I’ve placed a link on my resume to my Twitter feed.
I had been exploring Twitter in general, but it has now become a major microblogging tool for me. I am publishing ideas on how healthcare orgs can use Twitter to help members of their local community and themselves.
Updated the 2002 to present area as well.
While looking up the efficacy of online support groups, I found this rather timely information. It concerns what people wanted from their hospital during the SARS outbreak. (The bold is my emphasis)
Their most frequent suggestion was the ability to communicate with
family members, as visits were restricted. Others wanted to use the
Internet to access their electronic health record, participate in
virtual support groups, replace certain follow-up visits with
online consultations, and find information on drug compatibility or
clinical trials.
“What Internet Services Would Patients Like From Hospitals During an
Epidemic? Lessons From the SARS Outbreak in Toronto”
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1550678
I know there are some efforts starting up within Second Life to help share information. It looks like it may be a good venue for a wider variety of activities.
This report also shows that hospitals should be an online partner as well.
I’ve been taking peer support courses through the Guiding Lights in Second Life. It’s been very interesting, with some great speakers, and a super group to work with.
To help with this sort of training, I am developing a simulated discussion group consisting of 4 fake avatars.
It has two modes. One can run automated dialogs that demonstrate various issues and techniques that may happen during a meeting. This dialog can be stopped and continued. Further, the dialog can pause itself to allow one to type in their own responses. The other mode lets the various fake avatars puppet what someone else chats. Thus, a trainer can control what each of the fake avatars say. (One can combine both modes as well.)
I currently have 2 automated dialogs concerning healthcare support groups available. The first is a general chat, demonstrating possible issues, and techniques. The second addresses issues of tolerance and includes pauses for the trainee to come up with their own responses.
It would be easier to merely have a notecard, or web page, with the dialog all written out, but it wouldn’t capture the timing of events in a group, nor, possibly, the surprise.
It would be easier not to have the fake avatars, but it brings the experience closer to being a discussion group. Actually sitting down, surrounded by avatars, helps make the training more real, and a better learning experience.
The simulator is in beta currently, but send me an email and I’ll get a copy to you. I’m releasing it under a creative commons license with full permissions, so please feel free to change it around.
I think it will be useful to those training to lead group discussions in any setting.
#Update April 18, 2009. My apologies, but earlier versions of the Group Simulator I gave out may not have all the permissions set up properly. I intended to give it away with full permissions to the new owner. If you did a fixed copy, please let me know.
I received some very good advice about my resume and have updated my Business Analyst / Application Program Manager resume.
I had a bit of fun with my healthcare 2.0 / community management resume. (The summary is less than 140 characters…if you know what I mean.)
I’ve re-done my business cards as well, and will post a snap of them soon.
It’s funny to think that I have now been volunteering at a local hospital for over a year. Really a great group of folks over there, so the time seems much shorter.
I’m not much for popularity contests, but it is critical to know just who and what is going on in one’s area. For this reason, I installed some simple counters that report to me the number of different avatars per hour…but not their names…for the sake of privacy.
The Path of Support is a place to find out about the wide variety of healthcare support groups in Second Life.
So how is The Path doing?
I now have 3 months worth of data:
Average avatars a day saw a gradual increase. For Jan. it was 7.9, Dec. was 7.3, and Nov was 7.1. (These numbers may be shocking to folks used to website volume, but given the current membership in Second Life and the lack advertising/outreach for The Path…I’ve got to say, I am kinda happy. Secondary to the service it provides, The Path is also learning tool for this sort of project within a virtual world.)
Most avatars in one day for those 3 months was 19. That was the day I posted to the group healthcare@lists.secondlife.com.
Lowest avatars a day was 1, and it wasn’t me!
Most popular day of the week was Fri/Sat.
Popular time of the day is from 9 to 1 SLT.
In December I installed a counter on the note cards that I give away. One Entryway notecard, that details The Path and it’s content, was given for every 8.5 visitors in Jan. In Dec it was 7.3. One calendar notecard, that has some of the groups meetings for the month, was given for every 7.3 visitors in Jan. In Dec it was 5.7. One does not need to receive a notecard inorder to get good information from The Path, but the notecards have more information and show added interest. I hope to see these both increase, but understand at this point, the calendar is probably the most visually compelling.
I have recently begun asking others to put up promotional posters about The Path in other areas of Second Life. I am collecting stats on these posters, but do not have a full month’s worth. At this point all I can say is that a few people are using them.
With the addition of the calendar, extra posters, and organizing the groups, I am trying to make The Path more helpful to people. By providing a better service, I hope to see increased traffic.
Further, there has been ‘outreach’ for the path in real life. VintFalkin had a web based article on the Path and roughly doubled visitors for a couple of days. Wellness published an article I wrote about the Path available both in/out world, and that increased visitors for about a week. A simple post to an Second Life email health list garnered a few visitors for the day.
This year I am participating in the Dreams Community Fair. It features numerous healthcare groups. I have a booth, with informational posters, notecard with landmark, and even a “freebie” to entice folks. I am happy to say that The Path had its biggest day in the last 3.5 months, with 20 visitors. I am interested to see how the rest of the fair goes.
I think The Path can be even more of a service, and look forward to new features as well as working with the other healthcare folks within Second Life and without.
Many thanks to the folks on Healthinfo Island (OK, Carolina Keats) as well as the funders- The Greater Midwest Region of the National Network/National Library of Medicine for the tremendous opportunity to help maintain The Path of Support.
