February 5, 2010

CAMH – Mental Health Conversations on Wikis, Podcasts, and Mainstream Social Media

By marketing4health in Canadians and their Online Healthsocial media

This week, my blog series will be focusing on several Canadian online healthcare social networks.  This is part 5 of 5.  The previous posts of the series can be found here;

• Upopolis: Social Media for Kids in Hospitals
• TeenConnector.ca: Where Canadian Teens with Cancer Connect
• CaringVoices: Princess Margaret Hospital Offers Online Support for Cancer Patients
• VirtualHospice.ca:  Online Palliative Care Community & Resources

The featured Canadian healthcare social network for today is the CAMH Knowledge Exchange site.  I saved this one for last because it is unique compared to all the others that we have visited over the past week, in that the target audience for the online community consists of healthcare professionals mostly, with one special feature for caregivers and families. It was serendipity that brought me to this site, because I was searching through the CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) site to see if they were hosting any kind of online social networks for their patients / clients.  This seemed like a reasonable spot to search considering that the Forrester Inc. Research, April 22 2009 report suggests that people afflicted with mental illnesses tend to be active participants and may benefit the most from online social networking. As I scoured through the CAMH site, I came across a page called ‘Knowledge Exchange’, which included a wiki.  The wiki had very little content, but it looked interesting nonetheless.  It is at that point that I connected with Krystyna Ross, the Publisher and Manager of Publication Services at CAMH, and discovered that the wiki had not even been officially launched yet.  It is scheduled to be launched in a few weeks, and only a handful of people have had the opportunity to use the site for beta testing purposes.  You get a sneak peek of the beta version before it goes live! What is CAMH Knowledge Exchange? CAMH Knowledge Exchange is different than the overarching CAMH.net site in that it is specifically designed for healthcare professionals (HCP) (Psychiatrists, social workers, policy makers, nurses, pharmacists, allied professionals).  The objective is to collect reliable information for this target audience and to provide them with practical tools and resources.  The tools and resources will not be exclusive to CAMH info, but will also include linking to other sites and articles with info that are deemed to be valuable for the HCPs. In order to be a single source of reliable info, the site also features collaborative tools, such as the wiki, as well as blogging and discussion board capabilities.  Other features are planned for future implementation.  Users will have the option to set up secured and partially-secured shared work spaces.  A couple of wiki projects have already started during the beta period; an international group of HCPs is working together on a paper and another group is revising guidelines related to mental health. Another key audience for the Knowledge Exchange site consists of the primary care physicians.  According to CAMH, family physicians and general practitioners are the ones who see the most patients with mental health and addiction problems.  Therefore, CAMH will be including some very succinct information that will have practical clinical use (ie. quick screening tools, tips on when to refer or when to manage patients in own practice).  St-Joseph’s Hospital is working with CAMH on an Addiction Toolkit for primary care providers, and there will be additional toolkits to come. GPs may be able to participate in some wikis as well.  This will depend on the wiki and its purpose. Participation in the wikis is determined by the people running the individual wikis and their objectives. How will the CAMH Knowledge Exchange be promoted? CAMH will start promoting the Knowledge Exchange site as soon as the official launch takes place.  As part of their promotion, here is a copy of the postcard (top image is the front and bottom image is the back of the postcard) that CAMH developed in-house, which will be distributed to HCPs in the mental health and addiction field. Are there any CAMH social networks that are specifically geared towards the patients / clients and their families? Currently, there is a FaceBook fan page and two official Twitter accounts for CAMH ( for media updates, and representing the CAMH Foundation), plus a new website set up by family council that represents patients, but no customized discussion boards or online community ... well at least not yet! Also, on January 18 2010, CAMH announced a podcast series called Teens and Tweens, features interviews with experts in adolescent mental health and addictions, and is targeted at educators, parents, social workers, and others who work with teens.  The podcast series will cover various mental health and addictions issues.  Listeners will be able to propose topics for future episodes as well as engage with other listeners on the Knowledge Exchange portal. Are there any advertising or sponsorship opportunities on the Knowledge Exchange site or wiki? At the moment, CAMH has not decided how they would like to proceed regarding external partnerships or sponsorships.  However, CAMH will have opportunities to host sites for other community agencies or HCPs who focus on mental health or addiction.  For such partnerships, only Canadian organizations / HCPs will be considered. --------------------------------------------- Interested in discussing partnership or sponsorship opportunities with the CAMH Knowledge Exchange, then please contact Krystyna Ross at Krystyna_Ross@camh.net . DISCLOSURE: I have not been paid to write this article, and the organizations mentioned are not clients. --------------------------------------------- This concludes part I of my blog series on Canadian online healthcare social networks.  That’s right … there is a part II coming soon, but there is a bit more work left to be done.  Stay tuned! Stay in touch, Natalie Connect with me on the following networks: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn —————————————————– To ensure that you receive all new updates to this blog, insert your e-mail address in the box in the top-right corner. Your e-mail will remain private and will not be shared with any third parties.

