The CDC's Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communicationemphasizes the importance of addressing all people inclusively, with respect, including using non-stigmatizing, bias-free language. It discusses the overarching principles to avoid perpetuating negative stereotypes or blaming people for their own life circumstances or health status. The guide also includes tables with preferred terms and terms to avoid for select population groups and communities and links to other resources and style guides to avoid stigmatizing language when interacting with specific population groups such as people with disabilities, persons with substance use disorder, older adults, and LGBTQ+ people. A good resource for the OBGYN population is the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's position statement and guideline for infant feeding and lactation-related Language and Gender.
17 Patient Education Projects Received Funding
The Patient Education Awards Committee (PEAC) awarded $49,932 in the last applications cycle that closed May 31. Cost is often a barrier to providing patients and families with quality patient education materials. PEAC aims to offset the production costs of creating materials and allow the purchase of commercially available materials when appropriate. PEAC funding covers only costs payable to external vendors. PEAC is a multi-disciplinary committee with members from across the institution that approves funding on behalf of FRIENDS. To learn which applications were awarded funding visit thePEAC page.
Clearinghouse News
89 new materials have been added to the Clearinghouse between May 1, 2021 - July 31, 2021. This includes 62 materials created in-house and 27 materials from external organizations that have been reviewed and approved by Michigan Medicine content experts. Notable additions include:
Chronic Pain Education - MiPain Program- Authored by the MiPAIN Program that provides interdisciplinary comprehensive services to children and adolescents with chronic pain. This handout is also available in MiChart Patient Instructions with the keywords MiPain education.
Check out the new Clearinghouse pages we added for:
Over-reliance on readability formulas and readability scores is a common mistake healthcare professionals make when writing materials for patients. Attend our next class: Beyond Readability Formulas: Writing Clear and Effective Patient-Centered Educational Materials and learn proven, evidence-based principles of plain language writing. The class will be taught via zoom on September 14, 3-5 pm. Registration is open on MLearningwith offering ID: PEHL-10002. The instructor is Ruti Volk, PEHL Program Lead.
This class is also available as an online training module via MLearning. The activity code is UMHS-52601.