Dipesh Navsaria and colleagues provide communications guidance for pediatric advocacy

Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MDIn an accessible and comprehensive article, Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD, associate professor, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and clinical associate professor of human development and family studies at UW–Madison’s School of Human Ecology (SoHE), joined well-known New York author and pediatrician Perri Klass, MD, and Chicago pediatrician Nia Heard-Garris, MD, MSc, to offer communications guidance for colleagues’ efforts in child advocacy. Appearing in the February issue of Pediatric Clinics of North America, the article is entitled, “Effective Communication for Child Advocacy: Getting the Message out Beyond Clinic Walls.”

Clinicians can draw on their special knowledge and experiences to interpret current medical issues and research literature for a wider audience. However, it is essential that those who choose this advocacy strategy recognize and address the many challenges of explaining science to that larger audience. Navsaria and his co-authors discuss such topics as focusing on a message, selecting a venue (such as an Op-Ed), using social media, maintaining strict confidentiality when referring to stories from clinical practice, avoiding academic diction, dealing with controversy, and other relevant topics.

Read the article abstract on PubMed.

The full text article is available on the Elsevier website for subscribers and is freely accessible to those using a University of Wisconsin internet connection, VPN, or NetID login.