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February 4, 2010

VirtualHospice.ca : Online Palliative Care Community & Resources

By marketing4health in Canada's Online Health Checksocial media

This week, my blog series will be focusing on several Canadian healthcare social networks.  This is part 4 of 5.  The previous posts of the series can be found here;

• Upopolis: Social Media for Kids in Hospitals
• TeenConnector.ca: Where Canadian Teens with Cancer Connect
• CaringVoices: Princess Margaret Hospital Offers Online Support for Cancer Patients

The featured Canadian healthcare social network for today is the Canadian Virtual Hospice.  I learned about this organization and its online community via a colleague on LinkedIn, Gail Granger, who responded to my call-out for suggestions of Canadian healthcare social online communities.  I checked the site and its online community features and found the therapeutic concept to be so different than many other online patient communities that I had been investigating, that I absolutely wanted to learn more.  Shelly Cory, the Executive Director, chatted with me about the specific challenges regarding a site focusing on the sensitive topic of palliative care.  For highlights of the discussion, see below. What is Canadian Virtual Hospice? Canadian Virtual Hospice provides online resources to patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals regarding life-limiting illness, palliative and end of life care, loss and grief.  Palliative care is an approach to care that looks at the whole person and their whole family; physical, cultural, emotional, spiritual, and financial needs at end of life.  Palliative care is appropriate  from the time somebody is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Although palliative care is often associated with cancer illness, the palliative approach is appropriate for those suffering from chronic illnesses including COPD, Alzheimers, and diabetes. The same holds true for  the VirtualHospice.ca site.  The site can assist people from the time of diagnosis and provide support through the grieving process regardless of the type of illness they have. The goal is to help people gain information, comfort and support throughout the entire continuum of care. The online community features offered by VirtualHospice.ca site include a public discussion forum, a FaceBook fan page, a Twitter profile and a YouTube channel. When was it launched? The VirtualHospice.ca site was developed by palliative care researchers and clinicians across Canada as a way of addressing gaps in resources and info about palliative care.  The site and the discussion forum were launched in February 2004.  Re-launched in January 2009 with new features and content, Virtual Hospice also focused on additional interactivity and set up a FaceBook fan page, a Twitter profile and a YouTube channel to facilitate engagement with patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals.  The discussion forum is currently being revamped and when completed will be more prominent on the website. Is it just for Canadian patients and caregivers on the network? The site`s discussion forum and vast repository of information is open to people from all over the world, but the “Ask a professional” service is for Canadians only.  This section is not social media, but it provides an interesting service that allows people, including healthcare professionals, to ask a question to a multidisciplinary palliative care team about their specific situation.  The team then collaborates on the answers and provides a confidential detailed response within 3 business days, and often within just 24 hours.  Half of the visitors to the site are health care providers looking for advice, patient teaching tools and other tools to support their practice. The Canadian Virtual Hospice FaceBook fan page, Twitter profile and YouTube channel are open to the public from all countries. How many members are there on the VirtualHospice.ca site, and how active are they? An average of 1,000 people per day visit the VirtualHospice.ca site; half of which are patients, family and friends, and the other half, healthcare providers.  Since its relaunch, the site has fielded visitors from Canada as well as 154 other countries, with the United States, Australia and France driving 20% of the website traffic. The user group is constantly changing because most visitors  obtain benefit from the site and the discussion forums for a finite period of time.  A person may use the site while a family member is ill and going through the grieving process, and then will move on with his or her life.  Some people come onto the discussion boards and post multiple times, but generally when people are in an end-of-life situation, they do not have a lot of time or energy to visit or participate in the forums on an ongoing basis. This is demonstrated in the discussion forums, where there are very few recent posts, however there are a lot of page views suggesting that people are visiting the forums and reading the discussions.  Having reviewed several online patient communities, this seems to be the norm, but it appears as though the ratio may be a bit more pronounced compared to other patient forums. Healthcare providers are the ones who use the  site for the long-term, therefore there is a lot of reliance on healthcare providers to promote the site to their patients. What role do the sponsors play? There are several sponsors for the Canadian Virtual Hospice website, which also includes the social media channels.  