Infographics: A Shared Language
Posted:Friday, March 20, 2020
The New Mexico Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association created this beautiful display of Massage Therapy Foundation research infographics for a local Family Physicians Conference.
Infographics (also called visual abstracts) are a powerful communication tool. They can be used to simplify complex information and engage diverse audiences. The use of infographics has risen in popularity among professionals of many disciplines because they are easily understood and can be shared widely.
Research infographics are useful to the massage therapy profession for many reasons. It is important for massage therapists and students to keep up-to-date on current research. Infographics make accessing and understanding useful research articles and case reports quicker and easier. They provide an easy-to-understand starting point for massage therapy students and therapists new to the world of research.
Infographics also help support the use of massage for specific clients. Providing your client with an infographic about the use of massage therapy for a particular condition they struggle with lends scientific support to your work and increases client trust. Clients who can view infographics while sitting in your waiting room may gain an increased understanding of the depth and breadth of research in our field.
Finally, infographics provide an easy way to communicate the benefits of massage therapy to health care practitioners outside of the profession. Presenting evidence-based research in a format now familiar to physicians, nurses, chiropractors, and other allied medical professionals is speaking in the shared language of science.
Listen as AMTA-New Mexico Chapter President BreAnne Garcia-McClellan speaks about how she uses Massage Therapy Foundation research infographics to communicate with physicians about massage therapy research.
“I take the wonderful Massage Therapy Foundation Infographics with me when I present at family physicians’ conferences in my state. The physicians take the printed copies with them and ask where they can access them for their colleagues and also their patients, to promote massage as a benefit for their patients.”
BreAnne Garcia-McClellan