Digital Health Communication Common Agenda 2.0: An Updated Consensus for the Public and Private Sectors to Advance Public Health

Abstract

Despite widespread use of the Internet and social media platforms by the public, there has been little organized exchange of information among the academic, government, and technology sectors about how digital communication technologies can be maximized to improve public health. The second Digital Health Promotion Executive Leadership Summit convened some of the world’s leading thinkers from across these sectors to revisit how communication technology and the evolving social media platforms can be utilized to improve both individual and population health. The Summit focused on digital intelligence, the spread of misinformation, online patient communities, censorship in social media, and emerging global legal frameworks. In addition, Summit participants had an opportunity to review the original “Common Agenda” that emerged and was published after the inaugural Summit and recommend updates regarding the uses of digital technology for advancing the goals of public health. This article reports the outcomes of the Summit discussions and presents the updates that were recommended by Summit participants as the Digital Health Communication Common Agenda 2.0. Several of the assertions underlying the original Common Agenda have been modified, and several new assertions have been added to reflect the recommendations. In addition, a corresponding set of principles and related actions—including a recommendation that an interagency panel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services be established to focus on digital health communication, with particular attention to social media—have been modified or supplemented.