Interactive Case Studies in Health Communication

Interactive Case Studies in Health Communication allows students and faculty to explore real-life health communication behaviors through role-playing, interactive exercises, and examples that have been adapted from actual healthcare situations. The interactive format asks readers to assess the health communication and information exchange that occurs in the initial scenario of each chapter, then to answer questions about their observations and assessments. The student then has the opportunity to rewrite the scenario in order to enhance the interpersonal communication, relationship-building, and decision-making between the participants. An alternate scenario is also presented to provide readers with an example to compare to their rewrite. Interactive Case Studies in Health Communication covers a wide variety of health communication topics including nonverbal communication, family communication, telephone conversations, managed care, emotional issues, hostile patient or family members, the media s impact on provider-patient communication, intercultural communication and end-of-life conversations. This book also highlights the importance of interpersonal communication and relationship-building for information sharing and collaborative decision-making.

Michael P. Pagano, Ph.D., PA-C Emeritus
Professor, Department of Communication
Michael was born and raised in Oklahoma.  After serving as an Army corpsman in Vietnam, Michael became a Physician Assistant-Certified (PA-C).   He enjoyed the teaching role of being a PA and concurrently went to graduate school earning an MA in English and a Ph.D. in Communication with a focus on health communication.  He worked for 42 years, until he retired as a PA-C in 2019, in: Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, and Occupational Health settings in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Connecticut. Over the past 18 years at Fairfield, he has taught a wide variety of graduate courses in: health, organizational, and interpersonal communication. In addition, he has a wide-ranging health and organizational communication research agenda, including award-winning articles co-authored with Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies faculty.  His unique background has contributed to a breadth of publications including: 6 books on health communication, and #7 published in 2021, Understanding Health Care in America: Culture, Capitalism, & Communication. He has also published numerous book chapters and encyclopedia entries. At Fairfield University, he has served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the MA in Communication Program, as well as interim Director for the Health Studies Minor and Masters in Public Administration Program.  He is married, has 2 sons, 3 grandchildren, and whenever possible plays golf.