Market Potential?
Teach-back inherently is more effectively a "pedagogy" as opposed to a technology. This means the market value of this OER is more difficult to establish than a traditional product, but not invisible. In an analysis of teach-back, there has been a few market opportunities that have been identified.
Health Literacy
Teach-back has had effective practice in medical applications in healthcare literacy. The reason the method is so successful is the nature of its identity being a pro-active method as opposed to a re-active method. When healthcare professionals provide adequate health education to their patients, the re-admission rates of patients are far lower and thus, the cost to healthcare is lowered.
According to the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative, an estimated 90 million Americans are considered to have limited health literacy and only 12% of Americans have the health literacy skill to perform complex health tasks . A health literate society could save excess health care costs estimated between $106-239 billion annually
According to the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative, an estimated 90 million Americans are considered to have limited health literacy and only 12% of Americans have the health literacy skill to perform complex health tasks . A health literate society could save excess health care costs estimated between $106-239 billion annually
Training for Healthcare Professionals
“Nurses are ideally positioned to lead initiatives to reduce avoidable rehospitalizations, oftentimes taking the primary role in preparing patients and family members for discharge and in communicating with clinicians and staff in various sites of care,” says Patricia Rutherford, vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a national organization focused on patient safety, and a collaborator with UCSF on the project."
"Limited health literacy (LHL) is widely recognized as a major determinant of health outcomes, affecting nearly half of American adults and estimated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to cost $73 billion annually." Interested parties in this market opportunity can take a serious training approach to their healthcare staff in order to avoid unnecessary re-admissions for patients. Hospitals and other health related facilities such as the AHRQ, NQF, ANA, AHA and Iowa Healthcare Collaborative have a bias towards supporting these initiatives due to the numbers being saved in the millions per year.
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Tools Developed to Support Teach-back?
In a continuation of the efforts put forth in healthcare literacy, there are other external parties that have began to capitalize this market opportunity. Take a look at the sponsors below:
All 4 of these organizations are in support of the teach-back tool kit and sponsor the initiative. Unfortunately there aren't hard numbers that are easily accessible that can support the data of cost-effectiveness in these 4 institutes to sponsor a teach-back training initiative; but, without a doubt, they are benefiting from the savings of lowered re-admission rates as evidenced from above.
Future Technologies?
As we progress into a more technology reliant future, we discover that we are assisted or rely on technology in the form of mobile apps, devices, etc. to support our daily needs. Teach-back, while still a relatively un-developed pedagogy, has started to reach the market place in forms of app development already.
The Teachback Mobile Education App is a mobile application that is available on both the Android App Store and the iOS App Store. The traffic, while still relatively low, exceeds 1000 installs and has a 5 star-review. If the technology was further developed, there is an untapped market opportunity available in the area of teach-back training. The application is simple for users, as teachers can essentially setup a classroom and ask for instant feedback through a series of customizable surveys and questions.