“mHealth is an Innovative Approach to Address Health Literacy and Improve Patient-Physician Communication – An HIV Testing Exemplar”

Abstract

Low health literacy is a barrier for many patients in the U.S. Patients with low health literacy have poor communication with their physicians, and thus face worse health outcomes. Several government agencies have highlighted strategies for improving and overcoming low health literacy. Mobile phone technology could be leveraged to implement these strategies to improve communication between patients and their physicians. Text messaging, in particular, is a simple and interactive platform that may be ideal for patients with low health literacy. We provide an exemplar for improving patient-physician communication and increasing HIV testing through a text message intervention.