Overview back to top

The Master of Science in Health Communication is offered by Tufts University Medical School.  Founded in 1994 the program has a distinguished history of preparing individuals to contribute to improving the health of people, communities and their environments.

The Health Communication Program provides the skills and knowledge necessary for its graduates to assume a range of roles in federal agencies, hospitals, biotech firms, health departments, foundations, publishing firms, and non-profit organizations. Students learn to develop, deliver, and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention programs and campaigns; to disseminate health information to diverse audiences; and to develop, formulate, and implement health policy initiatives.

They also learn the theory and practice of communication, as well as the basic elements of medicine, epidemiology, and public health practice. Our program is unique because of:

• small class size allowing closer interaction with professors and students
  
• opportunities for paid internships while taking courses in the evening
• an emphasis on "hands-on" applied learning
• courses related to health communication technologies
• a collaboration with Emerson College
• faculty that include doctors, public health researchers, communication professionals, and practitioners

Courses back to top

Required Courses

• Introduction to Medicine  
• Ethical Issues in Health Communication  
• Technology and Health Communication  
• Health Behavior and Health Communication: Theory to Practice
• Applications of Communication Theory to Health Communication
• Media Strategies for the Health Professional     
• Epidemiology - Biostatistics: Reading and Interpreting the Medical Literature
• Introduction to Writing About Nutrition and Health Communication  
• Professional Communication
• Survey Research Methods and Data Management
• Public Health and Health Care: Politics, Policies, and Programs
• Seminar in Health Communication/Applied Learning Project  

Elective Courses

Eight credits of electives, chosen from a list approved by the program director, are required. Possibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Health Communication through Web technologies
• Online Consumer Health
• Health Literacy
• Risk Communication in Public Health Practice
• Patient Provider Interaction
• Social Marketing
• Race, Culture, and Ethnicity  
• Health Communication and the Web
• Qualitative Tools for Public Health Research and Programs
• Introduction to Global Health
• Health Care Organization: Budgeting and Management
• Evaluation of Health Programs
• Internships in Health Communication
• Writing About Health and Nutrition for Diverse Audiences

Faculty back to top

Summary of Department Research in Process back to top

Faculty interests span a wide range of topics and employ a variety of methodologies. Faculty are engaged in the following areas:

Community-based interventions           Injury and violence prevention

E-Health                                             Nutrition assessment methodologies

Social marketing                                 Patient-provider interactions

Global health                                       Risk communication

Health literacy                                     Tobacco control

HIV/AIDS                                            Public health workforce development

 

Recent projects include:

• The CareHub project engaged Latino caregivers of Alzheimer's patients in a culturally-compatible online virtual community. The website provided real time, online education and support for Latino family caregivers including culturally competent information about Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, practical "how-to" instructions about managing dementia-related behaviors, and information on taking care of oneself.


• Audio and videotape analyses of patient-provider interactions to assess how medical students learn with standardized patient educators, and doctors and patients communicate about anti-retroviral medication adherence.


• The BIENESTAR study, a longitudinal cohort study of the effect of drug abuse on nutritional status and outcomes among Hispanics with HIV infection.


• A pilot intervention study to address the disparity between the health literacy level of subjects, clinical researchers, and the documents and tools that they use to communicate with one another. An informed consent template was developed for limited literacy adults in conjunction with a web-based educational program intended to enhance the ability of clinical investigators to communicate with them.


• A study of child passenger safety educational materials to assess their availability in Spanish, their appropriateness for Spanish-speaking audiences, the development process for the materials and whether any type of evaluation had been done before dissemination.


• Development of Guidelines for Developing Traffic Safety Educational Materials for Spanish-Speaking Audiences and an evaluation to assess whether the recommendations in the guidelines will result in more effective materials as rated by members of an expert panel.


• A study to translate state-of-the-art knowledge on childhood agricultural injury prevention into practice.

Contacts back to top

Susan Gallagher, MPH

Director, MS-Health Communication Program

Department of Public Health and Family Medicine

Tufts University School of Medicine

Sue.gallagher@tufts.edu 

Phone Number  617-636-3539

 Website:

 Tufts University School of Medicine M.S. in Health Communication

 http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/phpd/mshealthcomm/index.html