Schillinger Wins Health Literacy in Advancing Patient Safety Award

Dean Schillinger, MD, associate professor of medicine, has been awarded the first annual Health Literacy in Advancing Patient Safety Award. The award was created to recognize an individual, group or organization that has made significant strides in health literacy to improve patient safety and quality of care. Schillinger is director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (SFGHMC). His research focuses on health communication, chronic disease care, health policy and advocacy, literacy, education and health, and public systems of care. He has developed patient-directed communication tools to improve safety and quality, including visual communication tools for medication safety and automated diabetes telephone support to improve quality of care and carry out safety surveillance in outpatient care. This work has informed important policy initiatives, including the Joint Commission's work on ambulatory patient safety in 2007 and the US Surgeon General's Workshop on Improving Health Literacy in 2008. Last year, Schillinger led a research team that developed a simple tool that improves the effectiveness of communication between doctors and patients about prescribed medications, and results in dramatic improvements in health and safety. The new communication tool involves a computer-generated weekly calendar with color images of the medication to be taken each day, combined with instructions written in English or in a patient's native language if the patient does not speak English. The researchers call it a VMS, for visual medication schedule. Research findings about the tool are reported in the October 2007 issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Schillinger was nominated for this prestigious award by Talmadge King, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine in the UCSF School of Medicine, in recognition of the enormous and impactful body of work created by Schillinger and his team at SFGHMC. The selection committee, composed of experts from the Advisory Board of the Partnership for Clear Health Communications at the National Patient Safety Foundation and others, was unanimous in its choice of Schillinger for this award, for which he was considered among many impressive applicants. This award was presented at the Annual National Patient Safety Foundation Congress in Nashville on May 15. In addition to the well-deserved recognition of his work, the award also includes a one-time grant in the amount of $15,000. "On behalf of the selection committee, Pfizer, the National Patient Safety Foundation and the partnership, I congratulate you on this award and offer our humble appreciation for all that you have done to define and promote the importance of health literacy to the tremendous benefit of the patients we serve every day and the improved safety of our health care system," said Diane C. Pinakiewicz, president of the National Patient Safety Foundation. Improving Communication Schillinger's work was one of the reasons why, in 2005, the American Medical Association (AMA) recognized SFGHMC for developing exemplary programs to improve communication between health care professionals and patients. SFGHMC was selected as part of the AMA Ethical Force Program's Patient-Centered Communication Initiative, which called the SFGH-UCSF effort "a well-spring of innovation regarding health communication." SFGHMC's patient-centered communication programs span a wide range of endeavors. These efforts include enhancing chronic disease care, promoting shared decisionmaking and coping with illness, developing efficient systems to improve medical interpretation, and assisting immigrants and refugees in making a healthy start in San Francisco. Effective health care communication is critical to ensure positive health care outcomes for SFGHMC's diverse patient population, says Schillinger. Language barriers, low health-literacy levels and cultural differences can all affect the quality of care that patients receive. Schillinger earned his MD degree at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine in 1991. He served a residency in primary care medicine at UCSF in 1994 and became chief medical resident at SFGH in 1995. Related Links: Simple Tool for Improving Doctor-Patient Communication Yields Significant Health Benefits
UCSF Today, Sept. 27, 2007 AMA Honors SFGHMC's Innovative Approaches to Patient-Centered Communication
UCSF Today, Dec. 12, 2005 Simple Communication Technique Could Help Diabetes Patients
UCSF Today, Jan. 16, 2003