Amah Health Takes the Lead in Operationalizing Health Equity with Launch of Digital Courses in Patient Communication

Chicago, Illinois--(Newsfile Corp. - February 20, 2023) - To put health equity into practice, Amah Health has announced the release of online courses and downloadable resources. Yi-an Yang, the founder and CEO of Amah Health, is adamant that everyone has a right to health. This is the principle around which her business was established.

Poor medication adherence results in higher rates of hospital admissions, increased morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, about half of US adults with chronic conditions do not take their medicines as prescribed, and medication adherence in the US is commonly lower in racial and ethnic minorities. Misunderstanding, mistrust, and fear have been cited as 3 of the top 8 reasons why patients fail to adhere to the instructions given by health professionals. This is where training of health care professionals in effective communication can have a significant impact, particularly in the case of patients with chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol whose self care behavior is critical in achieving optimal outcomes, and effective communication with patients is conducive to their behavior change.

There is a growing trend of increased attention towards health equity in society and in the healthcare community. This shift is focused on addressing and reducing health disparities among different communities and promoting equal access to quality healthcare for all. The importance of this issue is being recognized more and more, and efforts are being made to address it through policy changes and increased training and awareness.

"To me, one way to advance health equity is to encourage health professionals to methodically make the most of the limited time they have with patients, and communication science can help them with that. With a systematic communication approach, they can take patient history more effectively, incorporate social determinants of health into their clinical reasoning, and methodically engage patients to follow recommendations that would improve their general health," says the Founder and CEO of Amah Health, Yi-an Yang.

Yi-an Yang encountered many patients who were unwilling to share important information with their healthcare practitioners for fear of offending them, despite the fact that they openly shared it with her during her time as a certified medical interpreter for patients who are less proficient in English. Research shows that such a phenomenon also happens to English-speaking patients who are relatively affluent and well-educated. As a result, Yi-an sees that to have real, effective patient engagement, the healthcare community has to strategize beyond ensuring language access; a rigorous communication methodology can help bridge the understanding gap between patients and their health teams. Connecting resources from Northwestern University where she received her Master's degree in Health Communication, Yi-an founded Amah Health with the intention of using programs on research-backed health communication as a means of advancing health equity. Their concise, online courses in health communication are based on empirical research data, and the eLearning format enables the training to be scalable for more health teams to influence patients' health behaviors.

"It is about not engaging in any form of racial profiling and refraining from making assumptions about someone simply because they are members of a specific race, age, or language group. Right now, the majority of health equity courses focus on combating systemic racism. To radically improve health outcomes for all, we can also tap into the power of communication. With Amah Health, we have distinct goals. For one, it involves training health professionals on the ask, affirm, ask model (the Triple-A Framework™) and other communication strategies to boost patient adherence in a task-focused way. This type of task-driven communication methodology is not widely taught in clinician education and professional training, and our courses fill this gap in health care training," concludes Yi-an Yang.

About Amah Health

Amah Health specializes in tech-enabled communication training products customized to promote effective patient communication by primary care health professionals. The modules are based on evidence-based behavior science to influence patients' health behaviors in the management of chronic conditions management.

Media Contact:

Name: Yi-an Yang
Email: yian.yang@amahhealth.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/155438