The University of Kentucky will host the 3rd Annual Kentucky Health Literacy Summit March 22-23 at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort and Spa in Lexington.

The summit seeks to help professionals, including librarians, UK Cooperative Extension Service agents and those who work in health care fields acquire the tools they need to help increase health literacy among the general public.

The event is a partnership of several higher education institutions and partnering organizations in Kentucky including Humana and UK’s School of Human Environmental Sciences in the College of Agriculture, College of Communications, College of Medicine and UK HealthCare.

The Institute of Medicine defines health literacy as one’s ability to obtain and understand basic health-related information from medical diagnosis to insurance claims. Those with low health literacy tend to have poor medical outcomes.

Featured topics and speakers include:

·         Becoming a Health Literate Organization: Tools You Can Use from DHHS and Beyond—Cindy Brach, senior health policy researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

·         Engaging Rural News Media in Improving Rural Health—Al Cross, director of the UK Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

·         Using your Health Literacy Toolkit and Plain Language in a Nutshell—Audrey Riffenburg, president of Plain Language Works, LLC

·         Health Literacy 101 and Usability Workshop—Michael Villaire, adjunct faculty at the Brandman University School of Nursing and Health Professionals

·         Teach-Back: Making it Efficient, Effective and Normal—Kathryn Anderson, programs manager at Sage Words Health Communications

·         Social Media—Dana Carpenter, University of Louisville Office of Health Promotion

·         What Did the Doctor Say? Advancing Health Literacy through Joint Commission Standards and Initiatives—Christina Cordero, associate project director at The Joint Commission Department of Standards and Survey Methods

·         Electronic Health Records and Health Literacy Panel—Polly Mullins Bentley, deputy executive director of the Governor’s Office of Electronic Health Information

Registration is $90 with a special rate of $25 for students. Participants can preregister online at http://www.cecentral.com/live/3748/fees. Onsite registration begins at 9 a.m. March 22, and the conference starts at 11 a.m.

For more information, visit Health Literacy Kentucky’s website, http://www.healthliteracyky.org.