Download our essential tools: the Maryland Plain Language Checklist and our Web Content Review Tool. New to health literacy? Start with the basics.
How We're Evaluating the Hub's Impact
Every public health initiative needs an evaluation plan and activities to know if the initiative is working as intended and achieving its planned outcomes. The Hub is following this best practice and working with Sharp Insight, a Maryland-based evaluation firm, to assess if the Hub is meeting the state's plain language, language access, and information distribution goals. Read Sharp Insight's report on the Hub's first year of activities and accomplishments! Learn more about how Sharp Insight is evaluating the Hub's impact by reviewing the logic model. You can also read the full Hub evaluation plan.
The Hub must file an annual report with the Maryland General Assembly each year. Read our first annual report to the legislature, submitted June 2024.
The Hub's Purpose and Goals
Purpose
The Hub's purpose is increase plain language and language access to health, health insurance, safety, and social services benefits information and services in Maryland.
Goals
We can help Maryland organizations and professionals with plain language and language access requirements through
- training and education
- criteria, certifications and best practices
- templates and model language
- recommendations on health literacy practices
- annual reports to the Maryland Legislature
Marylanders will soon have a new and reliable ‘hub’ for accessing consumer health information
July 8, 2022 - Published in the Baltimore Sun
Dean Boris Lushniak wrote a commentary the passing of HB1082 in which he discussed the impacts of the bill on the Center's work addressing health literacy concerns in Maryland.
New Law Makes UMD’s Horowitz Center for Health Literacy a Statewide Health Information Hub
June 16, 2022 - Published in UMD SPH's News Feed
This article describes the scope and purpose of the law created by HB1082. Center director Dr. Cynthia Baur and health policy expert Leni Preston are quoted speaking to the importance and innovativeness of the new law.
Opinion: Health Literacy – This Is Personal
March 16, 2022 - Published in Maryland Matters
Independent health policy expert Leni Preston wrote this op-ed prior to the passage of HB1082 about the need for the bill. She spoke to the system-wide challenges of navigating the healthcare system and her personal experiences managing her care.
Maryland Bill Aims to Make Center for Health Literacy the State's Consumer Health Information Hub
March 7th, 2022 - Published in UMD SPH's News Feed
This article, written before the passage of the bill, explains the need for a consumer health information hub. Dr. Baur and Dr. Mariam Assi, a legislative staff member of Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk, speak to the ubiquity of health literacy in all health matters, the intended health equity impacts of the bill, and the necessity of a systems-level approach to tackling health literacy issues.