Health Communication

Catalog description

This course surveys the multidimensional processes used to create, maintain, and transform complex scientific information into everyday healthcare practices. A major emphasis is on the processes and complexities of communicating health information in a variety of settings (in hospitals, families, insurance companies, policy organizations, etc.) and through different channels (face-to-face, in medical records, through the mass media, etc.). We will study the verbal and non-verbal communication behaviors of providers, patients, families, insurers, and others in healthcare contexts, as well as health-related messages in the mass media, in order to understand effective and problematic communication about illness and health.