TOP of Mind - THE CHANGE FOUNDATION's E-Newsletter February 2010 The Change Foundation-Health Strategy Innovation Cell partner with provider to probe how Web 2.0 can improve patient care - how to best listen and learn? Patients and caregivers everywhere are busy blogging, tweeting and building Web 2.0 communities to discuss their health-care experiences. As health-care leaders, providers, and advisors, how do we best tap this rich reservoir of real-time real-life stories to improve patient care? Can listening to patients' social media commentary about their health-care experiences provide new low-cost/high-touch quality improvement (QI) opportunities and value? How do we responsibly integrate what we're learning into existing QI efforts to complement policy and research on patient satisfaction? The Foundation has joined forces with another think tank, Health Strategy Innovation Cell, to find out in an intriguing project, using on-line patient dialogue to drive health-care improvement. The project will develop and test emerging best practice guidelines on using social media to enhance QI and patient-centred care, and will produce an e-toolkit of case studies and informed discussion around lessons learned about the potential and limitations of social media to improve health care. Providence Healthcare is already on board. President and CEO Neil McEvoy: "Traditional patient surveys only tell us part of the story. We hope this project will show us how to listen in a more meaningful way to real conversations among patients and families sharing their insights and experiences about health care; we want to use that to help us make tangible, measurable improvements in the way we deliver their care." The project will be aided and abetted by a 11-member "ginger council" who will use their diverse skills and expertise in social media and health care to provide strategic advice to us. Change Foundation CEO Cathy Fooks and Neil Seeman, Director and Primary Investigator of the Health Strategy Innovation Cell, encourage you to share your stories about the social media policies and practices in your organization. Reply to the questions in We Want to take your Social Media Pulse. Send answers to info@innovationcell.com. Read Invitation to Partner.