New health insurance applications are being promoted by the Obama administration as a major step in improving access to the new health exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And while we’re happy to see refinements to the original application, we’re left wondering if the administration could do even more.

We applaud efforts to reduce the length of the 21-page application; the new form is broken down into 3 shorter, more manageable applications (you select the form that applies to you based on your marital and employment status). But we think further efforts could really revolutionize the arduous task of filling out health insurance forms.

What’s needed is a closer look at the user experience:

• Where are people getting confused or frustrated?
• How long does it really take to fill out the form correctly?
• How can the design, layout, format, structure, and language be improved?

It’s logical to think that making a long form shorter would make it easier to fill out. But if usability and plain language are left out of the process, users will continue to struggle — adding yet another unnecessary barrier to accessing affordable health care. We would love to see this form (and all forms!) tested with intended users.

We encourage you to take a look at the forms for yourself:

• Individual short form [PDF]
• Individual short form (without financial assistance) [PDF]
• Long form (for families) [PDF]

And check out the Kaiser Health News blog post, which so far is our favorite take on the new form.

The post Health Insurance Exchange Applications: We can do better appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

The following is a guest post by Dr. Ivor Braden Horn, a board-certified pediatrician and leading thinker on how social media and mobile health technology can be used to improve health outcomes in underserved populations. She is an NIH-funded investigator whose research interests focus on health care communications and child health disparities.

The power of TEDMED on stage is the use of storytelling to illuminate the connections between very different disciplines and perspectives. The secret superpower of TEDMED is what happens when the people in the room get together and turn those connections into real world solutions to the most complex issues in health care. With that in mind, I want to share my three favorite TEDMED 2013 moments — two from the stage and one from conversations I had with delegates.

1. “People can and should lead the change they want to see in their communities.” — Dr. America Bracho, a Venezuelan-born physician who serves as Executive Director of Latino Access in Santa Ana, California

Dr. Bracho’s powerful presentation on the first night of TEDMED was a reminder that the patient and community need equal seats at the table when we are discussing healthcare solutions. The message that community members can lead health behavior change where they live and work is nothing new; it’s always an inspiring story that makes us feel great. However, we need to translate that understanding of grassroots advocacy and participation into the development of cutting edge technology and healthcare design.

For TEDMED 2014, I’d like to see the TEDMED team tackle the next step questions:

• What can we learn from the expertise of the successful community health worker program that can be translated into the future digital health age?
• How can we create a culture of adoption in underserved communities to utilize technology to manage health?
• How do we engage the community in the design and innovation process?

2. “Patients come in with a story, and physicians try to translate it.” — Pritpal Tamber, physician member of the TEDMED editorial team, describing the essence of Sally Okun’s talk

As a pediatrician, I don’t expect my patients to use the same words to describe their symptoms that I would use. A five-year-old child with asthma may describe difficulty breathing as feeling like a fish out of water or chest tightness as someone squeezing them really hard. Sally Okun, Vice President for Advocacy, Policy, and Patient Safety at PatientsLikeMe and the first nurse speaker on the TEDMED stage, gave voice to the notion that maybe health literacy isn’t about patients understanding our medical jargon — maybe it’s about us learning to translate what we say into our patients’ terms.

3. Finally, the culmination of this year’s TEDMED event for me was the Great Challenges Program that allowed the delegates to become the storytellers using AND, BUT, and THEREFORE to create our own narratives. I participated in the Medical Communication small group discussion. During that session, we asked the question, “How can technology enable patients to tell their stories more effectively?” 

That question is true for all patients, but especially those suffering most from the failings of our health care system — minority and underserved populations, whose voices, sadly, continue to be missing from the TEDMED stage.

My advice for TEDMED 2014: Let’s have more under-represented minority voices on the stage, in the room, and on the program development team. It’s time to make the connection.

The post Reflections on TEDMED 2013 and Hopes for TEDMED 2014 appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

The CommunicateHealth conference room was recently the scene of a live webcast of TedMed, a conference of innovative ideas about health and healthcare. One of the speakers was Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett, who spoke about his city’s move from one of the “fattest” cities in the country to one of the “fittest.”

What we liked best about Mayor Cornett’s speech was that he highlighted a two-part approach to fitness and health. One is the individual action of getting more exercise. The other happens on the community level. For example, a temporary sales tax increase is funding new sidewalks and other infrastructure to improve quality of life in Oklahoma City.

At CommunicateHealth’s Northampton office, we are lucky to live and work in a “green” city. It’s clear that many good-for-the-earth activities — picking up trash by bicycle, eating locally grown veggies — are also good for our health.

