Making a Personal Difference: Communications in Healthcare

Abstract

Health communications (HC) is a fast-growing, potent branch of communications. Previous studies on various health contexts, from diabetes to cancer, note the importance of HC in influencing positive clinical outcomes. Phase-I of a  longitudinal study extends understanding of the HC process. Using primarily bivariate correlations, it confirms positive associations between a major learning intervention (an HC PG certificate)on perceptions of a practitioner’s communications effectiveness as demonstrated by a five-indicator model of consequent communications behaviours. It also finds, via regression analysis, that practitioner knowledge transfer and return-on-investment reporting are the most influential behaviours.