Learn from Tufts faculty and distinguished guest speakers how to:

• Use the web, social media, and mobile to communicate with and connect to patients.
• Develop a coherent and justifiable digital strategy for health communication.
• Select, use, manage, and evaluate the effectiveness of technologies.
• Accelerate your online presence through the use of social media.
• Define your mobile presence with apps and mobile-enabled sites
• Employ research-based methodologies such as persona development and formative evaluation.
• Use best practices from leading health web sites including WeightWatchers.com, Consumer Reports Health, Harvard Health Publications, and ABC Health News.

Guest lecturers for 2012 will be announced early in 2012. Guest lecturers for 2011 included: Dan Childs, Gary Schwitzer, Tara Montgomery, Ed Coburn, and Joseph Kvedar, MD.

Digital Strategies for Health Communication runs July 15-20, 2012. It is offered through the Health Communication Program at Tufts University School of Medicine and meets in the Sackler Building on the Tufts Boston campus.

Enroll in the Summer Institute at http://digitalstrategiesforhealth.eventbrite.com/. Registration costs $1500 before May 1, 2012, $1750 before June 15, 2012, and $2000 after. Tufts affiliates and alumni pay $1500 for the course. Lunch and morning and afternoon snacks are included. Reduced rates will be announced early in 2012 at The DoubleTree by Hilton Boston-Downtown and, also, dorm rooms are available at Tufts Medford Campus.

Class size is limited to 20. About 1/3 of the class will be graduate students from Tufts University School of Medicine and Emerson College who will do pre-work and a final paper for course credit. The rest are healthcare professionals. Past summer institute students came from organizations including Lahey Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Fenway Health Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Medtronic Diabetes Western Europe, and the CDC.

Contact the course director, Lisa Gualtieri with any questions.

From participants:

This was the best professional development course I’ve been to. The following week I wrote part of a proposal based on what I learned; my company won that bid and I now lead online strategy for the project. -Zena Itani, Senior Policy Associate, Altarum Institute, Washington, DC

The week was full of great speakers, great students and in a great location in the heart of Boston. I highly recommend it!! -Sean Molloy, Director, Knowledge Management and Operations, Quality Healthcare Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Tufts Summer Institute on Web strategies for health communication gave me a broad overview of the tools, methods and approaches being used by various organizations to reach their respective audiences. The week was a good mix of lectures, group activities and discussion–with great presentations from people doing interesting work. -Patricia McTiernan, Director, Corporate Communications, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA

Examples of pre- and post-work from students taking the course for credit in 2010:

Kate Perch’s pre-work was a presentation and paper on three national cancer organizations: National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Kate’s final paper focused on a new web strategy for the HSCT-CHESS Initiative, which provides information and support to caregivers of transplant recipients.

Lindsay Court’s pre-work was a presentation and paper on three Nonprofit Community Health Centers: Lynn Community Health Center, Fenway Health, and Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. In Lindsay’s final paper, she developed a new web strategy for the Washington State Department of Health Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program.

Divya Ramamurthi’s pre-work was a presentation: Breaking the Habit, which analyzes Ex, Freedom from Smoking Online, and Tobacco Free Florida, and an accompanying paper, Tobacco Cessation Websites. In her final paper, Divya developed a new web strategy for Freedom from Smoking Online, an Internet-based cessation program adapted from the American Lung Association’s group therapy cessation program.