• Identifies strategies for effective oral communications, especially for people with low literacy skills: “strip it down,” “bring it home,” and “mix it up.”

• Extensive review of the literature on oral communication in healthcare, but applicable to elections for voter education and communication in the polling place.

Research has shown that many patients, especially those with low literacy skills, are less likely to ask for clarification during communications with healthcare professionals, which can lead to poor preventative care and disease management.

After reviewing several key studies concerning patient satisfaction and information recall in healthcare communications, the author sets forth the following three strategies for reducing the oral literacy barriers that exist in patient-provider interactions:

• “Strip it down” – In order to increase understanding, medical practitioners should avoid the overuse of medical jargon. While using some medical terms is important in order to orient the patient, it is important that these terms are well defined and used in context of the patient’s care.

• “Bring it home” – Patients have been shown to learn more when medical information is made less abstract through personalized contextualization.