Education & upskilling

2.4.1 Health literacy

The private sector can significantly bolster education and upskilling by implementing workplace and community-based programs that target prevention and health literacy.

Workplaces: Companies can deliver health literacy interventions by incorporating modules into existing employee training, onboarding, and benefits platforms. One intervention is to design all internal benefits documentation (e.g., insurance summaries, retirement forms) using plain language. Facilitating employees in “Health Benefits Navigation” could be achieved by establishing dedicated and confidential services staffed by patient advocates.

Digital Health Tools: Furthermore, private health insurance companies and large employers can invest in digital health literacy tools, such as customized apps that simplify medical jargon, provide medication reminders, and offer interactive tutorials on understanding preventative screening guidelines (e.g., colonoscopies, mammograms), thereby reducing unnecessary utilization and enabling early diagnosis.

Technology companies: Beyond the workplace, private education and technology firms can develop scalable, accessible content to address the broader public health challenge of low literacy. For example creating free, culturally-competent online courses covering topics such as reading prescription labels, distinguishing reliable from unreliable online health information, and understanding vaccine protocols.

Community organisations: Technology companies can partner with community organizations to offer subsidized digital literacy training that specifically addresses access to telehealth and digital patient portals, which are often inaccessible to low-literacy populations.

By measuring the downstream impact of these programs on employee absenteeism or insurance claims, private sector interventions move beyond wellness to create measurable, cost-effective public health solutions.