A busy summer and a new career adventure

Don’t let this long stretch of quiet from me fool you. I’ve been hard at work in the realm of health communication. I gave a couple webinars earlier this summer. The first was for the Principal Investigators Association on strategies for building an effective communication environment. The second was for the Association of Clinical Research Professionals on using communication theory to improve informed consent. The two webinars were a great opportunity for me to teach other clinical research professionals about the importance of communication and how it impacts wide-reaching aspects of our work lives.

Up next, I am preparing to collaborate with a new group on a project to improve how scientists and physicians communicate with lay audiences about risk. I am excited for this new opportunity to share the importance of high quality communication to promote understanding of both science and health care. I hope to make a significant contribution to this important area and maybe even learn something along the way.

The Communication Environment

I am planning a new, upcoming webinar on setting a positive tone for team communication by creating a supportive communication environment. A supportive communication environment is one in which all members feel free to raise ideas, believe their ideas and contributions are valued by the rest of the team, and understand that sometimes a team needs to change course in order to achieve their shared goals. On the other hand, a defensive communication environment is one in which members pursue hidden agendas, discount other team members' contributions and are so certain that their way is the right way that they are no longer to objectively assess realities facing the team. Ultimately, supportive communication environments are productive and able to achieve the team's goals, while defensive communication environments are destructive.

What do you want to know about setting a supportive communication environment in your research teams? What do you think I should discuss in this presentation?

Association of Clinical Research Professionals Global Conference

I am excited to be presenting next week at the Association of Clinical Research Professionals Global Conference in Houston, Texas. I am presenting on communication strategies for working with collaborators at multiple institutions. In addition to presenting, I am looking forward to attending sessions on research ethics and clinical research project management. And as always, I am looking forward to connecting with my fellow clinical research professionals.

If you are in Houston for the conference, stop by room 332 on Sunday and say hi. Maybe even stay and learn something about communication.

Testing health web sites

InformationWeek has an interesting slide show this week examining health information web sites. The accompanying article has some good questions that consumers should ask when seeking health information online. Among the questions consumers should ask: Who sponsored the research study or health information presented?

A great health communication resource from the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control has a number of great health communication resources designed to help professional communicators of all types share important health messages with the public. Among the resources in the Health Communication Science Digest, a monthly summary of emerging health communication research and innovation from across the country and across disciplines. There is a lot of great new research emerging in the field of health communication and all of us doing that research have the same ultimate goal, to better spread health messages to individuals and to the public. The CDC Health Communication Science Digest is definitely a site I will be keeping an eye on to keep tabs on the latest research to help us all reach that worthy goal.

Is it time to reconsider direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising?

Forbes Magazine featured an article last week from a former pharmaceutical executive who asks if it is time to reconsider direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising. The author claims that the purpose of the advertising was patient education, but the educational benefits may not be playing out, especially if consumers find the advertisements offensive or annoying. Also the long lists of potential side effects may make the messages meaningless to potential consumers. The advertisements have also carried risks and benefits for the drug companies, but it may be time to consider another approach.

The power of storytelling

My hometown newspaper The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran a story today about the power of storytelling for patients and physicians. Letting patients talk longer and tell their story reveals more detail to physicians that can help them make a diagnosis. But it's not just talking to a doctor. Patients hearing the stories of other patients also helps them to think more about their own symptoms. The story and the studies it cites demonstrate the importance of communication in health care, not just doctors talking to patients, but doctors listening to patients and patients listening to peers.

Doctors lying to their patients

The Seattle Times and other outlets reported on the results of a physician survey published in Health Affairs this week that asks doctors about if and when they lie to their patients. According to the article, " Nearly 20 percent said they hadn't fully disclosed a medical mistake for fear of being sued. And 1 in 10 of those surveyed said they'd told a patient something that wasn't true in the past year."

The survey results point to the importance open communication by both doctors and patients. Doctors may feel they are ultimately helping the patient by lying or omitting information. Given that, it is particularly important for patients to be very clear about what and how much information they want. It is also important for physicians to realize that in order for patients to play an active role in their health care, they need honest and open information from their doctor.

