Develop strategies to communicate scientific content effectively, avoid the dissemination of fake news in a field as sensitive as health and generate trust and interest in citizens, putting the patient at the center of health information. These are the main issues of the second day of the 1st International Congress on Health Communication, organized by the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital with the support of the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) and the collaboration of Medtronic.

This second day started with a round table on how to combat fake news in health communication: analyzing when they represent a significant problem in the health system, the effects they have on both citizens and professionals and their impact on public health in general terms have been part of the debate. Dr. Carlo Martini, professor of philosophy in health sciences at the Università San Raffaele (Italy), Michele Cantazaro, freelance journalist who collaborates in ‘El Periódico de Catalunya’, among other media; Carlos Mateos, fake news expert at the ConSalud portal, director of the communication agency COM Salut and coordinator of #SaludsinBulos, Sigrid  März, scientific journalist and former editor of MedWatch, and Dr. Javier de Castro, head of Medical Oncology at La Paz University Hospital (Madrid), hightlighted that health and research centers, communication professionals and scientists have a more important role in the digital age than ever as gatekeepers of health information. Generating a climate of trust with the citizens, who are the ones who ultimately assign them the role of 'gatekeepers', serves because despite receiving the fake news, they do not believe them, the experts agreed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used both to generate fake news and to detect them. AI actually starred in a whole thematic block, which included a practical workshop given by Laia Morales, AI training consultant and founder of Bexperience, with examples of how to train ChatGPT to develop concrete actions.

Later, there was a round table on communication crises in which speakers from the communication departments of the main European hospitals took part, moderated by Fran Garcia. Lars Elgård, Head of Media Relations at Aarhus University Hospital (Denmark), Ann Lemaître, Head of Press at UZ Leuven (Belgium), Hanna Mellbin, Head of Strategic Communication at Karolinska University Hospital (Sweden), Laia Brufau, director of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), and Oscar Franco, director of public health, UMC Utrecht, University of Utrecht, and Adjunct Professor at Harvard University agreed that every crisis must be seen as an opportunity The speakers agreed that despite all the forecasting and anticipation protocols that can be prepared you are never prepared for a major crisis like a pandemic or a terrorist attack. The old debate about how far information transparency should go also animated the round table: preserving the privacy of patients, especially in circumstances such as events or catastrophes, was one of the red lines that were marked. The analysis concluded with a reflection on the potential of social networks in health communication: both as a thermometer of issues that concern or interest citizens, and to provide a quick response without intermediaries. Institutions have never directly and immediately reached so many people and this is thanks to social networks, the speakers concluded.

Audrey Mash, patient from Vall d'Hebron revived after six hours of cardiac arrest due to hypothermia, has exemplified with her story, which went around the world in 2019, the fundamental role of the patient and the citizen as protagonists of communication in health. As demonstrated in her case, patients are the best ambassadors of health communication, as they speak the same language as citizens and make them understand, in an understandable way, how scientific and medical advances can save lives In Audrey's case, it served to popularize ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) in the pre-covid era, when it was not such a well-known technique. This thematic blog also featured Sarah Neville, Global Health Editor of the Financial Times and winner of the 2024 UK Health Journalist Award. She emphasized that, in all of her award-winning health articles, she always tries to find a patient story that puts a face to the disease or medical breakthrough in question.

At the lunch time, and with the aim of bringing science closer to the attendees, a Meet the Expert session was held, so that the attendees could interact directly with some of the speakers and participants in the round tables and workshops. After lunch, patient associations and their communication strategies were the protagonists: Julien Poulain, head of communication at Eurordis-Rare Diseases Europe and Jazz Sethi, founder and director of The Diabetes Foundation (India), took the floor to explain how the associations, who know the diseases thoroughly, bring both the scientific knowledge and the human stories of their members closer to the media and citizens. This thematic block also featured the Care Connect experience: Dra. Olga Simó, coordinator of the Diabetes Technology Unit at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, introduced it with the help of Medtronic.

The last panel of the congress established a passionate debate by talking about what journalists look for and find when they deal with doctors and researchers from health institutions. Prominent journalists such as Josep Corbella, from 'La Vanguardia', Korinna Hennig from NDR Info (Germany) and Géraldine Zamansky (France 59) participated, as well as scientists such as Dr. Josep Tabernero (Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus), Dra. Purvi Parwani, cardiologist in Loma Linda (California, USA) and Judit Balazs, psychiatrist at Eotvos Lorand University, in Budapest (Hungary). They all agreed that they need each other to achieve their ultimate goal: to improve the scientific knowledge of the general population