Katharine Head
Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Communication Studies
ude[dot]iupui[at]jkdaeh
Vaccine promotion interventions and initiatives; Clinical communication about complex medical test results
One example of how my work has been translated into practice is that my communication research on vaccination communication and interventions has led to the development of a) an ongoing student vaccination initiative at IUPUI and b) development of a "toolkit" for other college campuses to use when promoting HPV vaccination specifically. This work is evidence-based, meaning that the two initiatives are informed by my and others work on effective vaccine promotion and intervention design. This work is interdisciplinary in that it involves not only multiple academic disciplines (i.e., medicine, public health, nursing, and more), but also non-academic partners such as the Indiana Immunization Coalition and the American Cancer Society. This work is goal oriented in that both initiatives are meant to directly increase student vaccination behaviors or empower others to design evidence-based initiatives to increase vaccination behaviors on their campus.