PCHC Announces New Materials Review Program

The Partnership for Clear Health Communication (PCHC) is taking an important step in addressing the issue of heath literacy by providing members a new Materials Review Program service. PCHC is working with the Clear Language Group (CLG), a national consortium of health literacy specialists, to better support our members’ efforts to produce easy to understand health care materials.

As part of our mission to advance solutions to improve health literacy, last fall PCHC conducted a pilot test of a program to review patient materials. As a result of this and other efforts, and feedback from our member survey, we formally launched this member-only service in February. Our offerings include:

• A material review service, where experts review existing materials for appropriate literacy level, design layout and visuals, and provide revisions and/or a detailed summary of recommendations to ensure patient materials meet the fundamentals of clear health communication.
• A materials development service, where experts work with the organizations to develop clear health communication materials on specific health topics.

The Materials Review Program will help PCHC members develop more effective patient materials and build greater capacity within their own organizations for clear health communication. These services will be priced according to the length of the piece and the level of service needed.

Additionally, thanks to a generous grant from the CIGNA Foundation, PCHC will be able to provide two materials review scholarships of $2,000 each for members to utilize this new service. If you would be interested in receiving additional information and pricing on this new service, or a scholarship application, please contact the National Patient Safety Foundation at p4chc@npsf.org or 413-663-8900.