Building Health Literacy Coalitions and NGOs.

This report describes several health literacy initiatives by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Specifically, the authors discuss the vision, history, and establishment of the International Health Literacy Association and similar regional organizations, as examples of collaboration across professional and geographic boundaries to advance health literacy research and practice. The authors provide some observations to build future health literacy initiatives by NGOs around the world.

Maximizing your Patient Education Skills (MPES): a multi-site evaluation of an innovative patient education skills training course for oncology health care professionals.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the acceptability and relevance of the Maximizing your Patient Education Skills (MPES) course and to determine whether it significantly improved knowledge regarding patient education (PE) theory, self-assessed PE competencies, and PE skills using case based vignettes. METHODS: 1-Group, multi-site, pre-post-intervention. Participants completed a pre-assessment (T1), participated in the 4-h MPES course, and then a 3-month post-assessment (T2). A focus group was conducted with sub-set of participants. RESULTS: 98 (75%) of participants completed both time points. Participants were highly satisfied with MPES and found it to be relevant. Results showed that MPES had a significant impact on all of our outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study show that oncology HCPs knowledge of patient education theory, self-assessed competencies and skills can improve after participating in a brief problem-focused and interactive workshop. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Given the evidence that well-planned education and support can contribute to a number of positive health outcomes and the evidence that HCPs may lack the skills to teach and support patients and their families effectively, these results suggest that MPES course may be of value to oncology professionals. Efforts to further develop this course include exploring alternative funding models and using different learning platforms.

Standards for thoracic surgical oncology in a single-payer healthcare system.

Through systematic literature review and a consensus-based approach from an expert panel, standards on the organization for delivering thoracic cancer surgery in a single-payer healthcare environment were developed. Thirty-two studies and six organizational reports were identified. Results from 32 studies showed a trend toward higher volumes and improved patient outcomes, and six consensus reports provided recommendations on thoracic care standards. Thoracic surgical oncology standards in a single-payer healthcare system were developed. The benefits associated with the implementation of thoracic cancer surgery standards should result in increased regionalization of care, improved processes of care, and better patient outcomes.