IRCAHC is committed to delivering global healthcare communication research under the challenges of ageing populations and emerging diseases, especially in the areas of health policy, organisational structures and community-based care in the community and hospital settings in the Asia Pacific region.
To achieve this goal, IRCAHC focuses on the social psychology of language in healthcare communication, the role of the organisations, groups and individuals in negotiating patient care and the links between community and hospital care.
This focus is reflected in the key areas of work currently pursued by IRCAHC, which are:
1. Community health and ageing populations with a particular focus on mHealth and health literacy
2. Using Discusis to visualise Cantonese and English conversations in HealthCare
3. Patient safety and adverse events prevention
4. Lung cancer stigma
5. Community disruption, trauma, and recovery
6. The role of culture in influencing patient decision-making preferences and the communication strategies patients want health providers to use to enact those preferences
The contributions of the work of IRCAHC are aiming to impact the development of:
1. Healthcare policy
2. Healthcare education
3. Best practice guidelines for healthcare professionals
4. Patient safety and quality of care
5. The well-being of healthcare professionals
6. The deepened interdisciplinary collaborations
To achieve these goals, IRCAHC strives to promote international conferences, symposia and workshops, create a shared database of members’ research interests, highlight members’ new publications and develop online courses around issues such as inter-professional health collaboration, professional development workshops on communication, leadership and resilience, etc. In addition, IRCAHC will source competitive funding and encourage inter-university research collaborations and exchanges.
