Digital communication initiatives hold great potential for health promotion and disease prevention in India. They provide resources to dispel myths, disseminate evidence-based information, promote behavior change, empower individuals, and organize communities.
To enable Indian public health organizations to take full advantage of digital communication tools, RTI International developed a Digital Health Communication Toolkit. This toolkit incorporates best practices, case studies, and expert recommendations to fully leverage digital communication for public health.
It is the result of qualitative, formative research with college students and Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to assess Indians’ preferred communication channels for cancer information, and the viability of online platforms to serve as digital health information hubs.
Fiindings led to the development of a six-step approach to maximize digital health communication in India:
Step 1: Understand your audience
Step 2: Define your objectives
Step 3: Select your strategies and tactics
Step 4: Craft your messaging and content
Step 5: Select your tools
Step 6: Track your impact.