Continuing Education Self-Study Course
Health Marketing: Commercial Marketing Strategies to Improve Health

Continuing Education Self-study Course with 4.5 to 5.5 hours of reading assignments and audio files (mp3). Take the 16-question TF, multiple choice and short answer post-test. ($25, for 5 credit hours, click here to view Fees (refundable) and Register)

Easy and convenient: no deadline to complete, study when and where you prefer 

Study Guide (click here to download pdf): key document to help you efficiently complete the course. Includes instructions, objectives, assignments, helpful hints, PDF)

Goal: Market marketing to health professionals. Help them see many more benefits than costs to using commercial or business marketing techniques for improving individual and public health.

Objectives: 

• Describe history and rationale for perceptions of marketing
• State the American Marketing Association definitions and rationale for them
• List and describe the 13 key concepts and terms of marketing
• State CDC and others’ definitions of health marketing
• List tasks and projects of CDC’s National Health Marketing Center
• Analyze, differentiate and compare approaches and applilcations of health marketing, social marketing and health communication

NCHEC Participant Course Evaluation Summary (PDF, from social marketing self-study course)

• Overall Quality of Course: 4.8 (1 = Very Poor, 5 = Excellent)

Fees and Registration

Self-Study Course Fee: $25 (refundable within 60-days of sign-up)

• Click on this line for online registration using PayPal via debit/credit card or check or the “Buy Now” button.

After payment you can click to print a receipt. Be sure to click on the Return to Merchant button to get guidelines to complete the course efficiently (or go to this link for the Thank You for Signing Up web page)

• Registration using check or money order, download, type info and print registration form
• Thank You for Signing Up Web Page – click on the text to the left for extra instructions that will help you complete the course efficiently. You will get a Thank You for Signup email – Usually within 24 hours after signing up.

Two recent journal articles explain the need.

“Mention the word marketing to employees at most companies, and they will understand how it relates to their business. Successful commercial marketing can mean the difference between a company’s profit and loss, jobs or lay-offs, growth or bankruptcy. Mention the word marketing to public health professionals, and you may get blank stares, head shakes, or looks of confusion (and I’ve seen them all).Marketing is not well-known or understood in the public health community, in part because it is rarely taught in public health or medical schools. Nonetheless, the time has come to increase our awareness, training, and application of health marketing strategies and principles, because the field holds great promise for increasing the adoption of health promotion and protection information and interventions.”

-Jay Bernhardt PhD, MPH, Director CDC National Health Marketing Center

Improving health through health marketing. Prev Chronic Dis [serial online] 2006 Jul [date cited]. Available from: URL:http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2006/jul/05_0238.htm.

“The public health workforce worldwide is currently under-trained in the critical functions of communication and marketing.  Schools of public health and other public health institutions must take seriously the need to identify necessary competencies in these disciplines, and to develop and deploy training approaches that meet the needs of both current and future public health professionals. While these training resources are likely to emerge sooner rather than later in nations of the developed world, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that similar training resources are even more desperately needed in nations of the developing world. International health organizations should rapidly develop and deploy a strategic plan to improve the communication and marketing competency of the public health workforce worldwide, especially in developing countries. The success or failure of public health initiatives often hinges on effective marketing and communication.”

Communication and marketing as tools to cultivate the public’s health: a proposed “people and places” framework.. Edward W  Maibach, Lorien C Abroms and Mark Marosits. BMC Public Health 2007, 7:88doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-88.

There is a need for a tool to assess the effects of proposed policies, projects and programs in order prevent harm and maximize benefits to people. HIAs were recognized early in the 1990s by the World Health Organization and used by many nations. HIA use has not caught on in the US. There is some use in the US and it is being recommended for use by the Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2020 Advisory Committee as well as other organizations. is a practical approach used to judge the potential health effects of a policies, programs or projects on a population. Recommendations are produced for decision-makers and stakeholders, with the aim of maximizing the proposal’s positive health effects and minimizing its negative health effects.

The course has four main sections. After the introduction the first provides a background using the WHO Gothenburg Consensus Paper which is referenced by all other organizations. You will get information from global, national and local perspectives. The second section will help you understand the importance and recommendation to use HIAs in the United States with an emphasis on achieving Healthy People 2020 goals. The third section gives a rational and standards for HIA use and reports. The fourth section will allow you to review and select a guide to doing HIAs or combination of guides to help you achieve your local or organization goals.

In the Advisory Committee’s paper on operationalizing the determinants of health it states ways to implement Healthy People 2020 can Address Social Determinants of Health include providing technical assistance in the form of short courses, web-based training, and/or conference sessions that guide users on how to address factors in the social and physical environment through state or local programs.

Health Education Partners is a designated Multiple Event Provider (MEP3305) of continuing education contact hours (CECH) in health education by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC). This course has been reviewed and approved 6.5 Category I CHEC for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) in health Education.

Quality Indicators of Distance Education

• Student-teacher interaction
• Prompt feedback
• Student support services
• Program evaluation and assessment
• Clear analysis of audience
• Documented technology plan to ensure quality
• Institutional support and institutional resources
• Course structure guidelines
• Active learning techniques
• Respect diverse ways of learning
• Faculty support services
• Strong rational fo distance education the correlates to the mission of the institution
• Appropriate tools and media
• Reliability and technology
• Implementation of guidelines for course development and review of instructional materials

Chaney, B. Eddy, J. Dorman, S., Glessner, L., Green, B., Lara-Alecio, R. A primer on quality indicators of distance education. Health Promotion Practice OnlineFirst. Oct. 9, 2007.

• Full refund if payment was 1) electronic at the PayPal sign up link, 2) requested within 60 days of sign up and 3) completion certificate and credit hours not awarded
• Partial refund (course fee less $10 processing fee) if:
  • 1) payment was electronic at the PayPal sign up link, 2) not requested within 60 days and 3) completion certificate with credit hours was not awarded or
  • 2) payment was not through PayPal (i.e., check, money order sent with printed registration form)
• No refund at anytime after signup with payment if a completion certificate and credit hours have been awarded.