CHICAGO --- Michael Wolf, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Communication in Healthcare at the Institute for Healthcare Studies at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has received the Pfizer Health Literacy in Advancing Patient Safety Award.

The award was established to recognize the importance of health literacy in advancing patient safety and quality of care and to acknowledge those on the forefront of this work.

Wolf received the $7,500 award at the 2009 National Patient Safety Foundation Patient Safety Congress in Washington, DC, in May.

Wolf is a health services researcher and behavioral scientist, known internationally for his expertise in health literacy, adult learning and cognition. He joined the Feinberg School in 2002 as an assistant professor and was named associate professor in 2009.

He serves on several national advisory panels, including the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations roundtable on Health Literacy and Patient Safety, the American College of Physicians Foundation Prescription Labeling Advisory Board, the American Medical Association's expert panel on chronic disease management for vulnerable populations, the Medicaid Consumer Information Committee, U.S. Pharmacopeia Drug Labeling Advisory Committee and the Food and Drug Administration's Risk Communication committee.

Wolf has been widely published on the topic of health literacy and also medication safety. He was the lead author on a white paper about prescription medication labeling that led to a 2008 Institute of Medicine publication titled "Standardizing Medication Labels". He has published more than 75 articles in journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine and Medical Care.