The Annenberg Washington Program was founded in 1983 by Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg as a nonprofit, neutral forum in the nation's capital for examining pressing communications policy issues, particularly those sur rounding the media and new communications technologies. The Program first explored communications policy as it relates to health care and social issues in 1986, when it invited a panel of experts to speak on, and later publish, Market place Problems in Communications Technology for Disabled People.
The Program began its systematic examination of the role of communications in medicine and related fields three years later, with publication of Matching Needs, Saving Lives: Building a Comprehensive Network for Transplantation and Biomedical Research. Program Director Newton N. Minow, former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, believed that communications technologies and skills could not only provide a reliable link between organ donors and recipients, but also expand the availability of donated organs and tissues through sensitive, effective requests and a nationwide database of potential donors. The idea was not new, but Minow was convinced that the Program's expertise in communications, and its institutional and ideological neutrality, would prove to be valuable resources in facilitating this use of communications to save lives and reduce human suffering.
Matching Needs, Saving Lives was the first in a series of 13 publications and four national conferences on transplant communications supported by The Annenberg Washington Program. The report reflected a commitment by the Program to explore the role of communications outside of traditional communi cations industries. During the past decade, the Program has sponsored more than 60 meetings, reports, book chapters, and articles about the vital role of communications in medicine. The Program's concentration on medical com munications has spanned vital subjects including the Americans with Disabili ties Act, organ and tissue transplantation, end-of-life decision-making and the Patient Self-Determination Act, physician-patient communications, and the use of telecommunications, media, and electronic network technologies to provide medical information. The Program has also examined the role of communications in addressing a variety of related social issues that affect health, including the role of the media regarding violence in society, illegal drug use, and the debate over health policy and reform.
The past ten years have seen an increasing recognition of the critical role com munications play in all aspects of health care. The availability, effectiveness, and reliability of communications has improved dramatically. In some fields, the pace of change has been agonizingly slow; in others, change has come much faster. There are still needs, for example, for more consistent training in com munications, and for the wider availability of communications resources-- whether videos for patients awaiting transplantation or fiber optic links to extend health care to underserved populations.
This report identifies some of the progress that has been made. It is an enthusi astic acknowledgment of the many people--dedicated health professionals, farsighted policymakers, patients who would not take "no" for an answer--and organizations responsible for that progress. And it is a call to action to ensure further progress in this vital area.
In keeping with the Program's mission as a bridge among interested constituen cies, virtually all of its activities in health communications have been cospon sored by one or more organizations actively involved in the improvement of health care. The Program has been privileged to work with the American Asso ciation of Critical-Care Nurses, the American Medical Association, the Annen berg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower Medical Center, CAST, the Coalition on Donation, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Gallaudet Research Institute, Harvard University's Center for Health Com munications, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Mayo Clinic, the National Organization on Disability, North western University Medical School, The Partnership for Organ Donation, Inc., the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United Network for Organ Sharing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the World Institute on Disability, among others. The Program gratefully acknowledges the expertise, commitment, and generosity of these cosponsors.