果冻传媒

The project: Health Communication in a Changing World: Professional Interaction, Behaviour Change and Emerging Technologies

This project supported the organisation and delivery of an international interdisciplinary conference focused on health communication, health behaviour change, professional interaction, and the impact of emerging technologies on healthcare practice. The conference aligned closely with the Health Spotlight鈥檚 mission by bringing together researchers and practitioners interested in improving health outcomes through better communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based practice.

The original project proposal aimed to collaborate with a local healthcare organisation to explore how healthcare professionals use behaviour change talk in interactions with patients. However, maintaining engagement with community and healthcare partners within the available project timeframe proved challenging. To ensure that the funding could still generate meaningful impact, the project was adapted into an international conference exploring similar themes but from a broader interdisciplinary perspective.

The conference created a platform for researchers, healthcare practitioners, and educators to share knowledge and discuss challenges and opportunities in health communication, professional interaction, behaviour change, and technology-enabled healthcare. The intended outcomes were to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue, develop new research collaborations, identify future research directions, and strengthen networks between institutions in the UK and internationally.

Summary of project outcomes

The project successfully delivered an international hybrid conference that brought together researchers and practitioners from across the UK and around the world.

A total of approximately 120 participants registered for the conference. Around 60 participants attended in person, representing universities and organisations from both the UK and overseas. Approximately 40 participants joined online from institutions across Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and the United States. The conference provided a valuable forum for discussing current challenges and developments in health communication, professional practice, behaviour change, and emerging technologies.

A key strength of the event was its interdisciplinary and cross-institutional nature. The conference facilitated dialogue between researchers working in applied linguistics, health sciences, communication studies, education, psychology, sociology, and related disciplines. It also enabled discussions between academic researchers and practitioners who are directly involved in healthcare and professional communication.

The project involved collaboration with external colleagues including Professor Alison Pilnick (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr Kim Bulman (Coventry University), and Dr Tom Ritchie, Dr Shawnea Sum Pok Ting and Vineetha Wilson (果冻传媒), who contributed to conference activities and discussions around how emerging technologies influence health communication and behaviour change across diverse communities. Their involvement helped strengthen links between institutions and supported knowledge exchange across disciplinary and organisational boundaries.

The main change from the original plan was the shift from a local healthcare collaboration project to an international conference. While the original project aimed to investigate health behaviour change talk through direct collaboration with healthcare professionals, engagement with community partners proved difficult within the project鈥檚 timescale. The conference provided an alternative way of addressing related themes while reaching a much wider audience and generating broader interdisciplinary engagement than originally anticipated.

Overall, the project successfully promoted international collaboration, interdisciplinary dialogue, and knowledge exchange in an area that is highly relevant to the Health Spotlight's goals of improving health and wellbeing through innovative research and collaboration.

Has the project supported further interdisciplinary work

The conference created opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers working across health communication, applied linguistics, health sciences, education, psychology, sociology, and technology studies. The event brought together participants from different institutions, disciplines, and professional backgrounds who would not normally have opportunities to interact.

The conference also strengthened existing collaborations with colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University and Coventry University and created new connections with researchers from institutions across the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America.

One concrete outcome of the conference was a planning discussion among the organising team regarding a future conference focusing on human-AI interaction in professional contexts. This discussion took place during the post-conference debriefing event and has opened up opportunities for future interdisciplinary collaboration involving communication, health, education, and emerging technologies.

The conference also generated ideas for future research projects exploring professional communication, behaviour change, healthcare interaction, and the role of AI and digital technologies in professional practice.