Good Healthcare Communications Vital in a World of Competing Authorities
By Peter Boyes
One of our defining
characteristics as a species is the nature of our communications with each
other. How effectively we communicate is central to our societies. It’s at the
core of how we learn, work and play. But there is one arena in which the
quality of communication is vital and that is healthcare.
When it comes to
communications about healthcare we’re talking about situations where people
feel particularly vulnerable and afraid. Good communication is essential to
deliver safe, effective, informed care but it’s a field in which advances in
information technology and the internet are making it harder paradoxically to
do it well surrounded as we are by a host of competing authorities.
It’s tempting to blame
the scientists for doing a such poor job of communicating science to the public
and countering the myths about healthcare. I’ve met a lot of scientists and
medical experts in my career and generally communications is not their key
strength. But by and large the public doesn't learn about science from
scientists or medicine from doctors. Scientific, and this includes healthcare
information, is mostly transmitted by word of mouth and a host of other non-experts
competing authorities including celebrities, teachers, journalists, the authors
of pot boilers and, yes, PR people.
There is no doubt we
do need to do healthcare communications better. There is a lot of ‘stuff’ out
there. Our audiences are becoming less
able to understand information about healthcare at a time when we are awash in
raw data from an explosion of media through online access.
In the most
technologically advanced western society literacy in science is falling. You
might assume that a country that can journey into outer space at will and
dominates inner space through Silicone Valley would be at the forefront of
scientific understanding. However, the USA has now slipped to 24th among
developed nations on the OECD 2012 Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA), which ranks the science literacy of 15-year olds.
This at a time when the
proliferation of anti-science conspiracy theories is affecting the health and
lives of millions. One example is the anti-vaccination movement, an irrational
trend of mistrust of vaccines, or their ingredients. Its followers pick
and choose bits and pieces of ‘evidence’ to claim vaccination causes a range of
illnesses, which current scientific research has not yet fully determined.
People have forgotten
that vaccine-preventable diseases have ravaged humanity throughout history. Only
in very recent times have vaccines changed this significantly. Most Western
societies barely remember the time when diseases such as mumps, measles, smallpox
and polio were everyday and often deadly. Yet we are on the verge of allowing
some of these diseases to reemerge by failing to communicate the benefits effectively.
The UK and New Zealand both rank much higher on the PISA list for science
literacy (12th and 6th) and yet both have also seen
recent measles outbreaks linked to falling vaccination levels caused by
ill-informed anti-science debate.
Vaccination levels have
fallen in New Zealand, the UK and the US following this often one-sided publicity
about vaccine safety and possible side-effects. Among these discredited
allegations is one that vaccines cause illnesses such as autism. In spite of
the science countering this some alternative healthcare practitioners and
prominent celebrities have continued to speak out about the supposed danger of
vaccines. Measles can kill children yet people are still given media time to
claim that vaccination is more of a danger.
We don’t need to look
very far back to see how anti-science positions and a failure to communicate
health messages effectively can lead to death and suffering for millions of people.
For years many jursidictions refused to accept the scientific evidence that the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS and so did not provide
pharmaceutical treatment to infected people.
Some estimates put the
death toll cause by HIV denial at 300,000 people in South Africa alone, with
hundreds of thousands more elsewhere. And that damage continues. Disinformation
and poor communication about HIV and AIDS continues in many parts of the world
with enduring resistance to reducing the spread by advocating for the use of condoms.
Much marketing
communications of branded health care products or related benefits promotes its
own agenda by undermining the basic scientific method so that our publics no
longer understand that systematic logical investigation (science) is the best
system we have for gaining knowledge.
Instead the makers of
collagen capsules for a wrinkle free face, or powdered deer velvet purveyors
for the relief of rheumatic pain, or mineral water packagers and brands
promising cures for baldness, better milk, honey, or fat free alternatives, highjack
or distort science to suit their own stories.
It leaves us with a
public ready to believe all sorts of nonsense. Not just that a snazzy package
will make the contents better for you. According to a much quoted 2005 Gallup
poll about a quarter of the people surveyed in the USA, Canada and the UK believed
that astrology has a real effect on their lives and communication with the dead
was an actuality.
People forget facts and need reminding regularly not just about measles and
vaccination and HIV and condoms but about the importance and relevance of
science itself so that they can come to an informed understanding of their
health care needs. But in order for them to do that people need to be able to
think about the evidence scientifically so they don’t have to make a choice
between faiths in competing authorities.
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