These sponsors consist of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA), CancerCare Manitoba, the Government of Manitoba, and Health Canada. The sponsors provide funding and sometimes assist with resources as well.  For example, the Canadian Virtual Hospice sources staff, such as nurses, from WRHA to assist in answering the 'Ask A Professional' questions.  However, the sponsors do not provide any strategic input in the management of the organization or the site. How are the site and online discussion forums promoted? Palliative care is a sensitive topic, which is usually of interest to individuals only during their time of need.  Therefore promotion of the site directly to consumers needs to be frequent and wide-spread, which can be challenging with a limited budget.  Promoting to healthcare professionals and relying on them to inform the appropriate patients may have greater potential than trying to promote to the masses. However, certain tactics have proven effective.  These include niche palliative publication advertisement, niche palliative care conferences, Google ads and radio ads.  Interestingly, search engine optimization has not been as effective for Virtual Hospice as SEO typically is for a website. This may be due to differing Internet user habits among the target audience, which has a higher average age than web users in general. Media exposure  is critical for the Canadian Virtual Hospice.  When the Global National ran a story about the site in March 2009, traffic spiked substantially and the ‘Ask a Professional’ section received an instant influx of inquiries. Linking with other healthcare organizations has also proven to be effective in increasing awareness and driving traffic to the site.  Currently, there are over 5,000 links that lead to the virtualhospice.ca site. One such example of linking with other medical organizations consists of an online support group facilitated by psychosocial oncology counsellors, which are led by the BC Cancer Agency.  The Canadian Virtual Hospice promotes these groups on their site. The BC Cancer Agency provides 'real-time' online support for cancer patients, cancer survivors or friends and family across Canada.  These are counsellor-led online group sessions which take place over a 8-10-week period, with each session lasting 1 ½ hours.  The online discussions are closed and private, meaning that groups have the same 6-8 members attending each week, allowing members to really get to know each other over the duration of the group. The discussions are anonymous in that members chat via text only, and know each other only by first names and by the information that the members choose to share. Overall feedback has been very positive.  Patients and caregivers have described feeling a sense of connectedness, safety and relief in being able to discuss important but difficult topics with a counsellor and an understanding group of peers. Patients are learning about this program mostly due to word-of-mouth from healthcare professionals.  The partnership between the Canadian Virtual Hospice and the BC Cancer Agency is a win-win situation, as when patients leave the counsellor-led sessions, they are reminded of the virtualhospice.ca resources.  As of January 2010, 24 groups and 179 people have had the opportunity to engage with others and a counsellor, either locally or nationally, from the online program. To learn more about this service provided by BC Cancer Agency, take a look at the Cancer Chat Canada website. Is there any monitoring or editing of the content posted by the members? All discussions are monitored because these are exposed to a very vulnerable population. Are there any advertising or sponsorship opportunities on the Virtual Hospice network? There is no advertising on the site or the forums.  There are opportunities for non-branded sponsorship or partnership projects.  The Canadian Virtual Hospice respects the emotional drain and vulnerability of their site visitors and members, therefore any potential for influence is carefully considered. The Canadian Virtual Hospice clinical team has put together over 170 clinical tools developed by various palliative medical teams.  These tools are especially useful for healthcare professionals who deal with palliative care.  If a medical or pharmaceutical organization promotes palliative care drugs, they may find excellent resources on the site, and they may even wish to contribute some of their own palliative care non-branded materials. Challenge for a Canadian agency to show their stuff: The Canadian Virtual Hospice is looking for a creative agency interested in helping to promote the site at either no or low cost.  Palliative care is not an easy sell to people – does your agency have what it takes, and if so, care to show off your skills?  Interested?  Contact Shelly (contact info at bottom of article). Interested in discussing sponsorship or partnership opportunities with VirtualHospice.ca, then please contact Shelly Cory at shelly@virtualhospice.ca or (204) 477-6285. DISCLOSURE: I have not been paid to write this article, and the organizations mentioned are not clients. --------------------------------------------- Tomorrow, we will take a look at a beta site, which will allow mental healthcare professionals to collaborate online. Stay in touch, Natalie Connect with me on the following networks: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn —————————————————– To ensure that you receive all new updates to this blog, insert your e-mail address in the box in the top-right corner. Your e-mail will remain private and will not be shared with any third parties.

