Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media Launches Global Social Media Health Network

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre to lead recruitment on European continent

ROCHESTER, Minn.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The recently formed Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media today announced the formation of the Social Media Health Network, a group dedicated to using social media to promote health, improve health care and fight disease. Through educational conferences, webinars and development of social platforms for sharing training materials and resources, this international network will help members learn from each other and effectively implement social media programs.

“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”

The announcement came at the Second Annual Social Media Summit produced in conjunction with Ragan Communications and hosted on Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville, Fla.

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, M.D., medical director for 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.” See the post on the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media site for more information, including video from Dr. Montori.

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 health care 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 health care. 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 health care where — in our vision — patients, family and informal care step into the health care 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, socialmediahealthnetwork.org, will launch Oct. 25.

The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media exists to improve health globally by accelerating effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and spurring broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients. Its mission is to lead the social media revolution in health care, contributing to health and well-being for people everywhere.

For information:
For Mayo matters: Press office – 507-284-5005
Lee Aase (@leeaase on twitter)

For European matters: Press office – Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre,
Netherlands – [phone]
Lucien Engelen (@zorg20 on twitter [zorg = health in Dutch])

About Mayo Clinic
For more than 100 years, millions of people from all walks of life have found answers at Mayo Clinic. These patients tell us they leave Mayo Clinic with peace of mind knowing they received care from the world’s leading experts. Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. At Mayo Clinic, a team of specialists is assembled to take the time to listen, understand and care for patients’ health issues and concerns. These teams draw from more than 3,700 physicians and scientists and 50,100 allied staff that work at Mayo Clinic’s campuses in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona; and community-based providers in more than 70 locations in southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To best serve patients, Mayo Clinic works with many insurance companies, does not require a physician referral in most cases and is an in-network provider for millions of people. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your general health information.