Many healthcare organizations who are trying to reach healthcare consumers share these problems: “our website hasn’t been updated in three years”; “we set up a Facebook page but don’t know what to do with it”; and “what exactly is Twitter and how do we use it?” With 61% of American adults looking online for health information [Pew, 2009], healthcare organizations need a Web strategy and healthcare professionals need to understand the latest technologies to plan and execute health communication initiatives. There can be a risk in not embracing the Web if other health organizations are and if healthcare consumers expect it.

Yet it is difficult to decide which of the rapidly evolving Web technologies to select and how to use them to provide effective health communication, especially as part of a coherent Web strategy. This course covers how to develop and implement a Web strategy to drive a health organization’s online presence, specifically the processes for selecting, using, managing, and evaluating the effectiveness of Web technologies for health communication. The course will use case studies from organizations to illustrate initiatives with a discussion of what worked and the recommended improvements and will work in small teams on a Web strategy redesign for Harvard Health Publications.

Guest lecturers will provide insights on their experiences with the use of Web technologies for healthcare organizations and on topics that will lead to better use of Web technologies for health communication including how healthcare consumers search and how to reach them, health reporting, and graphic design for health Web sites. Guest lecturers include: Bill Tancer, author of Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters, Gary Schwitzer, Tara Montgomery, Ed Coburn, Tania Schlatter, and Kent Bottles, MD.

Web Strategies for Health Communication runs July 18-23, 2010. It is offered through the Health Communication Program at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Enroll in the Summer Institute at http://webstrategiesforhealth.eventbrite.com/. Registration costs $1750 before June 15, 2010 and $2000 after. Use THCB for $100 off registration. Tufts affiliates and alumni pay $1500 for the course. Lunch and morning and afternoon snacks are included.

Accommodations are available at the Doubletree Hotel Boston Downtown, one block away, with a special daily rate of $149 for institute participants or use https://www.regonline.com/tuftsconferencehousing2010 to book a dorm room at the Tufts Medford campus.

Class size is limited to 20 and the course is designed for healthcare professionals. Students in 2009 came from organizations including Lahey Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Altarum Institute, Health Resources in Action, NICHQ, Catalyst Online, and the CDC.

Contact the course director, Lisa Gualtieri with any questions.