Neil, you discuss "perception" and lenses of perception are used by media so media such as Twitter do seem to have a role to play in a global conversation about science and medicine...?i Twitter may be an important one of a number of "right tools for a global conversation about science and medicine, health equity, and social justice'. **** 1
Scientific research conversations are only understandable to 3% of the population according to the USA literacy study in 1993. ****2
Media (in fact the press in the following context) was seen to be important in policy making in the 1920s and 1930s **** 3.
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AMA Barry Weiss - health literacy -
"Imagine that you are one of the nearly 50% of adults in the United States that has NALS level 1 or level 2 literacy skills. You can’t read and understand an article in a newspaper. You can’t fill in a government application for Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. You can’t follow a bus schedule or a map. You don’t really understand what a cancer-screening test is, or the meaning of words like “rectum,” “tumor,” “prostate gland,” or “mammogram.” Perhaps English is your second language.
"Explanation of diagnoses is inadequate. 1. Explanation of treatment is inadequate. 2. Patient feels ignored. 3. Clinician fails to understand perspective of patient or relatives. 4. Clinician discounts or devalues views of patients or relatives. 5. Patient feels rushed
"Six steps to improve interpersonal communication with patients
1. Slow down. Communication can be improved by speaking slowly and by spending just a small amount of additional time with each patient. This will help foster a patient-centered approach to the clinician-patient interaction.
2. Use plain, nonmedical language. Explain things to patients as you would explain them to a family member.
3. Show or draw pictures. Visual images can improve the patient’s recall of ideas.
4. Limit the amount of information provided, and repeat it. Information is best remembered when it is given in small pieces that are pertinent to the tasks at hand. Repetition further enhances recall.
5. Use the teach-back or show-me technique. Confirm that patients understand by asking them to repeat back your instructions.
6. Create a shame-free environment. Make patients feel comfortable asking questions. Enlist the aid of others (patient’s family, friends) to promote understanding"
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USA National literacy survey 1993 Level 5 literacy - 3% of the population only can "Summarize the way lawyers may challenge prospective jurors � Compare approaches stated in a narrative on growing up � Use table comparing credit cards to write about differences between them"
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This Day in Quotes: “Power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”
In the decades before World War II, Stanley Baldwin was one of the most powerful politicians in the United Kingdom.
He was the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party from 1923 to 1937 and served as Prime Minister three times during those years.
However, in 1931, Baldwin’s control of the Conservative Party was threatened by attacks from the newspapers owned by two wealthy press barons who wanted him ousted, Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere.
[...]
“The newspapers attacking me are not newspapers in the ordinary sense,” Baldwin said. “They are engines of propaganda for the constantly changing policies, desires, personal vices, personal likes and dislikes of the two men. What are their methods? Their methods are direct falsehoods, misrepresentation, half-truths, the alteration of the speaker's meaning by publishing a sentence apart from the context...What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”
[... for the full article see http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2019/03/ ]
HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data
Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com
