Expert Consensus on the Integration and Innovation of Health Communication and Medical Communication

Abstract

With a development of nearly half a century, the discipline of health communication has faced some major problems, which have largely caused the chaos of health information/misinformation dissemination today. As a response, medical communication draws nutrients from the fields of medicine, philosophy of science, communication and other disciplines, and gradually develops an innovative extension of the field of health communication. What is the research content of medical communication? And what is the difference between medical communication and general health communication? This paper attempts to answer those questions. More importantly, the experts from medical and communication fields proposed the Expert Consensus on the Integration and Innovation of Health Communication and Medical Communication, highlighting the slogan of “Reducing the burden of medical professionals with Communication”, which symbolized that both sides have reached a consensus on the integration and innovation of these two fields.