Mareika Phillips is an experienced graphic designer. Now at Communicate Health, she leads the team that develops creative design solutions to make health information engaging and accessible. Phillips believes deeply in design as a universal language and focuses her work on making design accessible for all people.
In this podcast, Mareika Phillips talks with Helen Osborne about:
- How pictograms help many people understand health concepts. Including those who are stressed, have reading difficulties, or learn visually.
- What to consider when creating or choosing pictograms. With tips about characters, colors, symbols, and using a consistent style.
- Why and how to convey empathy through visuals in health materials.
More ways to learn:
- CommunicateHealth is an award-winning team of content and usability experts who design and simplify health information. Sign up to receive their weekly newsletter, we heart health literacy.
- “Teaching with Pictures,” an article about pictographs by Helen Osborne published in the Boston Globe’s On Call
Health Literacy from A to Z: Practical Ways to Communicate Your Health Message, Second Edition (updated 2018), by Helen Osborne. Especially relevant to this podcast is Chapter 38, “Visuals.”
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Iris Feinberg, PhD is the Associate Director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University. She is a health literacy researcher and research assistant professor in the Department of Learning Sciences. Dr. Feinberg and a team created the easy-to-read booklet about COVID-19, “Answers to Coronavirus Questions.”
Adam Weiss brings years of experience in podcasting, online video, and live broadcasting with a specific focus on scientific and medical content. He has hosted, launched, or produced podcasts for clients that include the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the American Institute of Physics, and the Western Veterinary Conference. One of his early projects was starting the podcast series for Boston’s Museum of Science.
Sylvia Baedorf Kassis MPH, CYT focuses on many aspects of clinical research. Her work includes understanding the experience of research participants and incorporating their insights into study processes. Among her many accomplishments, Sylvia and her team created a health literacy website especially for clinical research stakeholders. This is part of a larger initiative from the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials (MRCT) Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard.
Shoshana Hahn-Goldberg, PhD is a scientist and project lead at the University Health Network’s OpenLab in Canada. She works with a multi-disciplinary team to discover and create solutions to issues in the health system using techniques that span design, research, and operational modeling. Shoshana Hanh-Goldberg manages the Patient Oriented Discharge Summaries (PODS) project that is being used at over 20 hospitals in Ontario, Canada.
Brian Wallace is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Coin Laundry Association and Executive Director of the LaundryCares Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to provide laundry services, books, and literacy resources to those in need. This includes their Laundry Literacy Coalition–an initiative to promote early childhood literacy through America’s laundromats.
Susan Nathan, MD is a Geriatrician and Hospice and Palliative Medicine physician at VA Boston Healthcare System. She is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and adjunct Instructor in Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Nathan is the site director for the My Life, My Story Project at VA Boston.
Anne Thorndike MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Much of her work focuses on individual and population-level behavioral interventions to prevent cardiometabolic disease. Through implementation research, Dr. Thorndike and her team demonstrated the effectiveness of traffic light labels, choice architecture, social norms, and financial incentives to promote healthy food choices in real-life settings, such as worksite cafeterias and supermarkets.
Reverend Christiaan Beukman, a native of the Netherlands, moved to the Boston area decades ago. He attended Harvard Divinity School and Andover-Newton Theological School and was the Protestant Chaplain and Diversity Specialist at a community hospital in Boston. He now serves as the Pastoral Ministries Manager at a large retirement community. He also is an Archdeacon in the Episcopal Church.
Katrien Goethals is Partner at the Institute for the Advancement of Health and Wellbeing: Dementia/Alzheimer’s. She lectures on dementia, facilitates groups for caregivers, and moderates a podcast that is part of a larger project to examine Alzheimer’s and Dementia from a public policy, public relations, and advocacy perspective. In all this work, Goethals brings her perspective as a family member and caregiver and world view from growing up in Belgium.
Rebecca Sudore MD is a geriatrician, palliative medicine physician, and health services researcher. She also is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at UCSF (University of California San Francisco). In addition, Dr. Sudore directs the Vulnerable Populations for Aging Research Core of the UCSF Older Adults Independence (Pepper) Center and co-directs the Innovation and Implementation Center in Aging & Palliative Care. Her research is focused on ways to improve advance care planning and medical decision-making for diverse, vulnerable older adults.
This podcast is unlike most others, for it is a conversation about Health Literacy Month with Helen Osborne and Michael Villaire.
Bridget Gaglio PhD, MPH is a Senior Program Officer for the Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science program at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She works to improve communication and dissemination of evidence-based information among patients and their healthcare providers. Gaglio has published papers on patient-centered communication, health literacy, and dissemination and implementation of health interventions. But this podcast isn’t about that. Rather, it’s about experiences and lessons Bridget and Helen each learned as patients.
Scott Ratzan M.D., M.P.A., M.A., has three decades of pioneering accomplishments in the U.S. and globally in health literacy, health communication, and strategic diplomacy. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, and serves on the Board of Global Health for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Beyond his many publications and ongoing advocacy, Dr. Ratzan is co-author of the definition of health literacy that was adopted by the US Government and incorporated in the Affordable Care Act. He now taking on the challenge to improve “vaccine literacy.”
Audrey Riffenburgh Ph.D. has over 20 years of experience in health literacy and plain language. Dr. Riffenburgh is President of Health Literacy Connections (formerly Plain Language Works). Her firm helps healthcare systems, health-related agencies, and companies use health literacy and plain language to improve audience communication and meet organizational goals.
In this podcast first broadcast in 2008, Archie Willard shares a message that is as important today as it was then. I hope you enjoy and learn from this HLOL Classic.
Sharon Cray earned a degree in accountancy and worked in business for several years. She entered the world of healthcare as a parent, caregiver, and active volunteer when two of her three children were diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Her participation now includes volunteering with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and serving on the Family Advisory Council at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Cray is an active member of the I-PASS Family Centered Rounds Study Team, co-authoring the research paper, “Patient safety after implementation of a coproduced family centered communication programme,” published in the British Medical Journal.
Emilie Johnson, MD, MPH, is a pediatric urologist and health services researcher in Chicago, IL. She cares for pediatric urology patients (and their families) at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, and is an Assistant Professor of Urology at Northwestern University. In her practice, Dr. Johnson address the medical and surgical needs of children with a wide range of conditions involving the urinary and genital systems.
Samantha Wood devotes herself to serving those who are the most vulnerable and helping them fulfill their life goals. Wood is Senior Housing Stabilization Case Manager at The Haven–a multi-resource day shelter for people who are homeless. The Haven is located in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. Samantha Wood takes pride in serving the area near where she grew up.
Kristine Sørensen is founding director of the Global Health Literacy Academy. Kristine Sørensen also is the first president of the International Health Literacy Association, chair of Health Literacy Europe, and advisor to the WHO on health literacy. She now lives in Denmark.
