The Evolution of Health Literacy — cover

The Evolution of Health Literacy

Empowering Patients through Improved Education

A scholarly examination of how clearer patient education advances the four ethical principles of medicine — autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

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About this book

Physicians have long pledged to adhere to four basic moral principles — a concise framework for the larger field of medical ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. To advocate for those principles on behalf of patients, clinicians must first ensure patients have appropriate medical resources from which to glean information.

This book underscores that idea and advances the field of patient education, drawing on health-literacy research that has been published in high-impact journals including JAMA Internal Medicine.

About the Editors

  • Portrait of Nitin Agarwal, MD, MBA, FACS

    Nitin Agarwal, MD, MBA, FACS

    Editor

    Acting Chief and Site Residency Program Director of Neurological Surgery at the Veteran Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System and director of the Spine Computational Outcomes Learning Institute (SCOLI). He trained in neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh with fellowship training in complex and minimally invasive spine surgery and earned his MBA from The Wharton School. His work spans neurotrauma outcomes, spine surgery outcomes, socioeconomic research, and patient education, with over 300 peer-reviewed articles and more than 350 presentations.

  • Portrait of David Hansberry, MD, PhD

    David Hansberry, MD, PhD

    Editor

    Interventional radiologist in the Department of Radiology at Inspira Health Network. Completed his Diagnostic Radiology residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. He has published widely across medical, scientific, and engineering journals.

  • Portrait of Arpan Prabhu, MD

    Arpan Prabhu, MD

    Editor

    Radiation oncologist whose research focuses on health literacy and patient education. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in venues including the JAMA consortium and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology · Biology · Physics, and has presented his work at numerous regional and national conferences.