Health Communication

Overview

What is health communication?

Health communication is the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that affect health. It links the fields of communication and health and is increasingly recognized as a necessary element of efforts to improve personal and public health.

Where do I start?

There are a number of tools and resources designed to help health professionals improve health communication, health literacy, and
e-Health—from National Health Observance toolkits to professional associations and Federal reports.

Use the tools and related resources in this section to learn more about research and best practices in the field of health communication.

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Tools

• Making Health Communication Programs Work (NCI’s Pink Book) The planning steps in this book can help make any health communication program work, regardless of size, topic, geographic span, intended audience, or budget.
• CDCynergy CDCynergy is a multimedia CD-ROM used for planning, managing, and evaluating public health communication programs. This innovative tool is used to guide and assist users in designing health communication interventions within a public health framework.
• National Health Observance Toolkits Health observances are special days, weeks, or months used to raise awareness of important health topics. The toolkit features one health observance each month and is full of information and ideas to engage the public in health promotion activities.
• National Health Observances Calendar The 2011 calendar features more than 175 National Health Observances with up-to-date information and outreach materials.
• Health Widgets A widget is an online tool that can be easily added to any Web site or blog. This page features health widgets focused on health promotion and sponsored by healthfinder.gov.
• Health e-Cards Individuals can find and send seasonal e-cards on a variety of health promotion and disease prevention topics.
• Healthfinder Twitter The healthfinder.gov Twitter account provides the latest health news and tips.
• GoHealthyPeople Twitter Users can get updates from Healthy People 2020’s Twitter account.
• Be Active Your Way Blog The purpose of the blog is to stimulate dialogue among professionals who work on physical activity promotion about how they can encourage Americans to get the physical activity they need based on the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
• Subscribe to healthfinder.gov’s e-News Individuals can sign up to get the latest health news, plus updates on new healthfinder.gov features.

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Related Resources

• healthfinder.gov This consumer-focused site provides easy-to-understand information, tips, and tools for staying healthy.
• Healthy People: Health Communication and Health IT Objectives Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the use, quality, and accessibility of health communication and health IT.
• Health Communication Programs and Offices at HHS
  • Office of Communications and Public Liaison, NIH
  • Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH
  • Health Communications Internship Program, NCI, NIH
  • Health Literacy at CDC
• Associations for Health Communication Professionals Professional associations can be an excellent way to network and stay informed on the latest best practices and research.
  • American Medical Writers Association
  • American Public Health Association
  • Association of Health Care Journalists
  • Coalition for Health Communication
  • International Communication Association
  • National Communication Association
  • Social Marketing Institute
  • Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)

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