Health communication is one area of specialization that has achieved an important level of prominence in communication scholarship within the last 5 years. There exists now a journal devoted solely to the topic, Health Communication. The International Communication Association has a Health Communication Division, and the association's 41st annual conference had as its theme “Communication and Health.” A trip to the library reveals such recent academic books as Communicating with Medical Patients (Stewart & Roter, 1989) and Communication and Medical Practice (Silverman, 1988). This academic interest in health communication has been fueled by, among other factors, the devastating existence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and the contribution communication studies can make to the social understanding of the condition.