IMPROVING HEALTHCARE PERFORMANCE, OUTCOMES, AND IMPACTS

Health Literacy | Plain Language | Cultural Competence

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) public benefit charity that empowers programs, professionals, and patients to achieve better economic, clinical, and humanistic outcomes (ECHOs). 

Targeting social determinants of health (SD0Hs) and other systemic barriers to patient empowerment, IHA helps healthcare breakthroughs and best practices (e.g., cutting edge drugs, devices, and healthcare delivery strategies) get better real-world results (RWRs) by promoting

• health literacy, 
• plain language communications, and 
• cultural competence.

Within the healthcare, education, and social-services sectors, IHA is best known for creating patient-empowering content, convenings, and commercialization methods at the level of 

• community care, 
• healthcare, and 
• self-care. 

IHA’s ultimate goals are to 

• ensure patients understand how to benefit from the U.S. healthcare system and appropriate healthcare products, services, and solutions;
• remove systemic barriers to health equity; and
• enhance the well-being, productive capacity, and socioeconomic status of individuals, organizations, and communities worldwide.

IHA’s empowering mission, vision, and objectives align with the health initiatives of global and national thought-leaders, including the following:

• International Standards Organization (ISO) Guidance on Social Responsibility (ISO 26000),
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG #3: Health
• World Health Organization (WHO)
  • WHO Health Literacy Fact Update
  • WHO Health Literacy Mandates
  • WHO Afro-Centric Health Literacy Intervention Strategies
• Asian Health Literacy Association
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
• Health Literacy Europe
• U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  • 2004 Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
  • HHS Strategic Plan
  • HHS National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
  • HHS Healthy People 2030 Objectives
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • CDC Health Literacy Information Clearinghouse
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
  • AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
  • AHRQ National Resource Center for Health IT Accessible Health Information Technology (IT) for Populations with Limited Literacy
  • AHRQ Online Training: Unified Health Communication 101: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency
• Indian Health Service (IHA) 
  • IHA Health Literacy Information Site
  • IHA White Paper on Health Literacy

Want to learn more? Contact us today.