Current awareness: harnessing the power of social media

Tom Roper, Clinical Librarian, Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and

Knowledge Service@tomroper

West Sussex (as it used to be)

• Primary Care Librarian, serving primary care and community– 56 GP practices grouped in six localities – Adur,

Arun, Chanctonbury, Chichester, Regis and Worthing

– Sussex Community NHS Trust: 4,300 staff serving 1 million people in West Sussex and Brighton and Hove (biggest in NHS South of England)

• Two-thirds of West Sussex, 482,000 people

West Sussex

• 56 GP Practices• 1 acute NHS hospital trust• 6 NHS community hospitals• Over 200 Community Nurses and a wide

range of community teams• Over 50 NHS Dental Surgeries• Around 95 Community Pharmacies

West Sussex health needs

• One of the oldest populations in England– Over 23% of population aged over 65 (compared to

average for England c.16%).• Our population is ageing

– By 2016 there will be 11% more people aged over 85 living in Coastal West Sussex.

• We have areas of high deprivation– Some areas on the coastal strip are among the 10% most

deprived in the country.• With age comes disease

– Number of people with long-term conditions such as COPD, diabetes and dementia increasing

– By 2026 there will be around 3,200 more people living with dementia

The power of social media

From Intel, March 2013

Why did we want to use social media? • Part of our online brand• Engage and converse with users and non-

users• Visibility to the great and good:

– https://twitter.com/LisaSaysThis• Some urgent messages to convey

• http://www.ksslibraries.nhs.uk/.../tom_roper_social_media_business_case.doc

Relaxation of censorship

Changing attitudes

• NHS Employers: HR and social media in the NHS– http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publicatio

ns/Documents/HR-social-media-NHS.pdf• GMC: Doctors’ use of social media

– http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/21186.asp

• And now– http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publicatio

ns/Documents/Social_media_for_chief_executives_Guide.pdf

Worthing flood

Business case

• Communications objectives• Risk analysis and mitigation• Managing• Promoting• Monitoring/evaluation• Follow-back policy • Building skills

Twitter

• https://twitter.com/WSussexLKS• The hashtag: #shallchi• Lists

Tweeting by stealth

• Connect your blog to twitter (works for Facebook too)– http://primarycareknowledge.wordpress.com

• Schedule tweets (needs a client, eg Hootsuite, Tweetdeck)

A lesson from the West Country

News curation: paper.li

• http://paper.li/WSKPrimaryCare/• Delivery by e-mail/web/twitter

News curation: Scoop.it

• http://www.scoop.it/t/gp-commissioning/curate

Other stealthy things to do

• Hootsuite: http://www.hootsuite.com• Can be set up as clients for social media

accounts and web versions are not always blocked

• Seesmic R.I.P.

Current awareness

• Less KnowledgeShare ™, more an immersive learning experience

• Especially useful for primary care: @clarercgp

• Debate about NHS post Francis and post Health and Social Care Act is being conducted on Twitter

Questions?