What Is the Beyond Words project?

See our project video here.

The Centre for Innovation in Complex Care (CICC), a healthcare innovation hub at the University Health Network has created BEYOND WORDS, a project addressing the patient experience at transition points in and out of the hospital, an issue facing hospitals in Toronto, Ontario, and Canada as a whole.  BEYOND WORDS seeks to improve the communication of information critical to patients and their care. Based on approaches from the developing world, where challenges with literacy and health literacy are high, BEYOND WORDS will use visual communication to bridge the communication divide.

BEYOND WORDS will produce a pictogram-based toolkit consisting of a set of symbols identifying various hospital departments to improve wayfinding on hospital campuses.  The first set of toolkits will be available free of charge to Canadian health care facilities.

BEYOND WORDS will also produce a patient-oriented discharge summary (PODS) designed with and for patients to improve the comprehension of medication and care instructions. The Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (TC LHIN), recently developed a standardized discharge summary template for the region. The CICC is working with the TC LHIN to include the PODS as a complement to improve hospital-to-patient communication.

If you have questions about BEYOND WORDS or are interested in becoming involved, contact Shoshana Hahn-Goldberg at shoshana.hahn-goldberg@uhn.ca.

ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR INNOVATION IN COMPLEX CARE

The Centre for Innovation in Complex Care (CICC) is a leader in developing, implementing, and evaluating innovative solutions to challenging healthcare issues. The CICC is committed to designing new solutions for healthcare that improve patients’ outcomes and experiences while reducing system cost. As part of the University Health Network (UHN), the CICC is well positioned to leverage the inter-professional expertise of its team that includes physicians, patients, nurses, researchers, engineers, policymakers, and designers. The ultimate goal of all CICC projects is global system impact.

THE BEYOND WORDS ADVISORY TEAM

The Beyond Words Project is being run by the CICC, but it is also being overseen by a multi-disciplinary advisory team. Members include a patient, GIM physicians, an ED physician, pharmacists, designers, engineers, research coordinators, TC LHIN representatives, patient education representatives, and interpretation services representatives.