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All health system clinicians and staff are invited to attend the next Patient Education ForUM on Wednesday, Feb. 1, from 3:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. The agenda includes presentations about a medication label health literacy tool and updating the Michigan Medicine Advance Directives booklet. 

The ForUM will be held in the Rachel Upjohn Building Auditorium, located at 4250 Plymouth Rd. 

Be sure to register early to ensure your spot.

As part of the event, Amy Barton Pai, Pharm. D., BCPS, FASN, FCCP, FNKF, associate professor of clinical pharmacy, will give a presentation entitled, "Assessing medication label health literacy tool focused on NSAIDs."

People with diabetes, kidney disease or hypertension have a higher risk for decline in kidney function or even kidney failure as a result of taking NSAIDs. Pai and colleagues developed a health literacy tool to measure understanding of medication guides and drug labels of NSAIDs medications. The MedLitNSAID tool assesses if users are able to locate information on the medication guide or drug label and use it to calculate doses and make decisions about taking the medication safely. Pai will present the study’s results and share strategies and methods to present drug information and instructions in an understandable way.

Additionally, Kathryn Shindeldecker, MHSA, project manager in the U-M Population Health Office will present on the topic of "Adopting a patient-centered design to improve Michigan Medicine educational materials for advance care planning."

Front-line workers at Michigan Medicine reported that patients find the Advance Care Planning booklet developed in 2011 confusing. This presentation will describe the process to solicit input and achieve consensus of all stakeholders including patients, providers and legal experts and apply health literacy universal precautions to ensure the updated booklet is understandable and actionable by all patients. 

Additional goals for this project are to increase coordination of advance care planning educational materials at Michigan Medicine and reduce costs of printing and distribution. Studies have shown that educating patients on Advance Care Planning Lowers hospitalizations and readmissions and improves patient satisfaction.

For more information on the ForUM, please email rvolk@med.umich.edu.