Welcome!

This site has been designed by The Health Strategy Innovation Cell and The Change Foundation to help healthcare organizations understand the possibilities of using Social Media for Quality Improvement (QI).

There are different paths to navigate the site depending on your familiarity with Social Media. Here are some of the journeys you can take:

  • If you are new to social media, you can learn the basics from our social media glossary.
  • If your organization is currently using social media, you can post information about what you’re doing on our editable online directory and use the directory to connect with other Canadian healthcare organizations.
  • To stay up to date and see what’s trending in discussions about social media use in healthcare, visit the 'What’s Hot' and 'Further Reading' sections. These dynamic tools work will read like a real-time literature review on emerging issues and leading practices.   
  • Please contribute to this discussion and share your insights, experiences and feedback through the Comments section at the bottom of every page in the eToolkit.

A few technical notes:

  • Social media is, by its nature, a dynamic environment. Information in this eToolkit is current as of December 2010 to June 2011, with the currency of different information marked accordingly.
  • This eToolkit offers the ability to discuss the content via Facebook and Twitter. Please use the Comments section underneath every page to share your experience or provide insights.
  • Some parts of the eToolkit are designed to be editable and are continually updated or can be updated by users.
  • In our analyses, only data from open-access blogs were used, no personal identifiers were obtained, and no comments were actively solicited for the purposes of obtaining information about what clients thought about their experience of care at the two organizations that participated in our field explorations.
  • We use the term “patients” throughout this eToolkit, but we recognize that some healthcare organizations use “clients” to describe the people who receive their services. In our discussion of the field partnership with CAMH, we use “clients” as is the practice there.
  • In this eToolkit, links without a reference number are definitional and you can explore the terms and background information provided through these links. Links with a reference number will take you directly to the source material; for people reading this in hard copy, we’ve provided endnotes for these sources.
  • If you prefer, you can download the full report (Part 1 and Part2) in PDF.

Last update: June 21st, 2011