Health Communication and Behaviour Change in the Evolving Digital Landscape: Language, Discourse and Interaction
Call for ContributionsLink opens in a new window
With a particular focus on language, discourse, and interaction, the event explores how communication practices in health across digital and socially situated linguistic and cultural contexts are increasingly mediated, augmented, or constrained by a range of emerging sociotechnical systems. These include artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision-making, digital platform infrastructures, and more, which are influencing health-related attitudes, decisions, and behaviours.
As digital technologies continue to transform healthcare delivery, public health messaging, patient engagement, health education, and behaviour change processes, the role of language, discourse, and interaction becomes increasingly critical. Communication shapes how health information and health educational content are understood across linguistic and cultural boundaries; how credibility and empathy are constructed; how access and power relations are negotiated; how care and health education are provided, communicated, and experienced; and how behavioural outcomes are influenced. Understanding how individuals and communities respond to, interpret, and act upon technologically mediated communication related to health across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts is, therefore, central to advancing research in this field. At the same time, challenges such as misinformation, algorithmic bias, ethical concerns, and unequal access, together with ongoing technological advancements, highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches to health communication and behaviour change research that are sensitive to cultural and linguistic diversity.
This conference aims to provide a collaborative space to critically engage with these developments, fostering dialogue across disciplines, promoting the co-creation of knowledge, and encouraging innovative perspectives on how digitally mediated communication practices shape experiences of care, access, engagement, and decision-making, and influence health behaviours in evolving digital landscapes.
We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- Interactional dynamics and language use in telehealth and AI-assisted healthcare encounters
- AI-mediated and digitally mediated health communication and its impact on health behaviour change, health perceptions, health education, and care experiences
- Communication of care and health in digital and AI-enabled health environments across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts
- Misinformation, trust, and ethical challenges in digital and AI-driven health communication across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts
- Inequalities in access, participation, and behavioural outcomes in multilingual and multicultural digital health communication
- Interdisciplinary approaches to digital health communication and behaviour change research
Submissions are encouraged from a wide range of disciplines, including applied linguistics, health communication, behavioural science, intercultural studies, sociology, public health, media studies, psychology, and computer science. Contributions are expected to maintain a clear focus on language, discourse, and interaction in the context of health communication and health behaviour change in the evolving digital landscape. Researchers at all career stages are warmly invited to contribute, with postgraduate and early-career researchers especially encouraged to participate.
Event Detail
- Time: 9am - 5:30pm, Thursday 16 July 2026
- Location: C0.02, Zeeman BuildingLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick / online via MS Teams (only for talks, keynote speeches, panels)
Please note that space is limited, and early registration is encouraged.
Event Highlights
- Keynote speeches from leading interdisciplinary scholars
- Panel discussions and interactive workshops
- Opportunities for networking and collaboration across disciplines
- Hybrid access to support global participation
NOTE: Only talks, keynote speeches, and panel discussions will be live-streamed.
Submission of Abstract
We invite contributions for 15-minute talks at this conference. Speakers are encouraged to share work at any stage of development, including ongoing projects, as the aim of the conference is to foster dynamic discussions and collaboration.
Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words (including references, with the aim, methods, previous research/theory, and (expected) results of the study clearly stated)
- Submission deadline: 31 May 2026
- Notification of acceptance: 8 June 2026
Submit Here!
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/LcsJBSTzGL?origin=lprLinkLink opens in a new window
Co-created Output (to be confirmed)
Selected contributors may be invited to co-create a digital output based on their submissions. Further details will be provided after the conference.
Registration
- Registration fee: Free
- Registration deadline: Monday 6 July 2026
Register Here!
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/81f97ZDEJ1?origin=lprLinkLink opens in a new window
Keynote
Professor Alison PilnickLink opens in a new window, FAcSS, FRSA
Professor of Language, Health and Society, Manchester Metropolitan University
Bio
Alison Pilnick is Professor of Language, Health and Society at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is a sociologist of health and illness whose research focuses on how we can use detailed analysis of interactions between healthcare professionals and their patients or clients to understand and improve them. Her work informs how communication skills are trained in healthcare, including the ways in which AI-mediated platforms are used. This work has been funded by bodies including ESRC, NIHR, the British Academy, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the General Research Fund of Hong Kong, and contributed to national training programmes and NICE guidelines. Her most recent book, ‘Reconsidering patient centred care: between autonomy and abandonment’ won the 2023 British Sociological Association/Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness prize for the book making the most significant contribution to medical sociology. She was conferred a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2015 in recognition of her work in healthcare.
Keynote talk
What counts as ‘real’ in healthcare interaction? Examining human/technology hybrid simulation interactions in communication skills training.
Simulated interaction is a common healthcare training tool, and is increasingly technologically-mediated. Whilst the need for clinical realism or authenticity of simulated interactions is commonly understood, less attention has been paid to their interactional realism. However, research beyond healthcare suggests that participants interact differently in simulated scenarios. I will present examples from simulations conducted through the MetaHumanTMLive platform, where a human tutor is live-linked to an avatar using the tutor’s voice and mapping their gaze/facial expressions. Using Conversation Analysis (CA) to analyse student nurses’ interactions with this platform, I identify 4 key areas where they differ from ‘real’ interactions. These are: openings; closings; establishing shared knowledge; interactional progressivity; and orientation to simulation platforms as an assessment tool. I suggest that features of a hybrid platform which aim to increase realism can also make interaction more complicated for learners trying to navigate between ‘the person’ and ‘the system’. I conclude that, whilst the analysis suggests ways forward for the more effective integration of simulation technologies in training communication skills in healthcare, it also points to our continued need for a better sociological understanding of how interaction itself works in practice, to provide an evidential basis for design and evaluation of such simulations.
Workshop
Dr Aikaterini GrimaniLink opens in a new window
Assistant Professor, Behavioural Sciences Group, Warwick Business School
Panel: 'How are emerging technologies shaping and reshaping health communication and health behaviour change across diverse communities?'
Dr Tom RitchieLink opens in a new window
Associate Professor - Reader, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick; Chair, AI Equity and Sustainability in HE Working & Discovery Group, QS Responsible AI Consortium
Dr Shawnea Sum Pok TingLink opens in a new window
Research Fellow, 999 RESPONDLink opens in a new window Project, Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick
Dr Kim BulLink opens in a new window
Assistant Professor, Health and Care (Clinical Psychology), Coventry University & University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Vineetha Wilson Vavanal
MA in Cultural and Media Policy Studies, University of Warwick
Programme (in British Summer Time)
C0.02, Zeeman Building, University of Warwick
Register and pick up your conference package.Enquiries
Hii@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window
Funded by Warwick’s Interdisciplinary Research Spotlight (Health)Link opens in a new window Small Grant Scheme