User:Nicbalch/sandbox

Development
Health communication as an area for study and practice has momentum for continued growth as well as increasing visibility across disciplines and among public health officials, practitioners, and funding agencies. Academic programs across the country have added undergraduate specializations, minors, and majors in health communication, while graduate programs have defined tracks to train future health communication scholars, carved out research areas, and received funding for specific grants and to develop Centers for Communication. Health communication is also now starting to be called "public health", especially in scholarly areas such as academic programs in universities. The future of health communication is growing and continues to in ways not only in areas of medical practice, but on as varied sites as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Health communication in future development will focus on social marketing and networking approaches to influence individuals to adopt healthy behaviors, linking profiles and information through social network sites. By having health communication online many people all around the world, who may not be involved in medical scholarly practices, will have a chance to become informed on the most recent and important advances and news in health and medical practices. Health communication scholars are participating in the creation of the Healthy People 2020 goals, of which an entire section is devoted to the role of health communication. The attention will continue to grow due to the need for translational research that moves research from the bench and into practice, the impacts of technology on health, the changing needs of United States and Global populations, and the prominence placed on multi-disciplinary teams for conducting funded research. The future of health communication is promising and as an area of study, it is poised for multiple pursuits over the next few decades.