ABOUT US
About Us
Spurred by the startling 2004 study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Rhode Island Health Literacy Project came together in mid-2005 with a single long-term objective – to increase awareness of the health literacy issue both nationally and in our state and to help our citizens to increase their health literacy through better understanding of health information and self-care instructions.
That study by the IOM, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, reported that some 90 million American adults – 47 percent of the country’s adult population – are disconnected from the U.S. healthcare system because they are health illiterate.
For some, the problem is simply that they have trouble reading. For others though, the reasons range from being older, disabled, overcome by emotions upon learning bad medical news, unable to understand English, or having cultural barriers.
With the troubling U.S. health literacy issue as a backdrop, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island invited Helen Osborne, a nationally known health literacy consultant, to be keynote speaker at its first annual Community Meeting on May 21, 2005. At the same meeting, BCBSRI President and CEO Jim Purcell pledged that the insurer would attempt to bring together a coalition of the state’s top healthcare and literacy figures to work together to improve health literacy in Rhode Island.
That effort began formally with a meeting in Providence on July 19, 2005. The Rhode Island Health Literacy Project (RIHLP) sprang from that meeting. The organization’s core membership includes Brown University, Quality Partners or Rhode Island, the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, the Rhode Island Health Center Association, the Rhode Island State Nurses Association, the International Institute, and BCBSRI.
The RIHLP meets on the first Tuesday of each month at BCBSRI’s office at LaSalle Square in Providence. The RIHLP has launched several new health literacy initiatives. To learn more about these initiatives and about the issue of health literacy please continue to browse this site.