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Communication

Assessment Tools

  • PEMAT, developed by AHRQ, is a systematic method to evaluate and compare the understandability and actionability of patient education materials. It is designed as a guide to help determine whether patients will be able to understand and act on information. Separate tools are available for use with print and audiovisual materials.

Writing Tools

  • This toolkit is a health literacy resource from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

    This 11-part toolkit provides a detailed and comprehensive set of tools to help you make written material in printed formats easier for people to understand and use.

    Download the PDF at http://bit.ly/writtenmaterialstoolkit.

  • A guide for creating easy-to-understand materials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  • Topics include:
    Before You Start Writing
    Connecting with Your Readers
    Presenting Your Information
    Formatting and Visual Clarity
    Testing and Revising

  • The CDC Clear Communication Index (Index) is a new research-based tool to plan and assess public communication materials. The 4 questions and 20 items in the Index are drawn from the scientific literature in communication and related disciplines. The items represent the most important characteristics to enhance clarity and aid people's understanding of information.

  • This comprehensive source provides information on how to write easy-to-read health materials with step-by-step instructions.

Glossary

UnitedHealth Group Just Plain Clear Glossary 
Find thousands of health care terms defined in plain, clear language to help you make informed decisions. 
 

Reading Level Calculators

  • Today's word-processing programs have made it almost as easy to assess the readability of a document as it is to check its spelling. Microsoft Word's word-processing software, for instance, can perform several readability calculations in the blink of an eye...Be aware that, although helpful, some of Word's readability scores are not completely trustworthy. This article explains what the scores mean and how to work around the flaws.

Pharmacy Tools