Overcoming Attachments

Attachments

No, we're not talking about email attachments. We're talking about source language attachment and how it affects Plain Language Writing.

There are various reasons why someone would push back on to terminology that our writers need to use in favor of the source language. Often, this pushback unnecessarily inhibits Health Literacy and Plain Language efforts.

Here are 4 source language attachments that affect Plain Language:

1. Legal Attachment

Copy that is created by your Legal Division creates a strong attachment because it is written by legal experts and often serves an important corporate need. If the legal copy is about understanding legal rights, those legal concepts should be written in Plain Language.

Remember: Legal copy should not inhibit readability and understanding.

2. Emotional Attachment

Certain forms of push backs exhibit an emotional attachment to the negative associations with the terminology. A strong example of this is the word "drug" as opposed to "medication" or "medicine." There is fear that the term will negatively impact the brand even though that is the term that many use at the 4^th grade level.

Remember: Plain Language uses terminology that is understood and used by the target audience.

3. Information Attachment

Separating the "nice to know" from the "need to know" is harder than you may think. Writers and Health Experts have a hard time letting go of information that may not benefit the reader as much as they think it would. It may also be information that is based on a medicalized approach and stops the reader from going forward with interest. The organization of information is also affected by what the writer knows is important medical information, but doesn't always promote the information that drives the behavior.

Remember: Information in Plain Language is only good if it affects behavior.

4. Design Attachment

A polished design may look good, but is not always effective in driving behavior. Plain Language Design concepts do not always promote the design concepts that are embraced by the Marketing Department, but serve a vital need in understanding concepts and behaviors. See our presentation on what "good" looks like for design.

Remember: Design is one of the tools to affect behavior as well.

There is nothing wrong with being attached to the source language. It can foster a healthy debate over terminology. If you ask yourself why you have a need for certain terminology and consider alternative ways to address these terms in Plain Language, you will more likely get the result that you need from your healthcare communications.

Healthcare Engagement

Healthcare engagement is a hot topic in the healthcare industry. Healthcare communications become more personal and topics in healthcare marketing are more focused to specific needs of members. We've looked at our services and defined how these services can can connect stakeholders in healthcare to achieve better health outcomes.

 

Better healthcare outcomes: Health Literacy and Plain Language Writing

Helping to drive behavior in patients from the thinking stage, to the action stage.

Health Literacy writing and design has proven to benefit low literacy populations to take action and drive behavior. However, health literacy strategies are designed to benefit anyone who wants to access health information.

 

We see that Health Literacy Writing as a core competency of being able to provide healthcare related communications that will drive better health outcomes:

• Plain Language / Grade level (re)writing is used for Medicare and Medicaid communications and provides information using terms that can be understood.
• Health Literacy Design employs about 300 design rules to not only organize information for better engagement (not to distract), but it also looks at the use and intent of images to showcase behavior.
• Health Literacy Writing uses techniques to separate the nice-to-know from the need-to-know. Health Literacy Writing employs many strategies designed for the demographic of the intended audience, using risk assessments from trials and literature to write about the issues and needs in a way that engages the patient to take appropriate action.

Empowering patients with information: Accurate and relevant translations

Helping foreign language speaking patients' understanding of healthcare related information.

 

Translations is more than just translating words. We convey concepts in a meaningful way for foreign language speaking members.

 

One example of how we help patient understanding is to assess their access to healthcare information and how this influences the translation. A good example is access to drug information. While a Spanish speaking patient may be more familiar with Spanish drug labels and names, those members who live in the US will have to be knowledgeable about the drugs and ingredients in English as well. Keeping the patient in mind and their environment by providing bilingual translations can provide more meaningful information that a patient can use.

 

The foreign language speaking population in the US is quite diverse. Even among Hispanics, you will find that not only are there regional language differences, there are also generational differences between first generation Spanish speaking persons and second generation Spanish speaking persons. Their healthcare experiences can vary quite differently between generations.

 

Taking into account your target audience when translating documents means that you should take into account the healthcare experience of that population and what information they may be familiar with, but also the information that may help them to access healthcare and health information in the United States.

HIPAA and HITECH compliance for healthcare communications

One of our main areas of expertise in Plain Language and in multilingual communications is healthcare and life sciences.  In addition to building trust with our clients, we also make compliance a top priority.


LSI is HIPAA compliant and our Translation Management Portal, FLOW is HIPAA compliant as well.  All of our employees go through HIPAA/HITECH training and training on our corporate policies which are also displayed in our locations.  All of our translators and interpreters are required to sign a business associate agreement. 

According to HIPAA for 2013, all Business Associates must be compliant by September of 2013.  We have been proactive on this front as many of our clients are healthcare plans and managed healthcare providers and being the "process heads" that we are, we have ensured that our policies are sound, we perform regular audits, we train regularly and we have contingency plans in place.  If you build it, the trust will come.......