.com/award.
The 2011 National Health Literacy Innovators judges are:
Ariella Herman, Ph.D, Research Director, UCLA / J&J Health Care Institute, 2010 Health Literacy Innovator Award, Champion Award.
Carolyn Cocotas, Senior Vice President, Quality and Corporate Compliance, F.E.G.S., Health and Human Services System, IOM Health Literacy Task Force Member.
Cecilia (Ceci) and Leonard (Len) Doak, Principles of Patient Learning Assoc. Inc., and authors of Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills
Julie McKinney, LINCS Health Literacy List Moderator, World Education, Inc.
Linda Johnston Lloyd, M.Ed, Health Literacy Consultant and Retired Senior Advisor for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), chair of the HRSA Health Literacy Work Group and member of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Literacy Work Group.
Marycelis Keiser, MPH, CHES, Healthcare Strategy & Communications Consultant.
Matilde Alvarado, R.N., M.S.N., Coordinator Minority Health Education and Outreach Division for the Application of Research Discoveries, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Greg Smith, Executive Director, Florida Literacy Coalition, 2010 Health Literacy Innovator Award, ReadsEasyTM Publication Award
Silje Lier, MPH, Multimedia Advisor, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
About Health Literacy Innovations
Knowing that “literacy” is the single most important indicator of a health outcome, Health Literacy Innovations, (HLI) was founded to create tools to help eliminate medical mistakes and confusion due to low health literacy. HLI’s flagship product, the Health Literacy Advisor (HLA), the nation’s first interactive health literacy software tool, is revolutionizing the health literacy review process. By replacing inefficiency with technology and knowledge, the HLA applies nine well-known readability indices and an interactive search-and-replace function to replace hard-to-read terms and phrases and medical jargon with plain language alternatives. The combination of these two functions, a document “grade” with a readability score/grade level, and the ReadsEasyTM stamp (a reward for good work) sets the HLA software apart from programs or readability indices alone. For more information, visit http://www.HealthLiteracyInnovations.com.