Annual Congress Vienna 2009

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Meet the Risk Communication Experts: "Fundamentals of risk communication: How to talk to patients and the public about pandemic H1N1"

Symposium
Aims: Everyone involved in respiratory medicine will inevitably have frequent opportunities in the coming months to talk about H1N1 ? to patients who have it, patients who think they have it, patients who fear they might get it, their families, and the general public. Sometimes the task will be to calm people who are excessively alarmed; sometimes it will be to alert people who are insufficiently concerned; sometimes it will be to guide people who aren?t sure how to address the problem. The session has three aims:
(1) To introduce the fundamentals of risk communication, especially its three paradigms: precaution advocacy, outrage management, and crisis communication;
(2) To outline some strategies for each paradigm useful when talking about pandemic H1N1; and
(3) To respond to participant questions about pandemic H1N1 communication or risk communication more generally.

Fundamentals of risk communication: How to talk to patients and the public about Pandemic H1N1 P. Sandman (Princeton Nj, United States of America), J. Lanard (Princeton, Nj, United States of America)