Recruiting for clinical trials

ACRP Wire had an interesting article this week about a new advertising campaign by Yale University, inviting people to be a part of clinical research by taking part in clinical trials. The "Help Us Discover" campaign seeks to inform the public about what it's like to be a part of clinical trials, and includes information about the safety of clinical trials and special efforts to recruit from minority groups. Clinical research is dependent on participation from volunteers, but there are a lot of misconceptions about the nature of clinical research. It will be interesting to see if Yale's broad reaching campaign increase recruiting success.

Using actors to help train medical students

Milwaukee NBC affiliate TMJ4 ran a story this week about the STAR program at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which uses local actors to help medical students prepare for future patients. The use of standardized patients isn't new, but it is nice to see a community perspective on a very effective and memorable medical student teaching tool

Celebrity health and endorsements

A lot has been written about Paula Deen this week. Deen is a Food Network chef known for her Southern cooking, which is often heavy in butter, cream and sugar. Deen announced this week that she was diagnosed three years ago with Type II Diabetes. This by itself perhaps did not raise a lot of eyebrows, though some commented that Deen could have helped a lot of people in the last 3 years by being open about her illness and modifying some of her recipes for her audience. But it's a medical condition and if Deen wants to keep that private, that's her prerogative. What did raise eyebrows was that she announced her condition and at the same time announced an endorsement deal with a pharmaceutical company that promotes a diabetes drug. This generated a lot of reaction about celebrity and responsibility.

Most of the arguments about this seem to stem from the fact that Type II diabetes is affected by an unhealthy diet and the effects of diabetes can by lessened with a healthy diet and exercise. So does Deen, a celebrity chef, have a responsibility to promote a healthy diet instead of a drug? Does she have a responsibility to her viewers to discuss how the foods she cooks may affect their health? Does the pharmaceutical endorsement change her responsibility? Or should we just let the celebrity chef be a chef?

A bald Barbie?

What started as an online petition is stating to make national headlines. Two women started a petition addressed to the Mattel company to create a bald Barbie, a toy they say will be a symbol of support for girls undergoing cancer treatment or who experience baldness for other reasons. Mattel has been non-committal, saying they receive numerous suggestions for new dolls. But what support of the petition perhaps points to is the strong desire that patients have to affirm and even normalize their experience, especially the experiences of young patients and their families. A doll may not seem like much, but it may carry great symbolic value to a child who doesn't feel normal.

Cancer by another name

A Discover Magazine article examines the fear that the word "cancer" raises and whether it might be reasonable to stop calling certain diseases cancer. Specifically, the author and researchers at Dartmouth contend that patients with very treatable cancers, that is, cancers that will not progress, overtreat their cancers because of the fear of cancer. The reason for this is perhaps in how people perceive risk, and how people manage their anxiety about risk. Cancer sounds scary,and people are inclined to treat it aggressively in order to manage their anxiety about the unknown and to feel a certain amount of control over a scary situation. But overtreatment carries its own medical risk and can increase patient anxiety, even when they are undergoing treatment to manage their anxiety over the disease.

It is an interesting question: would changing the name change the perception of risk?

Talking to children about genetic test results

Genetic screening presents a unique communication challenge, in that the results do not only affect the person being screened, but may also have implications for family members who share that person's genes. The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports on a recent study of how and what parents tell their children about screening results for the breast cancer gene. It's not surprising that typically children's reaction are in proportion to what they are told. But this study starts an important ongoing communication conversation that physicians, genetic counselors, and patients need to be aware of. Physicians and genetic counselors need to be aware that when they are counseling a patient, the words may get passed on to others. And patients need to consider what their family members want to know before discussing genetic tests.

Is this ad campaign too shocking?

The Washington Post On Parenting blog draws attention to a public health campaign in Georgia that is getting a lot of attention. The campaign uses stark interviews and images of obese children to draw attention to the childhood obesity epidemic. Some critics complain that the ads miss the mark, because they emphasize the bullying that accompanies being an obese child, rather than the serious health implications. Other critics think the ads are exploitative of the young children participating in them.

What do you think? Does this campaign miss the mark?