Communicating medical Science in the Digital Age: Culture, Knowledge, Expertise, Practices

The rapid development of Web 2.0 and social media platforms over the last decades has transformed the traditional landscape of medical science and healthcare communication in response to the knowledge shifts that a variety of societal stakeholders, including the research academy, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and patients, increasingly take on board through the readily usable functionalities of online information and knowledge platforms. Driven by the steady proliferation of digitally mediated and embodied discourse practices in a variety of health communication contexts (Wright et al. 2013; Hamilton/Wenying 2017), digital transformations have created new communicative models and systems for the medical academy and the healthcare industry as parts of the effort to expand access for both scholars and the public and ultimately sustain the bridge between medical science, health, and society.