Health professionals have expressed fears over lack of proper communication between research experts and members of the community whom findings affect.
The experts have attributed tenacious unhealthy habits and high cases of malaria and typhoid infections in parts of Nyanza and Western regions to the information gap.
This comes even as the professionals claimed more research papers continue to be published but often remain in the shelves.
PATH global program leader Cyril Engmann said health experts have a habit of communicating among themselves but not with members of the public.
Engmann was speaking at a communications conference in Kisumu hosted by Maseno university in collaboration with Daystar, Masinde Muliro, Rongo and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga universities.
The conference aimed at establishing effective communication strategies on health issues with professional doctors, researchers, academic institutions and the media being the major players.
“Whenever doctors introduce themselves mentioning their areas of specialization instead of saying the obvious, which is maternal health care, I often say mine is communication,” said Engmann.
“One of the biggest challenges with health professionals is they do not move past talking about health issues among one another,” he said.
“Part of that is a result of the fact they are rarely trained on how to communicate and share their findings with the public,” he added saying there is no point consolidating evidence if it does not result in behavior change.
The global PATH leader also said the health communications disconnect is because there lacks proper understanding of the health issues between researchers, health communication experts and members of the press.
“On the other hand there are few information disseminators trained on health issues and related reporting,” he said.
Speaking during the conference, former Media Council of Kenya (MCK) chairman Levi Obonyo said there is need for universities and colleges to give specialized training to communication, mass media, and Journalism students.
“What universities and colleges can do at least is to offer specialized training and inspire future media professionals to take up the responsibility not only to inform but also transform the society by writing and publishing stories that motivate change of behavior in the health sector,” said the Daystar University don.
In his keynote address, Obonyo challenged media professionals to give back to the society by giving free information to the public bearing health directions and or warnings.
“The problem with media houses today is that they are no longer led by trained professionals but by business moguls who are only interested in profit-making,” he said adding that reporters are constantly under pressure to rush after political big names.
“Nearly 70 percent of residents in the greater Nyanza and Western regions walk with malaria parasites unaware,” he argued.
“Is it fair private that the private media continue to use the national spectrum, which is a public utility yet they cannot even afford a thirty-second free information on certain issues affecting locals?” posed Obonyo.
PATH county director Rikka Trangsrud said the organisation was willing to work beyond its responsibility of maternal health care to bridge communication gap between health scientists, academic institutions, and local communities across 70 countries, Kenya being one of them.
“It takes a whole community to raise a child, health is our responsibility and we should ensure everyone is involved by sharing information across professional and cultural boundaries,” she said.