Press Release
Healthwise patient education honored in Digital Health Awards® 2023 competition
BOISE, ID, June 22, 2023—Healthwise has been recognized for its medical illustrations and health education videos by the Health Information Resource Center (HIRC)’s 2023 competition. Every year, HIRC honors the best digital health resources for consumers and healthcare professionals.
Healthwise won a Gold award in the "Digital Health Media/Publications: Medical Illustration" category along with one Silver award, three Bronze awards, and one Merit award.
Digital Health Media/Publications: Medical Illustration
Digital Health Media/Publications: Video
The winning medical illustrations and videos are just a few of the thousands of educational materials produced by Healthwise that inform, educate, and support patients and caregivers through the healthcare journey.
The Gold-award-winning illustration, “Learning About Safe Sleep for Babies,” is one of Healthwise’s new visual Patient Instructions. With a focus on using rich visuals and less text, these new Patient Instructions address a common problem: Studies show that patients immediately forget 50% to 80% of the information their care providers tell them. But patients who receive discharge instructions with visuals and icons recall 35% more information.
The new Patient Instructions not only improve patient recall, but they also help increase health literacy. The low-text, highly visual format supports patients who are English language learners, have limited English proficiency, have low literacy, or have learning or developmental disabilities—all factors that affect health literacy.
“We know it can be stressful to be a new parent or manage a health challenge. Visuals that teach help improve health literacy and make it easier for everyone to learn and remember key points,” said Christy Calhoun, Chief Content Officer at Healthwise. “Kudos to our talented team of artists and writers who work hand in hand with clinicians to create content that is clear, helpful, and accurate and that improves health literacy. We are honored by the continued recognition of our health education.”
Healthwise now offers 65 visual Patient Instructions covering everything from Home Health to Maternal Health to Mental and Behavioral Health and more. New visual Patient Instructions are being added each quarter, with plans to convert all to the visual format over time.
Healthwise was founded in 1975 with the simple nonprofit mission “to help people make better health decisions.” Healthwise partners with hospitals, health plans, health portals, and technology companies to fulfill that mission by providing the health content they need, the technology to deliver it, and the expert services to ensure success.
The Digital Health Awards, the most comprehensive of its kind, recognizes the best consumer health information in materials and programs from organizations throughout the United States.