Our goal is to improve people’s understanding (health literacy), trust and willingness to take health actions to protect themselves and others by producing health communication and education tools that:
- have scientific and medical credibility, but are more accessible, more focused, more educational than any other material on the market
- are as engaging as the best YouTube, but that assure that the information is evidence-based and non-biased
- are as timely as what consumers can find on the web, but are not sensationalized and go beyond the talking heads approach
We develop easy to understand health and safety educational tools that engage, teach and motivate people to make good health decisions and adopt healthy behaviors.
When we start a project, we begin by conducting a health literacy audit of a wide range of existing material. We analyze the health literacy demands of the information and identify the building blocks that we will need to create meaningful materials and messages.
We believe: To do X most people need to know Y We explain the WHY of health recommendations.
When consumers engage in and understand health information better, they are more likely to improve their health behaviors (Institute of Medicine (IOM) “Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion)
What sets our videos and other tools apart?
I) Real world examples
We use real world examples so that complex health information can be understood by relying more on common sense. For example, we use the metaphor of a hurricane to help people understand the variability in how viruses spread and the challenges of predicting exactly what will happen with this virus.
II) Conceptual Frameworks
We don’t assume that the audience has complex health concepts at their fingertips. Rather, we design the information to introduce these health concepts in meaningful ways. For example: we don’t assume that people know that viruses change or that they understand the concept of mutation, we show them.
III) Support for decision making
We focus on presenting credible, reliable information in an easy to understand way so that viewers can engage and make their own health decisions.
IV) Brevity Our videos only takes a few minutes to view and can easily be accessed from home or work, so its easy for your audience to fit it into their day with minimal disruption to work and family life.
V) Repetition We repeat and reinforce the most important messages, so that they get noticed and will be understood.
VI) Language We use language that is free of jargon, easy for people to understand and easy to reuse to educate others.
Pipeline Projects
H2HL is focused on developing innovative animated videos and other tools that can be used to support:
- Health literacy and disease awareness
- Risk reduction
- Chronic disease self-management
Here are just a couple of examples of the kinds of questions we help to answer:
Hypertension Why is it important to control high blood pressure? Why should I take my medicine when I don’t feel sick?
Diabetes Why is controlling my blood sugar important?. Why should I exercise to control my diabetes? Isn’t taking medicine easier?
HPV What is the relationship between the HPV infection and cervical cancer? Who is at risk? How do I decide about the vaccine for myself or my child?
Disaster Preparedness Am I prepared for an emergency or disaster? What steps should I be taking to be prepared?