Communicating Information for Organizational and Public Health Development: An Admission Essay

for the Program of Doctor of Communication

By Richmond De Leon Austria

In the desire to advance my career and the field of information and communications studies, I decided to
apply for admission to the Program of Doctor of Communication under the Faculty of Information and
Communication Studies (FICS). Being an alumnus of UPOU, my interests in research and development as
well as in health informatics provided me with the current knowledge of information and communications
science and on how this shapes the health sector. This has allowed me to improve my credentials and
career in this field applied to healthcare service improvement. It is now my desire to enhance my
knowledge and skills in the area of development communications, knowledge management, advocacy and
social mobilization to improve public health programs.

It has been widely recognized that development communications techniques not only leads to better and
more sustainable results but also promotes people’s participation based on the ethical and democratic
principles of the current development paradigm (Mefalopulos, 2008). With this, knowledge of
development communications as well as advocacy and social mobilization are critical success factors in
the advancement of public health programs. The theoretical framework that can be learned from the
courses in the DComm Program could then be used in the enhancement of the research topics that I am
proposing for my dissertation. My dissertation is intended to be the combination of several fields related
to communications research applied to health service development.

I would like to develop a dissertation to cover all the following sub-topics but are not limited to:

1. Methods for Communicating Organizational Strategy for the Health Sector

2. Development Communications Techniques for Healthcare Programs
3. Methods for Communicating Health Information for Better Decision Making

For Sub-Topic 1, Methods for Communicating Organizational Strategy, my proposed research will focus
on how to best use tools and techniques in communicating organizational strategies within a healthcare
setting. This involves the use of surveys to assess the awareness levels of employees in the organization
related to the organization’s strategy. This is followed by a campaign to mobilize the organization’s assets
such as the use of Information and Communication technologies and healthcare workers in improving the

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communication of such organizational strategies in response to the information obtained from the survey.
This will enhance the effectiveness of healthcare programs and initiatives that are aligned to the health
sector’s development agenda such as in Abu Dhabi, UAE in particular.

For Sub-Topic 2, Development Communications Techniques for Healthcare Programs, my proposed

research will focus on development communications methods that can be used in improving the
deployment and outcomes of public healthcare programs. This involves identifying the current status of
communication techniques in the design of public health programs and its associated health promotion
projects. This also covers campaigns and other corporate social responsibility initiatives to improve the
health of the community.

For Sub-Topic 3, the Methods for Communicating Health Information for Better Decision Making will focus
more on tools that can be used to effectively communicate health information across various audience.
This involves the assessment of effectiveness of health information tools being used to report
performance such as dashboards, charts, information systems, and others. The assessment can be
through the development of surveys that will collect data on user preferences in terms of information
display and presentation towards decision making. The information obtained from such survey can be
used in the development of better approaches for information dissemination and proper interpretation
of results as a means of decision support. The data gathered can also be used in recommending new
platforms for performance improvement.

The data collection methods will be largely quantitative reflective of my preference and specialization in
quantitative research. Advanced statistical techniques can be used such as multivariate analysis so as to
simultaneously analyze multiple data. This will give a much better overview of the overall objective of the
dissertation which is focused on communicating information for organizational and public health
development

At an overall overview, the research will adopt techniques learned from the courses in the doctoral
program that can be used in improving the topic, the scope and the objectives of the dissertation. Panel
members of the dissertation advisory committee would include faculty members from the Faculty of
Information and Communication Studies (preferably those faculty members specialized in areas of
information systems management and development communication) and the Faculty of Management
and Development Studies (preferably those faculty members within the health development programs
such as MIH and/or MAN). Together, the panel will constitute the broad spectrum of specialties necessary

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for the evaluation of the dissertation which will enhance the collaboration of information and
communication science with that of management and development studies.

With this proposed dissertation, I hope that my four to five years of study in the doctoral program will
allow me to create new knowledge in the field of communications research by publishing a portion of it
in international journals and presenting it to health informatics forums or other relevant events.

Reference:

Mefalopulos, P. (2008). Development communication sourcebook: broadening the boundaries of

communication. Washington, DC.

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