The ACP Foundation's Fourth Annual National Health Communication Conference will take place November 30, 2005. Titled """"""""Practical Solutions to the Problems of Low Health Literacy,"""""""" the conference aims to present new and proven practical interventions that counter the effects of low patient health literacy. These interventions will be presented to an audience filled with experts and leaders representing organizations that have the capacity to improve low health literacy. In addition, the conference aims to build on the actions and programs that were developed by participants in the 2004 Conference, primarily the Prescription Label Standardization Project, which has become a primary programming focus of the ACP Foundation. The results of the ACP Foundation-sponsored research paper, which explores the practical, legal, and policy ramifications of prescription label standardization, will be presented as a Keynote Address at the conference. During the second part of the conference, conference presenters and participants will engage in operational discussions whereby industry-specific action steps to improve low health literacy can be developed using the information already presented at the conference as well as the expertise of the conference participants. These afternoon discussions will involve small groups of knowledgeable experts and stakeholders focused on moving forward specific health literacy goals. One goal is the advancement of the Prescription Label Standardization Project, which will be poised to move past the research phase and into the policy and action phase at the time of the conference. In the long-term, the Action Steps developed at the conference regarding prescription label standardization and other health literacy issues will be used, as in past years, by the ACP Foundation and by other participating organizations to improve programming surrounding health literacy. Furthermore, the outcomes from this conference will be published in an executive summary released jointly by the IOM and the ACP Foundation, which will be available as a resource to the public via the Foundation's website. By equipping leaders and experts with evidence-based measures to improve low health literacy, this conference has significant potential to impact public health by empowering all patients to become knowledgeable and engaged in their health management. The patients who will most feel the effects of efforts to improve low health literacy will be the 90 million American adults who suffer from limited health literacy, which disproportionately affects poor, elderly, and minority populations (IOM: 'A Prescription to End Confusion', 2004).
