The recently formed Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media has established the Social Media Health Network, a group dedicated to using social media to promote healthcare. The network was announced Tuesday at the Second Annual Social Media Summit in Jacksonville, Fla.
Officials said the international network will help members learn from each other and effectively implement social media programs through educational conferences, webinars and the development of social platforms.
The summit is produced in conjunction with Ragan Communications and hosted on Mayo Clinic's campus.
In addition to Mayo Clinic, charter members of the network include:
- Bon Secours Health System, Marriottsville, Md.
- Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va.
- Mission Health System, Asheville, N.C.
- Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (UMCN), Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Swedish Health Services, Seattle, Wash.
"We believe the Social Media Health Network will be a significant force for learning how to apply social media tools effectively in the health context," says Victor Montori, MD, medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. "It will be a vehicle for us to share what we've learned about social media, including our training resources, and for others to join us in learning together and developing best practices. Ultimately, we want to help health-related organizations of all sizes and types to harness these powerful communication tools to help patients and improve human health globally."
To support this goal and to build network membership in Europe, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (UMCN) in the Netherlands will serve as the first network partner and community leader for the European continent.
UMCN, a strong social media leader among European medical centers and healthcare in general, will recruit European Union members, host conferences and facilitate growth of the movement.
Lucien Engelen, UMCN's director of the Radboud REshape & Innovation Center, says the network "will be sharing, facilitating, exploring and stimulating the use of social media throughout healthcare. We have been doing this already over the last two years with the REshape conferences and the upcoming Medicine 2.0 Europe, TEDxMaastricht, and also with our research on this matter. For us, the use of social media is part of our ambition to migrate into participatory healthcare where – in our vision – patients, family and informal care step into the healthcare team. This is too big to handle alone; we have to unite and share."
In addition to UMCN, Mayo will seek organizations to serve as continental community leaders for Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. Lee Aase, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, says this is consistent with the ethos of social media and the reality of medicine.
"The Social Media Health Network will obviously be active on the Internet, but it will be much more than a website," he explains. "The network will foster real relationships among health-related organizations and with patients, and those will be cultivated through a mix of online and real-world connections. Identifying strong organizations like UMCN that are experienced in using social media and committed to collaborating on health-related applications will be crucial to extending the network."
The website for the network will launch Oct. 25.
