CONCLUSIONS
The majority of PEMs available through Meditech and the
NLM are written at reading levels higher than what has
been recommended by expert groups. As EHR’s become
ubiquitous and health care providers become increasingly
pressed for time, the availability of accessible and comprehensible PEMs becomes more important. Improving patient
comprehension of disease processes, prevention, and treatment is a necessary step towards improving health outcomes. Given health literacy’s enormous impact on our
healthcare system, it is crucial that EHR vendors and the
US government provide educational materials that are
written at appropriate reading levels designed for comprehension by patients at all levels of health literacy. Further
studies should assess the appropriateness of additional
strategies for educating low health literacy patients, such
as visual, animated, and interactive PEMs.