This document summarizes a presentation about exploring the role of online interventions and social networks in social medicine. It discusses how the Canadian healthcare system aims to ensure sustainability through empowering patients. It describes a website called Caring Voices that provides educational resources, monthly events, online chats and forums to connect cancer survivors. Studies using this site found it helped reduce feelings of isolation and increased support from other survivors. The presentation concludes that online communities can help sustain social medicine through education and collaborative relationships.

2. Medicine 2.0 September 4, 2008 David Wiljer, PhD and Sara Urowitz, PhD Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network; University of Toronto. From Social Networks to Social Medicine: Exploring the role of online interventions

6. Adapted from Kreuter et al., 2000 Clinical Encounter Experiential Health Information General Health Information Personal Health Information Health Information: Chronic Disease Generic content Individualized content Level of Personalization Level of Self-Management Low High

7. Experiential Information Matthew Hurst, 2008

10. Caring Voices: A National Initiative to Support and Connect Cancer Survivors

14. Educational Resources

15. Monthly Events Calendar

17. Forums: Asynchronous Communication

18. People Matching

19. Caring Voices Phase 2

21. Usability Results (n=8) Agree Neutral Disagree Easy to use 85% 0% 14% Liked appearance 86% 14% 0% Easy to learn the site 86% 0% 14% Easy to participate in forums 71% 14% 14% Easy to participate in chats 71% 14% 14% Receive support from other survivors 86% 14% 0%

22. User Growth An average of 49.5 new users register/month

23. Web Stats

24. Number of Visitors 61.3% increase in the number of visitors