With our conference theme - Participation Powers Prevention - we wanted to reinforce a core concept that cuts across all of our respective fields and disciplines: The effectiveness of our public health interventions to reach and impact target audiences is directly related to the level of audience participation in the intervention planning, development, and implementation. Whether we call it public participation, public engagement, customer centricity, or another name, establishing and ensuring deep audience engagement is a fundamental part of effective public health. With the major challenges and opportunities we are facing right now, participation is more important than ever.

We are currently in the midst of a worldwide influenza pandemic - the first one in several decades. At the CDC, we have been working non-stop since April to help understand and control the outbreak and to do everything we can to prevent disease and death among people exposed to it. I’m proud of the work that CDC, our partners, and collaborators have done so far, but the remaining communication challenges are immense. To address these challenges, CDC and our partners are rapidly undertaking audience research and public engagement to better understand people’s needs related to novel H1N1 transmission, communication, and vaccine preparations. Social media have emerged as an important strategy in this outbreak, in large part because they empower information receivers and encourage them to actively participate in the dialogue. So, in this sense, we expect participation to help power prevention as we do all we can, as quickly as possible, to involve the public and health professionals in our planning, our strategies, and our messages.

While the pandemic presents significant challenges, we are also facing an enormous opportunity to make a fundamental difference in the health of every American. Health reform gives us a real chance to transform our current “sick care” health system, which is largely based on providing expensive treatments for chronic diseases, to a “health system” built on creating the conditions for prevention and wellness. Our new CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, often speaks of focusing on “winnable battles” that can make the biggest difference for the communities we serve, and of health reform as a winnable battle that we cannot afford to lose. In the spirit of participation powering prevention, conference keynote speaker Bill Novelli implored the attendees to do everything possible to participate in the reform process to support an outcome that emphasizes prevention and wellness, and the power of communication, marketing, and media to help create the conditions for better health.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to the newly formed Health and Risk Communication Network, (HRCN), a free, voluntary online social network launched prior to the conference. At the time of this posting, there are more than 500 members. Here we can engage in discussions, exchange ideas, share events and best practices, and connect with others who share similar objectives. For example, you can now read the full text of Bill Novelli’s brilliant conference speech on the HRCN. I encourage you to sign up and become an active participant in the network.

Whatever our issues - whether they are mental health or cancer prevention, influenza or obesity, HIV, malaria, or climate change, or even advancing and organizing our fields, we will not succeed in our endeavors without strong, strategic, ongoing participation from the populations we serve.

This video contest is only one small piece of a much larger effort by HHS and CDC to prevent the spread of flu, both H1N1 and seasonal, and to reduce its impact on populations. This outbreak response, however, is fundamentally different from responses to previous outbreaks. Not only is outbreak of the novel H1N1 virus the first pandemic of the 21^st century, it also represents the first time that the federal government has fully employed 21^st century communication technology as part of a major outbreak response.

For the first time, CDC has combined our traditional communication strategies through our website, traditional media, and partners, with extensive outreach and communication through new media and social networks. To date, millions of people have accessed CDC’s H1N1 information and updates through social media channels — including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, widgets, and through their mobile browser at m.cdc.gov — which has increased the reach of our information well beyond where it has ever gone before.

The high levels of interest and traffic on CDC’s website and social media outlets during this pandemic response highlight the important role that health and risk communications play in responding to public health emergencies, as well as the growing role of social media tools as part of public health responses. The data below are through July 13, 2009:

