Lecture to Address Role of Communication in Healthcare

10/29/12 ASHLAND, Ohio – Medical communication is one of the fastest growing fields of study and many colleges and universities, including Ashland University, are beginning to introduce health communication to their communication curriculum.

Health communication is helping evolve the medical field as a whole. People’s lives are being saved because health communication can help reduce the amount of time it takes a trained EMS to get from the accident scene to the hospital, thus helping save the life of the victim.

Those wanting to find out more about this health communication field can attend a presentation on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium on the Ashland University campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The presenter will be Dr. E. Phillips Polack, a current plastic surgeon, who has written a medical communication book with Ashland University’s Communication Studies Professor Dr. Theodore Avtgis.

Dr. Polack’s presentation is titled “Communication Costs, Communication Kills: Its Role in the Future of Healthcare.” For this presentation, the audience will learn about how communication in the healthcare system is extremely important as the country moves toward the future, as well as how communication in a medical or health context is vital when attempting to save lives.

“We are so pleased to have a scholar of Dr. Polack's caliber come to Ashland University to discuss the role of communication in healthcare,” Dr. Avtgis said. “He is a renowned expert in the field of medical communication education and he served as a valuable resource for the development of the Health and Risk Communication major that the Department of Communication Studies is hoping to have approved for fall of 2013."

Dr. Polack received his master of arts degree in communication studies from West Virginia University and his M.D. from West Virginia University School of Medicine. Dr. Polack has presented research at numerous conferences and seminars, as well as publishing more than 70 publications ranging from scholarly papers to textbooks.

Ashland University, ranked in the top 200 colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report’s National Universities category for 2013, is a mid-sized, private university conveniently located a short distance from Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Ashland University (www.ashland.edu) values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students.