Fünf Fragen an... Prof. Dr. Gary Kreps
1. How did you get to the research field of health communication?
As a child, my mother worked out of our home as a physical therapist with patients who were coping with debilitating physical problems, such as polio, muscular dystrophy, paralysis, and amputated limbs. I observed how my mother used her interpersonal communication with these patients to therapeutically motivate, support, and encourage them. The way she communicated with her patients really helped them. This made a big impression on me about the power of communication to promote health and well being.
Later, as an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I became interested in studying interpersonal, intercultural, and organizational communication. Although there were no courses being offered in health communication at this time (there really was no field of health communication yet), I applied what I learned in other communication courses to understanding the communication demands of health care and health promotion. The health care system was a perfect area of application for me in these courses. I found hospitals to be fascinating sites for communication because of the demands to share timely and accurate health information to support health care decision making, the powerful communication relationships that developed between health care participants, the need for collaboration between health care team members in the delivery of care and promotion of health, the powerful cultural influences on health beliefs and behaviors, and the complex bureaucracies that had to be negotiated within health care delivery systems. Luckily, the field of health communication was just being started as I was finishing my undergraduate studies and it was a perfect fit for my interests.
As a Masters level graduate student at the University of Colorado I began to attend International Communication Association conferences where a new health communication interest group was being formed. I participated in the development of this interest group and met scholars who were interested in communication and health. Together we began to develop this new field of study. Through my involvement with other communication scholars, I became increasingly interested in the use of media to deliver health information, particularly the uses of entertainment and new computer-based information systems. I became convinced that effective use of communication was crucial to achieving desired health outcomes, yet it appeared that communication practices in health care and health promotion were often not very effective. This seemed to be an opportunity for me to conduct research to help improve health communication practices and policies. Health communication was a research area where I could really make a difference to help reduce pain and suffering, and perhaps even help save lives.
While I pursued my doctoral studies at the University of Southern California I was given the opportunity to teach an interpersonal communication course for nurses at a large medical center through an extension education program sponsored by Chapman College. On the first day of class I asked the nurses to tell me what kinds of interpersonal communication issues they faced in their jobs. I was overwhelmed by how many complicated communication issues they were struggling with in the delivery of health care and we spent the bulk of that course applying communication theory and research to addressing the issues they confronted in the health care system. Based on that experience, I developed an undergraduate course in health communication and was given the opportunity to teach it at USC. This course was introduced in 1977 and may have been one of the first health communication courses ever offered. (I believe this course is still being offered at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC).
After completing my doctoral studies I began introducing new courses in health communication at each university that I taught at, including Purdue University Calumet, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Rutgers University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Hofstra University, and now at George Mason University, where we offer a full slate of courses and programs in health communication at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels. I also began developing an active program of health communication research and writing.
I wrote my first book, Health Communication: Theory and Practice, with my dear colleague Barbara Thornton, in the early 1980's. This was probably one of the first books written about health communication. Based largely upon recognition I received from that book, I was invited in the mid 1980's to spend a year helping the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to evaluate their health information programs, particularly the institute's development and implementation of the Physician Data Query online cancer treatment information system. I learned a great deal about health research, public health, and public policy while working at the National Cancer Institute and met many influential health scholars who I continued to work with, even after leaving the NCI. Later in my career, in the late 1990's, I was invited to rejoin the NCI to establish and direct their new Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB). During the five years that I served as Chief of the HCIRB I helped to initiate many large-scale health communication research programs and worked with many leading scholars from a range of health-related disciplines. I continue to work on many health communication research projects at George Mason University where I chair the Department of Communication and direct the Center for Health and Risk Communication.
I have very broad interests in health communication, ranging from the study of communication in the delivery of care, the promotion of health through health campaigns, the preparation and response to serious health risks and calamities, and to the use of new information technologies (ehealth) in health care and health promotion. Perhaps I am most interested in meeting the health communication needs of vulnerable populations, such as elderly consumers, those people who confront serious debilitating and chronic health care problems, many immigrant populations, as well as those who are poor and disenfranchised members of society. I am very interested in promoting equity in the delivery of care, improving the quality of care, promoting disease prevention and early detection, encouraging health promotion, and the development of engaging health communication interventions to educate consumers and providers and to influence health behaviors.
I am currently involved in several research projects. I am coordinating a large multi-organization community based health literacy initiative to improve the delivery of health information to vulnerable populations. It is called the Fairfax County Health Literacy Initiative (FCHLI). The FCHLI is a collaborative consortium of local organizations, including educational systems, health care delivery centers, government agencies (such as public libraries, health departments, nursing homes, recreation centers, and social service agencies), and non-profit organizations. I am also working to develop two evidence-based health communication campaigns, one to promote minority group participation in HIV/AIDS vaccine research (in participation with the National Minority AIDS Council), and the other to educate inner city women about ovarian cancer (in participation with the DC Cancer Consortium). I am also directing a large-scale multi-phase field research program about communication and medication adherence. My research team and I are examining the specific concerns consumers confronting chronic diseases have concerning their prescribed medications, and based upon those concerns we are developing, implementing, and testing evidence based communication strategies for providing relevant information to address their concerns and to motivate adherence with prescribed medications. I am working with a nursing colleague on a study concerning the communication issues that influence effective palliative care for consumers facing serious health problems. I am also participating in the Breast Health Global Initiative to develop communication interventions to help reduce death and suffering from breast cancer in low resource nations around the world.
Health communication examines the powerful roles performed by human and mediated communication in the delivery of health care and promotion of health. It is a very applied field of study that helps identify and implement effective health care, health education, and public health practices and policies. It is also a growing area for education within educational systems for communication, public health, health administration, health education, and other health care professional (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, etc.) students. There is also growing demand for in-service training in health communication for practicing health care professionals and for health care consumers.
A major change for me has been the increasing recognition and respect for health communication research and applications within the health care system. When I first began studying health communication in the 70's there was little interest or respect for this kind of work. Health care administrators, medical school deans, and others would wonder why it was important to study health communication. They seemed surprised by the term health communication, as though health and communication has little to do with one another. This has really changed now. There is broad recognition and interest in the role of communication in health care and health promotion. For example, the well-respected Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science has conducted several coordinated reviews and published important volumes concerning communication and health. The US Department of Health and Human Services introduced a chapter on health communication in its influential Healthy People 2010 publication and is currently integrating health communication into every chapter of the forthcoming Healthy People 2020 publication. The accrediting bodies for medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and other health professional educational programs all now require health communication training and competency testing for all students. Health care delivery systems regularly offer health communication continuing professional education programs for their employees. Large and influential government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have established health communication research divisions and are funding large-scale health communication research programs. The major pharmaceutical corporations have established health and risk communication advisory boards and are also funding health communication research. Medical schools, nursing schools, and schools of public health are recruiting and hiring health communication scholars to join their faculties. Important international health promotion organizations, such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation are all working on health communication research, education, and policy programs. It is most heartening for me to see the increased recognition, respect, and demand for health communication research and education that has developed over the last 25 years. It has provided me with many interesting opportunities to work with people from around the world on important health communication projects.
I am very interested in conducting research to identify evidence-based strategies for developing strategic communication interventions for reducing disparities and increasing the quality of health outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Gary Kreps
George Mason University
Communication Department
4400 University Drive, MS 3D6
Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
E-mail: gkreps@gmu.edu