Dissemination Panel

Role of the Dissemination Panel

The role of the Dissemination Panel is to:

  1. Review evidence-based approaches for reaching audience segments and influencing their prescribing behavior
  2. Provide feedback and comment to assure that all information and products developed and disseminated by this project are suitable for widespread dissemination
  3. Recommend dissemination strategies for each audience segment
  4. Assist in the development of information and tracking systems to document the dissemination process.

The Dissemination Panel is composed of researchers in the fields of Public Health, Psychology, and Communications as well as a practicing physician in psychiatry. Communications between panel members are conducted in person, on conference calls, and through email. All panel members have signed a conflict of interest contract and made any required disclosures. For more information on the contract language and disclosures, please see Conflict of Interest.

Dissemination Panel Members

Cathy L. Melvin, PhD, MPH (Principal Investigator) is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of Child Health Services Research at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She serves as Principal Investigator and director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Smoke-Free Families National Dissemination Office and as faculty director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Dissemination Core. Dr. Melvin’s research interests include dissemination and dissemination research, translation of research into practice, health systems change, and the application of quality improvement approaches to systems change.

John M. Oldham, MD is Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff of the Menninger Clinic, and Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Development of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine. Prior to his move to the Menninger Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine in January of 2007, Dr. Oldham was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Executive Director of the Institute of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Oldham is actively involved in teaching and research. His research interests are focused on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with severe personality disorders. He is editor of the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, and has published extensively.

W. Douglas Evans, PhD serves as Vice President of RTI’s Public Health and Environment Division. Dr. Evans has 15 years of experience in prevention research, health promotion and disease prevention interventions and program evaluation, and social marketing and communications research. He currently leads a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! social marketing initiative in Chicago and an RTI formative research study of childhood obesity risk factors in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Dr. Evans has published extensively on the influence of media and health communication on health risk behavior, including the effects of social marketing on behavior change and the role of news media in framing and promoting health behavior and decision-making.

Gary L. Kreps, PhD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, VA, where he holds the Eileen and Steve Mandell Endowed Chair in Health Communication. He also holds a joint faculty appointment with the National Center for Biodefense at GMU. Prior to his appointment at GMU, he served for five years as the founding Chief of the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he planned, developed, and coordinated major new national research and outreach initiatives concerning risk communication, health promotion, behavior change, technology development, and information dissemination to promote effective cancer prevention, screening, control, care, and survivorship.

Thomas R. Linden, MD is a psychiatrist and Distinguished Professor of Medical Journalism in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  As the director of the medical journalism program at UNC-CH, Dr. Linden administers one of the nation's first master's programs in medical journalism.  Dr. Linden is co-author of Dr. Tom Linden's Guide to Online Medicine (McGraw-Hill), one of the first consumer guides for medical resources on the Internet.  He has served extensively as a medical journalist in print and on television, radio, and the Internet.

Leah M. Ranney, PhD (Project Director) is a Research Fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina. She received her PhD in Community Psychology at North Carolina State University in 2000, and her MA in Experimental Psychology from San Diego State University in 1994. Her academic career includes the award of the John Oliver Cook Fellowship (2000), The Jerry J. Collier Award (1997 -1998), and the Dr. Edward Geldreich Academic Award (1993). Currently she works as the Project Director for “Disseminating The Evidence-Based Drug Review: Anti-Epileptic Drugs for Mood Disorders” in which she is responsible for managing all aspects of the project including the subcontract with RTI for focus groups, audience research and product development. She also oversees website development, database design, and corresponds with the Attorneys General, and Science and Dissemination Panel members on project details and progress.