Health Communications: A Throughline in Our Work
Patient Spotlight: Living with Diabetes in a Rural Community
Community testimonies align with the data, highlighting the real human impact of disproportionately high rates of diabetes and chronic illness in rural areas.1,2 Our multimodal approach to inquiry response and outreach bridges critical gaps in rural communities, where limited transportation and scarce specialized care restrict access.3
For example, one inquirer, recently diagnosed with diabetes, reached out to our information specialists for resources about nutrition. The inquirer felt overwhelmed by the amount of information online, noting that information about preferred foods and locally available options were difficult to find. When the information specialist suggested contacting a dietitian or nutritionist for personalized guidance, the inquirer noted the nearest town is an hour away, illustrating the barriers to care that rural residents face. Our information specialist immediately pivoted, guiding the inquirer on how to find specialists offering telehealth appointments. Additionally, the information specialist demonstrated how to search for dietitians who specialize in diabetes and accept their insurance.
JBS International operates across several critical areas of work, including behavioral health, child welfare, and rural health. Central to our efforts across these areas is a commitment to strong health communications. We engage directly with patients, caregivers, providers, health educators, policy makers, and researchers whose lives have been affected by health challenges. Our media outreach, digital platforms, and publications ensure that essential public health messages effectively reach broad audiences.
The JBS Approach: Human-Centric Communication in Real Time
One of our capabilities in health communications is inquiry response. For more than 30 years, JBS has managed call centers that provide accurate information and empathetic support to the people seeking services and information for a variety of diseases and health-related matters. Our trained information specialists handle multi-channel inquiries with professionalism and consistency. Through our inquiry response work, we’ve received questions from audiences by email, social media, telephone, and Live Chat. The stories and lived experience shared by our audiences provide insights that help us to continually refine our responses, ensuring that we get the right information in the right format to the right people.
Health care providers and educators are an important conduit for reaching patients and the public. We provide health educators with printed materials and other tools to help their clients and patients better manage their health, including those who may have limited or unreliable internet access. We also connect providers with evidence-based, plain-language resources designed to support patients with varying levels of health literacy. By tailoring information to the unique needs of different audiences, we help ensure that individuals and families receive accessible, relevant, and actionable health information regardless of where they live or the barriers they may face. Our curated resources equip health care professionals with clinical trial information, support groups, and specialized care resources, empowering them to make a meaningful difference in their patients' lives.
Effective Outreach and Engagement
Educator Spotlight: Teen Substance Use Prevention
Our team received a call from a teacher who worked with teenagers. The teacher was desperately seeking printed materials to engage students and encourage them to choose a healthy path by avoiding substances that adversely affect their developing brains. The information specialist explained that agencies are moving toward providing primarily online resources and recommended supplementary materials she could get through the website. When the teacher explained that access to reliable internet in the community and school is a real challenge, the information specialist offered to send hard copies of the colorful, attention-grabbing, free materials that students wouldn’t otherwise have been able to view.
Decades of working with patients, caregivers, and the public have reinforced the value of a human-centered approach to health communication.
JBS pairs trusted health information with strategic content development, creating materials that are informed by audience insights, grounded in science, and designed to engage our audiences. We deliver accurate, accessible content through innovative formats and channels that meet people where they are, whether at home, at work, or on the go. From traditional media such as radio to digital platforms like Instagram and other social media, we tailor messages to maximize reach and relevance. Across every channel, our goal is to provide clear, actionable information that empowers people to take meaningful steps toward better health, whether that means joining a support group, accessing a digital tool, participating in a clinical trial, or connecting with a health educator for guidance and support.
We are proud to join with the many who work every day to reduce the impact of preventable and manageable conditions. We know first-hand that effective health communications is vital to thriving communities.
References
Rural Health Information Hub. (2025, September 24). Rural health disparities.https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/rural-health-disparities
Khavjou, O., Tayebali, Z., Cho, P., Myers, K., & Zhang, P. (2025). Rural–urban disparities in state-level diabetes prevalence among US adults, 2021. Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice and Policy, 22(240199). http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd22.240199
- Rural Health Information Hub. (2026, April 23). Chronic disease in rural America. https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/chronic-disease
Learn more about what we do at JBS and discover how you can partner with us to improve the lives of real people, every day.