Health Sciences Library

Priscilla M. Mayden Lecture

2013 Priscilla M. Mayden Lecture

Health Literacy: A Vital Pathway to Healthcare Transformation

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Location: George and Dolores Eccles Institute of Human Genetics Auditorium
(see Schedule for details)

Health Literacy is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" according to the Institute of Medicine.

According to the Calgary Charter on Health Literacy report, Health Literacy is defined:

Health literacy allows the public and personnel working in all health-related contexts to find, understand, evaluate, communicate, and use information.
Health literacy is the use of a wide range of skills that improve the ability of people to act on information in order to live healthier lives.
These skills include reading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, and critical analysis, as well as communication and interaction skills.

See the Calgary Charter on Health Literacy report

This year's Priscilla M. Mayden Lecture focuses on health literacy. The Health Literacy Interest Group and the faculty and staff at the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library invite the health sciences community, University of Utah faculty, staff and students and general public to Mayden Lecture events.

The goals for the Mayden lecture are to:

Rejuvenate interest in the Health Literacy Interest Group
Characterize Health Literacy in the academic environment
Address the practical side of infusing Health Literacy into the Health Sciences Curriculum
Encourage faculty support for Health Literacy curriculum efforts
Strengthen faculty commitment to developing and teaching Health Literacy classes

Mayden Lecture events are linked in the navigation bar above.

The keynote speaker is Andrew Pleasant, Ph.D, Health Literacy and Research Director, Canyon Ranch Institute, and nationally known Health Literacy expert. The title of his talk is "Health Literacy: Applications for Enhanced Health System Performance OR . . . How to Change the World with Health Literacy"

Following the keynote address, a local Meet the Leaders Panel will be moderated by Kathleen Digre, with panelists Teresa Garrett, Jakob Jensen, Robert Pendleton, Beth Young, and Qing Zeng.

The Friday morning Workshop includes roundtable discussions and goal setting on topics of local importance:

Clinical Care and Health Literacy led by Robert C. Pendleton
Prevention and Public Health led by Marty Malheiro
Developing and Branding Patient Education Materials led by Sherri Evershed

Video Contest is open to interested students who will work in teams composed of two to ten participants. Each team is challenged to create a 30 second to one minute public service announcement (PSA) video on a specific health literacy issue of their choosing.