Congratulations and thanks are due to Dimitry Kruglyak from the Medical Blog Network (http://www.healthvoices.com/), who organized and recently hosted the first Healthcare Blogging Summit in Washington, DC as part of Consumer Health World. I was honored to speak at the Summit and share the dais with many accomplished innovators and leaders in the world of health-related blogging. A number of participants and attendees have written about the Summit and you can find their feedback here: http://www.technorati.com/search/healthcare+blogging+summit

It was great seeing old colleagues and meeting new innovators in Toronto recently at the 11th World Congress on Internet in Medicine (MedNet) (http://www.mednetcongress.org/). I had the honor of delivering the keynote address at the conference ( 12 pages/1.72 MB) and today’s blog will offer a brief synopsis of my remarks.

For the last several weeks, CDC has been actively engaged leading the public health response to the E. coli outbreak associated with fresh spinach that has sickened more than 150 people and may have claimed three lives. When public health emergencies or outbreaks occur, the CDC activates the Director’s Emergency Operation Center (DEOC) [here is a photo of the DEOC]. One of the core components of the DEOC is the Joint Information Center (JIC) led by the Emergency Communication System (ECS), which is an agency wide risk communication activity led by the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM). [Note: CDC loves its acronyms!] The ECS is an amazing group of CDC professionals who spring into action when needed and work tirelessly, including nights and weekends, to help save and protect countless lives through health and risk communication targeted at professionals and the public. Watching the dedicated and professional response of the DEOC and the ECS in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year was truly inspiring.

It is my pleasure to welcome our first “guest blogger” to health marketing musings. The following remarks are from my colleague Dan Rutz, MPH, the Associate Director of Communication Science from the CDC National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases (NCPDCID). He shares interesting and important observations about the frailty of our human experience and our communication science, and he calls for strengthening both. As always, reader comments are welcome and encouraged. –Jay Bernhardt

More than any other question, the one I am most frequently asked has to do with the name of our center at CDC, the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM): “What is health marketing?” Other common questions include “What is the difference between health communication and health marketing?” “Is it the same thing as social marketing?” and “Why is CDC trying to change the name of our field?!?” In this, my second blog entry, I’ll try to answer some of these questions and share my thoughts on the sensitive issue of disciplinary names and identities.

Legendary newsman Daniel Schorr once observed, “If you don’t exist in the media, for all practical purposes, you don’t exist.” The same can be said today for the web-if you don’t have an online presence, and if you don’t show up in Google, for all practical purposes, you don’t exist. Therefore, I’m happy to announce that the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM) at the CDC finally exists!