Reaching a greater audience

Increasing the effectiveness of health communication globally

Following the Communicating Complex Health Messages (CCHM) panel discussion at the Summit, Forum Chair Professor Suzanne Suggs – PhD, Associate Professor of Social Marketing and Head of BeCHANGE Research Group, Institute for Public Communication at the Università della Svizzera Italiana – was invited to present the research she led at WISH in a keynote speech presented 17-19 November at the 3rd European Health Literacy Conference  in Brussels. The conference fostered the exchange between researchers, practitioners and policymakers regarding health literacy during the life course, from various perspectives. During her session, Professor Suggs distributed the WISH Complex Health Messages report to all 250 session attendees. This provided an opportunity not only to broaden the scope of the work but also to introduce a new audience to the WISH content and methodology.

Professor Suggs also joined the steering committee for End of Life Care at Imperial College London and is serving as a consultant for Coordinate My Care (CMC), a UK-based project that aims to address the need for integrated, coordinated, and quality care for patients in the UK. Finally, she was invited to serve on the Founding Steering Committee of the newly formed Society for Health Communication.

In addition, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has presented the policy recommendations and frameworks of the CCHM report to their National Focal Points for Communication (NFPs). A total of 28 reports were distributed to these NFPs to use the framework and ultimately increase the impact of health communication for the benefit of communities everywhere.