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[Announcer] This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC - safer, healthier people.

[Dr. Anderton] Welcome to the first edition of CDC’s Health Marketing Matters. I’m your host, Dr. John Anderton. My guest today is Dr. Jay Bernhardt, Director of CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing. Dr. Bernhardt’s research and instruction have focused on health communication, social marketing, and new media, with an emphasis on information technology, e-health, and strategic communication. Dr. Bernhardt, welcome to Health Marketing Matters.<\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Thank you Dr. Anderton. It’s a real pleasure to be here with you today. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Dr. Bernhardt, tell me a little bit about your career path and your journey here to CDC. <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Well I joined CDC in August 2005. Before that I was on the faculty at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education. Before that I was on the faculty at the University of Georgia in Athens in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, which I believe Dr. Anderton, is your alma mater. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Indeed. Going back just for a second though to Emory. You were the founding Director of the Emory Center for Public Health Communication. Did that factor any into your decision to come to CDC? <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Yes, very much so. The Center for Public Health Communication at Emory was really a new center design to help grow research and practice and programs in this emerging area so it was a logical extension to come across the street literally over to CDC. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Going from that, why did CDC decide to create an entire National Center for Health Marketing? <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Well, in 2004, CDC took a close look at itself and thought about ways that it could improve to meet the needs of public health in the 21st century. CDC, as you know, has incredible science and scientists and generates incredible knowledge that makes a difference for public health, but one of the real challenges is how we translate and disseminate that knowledge to people to improve their lives and protect their health. Health marketing is an area that can help do that. In fact, that is exactly what it’s designed to do, to protect and promote public health through collaborative and innovative health marketing programs, products, and services that are three things really, customer-centered, science-based and high-impact. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Dr. Bernhardt, could you please define health marketing for our listeners? <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Absolutely. Health marketing as we define it, is an organizational function and a set of scientific processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to our customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that can protect and promote the health of diverse populations. I might add that this definition is based almost directly on the American Marketing Association’s definition of marketing and it’s important to note that we don’t see health marketing as a specific discipline, but really as a multidisciplinary area of practice that’s informed by many other areas including marketing, communication, health promotion, behavioral and social sciences, journalism, and many other related fields. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Jay, can you give some examples please of the functions and activities of CDC’s NCHM, National Center for Health Marketing? <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Yes, I’d be delighted to, John. We have four divisions and numerous offices located all across the agency. One division is called the Division of Health Communication and Marketing which handles our audience research and campaigns, working closely across the agency. We also lead CDC’s emergency risk communication and are the home for the Community Guide for Preventive Services, one of CDC’s real treasures. The Division of Electronic Health Marketing, or E-health, is responsible for CDC’s website - CDC.gov, new media, and social networks. We have a Division of Creative Services which includes our graphics designers and artists, our writers and editors, and the Broadcast Branch which houses our studios for audio and video production, including these podcasts. Our Division of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances manages the relationships and the funding for CDC’s core and cross-cutting partners and really focuses on improving partner engagement to all of the sectors of partners with which we work. We have also many Health Communication Science Offices located across the agency. In fact, in all of the other National Center’s, which includes senior communication staff who work with us on many collaborative projects. We have many other programs, but I might just also add that we have a Preparedness Team and a Global Communication and Marketing Team in our Office of the Director. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] These are some of the institutional functions of NCHM. Give some examples, please, of health marketing in action. <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] John, we like to think of the work we do in terms of the four customers or audiences that we serve. First, we focus on health marketing to the public, and some examples in this area include improving the CDC’s website - CDC.gov; the campaigns that we plan and implement, for example the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome campaign we did this past year; and some of our audience research. We also focus on improving health marketing to professionals and to partners, and some examples in this area include the annual Leaders 2 Leaders conference that we put on and some of the tools we’ve developed for partners and professionals, like pandemic influenza checklists and The Purchasers’ Guide for Insurance, as well as the Knowledge 2 Action workgroup that we’re working on now to help improve CDC’s translation of all of our science to practice. Our third set of customers is the rest of CDC and we collaborate with them on many different projects, obviously including graphics and broadcast and writer/editor work, but we also work on cross-cutting projects like our CDC-INFO hotline and other services that we provide to the agency. The fourth set of our customers is really the professionals who work in health communication and marketing and ways that we can advance that field, and one of the really exciting things we’ve done in this area is working with the Office of Enterprise Communication, sponsoring the first ever National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media this past August. We expect this to become an annual conference and I’d like to invite the listeners of this podcast to consider attending. You can get more information about it on our Center’s website. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Tell us a little bit where you think this field is going in the future. <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Absolutely. John I think the future looks very bright for health marketing and health communication. When we think about the future of public health and we start to envision what I sometimes call “Public Health 2.0,” we really I think will recognize that “information services” are at the core of public health impact. Areas like communication and marketing and partnerships, as well as informatics and statistics, are really the core components of Public Health 2.0., and these are the keys to helping us to increase the impact of our work and really make a difference on the health of people in the U.S. and around the world. Many companies and organizations are beginning to recognize this and, as more do, and as more people in public health recognize the real critical impact of health information services, communication, and marketing and media, acceleration from Public Health 1.0 to Public Health 2.0 will increase. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] Thanks very much, Jay, for talking with us today about health marketing. I’ve enjoyed talking to you. <\p>

[Dr. Bernhardt] Thanks. It was my pleasure, John. Thanks for having me. <\p>

[Dr. Anderton] For more information on health marketing, call 1-800-CDC-INFO or visit www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing. We want to hear your thoughts about this podcast. Please email us at NCHMInfo@cdc.gov. If you have any additional questions or comments about health marketing that you’d like to share with Dr. Jay Bernhardt, our guest today, please contact him at NCHMSuggestions@cdc.gov. Thank you for joining us on Health Marketing Matters. <\p>

[Announcer] To access the most accurate and relevant health information that affects you, your family and your community, please visit www.cdc.gov.