{"entity":{"id":"idea-moon-literacy-first-design-standard","kind":"idea","name":"A health-literacy certification standard for oncology portals, letters and apps","aka":[],"tldr":"Cancer information tools must meet a tested standard: reading age around 12, main languages of the population, audio versions and clear numbers, or they are not certified for use.","summary":"Patient letters, portals and apps are written for the people who build them. A certification (like accessibility standards WCAG) for health literacy would specify reading level, numeracy formats (natural frequencies, icon arrays), translation coverage matched to the served population, and testing with low-literacy users. Health systems and regulators would require certification for patient-facing oncology tools.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency): Basch et al., Overall survival results of a trial assessing patient-reported outcomes for symptom monitoring during routine cancer treatment (JAMA 2017)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.7156"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-patient-voice","b-trial-diversity"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Certified tools raise comprehension and portal use among patients with lower education and non-dominant languages and narrow the gap in trial awareness and adherence.","rationale":"Accessibility standards changed the web because they were checkable and required; health literacy standards exist in guidance but are not enforced.","test":"Certify a portal and letter set in one system; compare comprehension and engagement across education strata before and after, and against a control system.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"engineering","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-moon-literacy-first-design-standard/","neighbours":{"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-patient-voice","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency","route":"/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/"},{"id":"b-trial-diversity","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials do not represent the people who get cancer","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-diversity/"}]}}