Health Communication: Strategies And Skills For A New Era

About Claudia ParvantaSarah Bass

Claudia Parvanta PhD is a Professor in the Department of Community and Family Health College of Public Health and Director of the Florida Prevention Research Center at the University of South Florida Tampa since January 2017. Between July 2005 and December 2016 she led the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia where her research emphasized health literacy and culturally competent health communication. From 2000 to 2005 Dr. Parvanta headed the Division of Health Communication at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She was central to the agencys communication response to the 9/11 attacks anthrax and SARS. Before government and academia Dr. Parvanta worked at Porter Novelli a global social issues communication company. Dr. Parvanta has designed managed or evaluated health and nutrition social marketing programs in more than 20 countries. She is the 2016 recipient of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Division of APHAs Distinguished Career Award. Dr. Sarah Bauerle Bass'is Associate Professor in the College of Public Health at Temple University. She is also the director of the Risk Communication Laboratory at Temple. Her research focuses on health and risk communication and how public health messages are crafted for diverse audiences to enhance decision-making. She has advanced the field of health communication by applying commercial marketing techniques to the development and testing of messages or interventions. Using perceptual mapping and vector modeling methods Dr. Bass has shown how 3-D imaging can enhance message development and tailor it for specific behavior or attitude barriers and applying findings to interventions using mHealth the Internet and Web 2.0 applications. ' Dr. Bass is also utilizing psycho-marketing methods to assess emotional and physiological response to and processing of health messages through visual graphic Web or textual message elements using eye tracking'pupilometer EKG and skin conductance measures.' She is currently the co-Principal Investigator for a study on developing a tailored mobile application decision aid for African American cancer patients on clinical trial participation and Principal Investigator for two grants on identifying barriers to HCV treatment initiation in active and recovering drug users.' Other research includes smallpox vaccination perceptions HIV+ patient perceptions of clinical research and HIV care providers perceptions of their patients among others.' Dr. Bass has won the prestigious'Great Teacher'award (2012) the highest teaching honor at Temple University as well as the'Lindback'award for excellence in teaching (2007) and the Excellence in Teaching'award (2006) from the College.