Abstract
Health authorities, hospitals, commercial enterprises, and mass media all deliver health and medical communication in different forms. With such a vast amount of biomedical and clinical information available, any action to ensure the spread of clinically relevant news items is welcome. This paper tries to define a new role for health science librarians in improving medical communication and reporting. Literature relating to the health and medical reporting is analysed to identify major difficulties encountered by health communicators. There are two areas where health science librarians can develop new roles in health communication: (i) supporting journalists and health communicators in selecting sources and understanding scientific papers, and (ii) directly translating scientific information into news items, supplying a list of products in this direction (i.e. targeted newsletters, media releases, news items). New skills and competencies needed to cope with the new roles are described in detail in a suggested academic curriculum for health communicators. A better understanding of the mass media's needs can provide much needed support in the field of health communication.
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