A presentation made to the International Roundtable on Health Literacy and Chronic Disease Management held in Vancouver, BC from May 1-4th and sponsored by the Peter Wall Centre for Advanced Studies.

1. Social Media for Social Learning on
Health and Medicine:
eHealth Literacy and Navigating
the Web for Wellbeing
Cameron D. Norman PhD
Principal, CENSE Research + Design
Adjunct Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
@cdnorman
PWIAS International Roundtable on Health Literacy: Vancouver, BC May 2013

3. Any electronic, networked information resource that
derives its principal value from user contributions &
engagement

6. See: Logan, R.K. (2000). The sixth language: learning
a living in the Internet age. Toronto, ON: Stoddart.

8. eHealth literacy is defined as:
“the ability to seek, find, understand, and
Appraise health information from
electronic sources and apply the
knowledge gained to addressing
or solving a health problem.”
-- Norman, CD & Skinner, HA (2006). Journal of Medical Internet
Research 8 (2)

10. HealthLiteracy
Inform
ation
Literacy
Traditional
Literacy
Science
Literacy
Computer
Literacy
MediaLiteracy
eHealth
Literacy
Norman & Skinner (2006a). JMIR, 8 (2) e9

11. HealthLiteracy
C
om
puter
Literacy
Traditional
Literacy
Science
Literacy
Information
Literacy
MediaLiteracy
eHealth
Literacy
 Traditional (Basic) Literacy
& Numeracy
 Media Literacy
 Information Literacy

12. HealthLiteracy
C
om
puter
Literacy
Traditional
Literacy
Science
Literacy
Information
Literacy
MediaLiteracy
eHealth
Literacy
 Computer Literacy
 Science Literacy
 Health Literacy

15. NARRATIVE /
COLLABORATIVE CARE

17. Creating
Conversations
• Give and take
• Engagement vs.
Broadcast
• Sharing (but not
always equal)
• Different cadence and
pace of information
flow
• Process and outcomes
are developmental,
evolving, complex

18. How do we create the literacy
conversation?

21. MOBILITY

22. Taking
informa,on
with
you

24. Mental Models
• Systems thinking
– Looking at wholes rather than parts
• Network effects
– Connection numbers, types, and clusters
– Cliques, contagions, and resistance
• Design thinking
– Intentionally shaping interventions
– Formulating strategy

25. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
– Systems Thinking maxim

28. ….Understanding these connections can
help us better leverage the power of
networks for health literacy promotion

29. Design Thinking

31. Design: Planning and making things with intention;
>>> it is about making intent real
We need to be clear about our intentions and goals

32. Learning
to
Learn
• Many
systema,c
barriers
– Most
are
social
/
organiza,onal
– Few
are
technological
• The
myths
/
reali,es
of
the
digital
divide
• Framing
new
ways
to
think
and
spaces
to
think
in
may
be
the
key
• Training
in
technical
issues,
not
systemic
ones

33. Mindfulness in practice

34. Events
PaBerns
Systemic
Structures

35. Who Lives, Who Dies? Will Social Media Decide?
2012 Hart House Hancock Lecture
http://feeds.tvo.org/tvobigideas (March 1st, 2013)
Science-ish Blog: http://www2.macleans.ca/science-ish/
Julia Belluz (@juliaoftoronto)

37. Cameron D. Norman PhD
Principal, CENSE Research + Design
@cdnorman
http://censemaking.com
http://www.cense.ca