Alt: A doodle drives a moving truck with “W❤HHL” emblazoned on the side while another doodle waves out the passenger-side window. They’re following a sign that points toward communicatehealth.com. This week, in the spirit of spring cleaning, we’re taking a break from our normal content to tell you about a few important housekeeping items. The most important thing is that we’ve moved! You may know that while our weekly emails come to you via MailChimp, our blog content has been permanently hosted here on Medium. But not anymore. Now, dear readers, your very favorite We ❤ Health Literacy content ..read more

Alt: A doctor doodle is talking to a patient with dog leg. The doctor doodle frowns and says, “You won’t need a dog-leg-ectomy after all.” The patient doodle says, “Why do you sound so sad about it?” The doctor doodle says, “Whoops. Wrong tone.” In the next frame, the doctor doodle smiles and says, “You won’t need a dog-leg-ectomy after all!” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re always looking for ways to build stronger connections with our audiences. And using the right voice and tone is one way to forge that connection! So this week, we’re sharing tips to help you identify a ..read more

Alt: A doodle with cat head talks to their doctor via their laptop. The doctor says, “Can you tilt the camera back? I need to see both the cat and your head to make my diagnosis.” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re big fans of both preventive health care and preventing the spread of COVID-19. So these days, dear readers, we really ❤ telehealth. According to CDC, 4 in 10 U.S. adults have avoided health care due to COVID-19 concerns. That’s, well, concerning! People need routine health care, pandemic or no — and telehealth lets them get it with zero anxiety about getting COVID at t ..read more

Alt: Three happy doodles flex their muscles. They’re wearing name tags that read, “Pfizer,” “J&J,” and “Moderna.” With 3 different COVID-19 vaccines now on the market in United States, and more and more people getting vaccinated every day, lots of tricky new health comm questions are popping up! So this week, we’re sharing some tips to communicate clearly about the vaccine rollout. First, a little disclaimer: the vaccine landscape is changing fast! New shots may be available soon, and guidelines may shift as researchers gather data from ongoing trials. But based on what we know now, t ..read more

Alt: Doodles in the background say, “Aunt Flo’s in town!” and “Guess it’s that time of the month!” A doodle in the foreground says, “Just call it a period — period.” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, periods are our second favorite punctuation mark. (You’ll always be first in our heart, em dash!) But that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re here to chat about other kind of periods — the menstrual kind. As you know, dear readers, we always aim to use clear and accurate language to talk about bodies — even some of those, ahem, less elegant functions — and periods are no exceptio ..read more

Alt: A doodle with cat head talks to a doctor doodle via video chat. The doctor doodle asks, “Can you tell me the steps to care for your cat head?” The other doodle says, “Sure. First I’ll do the hokey-pokey. Then I’ll turn myself around.” The doctor doodle responds, “Yes! That’s what it’s all about!” As you undoubtedly know by now, dear readers, we usually serve up health lit tips for creating health education materials. But putting health literacy best practices into, well, practice isn’t only about writing. And we know that for many of you, face-to-face convos are a big part of your&nb ..read more

Alt: A doodle aims a paper airplane at another doodle and shouts, “Hold still! I’m trying to target you with information!” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re no strangers to the terms “target audience” and “target population” — they’re health comm bread and butter! But when you think about it, they aren’t such a great way to refer to… well, anyone. “Target” sounds a tad aggressive, like militaristic terms we try to avoid. And it may make people feel they’re being, ahem, targeted — rather than prioritized, which is what we actually mean! This connotation can get especially di ..read more

Missing the Mark with “Target Audience” Alt: A doodle aims a paper airplane at another doodle and shouts, “Hold still! I’m trying to target you with information!” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re no strangers to the terms “target audience” and “target population” — they’re health comm bread and butter! But when you think about it, they aren’t such a great way to refer to… well, anyone. “Target” sounds a tad aggressive, like militaristic terms we try to avoid. And it may make people feel they’re being, ahem, targeted — rather than prioritized, which is what we actually mean ..read more

Alt: A doodle aims a paper airplane at another doodle and shouts, “Hold still! I’m trying to target you with information!” Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re no strangers to the terms “target audience” and “target population” — they’re health comm bread and butter! But when you think about it, they aren’t such a great way to refer to… well, anyone. “Target” sounds a tad aggressive, like militaristic terms we try to avoid. And it may make people feel they’re being, ahem, targeted — rather than prioritized, which is what we actually mean! This connotation can get especially di ..read more

Alt: Five doodles stand under the words: “Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.” When the COVID-19 pandemic is finally over, there’ll be no shortage of careful reflection and lessons learned for public health officials (and communicators!). But one major takeaway needs our attention right now: COVID is affecting people of color at wildly disproportionate rates. Addressing this problem will require systems-level change — and that’s why we were excited to hear about the new Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. Established by President Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring ..read more