Research & Evaluation
Several tools can be used to gain insight into public health issues of interest and to evaluate your messages and products—research studies, surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups to name a few.
Focus groups are just one of many research tools used by ORAU's health communications specialists to develop and test health messages.
All information obtained helps you to inform the public or your workers, allowing them to make better decisions related to their health and safety.
Let Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) offer you our comprehensive approach to the research and evaluation needed for a successful communications campaign. Components include:
- collecting data from appropriate sources, such as primary and secondary literature reviews, media analysis, and subject matter experts
- developing protocols that address:
- research objectives
- target audiences
- audience segments
- data collection methods and instruments
- record handling
- screeners
- and informed consent
- providing facilities, moderators/interviewers, and other logistical support, including reporting functions
More specifically, we partner with you as well as local communities to:
- Organize and conduct focus groups to identify issues, perceptions, and communications needs
- Research and write reports that can be used as national resources
- Analyze media coverage to identify trends related to specific topics
- Evaluate and test communications materials using readability tools as well as a representative audience
- Evaluate the usability of Web sites used to communicate health information
Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Prepared and maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), IRIS is an electronic database with information on human health effects that may result from exposure to various chemicals in the environment. In managing this program, ORAU personnel conducts literature searches and prepares toxicological reviews and summaries of chemical substances.
Immunization News for Managers (INFORM). ORAU helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) address emerging health issues and media misinformation by collecting and analyzing hundreds of domestic and international news articles daily. ORAU uses INFORM, a media analysis and message mapping project. Currently, approximately 25,000 news articles are collected and analyzed per year to deduce current trends in the reporting of disease and/or vaccine news.
For more details and additional project highlights, visit ORAU's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Web site.