Like some of my colleagues, I subscribe to a few communication research journals. I’m also fairly fresh (1.5 yr) from grad school. The big trend right now is “health communication.” It is so big that UB deliberately hired a professor that does only health comm research and they now offer classes to grads and undergrads in health comm.

So what are they looking at? How do doctors and patients communication, how effective are different media messages, (think the Truth campaigns), what can make messages more effective, technology adoption of doctors, patient perception of self, use of health care, and so much more.

I personally can’t help but wonder where this new branch called health communication is going to go. Will the research actually be applied to change the relationship we have with our doctors? Will it be another passing fad, as seems to be the trend with different sections of communication research. In today, gone tomorrow. What are your thoughts? Can this be beneficial? How?

S. Whitehead