Mayo Clinic has been a leader among health care providers in using social media tools, with the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube, nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter and more than 53,000 connections on Facebook. We’ve also been blogging for more than three years, starting with our Podcast Blog and News Blog. Two years ago we launched our Sharing Mayo Clinic blog to create a way for patients and employees to share their Mayo Clinic stories, and a year ago this month we created the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
We’re pleased to now be taking the next step, creating an online site to connect the global Mayo Clinic community. When you’re facing a health concern, sometimes, what you really need is someone who has already been there. That’s what this community is all about: connecting people who have been through the Mayo Clinic experience with others facing a similar health concern. Each year, more than 500,000 unique patients from every U.S. state and nearly 150 countries visit one of our Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida or Minnesota for diagnosis and treatment. These patients, their families and friends, and Mayo Clinic’s 50,000 employees and students are part of the global Mayo Clinic community. This site provides a place for community members to share information, support and understanding.
The Mayo Clinic online community is free and is open to anyone, whether you have been a patient at Mayo Clinic or not. It includes content from various Mayo Clinic blogs, health and medical videos from Mayo’s YouTube channel and links to news articles about Mayo Clinic research and treatment advances. It also features a discussion forum where members can connect with others who have similar interests or concerns.
We’re not aware of other online communities like this created by a medical provider group or hospital system. If you’ve seen one, please leave a comment below with a link. We obviously want to learn together and develop best practices along with others who may be involved in similar efforts.
Feel free to browse the community, or click here to join.
admin
Lee Aase
Shawn Bishop
Randy Schwarz
Makala Johnson
Joyce Groenke
Joel Streed
Dana Sparks
Polly Gilgenbach
Ronald Petrovich
Stacy Theobald
Susana Shephard
Alyson Fleming
Jason Pratt
paulspeyser
mayoclinic
Farris Timimi
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I’m not aware of any similar online communities specifically launched by medical provider groups or hospitals, and I do this stuff for a living. I have helped companies in the long-term care and assisted living spaces launch online communities, but nothing on this scale. There are very few social media shining stars in the healthcare arena. Mayo Clinic is one of them. Thanks for pioneering the way into “next practice.”
Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN
Founder, CareNetworks.com
Nice work, Mayo (and Lee). What a great way to build community for people seeking answers to difficult questions and looking for guidance at challenging times. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for building this great support network. I know my family, along with many others, will really appreciate this new resource.
Well done job.Thank you for building this great support network. Keep up the good work.
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Interesting. How do you manage negative comments from patients within community conversations on your own site about your own care or providers? Do you moderate these community conversations or do you allow those conversations to flow free whether good or bad for you? If you moderate, is that right thing to do to get in between those conversations among patients? What is your take on this issue?
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Hi Lee: About a year ago, we introduced our online community for Memorial Sloan-Kettering patients and caregivers. We currently have just over 500 members, and are hoping to foster more activity as we add now content and features. If you’d like to check it out, use the key phrase mskcc123 to register.
Thanks for sharing this. Is your community only for MSKCC patients/caregivers? Is that the reason why you need the mskcc123 phrase to register?
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Hi Lee–I’m a big fan of yours and am impressed by this new Mayo community site. Medical Facebook! I wonder how it is going to compare to HealingWell.com? I am active on those forums and find them so supportive. Exciting to see!