A 10-Year Retrospective of Research in New Technologies for Health Communication

The use of new technologies is growing in virtually all areas of health communication, including consumer, patient, and provider education; decision and social support; health promotion; knowledge transfer; and the delivery of services. Many applications have the potential to make major contributions in meeting the needs of an unhealthy and aging population.

Key questions confronting health communication research reflect long-standing concerns about effects of new technology on health knowledge, health behavior, health delivery, and health outcomes. A review of the literature provides useful insights about how technology has been used to communicate health messages and their associated outcomes. Focus is placed on effective health communication, lessons learned, and implications for the future.

During the next 10 years, the application of new technologies in health communication will be enriched by a tradition that has evolved to reflect a more dynamic connection between health users and providers. Future applications have the potential to provide cost-effective communications tailored to large numbers of individuals and achieve positive health outcomes. Consequently, we should strive to answer research questions about tailoring communication content, the channel used to deliver the message, and evaluation models that are best suited for examining outcomes of multicomponent tailored, technology-based communication.

Notes

There are several fine articles that discuss issues related to credibility, accuracy and reliability, and access in greater detail than space limitations permit in the current article. Specifically, the reader should review Cashen et al. (2004); Chang et al. (2004); Craigie et al. (2002); Eng (2001); Griffiths and Christensen (2000); Impicciatore et al. (1997), Jadad and Gagliardi (1998), and Kreps (2005).