Health communication is a subfield that focuses on two major issues:
1. How communication techniques can be used to improve the public's understanding of health issues, such as smoking or diet.
2. How health care professionals, such as doctors, can communicate more effectively with patients.
Health communication therefore overlaps with interpersonal communication and advertising/public relations. It is as likely to be taught in schools of Public Health as in traditional Speech Communication departments. The field is relatively new, dating back to the mid-1970s.
Practical guide from the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to communicating health risks to the public in writing, through meetings, and through the mass media. Includes bibliography. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/primer.html
A database of health communication literature, focusing on communication research and practice in the context of public health. Produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/hcomm/
Tables of contents and submission information for quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on interpersonal health communication and public health campaigns. http://www.gwu.edu/~cih/journal/