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February 3, 2010

CaringVoices: Princess Margaret Hospital Offers Online Support for Cancer Patients

By marketing4health in Canada's Online Health Checksocial media

This week, my blog series will be focusing on several Canadian healthcare online social networks.  This is part 3 of 5.  The previous posts of the series can be found here;

• Upopolis: Social Media for Kids in Hospitals
• TeenConnector.ca: Where Canadian Teens with Cancer Connect

--------------------------------------------- The featured Canadian healthcare social network for today is CaringVoices .   The Centre for Innovation in Complex Care (CICC) sent me a tweet about the network via their CICC Twitter account, informing me that they use this network and are very satisfied with it.  So many thanks to the CICC for sharing this information.  Isn’t Twitter just the best for communicating with others with similar interests!  In fact, you can follow CaringVoices on Twitter, but at the moment, the account is not very active. Sara Urowitz, Manager, Education Informatics, Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network, is responsible for the management of the CaringVoices.ca network.  We had the opportunity to discuss the network and below are a few highlights of our discussion; --------------------------------------------- What is CaringVoices.ca? CaringVoices is a national Canadian online community specifically designed for cancer survivors, where they can chat and discuss issues and personal experiences with one another, find current resources about their disease, and take part in online events.  Members of all ages are welcome, as are caregivers, healthcare professionals, and those with a special interest in the topic (called ‘visitors’ on the network).  The objective of the CaringVoices is to address the psycho-educational, psychosocial and supportive care needs of Canadian cancer survivors. The network is an initiative of the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).  Funding was received from the Princess Margaret Breast Cancer Survivorship Program, The Quilt (Stratford, Ontario), and the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.  The site is supported, hosted and maintained by Klick Communications. In speaking with Andrew Chak, Senior Vice President - Experience Design and Innovation of Klick Communications, he alluded to the fact that CaringVoices also allows the PMH to extend their patient support program to their patients even after they get discharged. When was it launched? CaringVoices was launched in 2006 as an online community for social networking for Breast Cancer with the intent that it would eventually be expanded to support all cancers.  In 2008 the General Cancer community was launched, and in 2009 both the Gynaecologic and Hematologic Cancer communities became available. A Gastrointestinal Cancer community is currently under development with the hopes for a launch in early Spring 2010. How did CaringVoices gather so many resources for its members? Much of the success of the network has come from collaborations with community cancer organizations.  For example, Ovarian Cancer Canada has partnered with the Princess Margaret Hospital to promote, manage and enhance the Gynaecologic Cancer community, Wellspring has offered events for the CaringVoices community, and Willow recommends the site as a source for breast cancer information.  The Canadian Cancer Society – Cancer Information services hosts a monthly event on finding information and resources in your community.  There are other collaborations as well. Also, their event calendar is loaded with events, so there are frequent opportunities for CaringVoices members to learn more about their disease, and even ask questions to the moderator of the event.  Here is a sample of their February 2010 event calendar.  As a member of the online community, you receive an e-mail notification of upcoming events. The network does not ask if the new member signing up is from Canada.  Is the intent for CaringVoices to be a global or mostly Canadian online network? The CaringVoices online network welcomes the involvement from non-Canadians, however the mandate is to look for Canadian content, collaboration and sources of expertise, and to attract Canadian cancer survivors. How many members are currently using the network? Survivors, caregivers/healthcare professionals and visitors can become members of the site.  Registration is quick and simple, with little data required to become a member.  In fact, it took me less than 30 seconds to sign up as a ‘visitor’ member. As of December 2009, there were approximately 2,500 users, nearly 10 million total page views (9,850,000), and over 400 moderated online chat events. Who can add resources?  