High quality communication is a prerequisite for high quality health care.
Effective communication is vital to the physician-patient relationship.
Public information about health and the health care system is also essential to meaningful public debate about the need for reform. In 1992, the Program first addressed public health communications when it cosponsored its second Medicine for the 21st Century conference with the American Medical Association and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at the Eisenhower Medical Center. With the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this conference addressed Challenges in Personal and Public Health Promotion . Under the leadership of Annenberg Senior Fellow Gregory Makoul, the Forum reflects an effort to supplement Northwestern's innovative medical curriculum and to challenge traditional perspectives about the relationships between physicians and patients. In the forum Primary Care, Health and the Community , Oxford physician and lecturer Theo Schofield challenged the perception that community health problems require medical solutions.