What pEACH offers

pEACH’s role is to:

Drive meaningful culture change
Translate current academic evidence into mainstream health practice.

We do this by:

Informing key stakeholders and the academic community that generate healthcare communication evidence
Speaking to the clinical workforce in a way that is relevant to their everyday clinical context & practice.

pEACH’s action strategy is aimed at:

Utilising evidence to develop specific action plans that can effectively translate existing evidence to organisation’s structures and processes
Developing a range of robust outcome measures that will show the impact of such initiatives and encourage investment in healthcare communication.

Within pEACH, we are working on a number of projects in order to improve and expand the support and expertise that we offer to the healthcare communication community.

Suggest a Topic

If you would like to suggest a topic, please write to
peach@each.international

Current Projects

EACH statement on communication and public awareness in WHO pandemic agreement

Communication in the next pandemic must be evidence-based

EACH: International Association for Communication in Healthcare calls for the negotiators of the WHO Pandemic Agreement to maintain and build on their commitment to evidence-based approaches to communication and public awareness in a future pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of planning and implementing effective communication strategies throughout a public health emergency. Policies were developed at a fast pace and necessarily relied on adjacent evidence due to the initial lack of specific research and the unprecedented urgency on a global scale. The pandemic also highlighted the challenges posed by the current “infodemic”, including mis- and disinformation.

In this context, EACH emphasises that evidence-based guidance for communication is central to shaping approaches to public health communication in a future pandemic. To ensure that policy and practice are evidence-based, person-centred, more inclusive and equitable, we advocate for investment in pandemic-specific research to inform the development of communication strategies, relevant and responsive training and policies, and supporting the translation of research to practice.

A global agreement will provide a mandate for WHO members states, and policymakers as a whole, to connect with experts who are engaged in research and strive to implement the latest evidence. This will help build systemic approaches to improving communication during future pandemics and similar healthcare crises.

Developing risk communication strategies based on scientific evidence from the fields of psychological, behavioural and social sciences, by means of interdisciplinary work across these fields, may improve effectiveness and help overcome psychological barriers that can have a strong bearing on the behavioural response of the public during a pandemic.

Increased empowerment of health institutions and governments to monitor, evaluate and respond to disinformation that hinders the adoption of appropriate precautionary and safety measures to fight a pandemic is also essential.

Furthermore, funded research and implementation of policies should come with integral built-in evaluation strategies that aim to improve the communication and overall experience of those seeking and providing healthcare services during pandemics.

For more information, read our position paper “Critical observations on and suggested ways forward for healthcare communication during COVID-19: pEACH position paper”.

How to get involved with pEACH

Here are different ways in which you can contribute to pEACH and get something in return!

If you have implemented evidence on healthcare communication in your healthcare facility, share your experience with us: learn about people who have realized similar projects, contribute to our growing database and learn from others’ experiences.

If you find that one of our projects suits your expertise and meets your interests, get in touch with us. You will find networking and learning opportunities in an international group with big ambitions!

Lessons from implementation: effective implementation feeds on successful processes. We are designing pathways through which successfully completed implementation projects can become shared knowledge and learning opportunities for our whole community. Get in touch with our Project Leader Jette Ammentorp to know more!

Evidence snapshots: at the heart of implementation is shared knowledge and goal alignment. With this project, we are creating a collection of ‘ready-to-use’ descriptions of fundamental topics in healthcare communication that can help academics create common ground with non-academic stakeholders. Get in touch with our Project Leader Conor Gilligan to know more see completed topics!

Policy documents: EACH aims to be a partner for policy-makers. We are devising a strategy and processes to effectively collaborate in the design of policies concerning the role and quality of communication in healthcare. We are doing this by collecting relevant policy documents, responding to them, and producing our own. Get in touch with our Project Leader Edgard Eeckman to know more

We are grateful for any constructive feedback that can help us improve and be more effective to reach our goals. Send your comments or questions to peach@each.international

What we expect of pEACH members

To be an eligible member of the pEACH committee we ask that you:

Have an active EACH membership
Join and contribute to one of the projects within pEACH
Attend at least one of the pEACH meetings per year (Once a year, members of the pEACH committee come together in person to further advance the aims of pEACH)