• The CDC’s H1N1 webpages have been viewed more than 85 million times since the outbreak began, and more than 200,000 users have signed up to receive CDC’s H1N1 Flu email updates.
• CDC.gov’s H1N1 content has been syndicated, or repurposed, by public health partners, including state and local health departments and corporations, more than 136,000 times.
• I’ve written before about the tremendous importance of mobile for 21^st century public health, and this outbreak is no exception. The H1N1 content on CDC’s mobile site, m.cdc.gov, has been viewed over 61,000 times.
• Our audio and video tools have been extremely popular. The 15 online videos that CDC has posted so far on YouTube have been viewed more than 1.8 million times, and CDC-TV, CDC’s online video sharing site, has had more than 100, 000 views of its H1N1 content. 
• CDC’s audio and video podcasts on H1N1, which include podcasts in Spanish and podcasts for kids, have been downloaded more than 636,000 times. 
• The CDC’s H1N1 widgets have more than 3 million views, and we have had more than 46,000 “click-throughs” from H1N1 buttons. 
• Twitter has reached hundreds of thousands of users. CDC’s Twitter accounts have more than 542,000 followers, and we have had more than 399,000 “click-throughs” from H1N1 flu tweets. 

National and international media and experts have taken notice of CDC’s health and risk communication activities during the pandemic, and I would like to highlight several articles and blogs that profile CDC’s response to this outbreak.  

Nature - Between a virus and a hard place
“To their credit, the WHO and the CDC have avoided the kind of falsely reassuring officialese that has too often accompanied past crises.” more 

Washington Post - Feds Go Online to Brief Masses about Swine Flu
“…as news about the epidemic has burned up all corners of the Web, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services have been using Twitter and YouTube, among other sites, to disseminate information…” more   

USA Today - Pandemics in the age of Twitter
“If the Obama presidential campaign was the first Web 2.0 campaign, this may be the first Web 2.0 global health issue.” more 

National Public Radio - Government Looks Online To Spread Word On Flu
“…references to swine flu in the blogosphere are far surpassing the actual spread of the virus itself. As the government tries to get in front of the rapid spread of information, it’s learning some important lessons about how social media is used in crisis situations…” more 

Nielsen Wire - Swine Flu as Social Media Epidemic; CDC Tweets Calmly
“…the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is leveraging several different online channels to provide a voice of reason in the fury of discussion around swine flu - and in the process is setting a roadmap for those wondering how social media can be used for crisis communication…” more

Atlanta Journal and Constitution – Social media spreads word on flu 

“…the National Center for Health Marketing has pushed out Twitter feeds, a Flickr photo stream, podcasts, videos and a Facebook page. It has been a 24/7 effort to get important messages out through every medium…” more

Government Computer Network - Agencies tap online channels to spread the word on swine flu outbreak
“…new tools being used to take information to the people include pages on social-networking sites, YouTube, Twitter, RSS feeds, podcasts, widgets for linking to CDC content on third-party Web sites and blogs, and a series of informational e-cards that people can send to friends. The agency also is using some old-school techniques, such as e-mail alerts…” more 

Like every public health emergency response, the health and risk communication work at CDC has been a team effort involving health and risk communication experts from the Joint Information Center, the Division of Media Relations, the National Center for Health Marketing, the Influenza Division, the Office of Enterprise Communication, and many other parts of the agency. I am extremely proud of the outstanding health and risk communication work that CDC has performed so far in this response, and the work we are doing as the pandemic continues through the summer and into the fall. I invite you to share your thoughts and recommendations about our work and your advice on how to make it even more effective. And don’t forget to stay informed and healthy.

As a health marketer, one area that caught my attention was the $7.2 billion to extend broadband internet access to more Americans, particularly those living in underserved and rural communities. As reported in USA Today, recent surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project have found that only 57% of Americans subscribe to broadband at home, while 9% rely on dial-up service. Some people use the internet in public places like the library, while close to 25% of Americans don’t use the internet at all. The USA Today article goes on to say, “These holdouts are the hardest to reach. They include many poor and elderly people, as well as residents of rural areas that the big broadband providers have abandoned as too costly to serve - an issue that Congress is trying to address.”

Public health has recognized internet access as an issue for some time. Healthy People 2010, for example, includes an objective to increase the proportion of households with internet access to 80%. The mid-course review of Healthy People progress notes that “internet access is critical to disease prevention, health promotion, and health care because of the increasing amount of information and services available via the internet. When internet access is not universal, some segments of the population are excluded from knowing about and therefore using many new tools and information sources; the result is additional disparities.”

