Rick Lesaar
The intersection of health and communications; on strategies to make global health and development efforts more effective and more widely and fully understood.
In 2016, Donald Trump proposed that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. lead a commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity, a stunningly bad idea that fortunately never came to fruition. In 2024, Trump is proposing an even broader commission while Kennedy wants a whole-sale take over and redirection of the National Institutes of Health. A look what all this communicates.
Read MoreThe scaffolding technique of communication –building and layering message upon message with the intent of evoking a progression of emotional responses– is highly effective and examples of this can be found everywhere, including, of course, relating to matters of health.
Read MoreCOVID is still with us and we’re still testing, so how good are the instructions that come with those tests?
Read MoreThough the circumstances are tragic, when the war ends Ukraine will have a unique opportunity to totally reimagine its healthcare infrastructure and delivery systems. This article suggests some ideas of what that might entail.
Read MoreWhat color you believe COVID is depends on where you live and what you know. For some people, perception is reality, but for some companies, leveraging that perception with an intent to deceive or defraud is illegal.
Read MoreThe Prescribing Information and Patient Information sheet that accompanies prescription drugs is so poorly designed that it's unlikely many people read it. A few simple changes might make it more readable and ultimately more useful, too.
Read MoreDC’s COVID vaccination sticker is a missed opportunity for public health communication. These communications are like a coral reef; accreted bit by tiny bit they can become something functional, effective, and beautiful. So pay close attention to the small stuff.
Read MoreAs the CDC’s new director, Rochelle Walensky will have an enormous job fighting the COVID epidemic.
A different –but intricately related– job will be restoring CDC’s scientific independence and public standing.
Here are four suggestions to help rehabilitate the agency’s image and reputation.
Read MoreIn the US, the COVID-19 crisis has shown that we need to rebuild not just public health and medicine, but the larger social fabric of which they’re a part. The scope of such an undertaking is enormous and the complexity increased by the many interconnections among institutions, attitudes, laws, and practices. Here’s an idea of how to think about this challenge.
Read MoreAmidst the COVID-19 outbreak, debunking conspiracy theories and teaching us all to think more critically has become a 2nd job for all health professionals. Here are 6 yardsticks we can all use to parse the lies and find the truth.
Read MoreHere are three essential truths about trust and some thoughts on what they mean for public health.
Communication is the most important component of trust.
The erosion of trust hampers all communication.
Trust is easily broken, but difficult to build or sustain.
A formula design can symbolically display the components of an effective communications campaigns and how they interrelate. This might be useful for teaching, guiding clients, and focusing your communications team.
Read MoreThe efficacy and safety of vaccines are facts. It makes no sense to be pro- or anti- a fact (—would anyone ever say they were pro- or anti- gravity?—), so it makes no sense to be anti-vax. And too often, the use of anti-vax compels the media to give it equal attention to a corresponding pro. Except that it isn’t equal and so shouldn’t be afforded that attention.
Read MoreWhether in words or diagrams explaining a chain of determinants or consequences can be a powerful way to communicate. You not only bolster your argument but you also arm your reader to do likewise as they then explain it to others.
Read MoreThe task of cataloging and unwinding all of the deliberate or misguided Trump Administration changes to the nation’s healthcare system could be aided by the 2016 Presidential Transition Briefing Books as well as the Cabinet Exit Memos. They provide a detailed picture of agencies and departments at the end of the Obama Administration.
Read MoreBeginning today and over the next two years, we should collectively assemble a comprehensive plan for the next American administration to restore the country’s public health system and its role in global health leadership. We should be creating the ‘Health Recovery Plan’ now rather than wait for a hectic transition period in 2020/2021.
Read MoreTo enhance the effectiveness of patient education and counseling, practitioners might adopt some of the techniques of advertising. These include frequent repetition of key messages, emphasizing benefits not just procedures, and associating success with persons well known and respected by the patient (a form of indirect endorsement).
Read MoreConsequences, not just facts and procedures, should be an essential part of most health communications. A redesigned nutritional food label is an intriguing example.
Read MoreThe field of Health Communications is broad and complex, not easily summarized in a chart or table. Please use this collection of cards showing the actor, audience, intent, and example of several of these methods to map out communications campaigns –in the field of health or otherwise.
Read MoreThe gist of a story can often be more memorable than the precision of a fact. Stories are often more easily repeated, and can have a longer life and a more lasting effect. So non-profits, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations profitably build stories into any appeal for funding or any effort to raise awareness of the organizations and/or their causes.
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