Communication professors receive grant for health research

November 28, 2017 - MSU Today Staff

Link to original article: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/communication-professors-receive-grant-for-health-research/

Michigan State University communication professors James Dearing and Maria Lapinski have received a grant to research which effective and low-cost healthcare practices from other countries could be successful if implemented in the United States.

The $250,000 grant comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit focused on health and health research.

“This grant is an exciting opportunity to bring communication research to bear on a practical problem,” Lapinski said. “Dr. Dearing has assembled a stellar group of researchers to work on the project, so it also means a chance to work with a great team.”

With the grant, Dearing, Lapinski and their team plan to utilize both communication theory and real-life situations to dig deeper into the characteristics of successful health innovations and how those innovations can move across contexts.

“The biggest challenge probably won’t be finding effective, low-cost ways to improve health, but rather the factors that predict demand for those innovations in U.S. communities so that these innovations are not met with a ‘not invented here’ negative response,” Dearing said.