| JOHNSON CITY – The
pharmaceutical company Pfizer has selected the
College of Public and Allied Health at East Tennessee
State University as the recipient of the prestigious
Visiting Professorship in Health Literacy/Clear
Health Communication Award.
The funding will allow ETSU to bring Dr. Nathan
Stinson, President of the Health Literacy Foundation,
to campus during the 2007-08 academic year. Plans are
for Dr. Stinson to spend several days on campus
interacting with faculty and students and also
meeting with many of ETSU’s community partners
who are working to address the health challenges
facing the region.
Based in Chicago, the Health Literacy Foundation
was established in 2003 to increase the availability
of reliable and relevant health information for
medically vulnerable and underserved populations,
including diverse ethnic minorities, the elderly, and
children.
“Health literacy is the process by which
individuals gather and comprehend new health
information and use this knowledge to make
appropriate health decisions,” said Dr. Randy
Wykoff, ETSU Dean of Public and Allied Health.
“Leaders now recognize health literacy as an
important element that is necessary for improving the
health care system of the United States.”
Wykoff says ETSU has been very involved with
community-based efforts to understand and improve
health literacy in Northeast Tennessee and Southern
Appalachia, and that leaders have raised concerns
regarding the lack of clarity of health information
exchanged between health care providers and
patients.
The dean and Dr. Stinson worked together for
almost four years when both were Deputy Assistant
Secretaries for Health in the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. Dr. Wykoff was the
Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, and Dr. Stinson served as Director
of the Office of Minority Health.
The Pfizer Visiting Professorship in Health
Literacy/Clear Health Communication Award is a
nationally competitive educational grant that brings
prominent medical experts to universities and
hospitals. Winners are selected by an independent
review panel.
In addition to the ETSU College of Public and
Allied Health, other recipients include: Baylor
College of Medicine; Columbia University Medical
Center; Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Tulane
University School of Public Health and Tropical
Medicine; University of Alabama at Birmingham School
of Public Health; University of Oklahoma College of
Medicine; and Yale University School of
Medicine.
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