Healthcare Literacy and Healthcare Systems Literacy

The reframing of healthcare education within the context of languages catalyzes self-teaching and other complex system feedback loops.

Literacy is about knowing; competency is about beneficially applying the knowledge.

Healthcare literacy broadly describes the ability to obtain, read, understand, and use healthcare information to make appropriate decisions. Common usage of the term refers to the patient context of healthcare literacy. But in private practice, basic healthcare literacy focuses on developing fluencies in key healthcare languages. One such healthcare language pertains to healthcare codes, the practice’s relevant ICD and CPT codes.

The reframing of healthcare education within the context of languages catalyzes self-teaching and other complex system feedback loops that we discuss in the modules on Learning Literacies.

Basic Healthcare Literacy

Basic healthcare literacy refers to reading, writing, computing, and engaging soft skills about the health, medical, and scientific matters.  

Healthcare Functional Literacy

Healthcare functional literacy is the bare minimum literacy required to function in the healthcare…