With more Americans able to access the internet in more places, we can certainly expect to see an increase in the number of people using electronic media to research and share health information. The public’s increasing use of social media to inform health decisions, paired with the Obama Administration’s stated interest in promoting public health, preventive health care services, and preparedness, make it more important than ever for public health organizations to better use health marketing tools.

As regular readers of this blog already know, health marketing applies marketing techniques traditionally used to sell products to help “sell” health promotion and disease prevention by changing people’s behaviors. Marketers and advertisers have used these techniques for decades, but instead of selling goods such as soft drinks and appliances, those of us in health marketing are selling positive behavior change-like increased physical activity, smoking cessation, regular cancer screening, safer sex, and immunization-among many others.

Although the fields are growing, health communication and social marketing are still relatively new to public heath, and very different from the old approach of simply telling people what they should do to be healthy and then hoping they do it. We all know that we should get more physical activity and eat more vegetables, but just knowing this does not always translate into taking more trips to the gym or having salads for lunch. A health marketing approach harnesses the power of marketing science and public health behavioral theory to deliver health recommendations and guidance in ways that are more relevant and persuasive for people. In concrete terms, this means that as broadband internet access increases, and more people turn to the web for health information and support, we must leverage what we know works well, and continue to develop new ways to engage people in this online and often interactive environment.

At the heart of health marketing is a commitment to providing information where, when, and how people want to access and use it. The new information technologies that have proliferated on the internet in the last few years-internet blogs, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, mobile information delivery systems, podcasts, Wikis, as well as other new communication channels-are already being used by increasingly large segments of the U.S. population, and represent an exciting and fertile ground to deliver public health messages. Improving the performance of the internet through increased use of broadband will make these innovative technologies more effective and affordable for all Americans.

Another potential benefit of increasing broadband access is the ability of people to communicate with each other, especially in matters of health. For example, just recently (2/16/2009), the New York Times reported that Zagat, best known for its restaurant and hotel reviews, is rolling out a customer-driven Doctor’s Guide for people insured by Wellpoint. Research from the Annual Edelman Trust Barometer shows many people increasingly seek out health information from “people like myself,” and often value this information more than information from experts or other authoritative sources. It is critical for public health professionals to adapt to this changing environment and to use new communication vehicles to provide health information and guidance to people when they want it, where they want it, and in ways that make it easier for them to apply the information to their own lives. In doing so, we can make wellness and prevention relevant to people’s lives and easier for them to make the significant changes that will help keep themselves and their families healthier.

It is encouraging that the importance of increasing internet access and performance is gaining attention and resources because internet access and the role of social media in individual health decision-making will continue to expand in the coming years. Many of us in public health have begun to realize the potential of electronic health marketing, and now is the time for all of us in the field to fully embrace health marketing approaches in order to ensure that all people have access to the credible health information they need to make healthy decisions.

But there are many communities that still don’t have fluoridated water, despite its documented success over the last 60 years. Often these communities are more rural and economically disadvantaged, and because there may be inadequate access to professional dental care-or lack of funds to pay for it-a disproportionate number of poor people, especially children, suffer needlessly.

To help raise public awareness of the advantages of water fluoridation for all Americans, NCHM collaborated with the Arkansas Department of Public Health in producing a video showing the advantages of water fluoridation

The video featured Arkansas leaders such as the Surgeon General of the State, the CEO of a major Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, and a high-ranking State official of a major dental insurance company. But even more emotionally compelling were the interviews with everyday people - children who describe increased visits to the dentist; a mother who recently moved to a community without fluoridation and now sees her younger daughter having more cavities. Particularly revealing was the interview with a longtime dentist, who remembered when fluoridation first occurred in his community and seeing the dramatic reduction in cavities over time with fluoride in the water.

You can see the CDC.gov feature and video at Go With The Flow.