Thanks to our city’s pedestrian-friendly design, 14% of Northampton’s workforce walks to work. At CommunicateHealth, we’re even ahead of the curve! Here in the Northampton office, 36% of us regularly walk to work (and 18% regularly bike). And now that spring is here, being green is even easier.

So dust off your bicycle, or get out and use those sidewalks! Here’s to your health.

The post It’s Easy Bein’ Green (If Your City Is Built That Way) appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

Another big kudos to our president and co-founder Stacy Robison for her recognition this year as one of the top 40 young professionals in Western Massachusetts. Each year, BusinessWest honors outstanding young business, civic, and non-profit leaders with the “40 under Forty” title.

Working at various health agencies, Stacy saw the need for clearer health communication first hand. “I started rewriting things,” she told the BusinessWeek team, “and pretty soon other people were sending me their fact sheets and brochures, asking if I could rewrite and translate them into plain language. It was obvious there was a huge need, and that’s how this business was born.”

The rest of us at CommunicateHealth are proud to have such an inspiring and pioneering president — and thrilled that BusinessWeek has noticed her innovation, as well. Congratulations, Stacy!

Read the full piece on Stacy in BusinessWest.

The post CommunicateHealth President Is “40 under Forty!” appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

We’ve been getting a lot of miles out of our blazers this spring as we present at health education and usability conferences across the U.S. One of our favorite conferences is coming up, IHA’s Annual Health Literacy Conference in California on May 8 through 10. The conference brings together clinicians, educators, researchers, policymakers, and interested others to explore health literacy issues and implications.

Stacy and Xanthi are giving a presentation, “Designing for Health: What Every Health Professional Needs to Know.” If you want to learn more about the impact of visual design on human perception, motivation, comprehension, and decision-making in an interactive format, this is the place to be.

IHA’s Health Literacy Conference is still open for registration — hope to see you there!

The post Gearing up for IHA’s Health Literacy Conference appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

The Bloomberg administration in New York City has combined 3 of my very favorite things — sexual health, adolescent health, and digital health — with the launch of a new app that gives teens quick access to information about important sexual health services.

Funded by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the city views Teen in NYC Protection+ as supplementary to public school sex education programs in New York — a state in which every teen’s right to access sexual health services without permission from parents or guardians is protected by law.

The app offers teens need-to-know information about safe sex and sexual health in 3 parts:

• Where to go is a search engine that allows users to find sexual health clinics based on location and needs. The search engine stars clinics that may provide some services free of charge, and only features clinics that have been visited by experts who have deemed them teen-friendly.
• What to get includes information about different birth control options — how to get them, how to use them, and whether or not they also protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
• What to expect helps teens prepare for a visit to a sexual health care clinic via video testimonials from other teens. Additional videos in this section address issues like sexual attraction and unplanned pregnancy — advice from teens for teens.

“We want to make sure that no teen who’s sexually active doesn’t know they can go for services to protect themselves and stay healthy,” said Health Department Assistant Commissioner, Deborah Kaplan.

Cheers to that.

Teens in NYC Protection+ is available for free download now. Find it on iTunes for Apple devices. Download from Google for Android.

The post Protecting the Sexual Health of NYC Teens appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

Sandy and I presented on reader-centered design, focusing on involving individuals with limited literacy in the user-centered design process and improving web readability with typography. Not to brag, but we got a lot of positive feedback on our practical, actionable tips.

You can view our presentation online, and soon a video of the presentation will be available.

Nearly 3,000 tweets with the #hxd2013 hashtag were posted throughout the conference, here are a few of our favorites:

On health and design:

MobiHealthNews ‏@MobiHealthNews: @AmyCueva at #hxd2013 emphasizing the role of research in health design: commission, share, use, and do research.

Mike Miliard ‏@MikeMiliardHITN: McDaniel: “enormous potential to bring designers in” to healthcare…”raising the design bar is super important” for better care. #hxd2013

Richard Anderson ‏@Riander: “Design should not sit on top of medicine; UX is medicine” @jamie_heywood of http://PatientsLikeMe.com  #hxd2013

On behavior change:

Jane McGonigal @avantgame: I believe game design will do more good than pharmaceuticals in next century to treat anxiety pain and depression #hxd2013

Marie Connelly ‏@marieconnelly: Nice point from @nireyal, “Habits aren’t created, they’re built.” Echoing @avantgame‘s great keynote. #hxd2013

bacigalupe ‏@bacigalupe: The holy grail of health design is in the slow health behavior changes that are kept through time. @KPhealthyfun #hxd2013

Ctr Connected Health ‏@connectedhealth: #hxd2013 also key to behavior change: find a patient’s passion and celebrate their success – @SobelDavid

Chris Hass ‏@chrishass: What I learned today: More than sympathy, patients want to be empowered. #HXD2013

On personal wellbeing:

CommunicateHealth ‏@CommunicateHlth: Your physical experience will always color your emotional experience… so get more sleep! #hxd2013 #happinessproject #afternoonkeynote

Jill Spaeth ‏@innerspaeth: If we’re going to design for health, we need to make it more fun and easier to use! Via @KPhealthyfun #hxd2013

Rodrigo Martinez ‏@RodrigoATCG: ‘Most traditional healthcare encounters target failures & gaps – we can’t forget the power of celebration!’ @sobeldavid @kpthrive #hxd2013

Thanks to Mad*Pow for organizing such an engaging conference. Seeing so many folks passionate about creating better health experiences gives me hope!