If external parties can add resources, is there an approval process to ensure that information is accurate and reliable? The resource section is maintained by the Patient Education and Survivorship (PE&S) program at the Princess Margaret Hospital.  The PE&S Information Specialist is responsible for overseeing the resource section.  This person reviews and updates the resource section based on needs (for example if a new community is launched, or if something has been triggered by an end-user’s request or posting in one of the forums).  Collaborators who have existing resources often share their information with the network. The Princess Margaret Hospital reviews the resources to ensure that they are reputable, accurate and up-to-date.  The information that is added by external parties is monitored, and responded to when necessary, but it is very rarely censored.  Only information that is inaccurate, frightening, or spam-like are censored. What role do the sponsors play? The sponsors do not have any control or responsibility with regards to the management of the CaringVoices online community. How is the CaringVoices online community promoted? Princess Margaret Hospital promotes the community at professional conferences such as Patient Education Conferences, Nursing Conferences, and various cancer survivorship conferences, where they distribute promotional materials including information brochures about the community; The brochure was created by the Princess Margaret Hospital. Additional promotion of the online community has been through the collaborators.  Despite the limited promotional efforts, the community has grown steadily.  It is assumed that survivors who are members of the community are spreading news about it via word-of-mouth. Which hospitals promote the use of the online community to their patients? Formal and informal collaborations have been formed with other cancer programs and hospitals.  Information about CaringVoices is available through the Hope and Cope program at the Jewish General in Montreal, through the Patient Education program at the Oddette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Hospital, through Patient Education at St. Michael’s hospital and others. Who organizes and holds the online community events? Currently, 15 to 30 live 1-hour online chats (via text only) take place on a monthly basis.  Most of these events are organized by the Princess Margaret Hospital.  The events are moderated by a professional from the Princess Margaret Hospital, trained volunteers, or reps from community cancer agencies, including reps from collaborators.  There are 3 categories for the online chat events: 1) Clinical Corner, which is moderated by healthcare professionals (e.g. Chemo Questions, Managing Fatigue etc), 2) Knowledge Café, which focus on living with cancer and are often moderated by community partners (e.g. Talking with your kids about cancer, Managing your Finances, Where to Find Information and Support in your community etc), and 3) Talking Sticks, which are peer-led chats in which members are encouraged to share their experiences with one another. Are there any advertising or sponsorship opportunities on the CaringVoices community? To date, there have been no advertising or sponsorship opportunities for pharma / medical companies.  There has been pharma funding for the Patient Education and Survivorship Program, but not for the online community itself.  In fact, in previous discussions with various pharma companies, they preferred not to sponsor the community due to concerns about reporting of adverse events on the site and the subsequent responsibility of the drug company. However, for medical / pharma companies who would be interested in supporting CaringVoices, the Patient Education and Survivorship Program at Princess Margaret Hospital accepts unrestricted learning grants in support of online (educational) chat events as long as the company remained at arm’s length. --------------------------------------------- Interested in collaborating with CaringVoices, or sharing your Canadian expertise or content, or discussing the opportunity of sponsoring an online event, then please contact Sara Urowitz (sara.urowitz@rmp.uhn.on.ca or caringvoices@rmp.uhn.on.ca ), 416-581-8616. DISCLOSURE: I have not been paid to write this article, and the organizations mentioned are not clients. --------------------------------------------- Tomorrow, we will take a look at an online community for Canadian patients, families and healthcare professionals involved in palliative care. Stay in touch, Natalie Connect with me on the following networks: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn —————————————————– To ensure that you receive all new updates to this blog, insert your e-mail address in the box in the top-right corner. Your e-mail will remain private and will not be shared with any third parties.

