Pew Research Center

FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Participatory Medicine at NIH, Part 2

The National Institutes of Health recently gathered a group of consumers and people who study them to discuss how to "chart the next course for NIH communications."

BY Susannah Fox

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Pew Research Center, September 2008, "Participatory Medicine at NIH, Part 2"

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Participatory Medicine at NIH, Part 2

The National Institutes of Health recently gathered a group of consumers and people who study them to discuss how to "chart the next course for NIH communications."

The National Institutes of Health recently gathered a group of consumers and people who study them. We met off-site at a hotel in Bethesda, which I thought was an apt metaphor for the day’s question: How can NIH better communicate with the public? First, I said, make it easier to access your research. Make your website less like the fortress that is the NIH campus and more like the hotel, where one friendly employee opened the door for me and another made sure I got to the right room.