There are reasons why communities may choose not to fluoridate their water supplies, and it is not CDC’s intention to enter these debates. But sometimes the documented benefits of fluoridation can be lost in the rhetoric, especially the protection fluoride provides for children and people of lower socio-economic levels who may not be able to get this protection anywhere else. As public health scientists and practitioners, it is our duty to make sure that scientifically-accurate information about water fluoridation is presented so that citizens and policy makers facing a choice about water fluoridation can make an informed decision.

For more information on water fluoridation, please visit the CDC Water Fluoridation Home Page.

Even as CDC is using well-established, traditional public health channels to disseminate critical information about the outbreak to health departments and the news media, we also are launching cutting-edge, audience-centered tools to reach the public directly. Some products created for this response include podcasts for adults and children, widgets for web pages and social network profiles, mobile-accessible content at m.cdc.gov, Twitter messaging, promotion through social networks, and outreach to bloggers. CDC’s messages also encourage people without internet access to contact CDC-INFO (at 1-800-CDC-INFO or 1-800-232-4636) for information in both English and Spanish.

The products featured here are being promoted to our partners and the public. Please share this critical health information with your colleagues and constituents by participating in the following activities:

Listen to the Podcasts

Salmonella Serotype Typhimurium Outbreak in Peanut Butter and Peanut Butter-Containing Products (English, 3:41) Listen To This Podcast…
This podcast discusses the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak in peanut butter and peanut-containing products. (Created and released 1/21/2009 by NCZVED.)

Brotes infecciosos causados por Salmonella typhimurium en la mantequilla de maní y otros productos que la contienen (Spanish, 3:48) Listen To This Podcast…
Este podcast habla sobre los brotes infecciosos causados por Salmonella typhimurium en la mantequilla de maní y otros productos que la contienen. (Created 1/21/2009 and released 1/23/2009 by NCZVED.)

What Kids Need to Know About Peanut Butter and Salmonella (English, 2:49) Listen To This Podcast…
This podcast explains to children the recent Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak in peanut butter and peanut-containing products. (Created and released 1/26/2009 by NCZVED.)

Embed Widgets on Your Websites and Social Media Pages

Two widgets are available at http://www.cdc.gov/widgets.

• FDA Peanut-Containing Product Recall. This widget allows users to browse the FDA database of recalled peanut butter and peanut-containing products.
• The Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak Map. This widget displays the number of people by state who have been infected with Salmonella Typhimurium.

Visit and Share the FDA Product Database

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm
This database includes human and pet foods recalled by Peanut Corporation of America since January 2009.

Visit the Social Media Collaboration Page

http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia
This web page is a collection of Salmonella Typhimurium-related products for consumers and partners to use, including blogs, podcasts, websites, etc.

Visit the FDA XML Database

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/PeanutButterProducts2009.xml
This web page includes FDA-provided data about product recalls in Excel, PDF, and XML. The XML format, created specifically for use on other websites, allows other users to incorporate FDA data into their own products and mashups.

Follow on Twitter

Two feeds are available.

• FDA Recalls (http://www.twitter.com/fdarecalls). This feed provides the FDA’s recalls, market withdrawals, and safety alerts.
• CDC Emergency (http://twitter.com/CDCemergency). This feed provides updates from CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response about increasing the nation’s ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.

Visit and Share the HHS Blog

http://pbrecallblog.hhs.gov
This blog brings together resources from HHS, CDC, and FDA and includes information about ingredient-driven recalls, outbreak dos and don’ts, and updates about recalled foods.

Please share these tools and their critical messages broadly. In addition, let us know your thoughts about the health communication and social media marketing tools that we are using to provide critical health information to key affected audiences, also any feedback on how we can continue to improve our strategies.

Thank you.

If the past few years of health marketing at CDC have taught us anything, it is that the days of the passive consumer who receives top-down health information are virtually gone. People now choose participatory models of information exchange in which they seek out and interact with information, often using web-based and mobile technology. This shift challenges health marketers to use customer-centered strategies to keep up with people, because for health information to reach people, it must be delivered using the same cutting-edge media that people already use to access all the other relevant information in their lives.

