Healthy People Health Communication and Health IT Topic Area

Overview

What is the Healthy People Health Communication and Health IT topic area?

Healthy People sets science-based, 10-year, national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 calls on policymakers, businesses, health and public health professionals, and the general public to use health communication strategies and health information technology (IT) to improve population health outcomes and health care quality and to achieve health equity.

Why is improving health communication and health IT an important part of Healthy People 2020?

By strategically combining health IT tools and effective health communication processes, there is the potential to:

• Improve health care quality and safety.
• Increase the efficiency of health care and public health service delivery.
• Improve the public health information infrastructure.
• Support care in the community and at home.
• Facilitate clinical and consumer decision-making.
• Build health skills and knowledge.

Visit the reports and research and related resources in this section to see how the Nation is working to achieve the Healthy People Health Communication and Health IT goals and objectives.

View the Healthy People 2020 Web site to view the Health Communication and Health IT:

• Topic area overview
• Objectives
• Interventions and resources.

What's new in Healthy People 2020?

Healthy People 2020 has:

• A renewed focus on identifying, measuring, tracking, and reducing health disparities through a determinants of health approach
• Program planning and implementation tools for public health professionals, including funding resources
• New ways to stay connected
• Evidence-based interventions and resources for topic areas.

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Reports & Research

Reports and Research on Healthy People 2010

• Health Communication Chapter — Focus Area 11 (2000) This chapter in Healthy People 2010 provides an overview of health communication and 10-year national objectives.
• Progress Review — Health Communication (2003) The review provides data trends as of 2003 for each of the Healthy People 2010 Health Communication objectives.
• Communicating Health: Priorities and Strategies for Progress (2003) This report details action steps to achieve the Health Communication objectives in Healthy People 2010.
• Midcourse Review — Focus Area 11: Health Communication (2006) The Midcourse Review provides data on the progress made toward achieving the Healthy People 2010 Health Communication objectives, updates objectives, and discusses emerging issues.
• Report on Objective 11–4: Estimating the Proportion of Health-related Web Sites Disclosing Information That Can Be Used To Assess Their Quality (2006) This study by ODPHP analyzed the quality of health information on the Web based on six requirements. None of the 102 sites reviewed met all six criteria, and only six complied with more than three criteria.
• Progress Review — Health Communication (2007) The review provides data trends as of 2007 for each of the Healthy People 2010 Health Communication objectives.

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Related Resources

• HealthyPeople.gov This site, designed around the launch of Healthy People 2020, provides 10-year national health objectives in more than 40 topic areas, as well as tools, resources, and opportunities to get involved.
• 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.
• CDC Wonder DATA 2010 — Focus Areas This Healthy People 2010 database provides data to review progress toward each objective.
• GoHealthyPeople Twitter Healthy People 2020’s Twitter account provides the latest news about Healthy People 2020.
• Dynamic Literature Search by Health Communication Objective Users can conduct a search based on a Healthy People 2010 objective to find the latest research articles.

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