Each of us has someone close to our hearts who receives inadequate care due to poor quality of communication with their physicians. We hear the struggles of friends with language barriers and sit in appointments with grandparents who have trouble navigating digital healthcare platforms, and ask ourselves, why should their health be impacted by who they are? It is this feeling of injustice that sparked a desire to create change. But it is the shared experiences of millions of others that drove us to action.

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Health literacy is an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions. An estimated 88% of adults in the United States have health literacy inadequate to navigate the healthcare system, engage in medical discussions, and fully participate in managing their health. Limited health literacy impedes shared understanding and shared decision-making between patients and physicians, leading to patients’ decreased involvement in their healthcare and worse health outcomes. Patients with limited health literacy spend on average an additional 3–5% annually on healthcare expenses, costing the U.S. economy up to $238 billion every year, or 17% of all personal healthcare expenditures.

Presently, the U.S. healthcare system is organized primarily from the provider's perspective, where patients are treated based on what physicians think is important to them. Pressed for time and caring for many patients at once, physicians are often unable to identify the individual needs of each patient and effectively address them. Vulnerable populations, such as patients who are elderly, racial or ethnic minorities, or economically disadvantaged, have disproportionately limited levels of health literacy. These populations typically experience a lower quality of care deriving from poorer communication with their physicians. Providing patient-centered care—where patients work with physicians as partners to optimize their health—is a critical step toward improving the health of these communities and eliminating health disparities.