2021 Virtual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media

Join RTI International for the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media (NCHCMM), August 24-26, to discover and share innovative ideas to advance strategies in public health communications. The free, virtual event convenes public health researchers, practitioners from government and industry, and other leaders to discuss novel improvements to health communication, marketing, and media practices. Register now!

Make sure to visit RTI’s virtual booth and attend the sessions featuring RTI researchers during the event. 

RTI Sessions

Virtual Research and Creative Collaborations: Doing Old Things in New Ways

Wednesday, August 25 | 3:05PM - 4:00PM ET 

Moderator: Jon Poehlman

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted how public health communicators have previously done their work. Whether it’s learning from the people they serve, designing programs to address public health concerns, or delivering information and services to those who need it most, traditional methods of communication need to be re-thought.

Attend our NCHCMM session, moderated by Jon Poehlman, to learn about three cutting-edge approaches to continue applying impactful communication and marketing principles when in-person opportunities have been curtailed.

The End of In-Person Qualitative Research?

Panelist: Alyssa Jordan

When in-person qualitative research came to an abrupt halt in 2020, health researchers adapted to the benefits and challenges of conducting focus groups and interviews virtually. More than a year later, many of us are wondering if we will ever return to in-person data collection? Alyssa, a seasoned virtual moderator, will share insights on what has been lost, what has been gained, and strategies for success.    

Not Another Zoom Meeting Please! Conducting Human Centered Design in a Virtual World. 

Panelist: Olivia Burrus

Olivia will share methods and strategies for conducting human centered design activities, including workshops, data dumps, and whiteboarding sessions in our COVID accelerated virtual world. She will talk about some of her missteps, tips, and tricks for using existing technology to transition this traditionally in-person work online, in ways that build group cohesion, foster a creative mindset, keep the energy up, and minimize the dreaded Zoom fatigue.

Training Healthcare Professionals to be Compassionate in the Face of Online Misinformation.

Panelist: Brian G. Southwell, PhD

Brian will discuss a virtual workshop program for healthcare providers he has developed for Duke University for the Duke Program on Medical Misinformation, which transitioned from an in-person program to an online offering and which has been featured in JAMA. The program brings together healthcare providers for discussion and skill-building exercises to improve patient-clinician dialog about health-related misinformation that patients encounter.  

Communicating Public Health in a Time of Disinformation and Science Skepticism

Thursday, August 26 | 1:00PM - 2:00PM ET

The COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in many lessons learned, and shown great vulnerabilities in our ability to communicate important public health messages in a time of crisis. The world has changed in many ways, bringing new challenges to the very basic tenets of risk communication, and health communication in general. This session looks at the impact of an increasingly fractured culture, and how it has made communicating public health and science ever more difficult.

Panelist: Craig Lefebvre, Lead Change Designer, "COVID-19 vaccines: What we have here is a failure to disseminate"