The times… they are a changing!  Drum roll please…..

The Centers For Disease Control have recently launched the web home for the National Center for Health Marketing and what do you know… the Director, Jay Bernhardt has his own blog.  (Thanks to Nedra at Spare Change for letting me know about the launch of the blog.)

One of the wonderful things about government websites is that they do an excellent job of defining purposes, functions, processes and best practices.  Just listen to this for a definition of Health Marketing:

Health Marketing involves creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions using customer-centered and science-based strategies to protect and promote the health of diverse populations (CDC, 2005).

or this:

Health Marketing is a multidisciplinary area of public health practice.  This innovative approach draws from traditional marketing theories and principles and adds science-based strategies to prevention, health promotion and health protection.  Drawing from fields such as marketing, communication, and public health promotion, health marketing provides a framework of theories, strategies and techniques that can be used to guide work in public health research, interventions, and communication campaigns.

I know it is not rocket science to come up with a definiton of what health marketing is all about.  However I do appreciate the efforts required for the NCHM leaders, expert advisors, and legal wonks to reach a consensus on the official defintion that will provide an opportunity for good policy and practice to emerge.  Their efforts also give a starting point for discussion. Agreeing, disagreeing , castigating  and/or lauding  are important processes in refining the area and becoming better at improving the health of individuals through education.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we all have a big sip of the NCHM kool-aid and march forward.  In fact, the NCHM admits that health marketing is "a new area of practice that is still being defined."

At this point, I think the emergence of this new area of governmental focus points to the fact that health marketing is growing discipline with special considerations that separate it from traditional marketing practice.  I also think that the launch of this new site and blog indicates that there is great potential in health marketing to help individuals become healthier and more active participants in their own healthcare.

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