Assisting the Informed Patient

 Join us for the next session of the

CHIPIG Professional Development Series

Topic:  Beyond the Basics: Assisting the Informed Patient

Health Information Professionals take great care in providing consumers with ‘patient-friendly’ health information. But what about those patients who seek more advanced information? Through the course of this session, we will examine the information seeking behavior and needs of the informed patient. We will conclude with some strategies for assisting patients for whom traditional consumer health resources are seen as too basic and professional medical literature may be too advanced.

 Speaker: Julia Harrington, UWO MLIS Candidate

 When: June 6, 2012 from 10:30am-12:30pm EDT

 Where: Riverslea Mansion, Homewood Health Centre,  150 Delhi St., Guelph, ON.   

Lunch will be provided. 

 If attending in person, please RSVP to maryanne.howse@wchospital.ca by May 31, 2012.

Teleconferencing will also be provided for those who can’t attend in person. 

 Please note: We want to arrange car pooling for those coming from out of town.  If you can provide a ride from your location, or need a ride (if available) from your location, please contact Mary Anne Howse, maryanne.howse@wchospital.ca.

New CHIPIG Listserv

CHIPIG will be introducing a new listserv in the next month, set up through CHLA/ABSC so that you can use your work or personal email and will not be required to have a Yahoo! account.

 As per your feedback to our 2011 CHIPIG survey, this new listserv will be limited to paid members only. If you would like to stay informed about CHIPIG activities, including our upcoming inaugural CHIPIG Professional Development Series, we invite you to become a paid member of CHIPIG.
 

Memberships (http://www.chla-absc.ca/chipig/CHIPIG-Membership-Form-2012.pdf)

Individual memberships are $20/year. Institutional memberships are $50/year (for up to 3 people).

For those of you who already have a paid membership, you will receive an email welcoming you to the new listserv.

 Regards,

Taryn Lenders (CHIPIG Webmaster)

Join the CHIPIG Executive and be part of a Dynamic Team

CHIPIG is seeking nominations for the position of Secretary for the CHIPIG Executive.  The primary duty of the Secretary is to take minutes at our general meetings and CHIPIG Executive meetings. Meetings are generally scheduled and total about eight per year. As well as taking minutes, the position of secretary affords you the ability to become a part of the CHIPIG executive, which allows you the opportunity to contribute to the planning and decision-making relating to the overall functioning and networking of CHIPIG.

 During my two terms as Secretary, I have had the opportunity to:

• Plan two CHIPIG feedback surveys
• Set up CHIPIG’s Yahoo! Groups account
• Set up the 2011 Executive elections
• Connect with information centres acrossCanada
• Update the CHIPIG Consumer Health Information Library web page and much more

 CHIPIG is facing an exciting time as we look forward to implementing new and exciting changes as per suggestions and feedback collected from our recent survey. Consumer Health Information delivery mode (as we know) is changing due to new and evolving technological tools, therefore this is an exciting time to become a part of CHIPIG as we; as an organization look for ways to embrace and implement these changes as we work together to fulfill the vision and mission of our organization. 

 I have been a part of CHIPIG for four years and have very much enjoyed the experienced I have gained through my role as secretary as well as being a part of the CHIPIG team.

 If you are interested in the position of Secretary, or if you know someone who would be an appropriate candidate for the position, please forward your nominations to CHIPIG Co-chairs Tonya Mahar (tmahar@tsh.to) or Lavern Gravis (Lavern.Gravis@uhn.ca).

 The CHIPIG executives look forward to welcoming a new team member on board.

 Regards

Erica

CHIPIG secretary 2008-2011

Consumer Health Information On the Internet

 Earlier this week, Satistics Canada released its findings of the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey.  This report found that searching for medical or health on the internet was the 5^th most popular reason that people used the internet at 64%.  This was down slightly from the 2008 report of the Canadian Internet Project which found that searching for health information was the response of 70% of the respondents.

At first I was surprised by this finding, but then I looked closer at the report.  The Stats Canada Reports cautions that they had changed their survey questions due to the changing ways people access the Internet and not to compare these findings to earlier ones.  It makes sense that, with the advent of mobile technology and social media, searching for information is taking a back seat to entertainment when using the internet. 

 What does this mean to us as providers of consumer health information?  How do we take advantage of the new trends in internet use?  I recently signed up with a twitter account and was surprised at how many health related twitter accounts are out there.  Many of the postings refer me to news posts and websites.  #hcsmca is one of my favorite accounts to follow.  Google Alerts has also introduced me to news reports and current research findings in the health care field.  Many health care organizations and associations are jumping on the social media bandwagon as a way to market themselves.  They post twitter and facebook messages about new items on their websites. 

 As I was writing this blog post, I read a twitter message about this same Stats Can report that sent me to this report by Marketing4Health.ca.  The post has a slightly different response to the findings than I did, but we both note the rising increase of social media.  There is only a 6% difference in the number of people using social media and those searching for health information.  Social media is still very new to people and its use can only be expected to rise.  It should also be noted that social media is a daily activity while traditional searching for health information is an occasional activity. 

 What are your thoughts on the changing use of the internet?  How do we as health information professionals adapt?  Have you found ways to engage with social media or helped your patients engage?

Mary Anne Howse, CHIPIG Program Coordinator

Welcome to the CHIPIG Blog

The Consumer Health Information Providers Interest Group (CHIPIG) is a voluntary association of persons, who share an interest in the provision of health information to the general public.

This blog is a place where we can all share information about new resources, events, and introduce our own libraries.  Or tell us what you think about the new trends in consumer health. 

We encourage you to add comments to the blog postings.  If you have anything you want added to the blog, contact us at chipig-owner@yahoogroups.ca.  We will be sending out notices via the CHIPIG listserv for input from you for content to the blog.

Let’s make this a truly interactive Blog.

CHIPIG  Executive