Some of the ways health marketing at CDC has met this challenge can be found in Health Marketing for a Healthier Nation and a Healthier World, a report that gathers together selected success stories from CDC’s health marketing work in 2008. Last year, our projects ranged in scale and focus. Some were domestic cross-cutting programs, like the entertainment education program in which CDC subject-matter experts partnered with entertainment industry writers and producers to deliver accurate health messages to millions of Americans through daytime and primetime television shows. Several other domestic projects were dedicated to raising awareness about influenza, a leading cause of illness in the United States. Health marketers used many new technologies, including social networking sites, streaming video and audio, and mobile technology to raise awareness about the flu immunizations.

Other projects were more targeted, such as the mobile KnowIt Campaign, which allowed people to use their mobile phones to text their zip codes to “KNOWIT” and receive a text message that identified nearby HIV testing sites. In another targeted effort, CDC partnered with Georgia Institute of Technology to connect patients’ glucose meter readings to a diabetes management website. In one of CDC’s global projects-to prevent and control emerging infectious diseases in China-health marketers adapted U.S. risk communication strategies for China and then used technology to deliver messages to China’s workforce.

No matter a project’s scope, the creativity and thoughtfulness used to captivate health consumers showed in every effort. Every project worked to engage people, because people-if successfully and deeply engaged-are more affected by health information and therefore more likely to act on the information and more likely to pass it along to others in their lives. By applying health marketing in a customer-centered and cutting-edge manner, CDC is ensuring that people receive accurate, science-based information where, when, and how they need it to make healthy decisions. In a sense, by encouraging the spread of CDC health information and interventions through health marketing, CDC is engaging in its ultimate partnership: a partnership with the people to further the cause of public health.

As great as 2008 was for health marketing at CDC, I’m very much looking forward to 2009 and the many opportunities the year will bring. Please let me know your ideas and expectations for the year and your suggestions for advancing our work.

Click on Health Marketing for a Healthier Nation and a Healthier World to review some of 2008’s health marketing success stories.

So how can we more effectively spread the message and increase its impact? By combining the research-based traditional (vertical) strategies of expert-based communication, mass media messages, and state and local outreach with new media (horizontal) strategies using interactive, participatory, and peer-to-peer engagement. For the third straight year, the CDC National Center for Health Marketing is collaborating with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on the annual Seasonal Flu Vaccination campaign. This year we are reaching out through blogs, social networks, virtual worlds, Twitter, eCards, mobile-ready Web sites, and other interactive, new media technologies to provide information and to motivate people to “Get Vaccinated.”

The products featured below are being promoted to partners and the public, but we also count on you to help promote the important message of seasonal flu vaccination. Please help us support this campaign by participating in the following activities:

CDC Get Vaccinated Graphical Button for placement on an organization’s Web site. A button is a graphic element used to promote campaigns and causes online. Buttons remind Web site users to get vaccinated. To add an English or Spanish language button to your page, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/NIVW/help.htm and follow the directions posted there.

CDC “I Got My Flu Vaccine. Have You?” Badge for social networking sites. CDC’s MySpace page will feature messages and a social networking badge for friends. To add this badge to an organization or individual’s social network site, visit CDC’s MySpace page and copy and paste the html code into your site.

Add a link to CDC’s Get Vaccinated Health-e-Cards to a Web site or blog. Available in several different designs, the e-Cards include flu vaccination messages for moms and health care providers. The flu e-Cards link to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/ for more information, and also offer a space for inserting a personal message.

Add one of the following Widgets to a Web site (all available from www.cdc.gov/widgets/)

RSS Reader. This widget will read content from CDC RSS feeds and updated CDC content, including seasonal flu. Content will be displayed in the CDC RSS widget automatically.

Flu Map. Updated weekly, the CDC flu map widget will display a current map of reported flu cases throughout the United States.

Visit http://m.cdc.gov on your Mobile Phone to access mobile-ready Web content on seasonal flu.

Follow us on Twitter (CDCFlu) for seasonal influenza messages throughout flu season.

