Now, two major

health care organizations are working together to tackle low health literacy.

At the fifth

annual health literacy conference on Sept. 19 in Washington, D.C., the

American Medical Association Foundation and Pfizer, Inc. announced their

partnership to address low health literacy and provide solutions for physicians

and patients.

"The vision

of the AMA Foundation is to achieve total awareness in the medical community

that health literacy must be recognized and addressed to obtain effective

medical care," comments AMA Trustee and President of the AMA Foundation

Joseph Riggs, M.D.

In 1998, the

American Medical Association -- the country's largest physician association

-- became the first national medical organization to adopt policy recognizing

that limited patient literacy affects medical diagnosis and treatment.

The AMA Foundation,

the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Association, has since been

working to raise awareness of health literacy among physicians. However,

according to recent findings, most physicians are still unfamiliar with

the issue of low health literacy.

"Low health

literacy is a national problem and a serious problem," Dr. Riggs

continues, "and thus we have only just begun our work. We have only

scratched the surface."

At the conference,

Pfizer announced an unrestricted educational grant to the AMA Foundation

to strengthen its efforts in addressing low health literacy.

The AMA Foundation

will develop and distribute health literacy informational kits to physicians

and health care professionals. It will also provide grants to health literacy

community service projects and link dozens of organizations across the

country through the AMA Foundation's Health Literacy Coalition.

In his speech

at the conference, Dr. Riggs appealed to the entire medical community

to make health care communications easier to understand. He also asked

physicians to build greater trust with patients so their questions are

not buried under fear and shame.

"Our vision

is simple," concluded Dr. Riggs. "Physicians want to live in

a world where patients can be confident that they know how to care for

themselves. Patients want to care for themselves and they want to live

healthier lives. We know that when physicians and patients work together,

this vision will become a reality."

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