Health Matters Honored for Excellence

January 31, 2018

The weekly television segment Health Matters, a collaboration of WVUA-23 and the College of Community Health Sciences, received an award of Special Merit from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, earning recognition as one of the best media relations programs in the Southeast last year.

Health Matters provides important and timely health information to WVUA viewers throughout West Alabama and parts of the Southeast. CCHS provides content for the weekly series via interviews with its dean, Dr. Richard Streiffer, a family medicine physician, and members of the CCHS faculty – physicians with specialties in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, sports medicine, geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry and psychology.

The interviews are conducted by WVUA’s managing editor, Mike Royer, and are filmed at CCHS. The segments, about a minute and half in length, air twice a week – during the 5 pm newscast on Wednesdays and again during the 10 pm newscast on Sundays.

Health Matters was launched in spring 2017, and topics have included high cholesterol, the importance of prenatal care, diabetes, depression and anxiety, sinusitis, childhood vaccinations and adult immunizations, low-back pain, Alzheimer’s disease, stress relief and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The full interviews are approximately five to six minutes in length. Both the segment aired and the full interviews are posted to the WVUA website. Television viewers are directed to the website for more in-depth information about the health topic.

Health Matters is a key component of the College’s media and public relations efforts.

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