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February 2, 2010

TeenConnector – Where Canadian Teens with Cancer Connect

By marketing4health in Canada's Online Health Checksocial media

This week, my blog series will be focusing on several Canadian healthcare online social networks.  This is part 2 of 5.  The previous post of the series can be found here;

• Upopolis; Social Media for Kids in Hospitals

------------------------------------------ The featured Canadian healthcare social network for today is TeenConnector.ca , an online community for Canadian teens with cancer operated by The Childhood Cancer Foundation.   On this network, teens can connect via discussion boards and blogs. I discovered this online community via a report on the Canada.com site.  Just before the holidays, I contacted Mary Lye, the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Childhood Cancer Foundation – Candlelighters Canada.  She spoke from the heart, because before joining this non-profit organization, she went through the heart-wrenching ordeal of watching her teen go through cancer and cancer treatments.  Luckily, her child is doing well these days, but Mary holds the memory close to her heart and is passionately doing everything that she can to help teens afflicted with cancer connect with one another.  Below are some of the highlights of our discussion. Why TeenConnector.ca? According to The Childhood Cancer Foundation’s data, approximately 1,500 Canadian children are diagnosed with cancer every year.  Of these, approximately 300 of them are teenagers.  Since these teens have various types of cancer, it is very difficult for them to find one another.

Moreover, a recent Ipsos Reid study (June 2009) states that;

“Over three-quarters (76%) of online Canadians teens aged 12-17 now have a social network profile, up from 50% in 2007.”

As such, social media provides an excellent medium for helping Canadian teens find one another and provide each other with the support that they need. Connecting with one another is important because many teens do not want to talk to anybody about their disease because they are embarrassed, angry, and ashamed.  Therefore, by providing them with a private world of other teens who are going through, or have been through cancer and have survived it provides them with an outlet to reach out to somebody like them, whom they can relate with and trust. What features does TeenConnector.ca provide to its members? Since TeenConnector.ca is a private online community, I was given access to a demo version of the site, but did not have visibility of the members’ journals or discussions. The features provided on the network consist of the following;

• customizable profile, contact management (including friends, mentors and support team from The Childhood Cancer Foundation),
• sharing of experiences via group discussions and journals,
• event management (where members can accept or create events, and also add birthdays to their calendar),
• access information (on applying for a scholarship, view information videos or glossary),
• entertainment (play games, share videos, read news or design e-cards),
• and e-mail and notifications from other members on the network.

