A Call for More Rigor in Science and Health Communication

Abstract

Successful dissemination of scientific knowledge relies on the ability of the writer, speaker, and designer to provide information and data that is both available and accessible to the audience for whom it is intended. Scientific rigor, uniformly applied to the development of medicines, products, and devices must be applied, as well, to communications—spoken, written, posted, or displayed. Rigorous development and design protocols call for formative research data gathering, careful pilot testing with members of the intended audience, needed revisions, and rigorous assessments. Guidelines and tools developed for health literacy applications can be adopted and adapted for environmental health research and educational efforts in the design of questionnaires, instructions, education and report back materials, as well as for public discourse.

Building smart brands through online and artificial intelligence tools: A quantitative analysis about the best hospitals in Spain

“…When developing this content, some hospitals resort to different disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology or philosophy (Kreps, 2020). This way, they produce a high-quality content that subsequently media companies can use for different purposes, such as health education campaigns (Rudd, 2022). On the other hand, thanks to social media and mobile apps, hospital's employees can interact with media companies in an easier way and become opinion leaders (Medina et al, 2021).…”

Can ChatGPT improve communication in hospitals?

“…By implementing external, internal, and interpersonal communication initiatives, hospitals promote health education, reinforce patients' skills in health literacy, and advance the organizations' brand (Ancker;Grossman;Benda, 2020). However, such implementation requires hospitals to develop their own patient education materials, directives, and forms (Rudd, 2022), as well as establish consistent plans that include research methodologies, objectives, strategies, messages, and evaluation systems (Zhao, 2021). To efficiently achieve their health education goals, these organizations assign a budget for such activities (Mackert et al, 2021) and recruit experts able to find synergies among patients' needs, hospitals' health education objectives, and public health authorities' requirements (Finset et al, 2020).…”

“…Using ICT platforms, healthcare professionals can quickly provide information and monitor patients' medical outcomes (Shieh et al, 2020), which positively contributes to reinforcing collective making-decisions processes among patients and doctors (Adapa et al, 2020). However, use of these portals introduces challenges to doctors who must write information that adheres to the profession's scientific rigor, allowing patients to make decisions (Rudd, 2022), while at the same time, adapting it to different formats available in these portals, such as reports, chats, leaflets, newsletters, or booklets (Tong et al, 2021). To efficiently overcome these challenges, hospitals need to train doctors on multidimensional skills (Farsi, 2021) and help them to balance medical principles (transparency, ethics, accuracy, patients' rights) and digital health tools (Barredo-Ibáñez et al, 2021).…”

The Pursuit of Scientific Rigor and Definitional Clarity in Health Literacy Research

“…One of her most recent articles called for more rigor in science and health communication ( Rudd, 2022 ). She made the important distinction between information that is available and information that is accessible.…”

“…While there is an abundance of health information readily available to the public, the high literacy demands of much of that information makes it inaccessible to large segments of the public. She noted that information that is not accessible to the lay public “cannot build knowledge, but will, instead, inhibit use of provided information and subsequent action” ( Rudd, 2022 , p. 1). She argued that we must be scientific in our approach to the preparation of health materials; we must be informed by the relevant literature, methods, and protocols from a range of disciplines, including health communication and health education.…”