School of Medicine

Patient education is an important means of improving patients’ ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information, and in turn care for themselves. Some refer to this as a patient’s “health literacy.” Low health literacy has been shown to result in poorer health status, higher rates of hospital admission, and decreased adherence. In the global health setting proper healthcare and follow up is often inaccessible, therefore magnifying the importance of patient education and self‐sufficiency in this underserved population. Education can help to bridge the gap between surgical treatment and successful long term health outcomes.