CDC is also reaching out to partners and the public through other interactive media avenues. We are seeking partners to participate in a CDC.gov Content Syndication pilot of content from the Seasonal Flu Web site. Content syndication allows CDC to share timely and relevant content that is automatically and seamlessly updated on partners’ Web sites. The display of the content will be consistent with the partners’ look and feel of their own sites. Once code is posted, no maintenance is required.

Last week, CDC conducted two Bloginars. The bloginar for mommy bloggers addressed the importance of vaccination, vaccine safety and communication messages. The bloginar for healthcare bloggers discussed ways to encourage colleagues to get vaccinated, to respond to questions about vaccine effectiveness, and to share other clinical updates.

CDC and Whyville, a popular Virtual World for “tweens,” (children ages eight through eleven), will collaborate for a third year on an in-world activity to engage them and their grandparents in vaccination activities.

Many of these tools would not be effective without the help of our partners in public health. We would like to thank the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC), WebMD, MayoClinic.com, HealthCentral.com, and QuantiaMD for their help in promoting the annual Seasonal Flu Vaccination campaign. As we work to use the tools of health marketing to promote flu vaccination, please join us in spreading the word. You can get more information on these efforts at nchminteractivemedia@cdc.gov.

Help spread the word, not the flu.

It’s a sad truth that, like the conversation about drugs, diabetes has become a conversation we need to have with our children. Two years ago, CDC published 2001 data that showed that, among children younger than 20, about 1 in 523 were diagnosed with diabetes. The data also showed that Native American children had the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes, at nearly 1 in 500. Yet, despite this high prevalence, parents don’t necessarily know they need to have a conversation about diabetes with their children or even how to speak about the disease. For example, should a parent mention the name of the disease? Will talk of diabetes unnecessarily alarm a child? Unfortunately, parents have very little guidance to turn to about diabetes prevention in children.

To respond to this lack and to the higher burden of diabetes among Native Americans, the Division of Diabetes Translation partnered with the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee and the Indian Health Service to develop the Eagle Books series. The author, Georgia Perez, a community health representative in the Nambe Pueblo in New Mexico, created a world of wise animals who engage the Native American boy, Rain That Dances, and his friends in the joy of physical activity and eating healthy foods. One of the animals, Mr. Eagle, assumes the role of tribal elder and uses storytelling to teach lessons about health and diabetes prevention.

The illustrators, Patrick Rolo of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, and Lisa A. Fifield of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, created vibrant and attractive watercolor illustrations to complement the messages about physical activity and healthy foods. And those messages are the strength of the series. You see, the books don’t shy away from using the word diabetes. But, because the messages are specific about the kinds of physical activity that kids can engage in and about the kinds of healthy food choices kids can make, they empower kids to take charge of their own health.

For the Division of Diabetes Translation, having the original artwork for the Eagle Books exhibited at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is only one success in their ongoing effort to raise awareness about diabetes in children. Already, two million Eagle Books have been distributed in the United States and abroad. The campaign also includes coloring books based on the books, and the series has been animated. The English language versions are accessible at CDC-TV, and the series is now available on DVD in several languages, including Chickasaw, Paiute, Shoshone, and Spanish. Podcasts of the books are also available. And a related Web site, the Eagle’s Nest, offers kids a place to find fun and relevant health and diabetes information.

Ultimately, preventing diabetes in our children is critical. Diabetes isn’t just one child’s health problem, it’s everyone’s health problem.

Social networks are not new. Humans have probably organized into social networks around the time we began walking upright, or sometime soon thereafter. Scholarship and analysis on social networks are not new either. A quick search for social-networks on Google Scholar reveals about 97,000 listings going back decades.

What is new and novel in the world of social networks, however, are “social network services,” made possible by the internet and the countless applications and sites that connect people with each other electronically. Online social network services like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, are wildly popular and used daily by millions of people to share information within networks of friends and acquaintances. CDC believes social networks offer great potential to protect health when accurate and relevant information is shared between trusted peers to support positive and healthy decision making. For this reason, CDC has its own MySpace page and maintains a dialogue with health-oriented sites like Sermo, Daily Strength, and Patients Like Me.

