A challenge to public health professionals, health care providers, and consumers is to come together to improve the quality of health care and to eliminate disparities. Improving health literacy skills along with a transdisciplinary approach to care contributes to effective patient-provider communication. This article addresses a team approach to health care, a community health center experience, self-management skills, patient education, and cultural competency training. In addition, the authors provide concepts that can be incorporated in health care settings to eliminate health disparities and improve health literacy.

The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) is a federally sponsored national partnership including government, nonprofit, professional, and private sector organizations. The NDEP uses social marketing principles and processes to develop and implement awareness campaigns and educational activities to improve the treatment and health status of people with diabetes. Co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NDEP launched its “Control Your Diabetes. For Life.” awareness campaign in 1998. The campaign was designed to educate the millions of Americans with diabetes and their social supporters about the seriousness of diabetes, ways to control the disease, and the benefits of good glucose control. The NDEP conducted extensive audience research and applied behavior change theories and the social marketing framework to design, implement, and evaluate the campaign. From 1998 to 2003, the campaign achieved at least 700 million media impressions with its culturally appropriate television and radio public service announcements, print ads, and newspaper and magazine stories. In addition, over half of people with diabetes indicated awareness of the campaign and NDEP has tracked positive trends in practice of blood glucose testing and awareness of the A1C (also known as the hemoglobin A1C), the best measure of blood glucose control, since the campaign's launch.