Medical Communication: From Theoretical Model To Practical Exploration. Tao Wang
Yi Mou
•Special Researcher, School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China;
•Associate Director, Center for Health and Medical Communication, School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.
Dr. Mou obtained her Ph.D. in Communication from University of Connecticut in the U.S. Her research interests include new media studies and health communication, such as employing new media tools to achieve health preventive objectives. She has published more than 30 papers in SCI- and SSCI-indexed journals and won several awards from international conferences. She also serves on the editorial boards of five international academic journals.
List of Contributors
Chief Reviewers:
| YU Guoming | School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China |
| LI Benqian | School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China |
Deputy Editors:
| WANG Sheng | Hangzhou Normal University, China |
| YUAN Ting | Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, China |
Editors: (in alphabetical order)
| DAI Yun | Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| GUO Shuzhang | Tianjin Third Central Hospital, China |
| JIA Xiyan | Qingbu Branch, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, China |
| JIANG Benran | Parkway Health Shanghai, China |
| JIANG Ping | Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| SHEN Jian | Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China |
| XU Hui | Shanghai Changning Maternity & Infant Health Hospital, China |
| XU Lingmin | Qingbu Branch, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, China |
| ZHAO Xiaogang | Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, China |
| ZHAO Wensui | Changning District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, China |
| ZHOU Minjie | Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital East Campus, China |
Participants: (in alphabetical order)
| FENG Xianzhen | Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| GAO Hui | Changning District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, China |
| LU Hong | Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| WANG Zhean | University of Sydney, Australia |
| XU Chen | Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| XU Zhang | Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China |
| YANG Yinying | Qingbu Branch, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, China |
| ZHANG Lin | School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China |
Chapter 1
Definition and Characteristics of Medical Communication
For thousands of years, people have gradually accumulated a wealth of medical knowledge in the battle against diseases and have spread the knowledge constantly in different ways. The medical knowledge has gradually developed into different medical systems. More than 2000 years ago, the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, issued an oath that “in every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or men, be they free or slaves”. In Chinese history, the creation of five-animal boxing by the famous doctor in Han dynasty, Hua Tuo, and the popularization of Tusu wine by Sun Simiao, who is respected as the king of medicine, demonstrated the superb medical skills and effective means of dissemination of medical knowledge in the ancient China. Meanwhile, the ancients attached great importance to health education in the medical field. Huang Di Nei Jing, the first medical classic in the history of the Warring States period in China, stated: “The best doctor prevents illness, the better attends to impending sickness and the inferior treats existing illness.” What the sentence means is similar to the concept of disease prevention in modern medicine. It points out that it is more important to prevent diseases than to treat existing diseases and the subject of both treating diseases and preventing diseases is the doctor. Today in the age of communication technology explosion, on the one hand, we are in the age of information explosion, wandering among all kinds of unevenly sourced information. Neither does all medical information come from professional medical staff nor is all medical information true and reliable. On the other hand, the scientific literacy of citizens has not yet reached a high standard. According to the results of the Ninth China Citizens’ Scientific Quality Survey released by the China Association for Science and Technology in 2016, the proportion of citizens with science literacy in China is 6.2%. Although there has been a steady improvement compared with the past, compared with western developed countries, there is still a considerable gap, which means that at present in China, the vast majority of citizens do not yet have good scientific literacy. These reasons make it difficult for the citizens to effectively identify correct and useful medical knowledge from today’s explosive information flow. Citizens are more likely to be misled by fake news or misinformation, resulting in serious consequences. In recent years, the exposure of fake doctors such as Zhang Wuben and Liu Hongbin, as well as misdiagnosis caused by wrong information are all shown as typical cases. Therefore, in the field of medical communication, citizens generally call for the appearance of “professional team” (medical communication by professional medical personnel). At the same time, the communication practice of medical science popularization by medical staff also urgently needs the guidance of theory.
As a kind of practical activity, medical communication has a long history, but its emergence as an academic field has only recently begun. Medical communication originated from various disciplines such as medicine, history of science, philosophy of science, and communication, and has gradually formed its independent discipline system. We will introduce the definition of medical communication and distinguish its relationship with medical science popularization, health communication, and general science communication one by one. Meanwhile, the characteristics of medical communication will also be proposed.
1.Definition of medical communication
Medical science communication, also called medical communication for short, is about the spread of medical science. Medical communication is a crosscutting field emerging from the medicine and communication, having a close relationship with traditional science popularization. According to American scholars Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss, science communication can be seen as an interdisciplinary meta-field on the branch of discipline. Undoubtedly, medical communication is a very important part of this meta-domain. At the same time, medical communication focuses on the medical personnel engaged in communication and therefore tends towards medicine in terms of subject affiliation.
According to the most basic “5W” model of communication, medical communication contains the following elements:
First, who to spread?
Medical communication, as a branch of science communication, emphasizes the authority and scientific facts of information source. Therefore, the transmitter of medical communication must be professional medical staff, such as the medical workers