HOBI professor Carma Bylund, Ph.D., has been named editor-in-chief of PEC Innovation, a new online journal published by Elsevier covering the fields of health promotion, health education and health communication.
The ‘PEC’ acronym refers both to the name of the online journal’s sister publication, Patient Education and Counseling, and to the three topical areas of PEC Innovation.
Bylund said she is excited about leading the online-only, open access journal in its exploration of new developments and innovation in these fields. She is joined by associate editors Christopher J. Koenig, Ph.D., at San Francisco State University, and Lena Heyn, RN, Ph.D., at the University of South-Eastern Norway. In addition, the journal is supported by an editorial board made up of international scholars.
“I am honored to serve as the first editor-in-chief of PEC Innovation. Research in the areas of health promotion, health education and health communication has grown significantly in the past several years. There is a real need for a journal focused on innovative work to improve health and healthcare experiences,” Bylund said. “My vision is that PEC Innovation will become the first choice for researchers who want to publish their developmental and innovative work on health education, promotion, and healthcare communication in an open-access journal.”
The interdisciplinary, international journal will include peer-reviewed articles on the development of new tools for assessment and research, along with novel interventions designed to promote health and advance health communication at all levels and in myriad forms.
“We plan to take a broad view of health communication, one that includes many of the newer forms of communication, such as e-health and e-learning,” Bylund said.
Bylund, a professor in HOBI’s Division of Health Outcomes and Implementation Science and director of education and training for the UF Health Cancer Center’s Cancer Control and Population Sciences program, is a behavioral scientist with international expertise in healthcare communication across the cancer continuum, and more recently in dementia. Her research focuses on the development, implementation and testing of communication interventions for clinicians, patients and caregivers to improve health outcomes.
“Our main mission at PEC Innovation is to provide a dissemination tool for researchers to share their innovative work with stakeholders in health care and healthcare research,” she said.
The journal was launched on June 30. Journal articles will be published online as they are received and reviewed for publication. For more information, including submission guidelines, visit PEC Innovation.