When was it launched? TeenConnector.ca is brand new as it was just launched in December 2009. Prior to launching, a lot of preparation took place in order to ensure that the community would benefit its members.  The first step was to build up mentors onto the site.  Mentors are cancer survivors who went through their cancer diagnosis and/or treatment while in their teen years, so they understand firsthand the issues and struggles that are involved.  This first step was critical so that when teens actually came on looking for help, they would find a mentor waiting for them.  There are currently 15 mentors from across Canada with a variety of types of cancer experiences. The second step was to build an educators’ website so that teachers can learn more about how to communicate with their students who are living with cancer. Is it just for Canadian teens with cancer? TeenConnector.ca is an online community just for Canadian teens who have been diagnosed with cancer.  It is a private online community, therefore teens decide who can access their information. Can members remain on the network once considered in remission? Yes.  Despite being in remission, the suffering from a cancer diagnosis and/or treatment does not just go away.  According to The Childhood Cancer Foundation, 70% of children who have cancer will have lifelong effects of the treatments which changes the way they live (heart problems, brain damage, limb loss, ‘chemo brain’, emotional issues such as grief, anger, resentment and disbelief).  TeenConnector.ca aims to provide lifelong support to its members.  The intent is also for some of these teens who remain active on the network to eventually become mentors for others. What role do the sponsors play? TEVA Novopharm has sponsored The Childhood Cancer Foundation with a $300,000 grant over a two-year period.  The programs that this funding is supporting consist of the educational site, an educational DVD about Leukemia, as well as TeenConnector.ca, all of which can be accessed through the main childhoodcancer.ca site.  The President of TEVA Novopharm, Barry Fishman, is a Board of Directors member for The Childhood Cancer Foundation. When I asked David Windross, V.P. External Affairs at TEVA Novopharm, why TEVA Novopharm decided to sponsor the Childhood Cancer Foundation initiatives, including TeenConnector, here was his response;

"We participate in the Childhood Cancer Foundation initiatives, including  TeenConnector,  because the initiatives relate to one of our Corporate Values of Corporate Citizenship - we are in the business of producing high quality affordable generic medications and our work with the Childhood Cancer Foundation connects our corporation and our staff to a very important initiative that connects patients. We look forward to the success of the TeenConnector program and our continued work with the Childhood Cancer Foundation ."

JAAN Technologies set up the network and are still involved in supporting and updating it. Brother Canada committed funding of Lauren’s role within the non-profit organization as well as 10 yearly scholarships totalling $50,000 per year for 3 years in a row.  Lauren is a coordinator as well as a mentor on the site. Is the network promoted in hospitals? The network is still new and the promotional activities are just starting.  The plan is to promote the TeenConnector.ca online community to hospitals, cancer camps, teen & survivor conferences, as well as colleges and middle/high schools. As seen below, promotion cards were developed by Parul Musaddy.  These will be sent to all Canadian children’s hospitals. Is there any monitoring or editing of the content posted by the members? There is some supervision of the content on the public blogs and discussion boards.  For example, if a teen or mentor provides or asks for medical advice, or opinions on treatments, they would be contacted and asked to edit or remove their comment.  If no action is taken by the member, then JAAN technologies would be requested to remove the comment in question. Are there any advertising or sponsorship opportunities on the teenconnector.ca network? There is no advertising opportunity as The Childhood Cancer Foundation does not want their teen members to feel overwhelmed with additional information or influences.  However, organizations can sponsor the online network, and as recognition they will have their logo on the homepage of The Childhood Cancer Foundation’s website.  Note that since TEVA Novopharm is already a major sponsor, another generic pharma company would not be allowed to sponsor as well. Interested in discussing sponsorship or partnership opportunities with TeenConnector.ca, then please contact Mary Lye (mlye@childhoodcancer.ca), (416) 489-6440 ext.19 . Also, there is currently a job opportunity for somebody who would like to help promote and support the organization.  Nope, we’re not talking about volunteer work.  This is an actual paid-job.  Contact Mary Lye for details. DISCLOSURE: I have not been paid to write this article, and the organizations mentioned are not clients. --------------------------------------------- Every day of this week, a Canadian healthcare social network (online community) will be featured on this blog.  Tomorrow, we will take a look at an online community for Canadian patients of all ages who are suffering from various cancers, where online educational events take place on a regular basis.  Come check it out. Stay in touch, Natalie Connect with me on the following networks: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn —————————————————– To ensure that you receive all new updates to this blog, insert your e-mail address in the box in the top-right corner. Your e-mail will remain private and will not be shared with any third parties.

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