HASK

This application was designed to be utilized throughout the patient encounter. The application is designed to aid the primary care practitioner (MD, NP, PA, RN) to determine the appropriate health literacy improvement communication technique (s) to implement when treating patients with diabetes and/or hypertension and enable patient involvement regarding their health care plans. Through this process, the primary care practitioner would ensure patient understanding of their prescribed medications, lifestyle modifications, and follow up instructions. The embedded web links will guide the user to the information needed to initiate the health literacy improvement techniques. Where appropriate and in combination with the patient EMR, the application will suggest evidence-based criteria for Chronic Care Panel monitoring. Weblinks such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Heart Association, and the American Diabetic Association are included. Additional access to the American Medical Associations and its STEPS Forward program is available through the document that contains all three health literacy improvement techniques.
The application will guide the user through the two decision aid flow processes (hypertension and diabetes).
Upon opening the application, the user will enter patients vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperatures, oxygen level, respiratory rate) and Hemoglobin A1C if available. An abnormal reading on blood pressure will activate the blood pressure decision aid process. An abnormal reading of A1C will activate the diabetes decision aid process. Blood pressure and A1C are mandatory to activate the decision aid process. Weight and height inputs are also available but not mandatory. These inputs will calculate patients BMI
Both processes will prompt the user with a yes/no question. Depending on the answer provided, the application will recommend one or more health literacy improvement communication techniques to use during a patient encounter. The health literacy improving techniques that are included in this application are the teach-back (closing the loop), ask-tell-ask, and action planning. A user will be able to refer to each of the techniques through embedded hyperlinks. The hyperlinks contain a brief explanation of each health literacy improvement technique and a sample dialog.
The application has an alert icon that will categorize hypertension into the appropriate class (elevated, Stage I, Stage II, and Hypertensive crisis) and distinguish from prediabetes and diabetes based on entered Hemoglobin A1C. Through the navigation of the alert icon, the user will be able to click on the embedded hyperlink and open www.heart.org, http://www.diabetes.org/,
and www.cdc.gov. Through this website, the user will be able to find and print out the information for their patients. If the user came to the conclusion that the creation of an action plan is needed, the user will be able to open an action plan template in either English or Spanish.