As a bridge between medicine and the public, health communication is where accurate, responsible and humane information contributes to shaping awareness, changing behavior and promoting preventive activities, creating healthy habits.
The program was organized by the Magnetics group, students of the Faculty of International Relations & Communication, HUFLIT, with the participation of speaker Ms. Do Thi Nam Phuong – Head of the Communication Center, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City. With extensive practical experience in the field of medical communication, Ms. Do Thi Nam Phuong brought to the session many insightful and inspiring perspectives on how to build accurate, accessible medical messages while still maintaining depth and humanity.
Right from the first sharing, MSc. Do Thi Nam Phuong – Head of the Communication Center, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City – opened up to HUFLIT students a practical perspective on medical communication – a communication field that has been developing in recent years, but is also full of challenges, requiring accuracy, responsibility and humanity.
If commercial media can take advantage of eye-catching, viral to quickly attract the public, medical media requires absolute accuracy, empathy for patients and kindness in every smallest detail. “Making clips for doctors is not the same as making clips for artists and writing for patients requires much more sophistication. More specifically, each message of medical media not only conveys information but also contains the power to heal, touching the hearts of readers” the speaker emphasized.
According to MSc. Do Thi Nam Phuong, medical communication is a field that has been developing strongly in recent years, but also faces many challenges. Unlike commercial communication – where eye-catching, viral elements can help attract the public – medical communication requires absolute accuracy, empathy for patients and kindness in every smallest detail. “Making clips for doctors is not the same as making clips for artists and writing for patients requires much more sophistication. More specifically, each message of medical communication not only conveys information but also contains the power to heal, touching the hearts of readers“, the speaker emphasized.
In addition to sharing her professional knowledge, MSc. Nam Phuong also brought to HUFLIT students vivid career stories from her own experiences in the unique environment of the medical industry – a unique field with high requirements for urgency, accuracy and pressure in processing media information.
From vaccination campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic, overnight organ transplants, to medical crises that erupt in just a few hours – every media product carries a “huge” responsibility when it can directly impact the emotions, behaviors, and even beliefs of patients.
The atmosphere in the hall became more exciting when students took turns asking questions about the difficulties and challenges in medical communication work such as: “How to control fake news in the era of social networks spreading too quickly?”, “How to be creative in a field that requires absolute accuracy like medical communication?”…
The speaker frankly shared: “Standards and accuracy in medical communication are the highest requirements and also the immutable principles of medical communication. But within that framework, communicators can still be creative in storytelling, choosing images and forms of expression, to turn dry and difficult medical information into something close and easy to understand for the community without losing professional value”.
The constantly innovating healthcare industry has opened up many career opportunities for those who are passionate about communications and want to create positive values for society. With a foundation of professional knowledge, creative thinking and a sense of responsibility, HUFLIT students can completely embark on this field as a meaningful, humane and promising career choice, as the passionate conclusion of the career philosophy of MSc. Do Thi Nam Phuong: “Medical communications is the journey of those who understand, know how to listen and act with a kind heart “.
The talk show “The Mediacine – Medical communication, refined communication” has ended but the echoes still linger through each authentic career story, each profound lesson about responsibility, accuracy and compassion. These values will be a strong source of inspiration for HUFLITers to continue to explore and pursue a field of communication that not only requires professionalism but is also imbued with humanity.
