Patient Empowerment: Using Information Resources to Improve Health Communication

Building on the success of our 2016-17 funded project, 'Outreach to Consumers to Improve Health Literacy,' we will strengthen the capacity of local public librarians to offer consumers direct assistance in researching health topics and preparing for medical appointments. This will be accomplished by: 1 Securing Medical Library Association MLA CE credits and Consumer Health Information Specialization CHIS designation for our course, Patient Empowerment: Using Information Resources to Improve Health Communication to be delivered to public librarians; 2 Partnering with five public libraries to deliver the course to their librarians and aid librarians in applying for CHIS Level 1; and 3 Continuing to offer the workshop Talking With Your Doctor, at community sites including the public libraries recruited to participate in this project. During the Talking With Your Doctor workshops we encouraged participants to visit their local library for further assistance; this project will ensure that local librarians have the capacity to offer this support to their patrons.