communication

Words matter. Even more in public health policies

Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 16:25

Policy facts

The editorial entitled Dangerous words published on The Lancet starts stating that “Medicine is underpinned by both art and science. Art that relies upon strong therapeutic relationships with patients and populations. And science that brings statistical rigour to clinical and public health practice”. This statement introduces the decision of Trump administration to ban words like health equity, vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based from government documents for the US$7 billion budget discussions about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Target: 
Decision Makers, Government and Public Health
Topic: 
Policy
Tags: 
ethics, communication, science-in-society

Questions and answers: Health mediation in Bulgaria

Dilyana Dilkova – Member of the Managing Board, National Network of Health Mediators; d.dilkova@gmail.com

Country: 
Bulgaria
Target: 
Citizens, Decision Makers, Government and Public Health, Healthcare Professionals
Topic: 
Human Rights, Local Activities, Vaccination
Tags: 
best practice, Vaccine, communication, Roma

The role of patients’ and consumers’ associations in facing misinformation online

October 16, 2017

The internet and social media era is both a great and a hard time to be an empowered patient or citizen. Every day everyone is overwhelmed by information, but also by misinformation. Discerning between the two is not so easy, according to Dennis Costello, Web Communications Senior Manager & RareConnect Leader at EURORDIS (Rare Diseases Europe). Best practices should be adopted by creators of contents and technical tools can further help in selecting them, but patients’ and consumers’ associations have a leading role in this, guiding the public so that they can make better decisions for themselves and their family.

Target: 
Citizens, Government and Public Health
Topic: 
Social Media, Stakeholders
Tags: 
Video, communication, Best practices

Beyond the expert

Monday, May 29, 2017 - 11:45

Some things just do not want to die. In public health, anti-vaccination movements keep sizzling debates, just as they did in the XIX century. At the same time,  the “deficit model” of science communication – the myth that the “public” is just ignorant and that it would support science, if spoon-fed information from the ivory tower – still haunts the relationship between health, science and the community, despite having been repeatedly debunked. The two zombies are more related than one could believe. Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination movements grow in the cracks between trust and knowledge, and these are the fault lines that communication should heal – or rip apart, if it fails.

Target: 
Citizens, Decision Makers, Government and Public Health
Topic: 
Media, Prevention, Social Media, Stakeholders, Vaccination
Tags: 
Vaccine, Vaccine hesitancy, hesitant parents, communication, public health communication, science and society, science-in-society, Science communication

Risk Communication practice and perspective in contrast to WHO outbreak communication guidelines

​Abraham T. Eur J Public Health. 2013 Oct 1;23(1).

Post SARS, the WHO and other organizations charged with public health in different parts of the world began to focus on the task of refining emergency risk communication strategies and principles. Based on the experience of communication during SARS, as well as earlier infectious diseases such as Nipah and Ebola, the WHO identified five critical best practices for effective outbreak communication.

Link to full text

Target: 
Citizens, Government and Public Health
Topic: 
Policy, Prevention, Stakeholders
Tags: 
outbreak, communication

Vaccination and trust - How concerns arise and the role of communication in mitigating crises

WHO. 2017. Vaccination and trust – How concerns arise and the role of communication in mitigating crises.

Target: 
Citizens, Government and Public Health, Healthcare Professionals
Topic: 
Stakeholders, Vaccination
Tags: 
WHO, Vaccination, trust, communication

Science and Society Action Plan

European Commission, 2002. Science and Society Action Plan

Target: 
Citizens, Decision Makers, Government and Public Health, Healthcare Professionals
Topic: 
Media
Tags: 
European Commission, science, communication, media, science-in-society

Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda.

Target: 
Citizens, Decision Makers, Government and Public Health, Healthcare Professionals
Topic: 
Media
Tags: 
science, communication, media, science-in-society

A short, animated history of humans, germs and pandemics

Monday, March 27, 2017 - 08:55

How many ways are there to communicate science in society today? New and promising communication opportunities are rising fast, thanks to different media: web, social networks, graphic journalism like the webcomic strip dedicated to the potential public health issue represented by Zika during the Olympic Games in Brazil 2016 and even a board game like Pandemic Legacy.

Target: 
Citizens, Healthcare Professionals, School and Education
Topic: 
Epidemiology, Media
Tags: 
communication

Can we make science communication more scientific?

Monday, March 6, 2017 - 15:07

Effective science communication, especially when engaging with genuine two-way discussions with audiences, is quite a complex issue, and far from simple to study. Much of what works and what doesn’t is highly dependent on contingent factors, from what specifically is being communicated, to the social dynamics around the issues, to the political context in which the engagement occurs. This makes deriving general insights and lessons that can be applied across the board particularly challenging.

Target: 
Citizens, Healthcare Professionals, School and Education
Topic: 
Media, Social Media, Stakeholders
Tags: 
communication, science-in-society, science

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