The post CommunicateHealth at the 2013 Healthcare Experience Design Conference appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

CommunicateHealth has caught the eye of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce (USWCC) for the second year in a row.

USWCC honors the contributions and accomplishments of extraordinary women-owned small business contractors in the United States. In 2012, CommunicateHealth was thrilled to receive the Emerging Star Award; this year, we’re equally excited to report that we have won the Innovation & Performance Award.

Specifically, the Innovation & Performance Award recognizes outstanding innovation and performance on contracts that will secure future professional opportunities. At CommunicateHealth, every team member knows that our job is to achieve outstanding innovation and performance on behalf of our clients. It’s just part of who we are. It’s also what keeps our client ratings at 95+ (Duns and Bradford).

Stacy and the CommunicateHealth team are honored to receive awards for the work we care so deeply about — especially from an organization like USWCC that does so much to empower women-owned businesses. Supporting each other is crucial in a world where women-owned businesses are still considered minority businesses.

To that end, we’d like to give USWCC a CommunicateHealth shout-out for their inspired condemnation of the Ryan Budget:

“The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce view is that this budget isn’t just harmful to the economic interest of women, it is an all out assault on the economic advances we have made over the last one hundred years,” said USWCC CEO Margot Dorfman.

Now that’s a voice that we’re really happy to hear in this debate!

The post CommunicateHealth Receives the 2013 USWCC Innovation & Performance Award appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

A new short documentary about syringe exchange programs circulated the CommunicateHealth office this week — and it got a lot of us talking.

The Exchange was funded by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in an effort to galvanize support to end the federal funding ban on syringe exchange programs. These programs provide injection drug users with sterile syringes and a safe disposal option for their used syringes at no cost. In many cases, the programs also offer a variety of related prevention and care services — like counseling, referrals to substance abuse treatment, on-site HIV testing, and much more.

Many major public health and medical authorities back these programs: the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association are just a few organizations that have officially declared their support. There is a huge body of evidence [PDF] showing syringe exchange programs reduce the transmission of HIV and other blood-borne diseases. These programs also save money, reduce the risk of unsafe needle sticks to law enforcement, and get injection drug users help to fight their addictions. Yet a ban preventing federal funding for these programs remains.

Part of the problem is that these programs seem to remain controversial in public opinion — and we aren’t doing enough to change that. There’s no data that suggests syringe exchange programs turn non-users into drug addicts. What the data does tell us is that they save both lives and money.

So what can we do? We can talk about the syringe exchange programs, publicize them, and get the science out there. In the ongoing effort to prevent HIV transmission, implementing more syringe exchange programs would make a huge difference and allow us to see some progress.

Get talking, tweeting, and posting. Tell your friends. Share this video. Contact your local and state representatives. Support your local syringe exchange program [PDF].

The post In Support of Syringe Exchange Programs appeared first on CommunicateHealth.

We did some audio recording at CommunicateHealth last night for a video installation we’re creating to demonstrate the challenges consumers face around understanding environmental health information.

My job was to recruit actors to do the voice over work for the video. (In addition to being CommunicateHealth’s Office Manager, I’m also an actor.) In the course of explaining the purpose of our video installation, I realized that CommunicateHealth has a lot in common with what we, as actors, do in rehearsing one of Shakespeare’s plays.

For actors, our first step is table work — reading and exploring the text of the play to make sure we truly understand it. To do this, we use a lot of tools including our understanding of rhetoric, Shakespeare’s use of punctuation, references for classical and biblical allusions, and the Riverside Shakespeare. The table work prepares us to tell the story clearly.

CommunicateHealth uses a similar process at the start of a new project. We use existing materials from the client, peer-reviewed literature on the topic, relevant news articles and blogs, client meetings, in-depth interviews, and listening sessions to make sure we understand just what it is that needs to be said more clearly. Doing so allows us to develop the plain language and clean designs that effectively tell the project’s story.

And, by the way, we got some great audio.

The post How a CommunicateHealth Project Is Like One of Shakespeare’s Plays appeared first on CommunicateHealth.