Health Communication and the New Media

Special Issue Editor Pamela Whitten, Michigan State University

Deadline for submission of manuscripts: December 15, 2000

JCMC is requesting submissions for a special issue on health and medicine in the new media. Broadly defined, new media encompasses communication technologies that have altered health practices both at the provider (physician, nurse, etc.) and/or patient level. Authors are encouraged to think broadly in regard to topics. Sample topics include:

The use of new media (e.g. Internet, CDRom) in health campaigns. Are health messages delivered in new media having more of an impact than traditional health campaigns.? At what level?

The use of the Internet to disseminate health information or provide health-related services.

The impact new communication technologies have on provider-patient communication. This includes the various e-mail consultations currently taking place in clinical care. This may also include the impact of decision-making software.

The ethical and legal issues surrounding the implementation of new media in health care. This includes privacy issues of medical documents, or licensing issues for those physicians providing health services outside of their licensed state.

Changes in organizational communication of health care facilities upon the implementation of new communication technologies.

The delivery of health-related services to rural and inner city areas via mediated communication tools.

Natural and experimental research on health applications of new media. This includes digitization of x-rays in radiology and physician-physician consultations.

Comparison and contrast of mediated communication tools to deliver health ranging from synchronous videoconferencing to store and forward data transmission.

The use of new media to provide educational events (e.g., CME, CNE, distance education) for health professionals.

Please e-mail your submission to Pamela Whitten at pwhitten@msu.edu along with an additional, separate notice describing in short (1) the submitted article, (2) the format(s) used in its presentation, and (3) providing brief bios, e-mail and mailing addresses for author(s). Binary components (graphics, sound files, etc.) may be sent as attachments to email. At present, preferred formats for submission are HTML, MS-Word or plain ASCII text. Zipped archives containing all files are especially preferred.