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.
—Jake Anderson
(janderson@tcbmag.com)