The new center will host conferences and provide social media training, consulting, and resources.
The Mayo Clinic announced Tuesday the launch of a new Center for
Social Media, which is designed to engage hospitals, medical
professionals, and patients in social media.
The center is “already up and running,” according to Traci Klein, a
Mayo Clinic spokeswoman. She described the center as an “institutional
effort” that will be played out across all of Mayo Clinic’s campuses.
Klein said that the “center” actually doesn’t have a physical
location, although it will promote events held at various locations. A
social media summit, for example, will take place at Mayo Clinic’s
Jacksonville, Florida campus in September.
The center will provide training for health care employees through
webinars, on-site workshops and “bootcamps,” and an online curriculum.
It will also offer consulting and host conferences. Social media
resources—including manuals, books, white papers, and policies—will be
available through the center.
“Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility
to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to
help them use social media tools to get the best information, connect
with providers and with each other, and inspire healthy choices,” John
Noseworthy, Mayo Clinic president and CEO, said in a statement. “Through
this center, we intend to lead the health care community in applying
these revolutionary tools to spread knowledge and encourage
collaboration among providers, improving health care quality
everywhere.”
The center’s staff will also work with Mayo Clinic colleagues to find
new ways to apply social media tools throughout the Mayo system. An
advisory team including Mayo Clinic employees and an external board will
help center leadership identify new projects and provide resources.
The Mayo Clinic said that the center builds on its existing
leadership in social media engagement. The Mayo Clinic claims to have
the most popular medical-provider channel on YouTube, boasts more than
60,000 followers on Twitter, and has more than 20,000 connections via
Facebook. Mayo Clinic also operates a series of blogs and a podcast.
“Health care has lagged behind other industries in applying social
media tools,” Lee Aase, one of the leaders of the new center, said in a
statement. However, social media engagement has recently “grown
remarkably,” he added.
Mayo Clinic treats more than half a million people each year at its
locations in Rochester; Jacksonville, Florida; and Scottsdale and
Phoenix, Arizona. It operates two of Minnesota’s largest hospitals based
on number of available beds—Saint Mary’s Hospital and Rochester
Methodist Hospital.
