To restore public trust in medical and scientific expertise, we need to engage in discourse about science, communicate its evolving nature and consider values that are important to people beyond their health.
Engaging in better one-on-one conversations with our patients and improving our ability to talk about science on the public stage can be hard. Most scientists aren’t trained in science communication; we’re focused on conducting rigorous research on important scientific questions. We spend a lot of time getting grants to fund our research and writing up papers to publish findings for the scientific community. We are often not incentivized, in terms of getting promotion and tenure, to communicate our work to the public.
That’s why communication is one of the pillars of the Cornell Health Policy Center. We have exceptional communications researchers (like our associate director Jeff Niederdeppe) who look at how strategic messages and news coverage shape health policy. These researchers tell us what’s salient to our audiences so that we can communicate well with legislators, health system leaders and other decision makers.
And because technical jargon can get in the way, we’re building an infrastructure that allows clinicians and scientists to learn effective storytelling techniques.
