Digitalization in health communication: SABİM in the context of public health communications

In today's world, where technological developments are advancing without slowing down, the field of communication has also undergone a radical transformation. Digitalization is at the center of this transformation, and it has fundamentally changed communication practices, tools and forms of interaction, affecting the field of health communication as well as many other sectors. Thanks to digitalization, health communication has the opportunity to reach wider audiences through websites, mobile applications and other digital tools. At this point, SABİM (Ministry of Health Communication Center), which was put into practice by the Ministry of Health, which considers the benefit of public health, and is referred to as a digital step, offers a platform that the public can access 24/7. In the first stage of the research consisting of two stages, 6926 SABIM applications concerning 4 health facilities affiliated to Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate were evaluated, and in the second stage, in-depth interview questions were applied face-to-face to 20 people working in the Patient Rights Unit. Content analysis method was used in both. In the study, it was concluded that SABİM, as a digital platform, provides timely feedback to the applications of individuals and that the problems are mostly resolved, but this situation varies according to the employees of the Patient Rights Unit, who are system users.