HealthCommWorks

This online platform offers health communication tools to help health communication professionals develop and disseminate effective messages. It was developed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

HealthCommWorks offers three tools:

CDCMessageWorks - Crafting and Defending Effective Messages

MessageWorks helps users craft new messages, assess existing messages, and match messages to the most appropriate audience segments. Unlike more subjective approaches, MessageWorks is based on an empirical model developed by professors Punam Anand Keller and Donald Lehman of Dartmouth College in the United States and recommends tactics that research indicates aid in effective communication. MessageWorks also allows users to share virtual workspaces to gain peer insights. In addition to making recommendations for improvements, this tool gives the health communicator bullet points that can be used to defend decisions made about a message.

CDC SocialMediaWorks - Developing a Strategy for Using Social Media

SocialMediaWorks supports health communicators with integrating social media strategies and technologies into their communication plan. Designed to be both a guided tutorial and template for decision-making, this tool provides step-by-step instructions that result in a printable strategy plan document and a Dashboard where continual visits assist in the day-to-day management of a social media initiative. SocialMediaWorks also empowers health communicators to learn more and ask questions by connecting them with a volume of resources and integrating the strategy process with the SocialMediaWorks forum. On the forum, a communicator can pose questions about social media to other users and follow conversations about social media topics. SocialMediaWorks is designed to be useful for health communicators who are both novice and expert in the field of social media.

CDCProofWorks - Creating an Effective Evaluation Strategy

ProofWorks has been designed to provide users with a tailored evaluation strategy based on information provided on a particular programme, its stakeholders, and resources. As evaluators are often challenged to fully understand, track, and measure the critical aspects of a wide variety of health communication campaigns, this tool helps programmes save time and stay current by providing the latest evaluation theories, strategies, and tactics required to develop state-of-the-art evaluation plans. ProofWorks also offers explanations behind why particular strategies are recommended for a particular situation. ProofWorks is designed to be used by those seeking assistance in planning an effective evaluation strategy. Potential audiences include health communication professionals and evaluators.