This week, Christiane Amanpour, a leading figure in international journalism and one of CNN's most recognisable faces, announced that she will retire in 2027 after 43 years. Asked what story she would most like to report before hanging up her microphone, she chose a health-related one. "A treatment that cures cancer," she replied. Other prominent news presenters, including Ramón Pellicer (TV3) and Lorenzo Milá (TVE), have expressed the same wish. It would be an extraordinary story, but the reality is that health tends to dominate front pages and lead news broadcasts when a health crisis breaks out. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic. How and when does a health issue become news? Who decides which stories are told? And how do journalists report when not all the answers are available? These were some of the questions that shaped the first day of the 3rd International Health Communication Congress, hosted by Vall d'Hebron University Hospital on Thursday and Friday with the support of the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA).

Under the theme "Communicating in Real Time", this third edition focuses on the challenges of live reporting in high-pressure, constantly evolving environments. Over two days, participants will experience live connections, debates and interactive sessions combining three essential elements of effective communication: information, education and entertainment.

The first day began with a welcome from Dr Albert Salazar, Managing Director of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital; Abraham del Moral, Director of Communications at the Catalan Government's Department of Health; and Johan Val Eldere, Secretary General of the EUHA. Fran Garcia, Director of Communications at Vall d'Hebron, then introduced Rosa Romà, President of 3Cat and former Director of Communications at the hospital, who delivered the opening keynote. Romà addressed the challenges of real-time reporting, where immediacy demands decisions within minutes, and shared her perspective on the current and future challenges of health communication. "Accuracy and transparency are key to reporting," she stressed.

Managing Health Crises

When a health crisis breaks out, there is not always time to wait for all the answers. Decisions must be made, the situation must be explained, and accuracy and empathy must be maintained. How do you communicate when circumstances are changing by the minute?

Through a series of live connections, presented under the title "Communicating from the Front Line of Health", participants were given a behind-the-scenes look at some of the places where public health messages are developed and the dilemmas professionals face when the information they share can have a direct impact on people's lives.

The first connection took participants to the World Health Organization's (WHO) operations centre in Geneva, Switzerland. There, Aleksandra Kuzmanovic and Diya Banerjee discussed the role of social media and digital strategies in health communication, both during emergencies and in public health education. The journey continued to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Dr Anne Ancia explored the challenges of communicating during an Ebola outbreak. During an epidemic, public health decisions and communication strategies must move forward together. How should the risk of infection be explained? How can prevention measures be communicated effectively? And how can public trust be built when fear and misinformation threaten to undermine the emergency response?

The final live connection took participants to Ukraine, where Jarno Habicht and Tetiana Dolhova shared their experience of maintaining health communication amid war and under extremely challenging circumstances.

While these live connections took participants into the settings where health crises are managed, the session "When Health Becomes Breaking News Worldwide" opened the doors to four major European newsrooms to explore what happens before a health story makes the front page or leads a television news bulletin.

Moderated by Freja Annamatz, Director of Communications at Karolinska University Hospital, the discussion brought together Tony Gallagher, Editor of the British newspaper The Times; Rita Ferreira, Society Editor at the Portuguese weekly Expresso; Luten Leinhos, a news editor at German public broadcaster ZDF; and Raquel Sans, journalist and presenter of TV3's weekend news bulletin. They shared the editorial criteria behind their decisions and the challenges of reporting on health in an increasingly fast-paced news environment.

"Health matters because it directly affects people's lives, but not everything that happens in a hospital, laboratory or scientific congress necessarily has news value," said Tony Gallagher. Between a press release and a headline lies a selection process shaped by public interest, the strength of scientific evidence, novelty, social impact and the ability to tell a story that resonates with audiences.

One of the greatest challenges is deciding when a scientific advance is sufficiently established to become news. Freja Annamatz highlighted the media's responsibility to ensure that the pressure to report quickly does not create false hope. Social media amplifies interest in new cancer treatments and other medical discoveries, but results obtained in mice cannot be equated with those demonstrated in humans. "Explaining what a medical breakthrough really means, how many patients could benefit from it, and what its limitations are is essential to ensure that expectations do not outpace science," emphasised Raquel Sans.

The discussion also highlighted how different national healthcare systems shape news agendas. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) occupies a central place in public debate. "After the economy, health and the healthcare system are probably the main concerns of British readers," Gallagher noted.

In Germany, meanwhile, healthcare reforms compete daily with political and economic developments for a place in news broadcasts. Leinhos described a recent editorial decision in which his team had to choose whether to lead the evening news with a European summit on the EU budget for the next seven years or with Germany's emergency care reform. Ultimately, the summit took priority, despite the more immediate relevance and everyday impact of the healthcare story. He also discussed the difficulties of allocating resources to investigative journalism and examining the structural problems facing Germany's healthcare system.

"In Portugal, waiting lists, staff shortages and the growing role of private healthcare are part of the news agenda. The healthcare system faces considerable challenges," explained Rita Ferreira. In Catalonia, health reporting combines scrutiny of the public healthcare system with coverage of medical and scientific advances. "In our public television newsroom, we have specialist journalists who help us separate the wheat from the chaff, identifying which scientific advances genuinely have news value and navigating health information that can sometimes be difficult to access," said Raquel Sans.

Despite the differences between countries, the four perspectives highlighted that the scientific significance of a discovery does not always match its journalistic relevance. The scale of its impact, its political and economic importance, and its connection to everyday life are decisive factors in determining what becomes news.

Reporting When Science Does Not Yet Have All the Answers

The COVID-19 pandemic put this decision-making process to the test. For months, journalists had to explain a reality that changed daily, with constantly updated data, recommendations evolving as new scientific evidence emerged, and a public in urgent need of answers. That experience continues to raise questions about reporting in situations of uncertainty, but also about how to communicate new medical advances without creating expectations that science cannot yet fulfil.

Today, obesity medications, new cancer therapies and applications of artificial intelligence in medicine are examples of subjects that attract considerable public interest and demand particularly rigorous journalism. How can the potential of a treatment be explained without turning reporting into advertising? When is it too early to describe a discovery as promising?

What Do Journalists Need from Hospitals?

The relationship between the media and healthcare institutions was another central theme of the discussion. Hospitals and research centres generate information with potential public interest every day, but ensuring that it reaches the public depends on more than its scientific relevance. Journalists need verified data, clear explanations, access to professionals with first-hand knowledge of the stories and, often, opportunities to speak directly with patients.

"We also need prompt responses, particularly in a news environment where deadlines are getting shorter. Having journalists who specialise in health makes a real difference," Raquel Sans and Rita Ferreira agreed. Although much health reporting focuses on positive developments, transparency becomes even more important when the news is negative. "Care-related crises, problems in the delivery of services and controversial situations put the relationship between newsrooms and healthcare communications teams to the test," the Portuguese journalist pointed out.

The debate also examined the role of institutional communications professionals, who must balance the need to communicate their organisations' work with the demands of independent journalism. This relationship is not built only when there is a story to share. It also depends on trust, accessibility and transparency.

From Theory to Practice: Building an Artificial Intelligence Agent

The first day concluded with an interactive session exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in health communication. Laia Morales, Co-founder of Bexperience, and Andreu de Haro, Head of Digital Strategy and Channels at Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, invited participants to build an AI agent and experiment with the possibilities offered by this technology.

The workshop moved the discussion from theory to practice, exploring how emerging tools could transform the work of communications professionals.