Good afternoon. While I regret that I'm not able to join you in person today, I stand with you in your commitment to improving the health of our nation through clearer health communication.

Health literacy -- the ability to understand and act on health information - is a pressing, but unrecognized public health issue. The health of 90 million people in the United States may be at risk due to low health literacy.

A patient's ability to understand and act upon medical information has tremendous impact on health outcomes. Research suggests that people with low health literacy are less likely to seek preventive treatments, make more medication or treatment errors and are at a higher risk for hospitalization than people with adequate literacy skills.

Anyone of any age or background can find it challenging to understand health information. We must not think that we or our loved ones are immune. However, some people are disproportionately more vulnerable when it comes to poor health literacy skills, including the elderly, people of color, immigrants and those with low incomes.

Improving low health literacy can be closely linked with efforts to close the gap in health disparities. As many of you know, health disparities refer to the fact that some diseases and health conditions are more common among specific population groups in the United States. For example, the CDC reports that African-Americans are twice as likely to have diabetes as the general population - reducing health disparities for underserved and ethnically diverse populations in the United States is a goal of the nation's health system. One of the strategies we have to make a difference here is by reducing the level of low health literacy.

One of the reasons low health literacy is such an enormous but hidden issue is that it can be difficult for patients to admit that they may struggle to understand medical information. And it can be difficult for health care providers to recognize this problem.

Fostering clear health communication is an essential component for public information and community outreach. It improves understanding and will help us reach our desired goal. The Partnership for Clear Health Communication and its education campaign can help patients access clear, culturally sensitive information on how they can take better care of themselves. It can help provide our nation's health care providers with solutions and tools to improve clear health communication. You'll hear more about this shortly.

As Surgeon General, my mission is to protect and advance the health of the nation. I view promoting clear health communication as a critical component in this mission. If we make progress on health literacy, we make progress on a number of other factors that limit the health of so many. I applaud the Partnership for Clear Health Communication for raising awareness of this hidden health care crisis and for offering solutions to help improve patient outcomes through clearer health communication. Thank you for taking action!

I urge everyone gathered here and participating through the webcast to take up the cause. Together we can make a difference!