Setting the agenda for health communication research: Topics and methodologies

The research field of health communication has grown significantly in the last decades. This has shaped changes in how clinicians and patients interact with each other to achieve better health outcomes. Yet, given the complexity and significance of clinician-patient communication, it is essential to have an overview of the research landscape of health communication to navigate the future direction in terms of research topics and methods.

As part of the Research Committee of EACH (rEACH) activities, rEACH members (ACS, SY, JM) were asked to organize a rEACH symposium during the recent International Conference on Communication in Healthcare: ICCH 2022 in Glasgow (6th–9th September 2022). Three speakers from various stages of their research career (AF, AP, LV) were invited to share their understanding and visions of health communication research in terms of topics and methods. The aim was to stimulate thinking and encourage a dialog on the future directions to prioritize, and to set an agenda for health communication research. With these pages, we summarize the key future directions for our field that emerged during the symposium, divided between topics and methods.