Literacy and Language Barriers to Overcome in Laboratory Medicine

In the context of laboratory medicine, the authors describe 3 barriers to health communication: access, health communication, and language responsiveness. These barriers are interconnected and present in millions of people in need of equitable access to health communication. Equitable access entails health communication written in plain language and languages other than English to address language and literacy barriers and increase trust by avoiding language discordance and the spread of infodemics. This review includes several options to implement multidisciplinary efforts that lead to measurable improvements in health literacy.