About

The Social Media Working Group (SMWG) aims to be IMIA’s vehicle for stakeholder engagement in Social Media. Its membership will be international, inclusive, and multidisciplinary.

The IMIA SMWG will engage members from the international health informatics community, across sectors, to identify, explore, collaborate, and disseminate research on the use of social media for health. Of particular interest are the drivers of change, barriers, facilitators, and policies necessary for the application of the various social media categories in the health domain.

These categories include:

1. Social Networks (e.g., Facebook)
2. Professional Networks (e.g., LinkedIn)
3. Thematic Networks (e.g., PatientsLikeMe, TuDiabetes)
4. Microblogs
5. Blogs
6. Wikis
7. Forums/Listserv’s
8. Social Photo and Video Sharing Tools
9. Collaborative Filtering Tools (e.g., RSS, recommender systems, tagging)
10. Multi-User Virtual Environments (e.g., Second Life)
11. Social applications and games
12. Integration of Social Media with Health Information Technologies (e.g. EHRs, PACS, SNOMED)
13. Other (e.g., FriendFeed)

The sectors that will be engaged and invited to participate in this group, include (but are not limited to):

1. IMIA Member Organizations
2. Academic Bodies
3. Industry
4. Governmental research institutions (e.g, US CDC)
5. Intergovernmental Organizations (e.g., WHO, PAHO, ITU, WMA).

The applications of social media will be explored with particular applications to:

1. Health care delivery
2. Health care professional education
3. Public health
4. Clinical and disaster medicine
5. Research