[Ed Note: This is the latest in a series of posts focusing on the development of Healthy People 2020. The development process for the nation’s health objectives took another step forward last week with the Healthy People 2020 Academic Stakeholders Workshop, co-sponsored by the APTR and ODPHP. Among its stated purposes were to:
- Discuss ways in which Healthy People is useful in academic settings and beyond, including for Continuing Education, and for facilitation of research and health communication.
- Determine possible roles for the academic community in the development and/or dissemination of HP 2020.
- Discuss criteria for selecting HP2020 objectives.
Gary L. Kreps, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Communication and the Eileen and Steve Mandell Professor of Health Communication delivered the luncheon presentation Health Communication & Informatics in Healthy People 2020. Here are some of his main points.]
Health communication and informatics are key elements for assuring the delivery of quality health care and promoting public health. Some of the specific areas where we see these contributions as being vital are in how people seek health care and how that care is delivered across the continuum of care from prevention to detection, diagnosis and treatment through survivorship and end-of-life. Other critical aspects of improving our Nation’s health where health communication and informatics play major roles are in identifying the health needs of people and communities, providing health education and programs to meet those needs, influencing health behaviors, managing the health care system and establishing health policies and practice standards.
Reducing health disparities is one of the goals of Healthy People. Here we see that health communication and informatics can help us focus on key determinants of these disparities such as individual behaviors (for example, promoting personalized care), the social environment (reaching and influencing at-risk groups; encouraging and facilitating consultation and collaboration), the physical environment (monitoring and sharing health data), biological and genetic factors (tracking bio-markers to guide care), health services (reducing medical errors), and social inequalities (increasing access to information; providing support when and where it is needed; and empowering consumer participation).
In thinking about how health communication and informatics can inform the development and achievement of Healthy People 2020 goals and objectives, here are some illustrative examples drawn from progress in these fields over the past decade:
- Power of distributed networks for gathering, sharing, merging, mining and reporting health data
- Explosion in consumer-centric health communication strategies such as social marketing and advances in social media
- Rise and popularity of digital communities based on shared interests (social network sites)
- Advances in evidence-based health communication, marketing, and health literacy practices
- Advances in culturally-sensitive health communication
- Expansion of entertainment education
- Lessons learned from responding to public health crises
Healthy People 2020 can not only benefit from our work in these areas, but should also serve as a catalyst for their widespread use in addressing disease prevention and health promotion objectives across the board. One of the most important areas where HP2020 might focus is to promote the use of health communication and informatics interventions that are evidence-based, collaborative in nature, strategically designed, appropriate for the intended audiences, adaptive to changing situations, and consistent and reinforcing across multiple messages and channels. Healthy People should also support the adoption and expansion of health informatics across public health practice. In particular, HP2020 objectives can address electronic health records that collect, store and manage information; interoperable health information technologies; electronic patient management tools; population health technologies and interventions; tools to exchange data and support community care; disease surveillance technologies; telehealth systems to monitor and deliver remote care; patient/provider decision support tools; and health administration support tools.
And while the past decade has seen the emergence of a number of centers for health communication and informatics research across the country, the needs are far greater than the resources allocated to them so far. We need to continue to expand our knowledge base and test new strategies, models and tools. We then must translate and disseminate this knowledge and experience through relevant health information and best practices intended for at-risk audiences and other priority groups. Some of the priority research needs HP2020 should highlight include:
- Collaboration in health care and health promotion
- Informed and cooperative decision-making
- Understanding and responding to health risks
- Comforting communication and providing social support
- Media influences on lifestyles and norms
- Influences of technologies on health behavior
- Customized media/messages and behavior
If we incorporate health communication and informatics into HP2020 in ways such as I have outlined, we can offer much to improve the health of our nation. The challenge for our field will be living up to our promise.
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