I have been honored to serve five years in the federal government at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Director of the National Center for Health Marketing. We accomplished a great deal with limited resources in a short period of time. I am proud to observe that many other federal agencies and non-governmental [...]
I hope many of the readers of this blog were able to attend the National Conference for Health Communication, Marketing and Media, held in Atlanta a few weeks ago. This was our third conference, which brought together more than 1,000 professionals in health and risk communication, social marketing, ehealth, media relations, new media, and many [...]
The recent launch of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 2009 Flu Prevention Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest reminded us how important a role health and risk communications play in responding to outbreaks and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. For those who haven’t heard about the PSA contest, HHS has invited the public [...]
The CDC has recognized the fluoridation of drinking water as one of ten great public health achievements of the twentieth century. Since its introduction into water supplies following WWII, water fluoridation has helped improve the quality of life in the United States by reducing pain and suffering related to tooth decay, time lost from school [...]
Everyone knows that health communication and marketing can raise awareness about health issues and promote prevention behaviors. But did you know that health communication and social media marketing plays a critical role in responding to outbreaks? Right now, CDC is participating in a unique, interagency collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [...]
In reviewing the work of health marketing at CDC last year, I am extremely proud of the amazing things we achieved. If one word were required to sum up 2008, that word would have to be busy! In 2008, we created and launched CDC-TV, an online series of direct-to-consumer health videos. We posted exciting and [...]
I got my flu vaccination. Have you gotten yours? If you haven’t, it’s not too late to prevent getting the flu. In fact, that’s the main message of National Influenza Vaccination Week, which is taking place this week, December 8-14, 2008. While flu season in the United States generally runs from October through May, people [...]
This week, I’m proud to mention a recent success in disseminating a much needed CDC health message at one of our nation’s most prestigious museums, the Smithsonian. The original artwork from the Eagle Books series developed for children by CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation will be exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American [...]
Wikipedia describes a social network as “a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission, or airline routes. The resulting structures are often [...]
Health Literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions, as defined by the National Library of Medicine and as used in Healthy People 2010. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), more than 77 [...]