Improving public health communication with implementation science

In today’s information-rich world, where an answer – correct or not – to any question can be obtained with just a few moments of searching, it is hard for accurate information to be noticed, trusted and acted on. Evidence-based health recommendations and effective public health interventions, programs and policies can get swallowed up in the glut of bad information, making it more difficult for individuals to know how best to protect their own health, and for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to find the evidence they need to build a healthier world for all.

WashU School of Public Health will host a convening February 10 to explore how dissemination and implementation science — the field that studies how to put evidence into practice — can enhance communication strategies so that accurate, trustworthy health information is easier to understand, easier to act on, and able to hold its ground in a crowded information landscape.

Titled “Implementation Science and the Public Health Information Ecosystem,” the event will take place from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. CT in the Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall on WashU’s Danforth Campus. Programming will run until 12:30 p.m., and all attendees and panelists are invited to continue the conversation at a networking lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, in person or via Zoom. Registration is required. 

The event is the inaugural convening of the Dissemination & Implementation Science Innovation Research Network (DISIRN). One of six research networks at WashU Public Health, DISIRN aims to empower researchers and practitioners to turn evidence into action and create lasting improvements in health and well-being.

“This convening will bring together researchers, journalists, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how communication strategies can strengthen efforts to bridge the gap between evidence and practice,” said DISIRN co-director Elvin Geng, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine and a member of the SPH secondary faculty. “Ultimately, we seek to catalyze new thinking and identify practical approaches — grounded in implementation science — to help credible, evidence-based messages reach the people who can make use of them.”

The event will open with remarks by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and the vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Washington University; and DISIRN co-director Byron Powell, PhD, an associate professor and associate dean for research at the Brown School and a member of the WashU Public Health secondary faculty. The opening remarks will be followed by two sessions, each anchored by a keynote speaker and followed by a panel discussion. 

The first session will focus on how disinformation impacts public health practice and policy. Jessica Steier, DrPH, the founder and CEO of Unbiased Science, will give the keynote address virtually. An accomplished public health expert specializing in science communication, Steier strives to connect citizens with accurate evidence about the forces that affect all of our lives. After her talk, Ross Brownson, PhD, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at WashU Public Health and a DISIRN co-director, will moderate a panel discussion on how applying communication strategies and design thinking can improve information flow and help health systems function better.  

The second session explores how thoughtful, well-designed communication strategies can strengthen trust in public health and support sustainable, effective public health action. The session will open with a keynote address by Heidi Miller, MD, chief medical officer of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Miller provides clinical and strategic input to the department, while fortifying public health policies and programming across the state and maintaining a primary care practice at a Federally Qualified Health Center. Her talk will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Geng. Panelists will discuss what the vaccine debate reveals about trust, science, and implementation, and how communication can support durable public health action.