May 3, 2006

College hosts visitors from the National Library of Medicine

Two visitors from the National Library of Medicine were at the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies on April 25 to meet with the Health Science Communication Initiative Advisory Group and address interested CMCIS faculty.

Dr. Julia Royall, a graduate of the USC Honors Program (now the Honors College) shared her experiences in building a telecommunications network in Africa for malaria researchers to share information and access the Internet.

Our other visitor, former University of Missouri Journalism School faculty member Dr. Robert Logan, believes that the University of South Carolina is in a unique position to build research programs concerning health information.

Logan’s discussion centered on his belief that mass communication theory can help researchers understand how people seek and process health information.

"We can look at people as consumers of information," said Logan, "rather than simply as 'patients.'"

He also noted that the College's sister schools in Library and Information Science and in Journalism and Mass Communications make a powerful combination for looking into the best ways to provide information about health issues. USC's School of Public Health, Medical School, and Medical School Library could also contribute to such an effort.