#hcsmca: Taking Stock at 4 Years

By Shirley Williams, Colleen Young and Pat Rich

#hcsmca is 4 years old and has grown into a vibrant community where people gather to discuss all things healthcare and social media in Canada. This community has successfully leveraged Twitter to engage people across roles, professions and borders in health care.

To date:

By Shirley Williams, Colleen Young and Pat Rich

#hcsmca is 4 years old and has grown into a vibrant community where people gather to discuss all things healthcare and social media in Canada. This community has successfully leveraged Twitter to engage people across roles, professions and borders in health care.

To date:

photo by Jenn Sprung @mindthecompany

• 12,892 participants have shared
• 149,859 tweets,
• an average of 4 tweets per hour during
• 192 chats creating
• 395,952,022 impressions.

These are amazing statistics indeed. The community has matured and is ready to plan for the next stage of evolution. As a result, it is a good time to revisit its Vision, Mission and Strategy.

Early 2014, the #hcsmca community conducted a current state assessment. The community shared [via tweets] what is working well and what can be improved. This is a top-level summary of your feedback.

What is working well in #hcsmca:

#hcsmca is an engaged community for all Canadians concerned and/or interested in making health more open and connected, and in improving healthcare communication and delivery. It is a gathering place where interesting topics of social innovation are discussed. Members share and learn from each other, and return to their respective settings with ideas to put into action.

Where #hcsmca can improve:

1. Update the vision, mission and strategy

• There is a need to revisit the mission, goals and measures
• The community is ready to evolve

2. Revisit the type of discussions

• #hcsmca chats could be structured around controversial health care topics
• #hcsmca chats could be held in partnership with professional medical conferences
• #hcsmca could be a forum for case study analysis and feedback
• #hcsmca could be a forum for problem solving and collaboration
• #hcsmca could have moderated debates and featured guests

3. Revisit discussion method/platform(s)

• Consider using a mixture of channels to accommodate for different communication styles
• Consider a monthly national webinar
• Consider a community blog
• Consider in person with chats
• Consider providing a discussion forum platform
• Consider an annual patient-friendly conference

4. Establish a method of content creation, management and reporting

• There is a need to manage the content that is produced
• There is a need to have the ability to search chats and content generated
• There is a need for reporting after each chat
• Consider end of chat ratings

5. Establish a method to resource #hcsmca

• Consider to clearly define the value proposition of #hcsmca
• Consider partnerships with professional medical conference
• Consider guest hosts for #hcsmca chats
• Consider a shared responsibility model for maintaining #hcsmca

As a result of the above feedback, we will be approaching a core group and the #hcsmca community to address some of the key suggestions above. There will be two phases for this work.

• Phase 1 will focus on revisiting the #hcsmca vision and mission (Oct-Dec 2014)
• Phase 2 will focus on improving the discussions, platforms and resourcing (2015)

We will be seeking input from an advisory group of #hcsmca members to draft a vision and mission for community discussion. Send me a tweet at @williampearl if you are interested in being included in the advisory group.

On November 5 at 1pm ET, #hcsmca will host a chat with the entire community to finalize our vision and mission. We look forward to your lively participation in mapping the future of #hcsmca.