A health-related social network service that I have personally used is CaringBridge, a nonprofit web service that connects family and friends during a critical illness, treatment, or recovery. It was founded in 1997 by Sona Mehring, who had a friend who had a life-threatening pregnancy. To keep family and friends informed, she created a website so updates could be more easily shared, without the disruption and delay of phone calls or emails. Realizing the enormous potential of using electronic communication so family and friends across the world could share information with loved ones, Sona and her colleagues created CaringBridge so that others could benefit from this social network.

My own experience with CaringBridge started with a close friend undergoing treatment for cancer. She created a CaringBridge site to describe her condition and treatment, share stories about her experience, and even upload photos. Each time she would post new information in her online journal, an email would automatically be sent to all her subscribers with a link back to the page. But the most inspiring part of the site is the guestbook where all her loved ones (far too many to count) regularly post words of support, encouragement, and love. Reading these heartfelt comments deeply affects me emotionally. I can only imaging how great they must make her feel.

According to statistics published on the site, 100,000 families have created free, personalized CaringBridge websites. There have been more than half a billion visits by families and friends and more than 15 million guestbook messages of hope and encouragement. What CaringBridge lacks in the bells and whistles of more sophisticated, higher-budget social network site, they make up for in ease of use, remaining advertisement-free, and advancing their charitable, non-profit mission to help connect people around the world during difficult times.

CDC recently formed a collaborative partnership with CaringBridge to extend the reach and accessibility of CDC’s science-based health information to millions of CaringBridge users. By syndicating the “A-Z” listing of hundreds of different health topics from CDC.gov, CaringBridge users can now connect to CDC’s credible online health messages when looking for health information on the site. CaringBridge founder Sona Mehring observed, “When families and friends are trying to support someone undergoing medical treatment, one of their most important needs, beyond emotional support, is access to trusted medical information about a specific disease or condition that their loved one may be coping with. Our new partnership with CDC does just that, providing 24-hour, online access to its extensive medical libraries. The CDC is consistently identified as a highly trusted source of medical information.”

Social network services such as CaringBridge show the enormous power of bringing people together to share information and experiences that can make us all healthier, safer, and supported. Like my friend who found CaringBridge a critical aspect of her successful cancer treatment, I encourage you to share it with your friends and loved ones, and to explore ways social network services can further our goal of bringing health information and interventions to people where, when, and how they need it to inform healthy decisions.

Using blogs as a channel for educational and persuasive health messages is becoming common in today’s communication landscape. With more than 70 millions blogs in existence worldwide and 12 million Americans actively reading blogs, this medium is reaching new and diverse audiences. One trend that is driving this new form of information exchange is the shift in trust from ‘expert’ information sources of information to insights from ‘people like me.’

As health communicators and social marketers, we all should be actively seeking opportunities to deeplyengage our customers and communities through Web 2.0 exchanges and this upcoming AIDS.gov webinar is a great way to start. At CDC, we also have been reachingout to bloggers to ensure that accurate health information is available for online exchanges on important health issues, such as last year’s seasonal flu campaign.

If you are available, please join AIDS.gov for this event. The goal of the webinar is to heighten awareness and understanding of HIV testing, and to encourage bloggers to share this information with their readers prior to National Testing Day. The event will feature Dr. Bernie Branson, an HIV testing expert from the CDC, Dr. Celia Maxwell from Howard University, and blogger Mr. Andre Blackman. Bloggers and other participants are encouraged to submit questions to the panel when they register and during the webinar.

I encourage anyone with an interest in HIV/AIDS to sign up for this important webinar on June 17, 2008, by following the registration link above. This is a great way to learn about how to use webinars to reach bloggers for other health issues as well. To learn more about how AIDS.gov is using Web 2.0 technologies to improve health, visit the AIDS.gov blog.