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.
The 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 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 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 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.
Read MoreGiven the power of the bully pulpit, the extraordinary persuasiveness of the media, and the proven efficacy of the flu vaccine, it’s surprising how little U.S. presidents have publicly communicated and led by example on this issue.
Read MoreWHO should create a second website devoted to topics of personal health and wellness, as opposed to the broader, global health topics of its current site.
Read MoreUpdates to earlier posts on the UN Secretary General, CVS and Taget’s ClearRX system, Apple’s ResearchKit, and a look at who’s engaging and who’s engaged on social media.
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During the Presidential debates there was slight reference to healthcare in the US and no mention at all of global health issues.
Read MoreLike all of his or her predecessors, the next Secretary General of the UN will have little to no significant experience in global health. Is this a problem or a missed opportunity?
Read MoreIs it a realistic goal to vaccinate every child on Earth, from birth - 19, for 15 deadly and disabling diseases? A back-of-the-envelope calculation yields a surprising answer.
Read MoreThe NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci is without question a remarkable researcher and administrator…but as a health communicator, he has few peers.
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