Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Mecmuası

Öz

Health communication, both in public health field, as well as in the profit/non-profit organizations, is an area which
is rapidly developing and increasingly gaining importance. The aim of the study is to define health communication
as a developing field in Turkey; to display the historical background, conditions that support its development, the
framework, related studies and the necessity for a paradigm in this interdisciplinary field; and to put forward suggestions
for future work. This study examines the literature in health communication and presents a compilation about
the subject. Health communication is developing multi-dimensionally both by academic work and practice. Health
communication is playing an increasingly important role in disease prevention and control. While the field of health
communication expands, an interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial in order to contribute to the expansion of
paradigm. The work conducted by the researchers from the same field is not sufficient to facilitate the progress of
paradigm. A medical point of view will enrich the research of non-health professionals, whereas communication
experts will contribute to the medical point of view in enlarging the framework of health communication studies.