Takeo Nakayama1), Kazuhiko Fujisaki2), Makiko Haragi3), Keiko Sakakibara4),Miho Iwakuma 5) ,Takahiro Kiuchi 6)
1) Department of Health Informatics, School of Public Health, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine
2) Medical Education Development Center, Gifu University
3) School of Health and Social Services, Department of Health Sciences (Behavioral Sciences), Saitama Prefectural University
4) Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University
5) Department of Health Communication, School of Public Health, the University of Tokyo
The Japanese Society of Medical Communication was established to follow the Japanese Society for Health Literacy as one of the new academic societies under the Japanese Society of Health Communication. In the broad sense of health communication, medical communication is communication among medical professionals, especially regarding health care. The main targets are research communication at academic conferences and meetings, dissemination of medical knowledge, public relations activities for doctors and other medical professionals, and communications about the approval and application of drugs and medical devices. In FY2021, the society held a symposium “Medical Communication: From Several Perspectives” at Health Communication Week 2021 in Hiroshima. The newly established Japanese Society of Medical Communication promoted its activities in cooperation with the Japan Society of Health Communication and other related academic societies, with the aim of expanding perspectives and deepening insights into communications related to health and health care.
Takeo Nakayama
Department of Health Informatics, School of Public Health,
Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine
In 2014, the STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cell scandal in the life science field and the fraud surrounding Novartis’s valsartan antihypertensive drug (Diovan) in the clinical research field became social issues in Japan. These two instances of scientific misconduct led to a major review of research and researcher training in Japan. Scientific misconduct is defined as “the fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism of data or research results presented in published research results,” and includes intentional misconduct or gross neglect of the basic duty of care that researchers should have in submitting their papers. Fraud is not limited to intentional acts, but also includes those caused by the lack of necessary knowledge or duty of care. Fraud presents a severe challenge, beginning with the nature of scientific research and continuing with the questioning of “people” who conduct research by “organizations,” “society,” and “the nation.” However, researchers should aim to produce research with high aspirations, not simply fraud-free research. The integrity of researchers is critical to the promotion of research and prevention of potential fraud; it is ensured by adhering to research community and organization norms, and by being conscious of the original meaning of research.
Keiko Sakakibara
Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University
The well-being of workers has a significant impact on quality of products, provided services, and customer satisfaction. Medical institutions are no exception to this rule. The goal of medical institutions is to provide the best possible medical care to patients. To realize this goal, however, medical professionals’ own well-being is essential. Unfortunately, various stressors in the medical field negatively affect their well-being, such as excessive workloads, long working hours, difficulty in dealing with patients and their families, and conflicting relationships among medical professionals in different areas. In addition to these regular stressors, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been significant, with severe burnout experienced among medical professionals. Work resources such as organizational communication play a key role in alleviating work stressors and increasing motivation. This paper discusses the importance of organizational communication in the medical field, using the job demands?resources model, which is one of the most frequently used models in the field of occupational health psychology.
Makiko Haragi, PhD
School of Health and Social Services, Department of Health Sciences (Behavioral Sciences),Saitama Prefectural University
We can use words in combination with visual information when communicating with readers. As a result of the widespread use of technology, visual information has become used widely in medical communications. An example is the use of graphical abstracts (GA) in international journals to condense the essential points and highlights of a research paper within one image. The use of GAs is trending in the medical and scientific fields and is often required for submission to top journals. However, most medical researchers may not be able to create visual information correctly or ethically. Moreover, readers also need some skills to analyze the visual information. Therefore, this paper provides some tips for using visual information in medical communications, focusing on the concept of visual literacy (VL). We propose that VL would help in medical communications, especially when visual information is used.
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