Public Health Communication

Designed for master’s level study, Public Health Communication: Critical Tools and Strategies for Advancing Public Health will prepare new graduates for any entry level position in public health policy/advocacy, health communication, health promotion, social marketing, or community health education. Filled with practical examples, the book is also a valuable resource for those preparing for the CPH or CHES exams. Students will learn core concepts for planning a communication framework as well key strategies for educating the public about health issues including understanding and reporting science, communicating for policy and advocacy, and health literacy and numeracy. The book thoroughly explores classic theories of persuasion in communication such as Extended Parallel Process Model, Inoculation, Sensation Value, and Cognitive Value. The most current forms of digital/multimedia/interactive channels of communication are examined. The last section of the book looks at some special contexts in health communication, such as patient-provider communication as well as risk/emergency communication.

Claudia Parvanta, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, and Director of the Florida Prevention Research Center, at the University of South Florida, Tampa, since January 2017. Between July 2005 and December 2016, she led the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia where her research emphasized health literacy and culturally competent health communication. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Parvanta headed the Division of Health Communication at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She was central to the agency’s communication response to the 9/11 attacks, anthrax, and SARS. Before government and academia, Dr. Parvanta worked at Porter Novelli, a global social issues communication company. Dr. Parvanta has designed, managed, or evaluated health and nutrition social marketing programs in more than 20 countries. She is the 2016 recipient of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Division of APHA’s Distinguished Career Award.

David E. Nelson, MD, MPH, currently heads up the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program. He previously spearheaded efforts to develop the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) for NCI, was the Acting Director of the Bureau of Smoking or Health, and directed the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for the CDC. He co-edited Essentials of Public Health Communication (JBL, 2011); with B. Hesse' published Making Data Talk (Oxford University Press, 2009), and was the lead author (with Brownson, Parvanta, and Remington) of Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners (APHA, 2002).

Richard N. Harner, MD, is a clinical neurologist with more than three decades of clinical, teaching, and research experience. He directed the Neurology Department at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and established the first center for the comprehensive medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy in the eastern United States. After 20 years, he moved to become Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, where he established a second epilepsy center and directed postgraduate neurology education. He has authored numerous scientific articles, does private consulting for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, and teaches as an Adjunct Professor in the Neuroscience Program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.