The Healthcare Confidential Podcast | Episode 27 “The Infodemic with Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CCL”

Battling a pandemic requires more than just medical resources. It requires effective communication strategies, advocacy for marginalized communities, systemic change to address health disparities, and community engagement to help disseminate consistent messaging. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis has been accompanied by an infodemic – an epidemic of misinformation. One of the side effects of that is vaccine hesitancy, which threatens to undermine the promise of eliminating the pandemic through mass vaccination.

Our guest on this episode has vast experience with creating effective health communication strategies. Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CCL is a senior lecturer at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, the founder and board president of Health Equity Initiative ( www.healthequityinitiative.org), a nonprofit membership organization, and a principal at Strategic Communication Resources, a global consultancy. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of Communication in Healthcare: Strategies, Media, and Engagement in Global Health, and serves on the editorial board of Health Equity. Dr. Schiavo is the author of Health Communication: From Theory to Practice, now in its second edition, as well as 40+ publications and 150+ scientific presentations. She is a passionate advocate for health equity and a committed voice on the importance of addressing and removing barriers that prevent people from leading healthy and productive lives.

The Take-Away: As a society, we need to invest in civic education to help young people develop both empathy and critical thinking skills. We also need to invest in communities and engage with community leaders. Listening at the grassroots level allows us to understand each community’s needs and fosters partnerships with community leaders to help build trust.

Learn more about Dr. Schiavo: For additional information, visit www.renataschiavo.com. Follow Renata on Twitter: @RenataSNYC.

Healthcare Confidential Podcast