Taking talking beyond the clinic: practical patient and public involvement in your practice Beki Aldam
Why? Face-to-face events with families Blogging Social media
How? Digesting Science Barts-MS blog Twitter
Over 70 events Over 400 parents Almost 500 children Events in the Western Isles, Israel and Australia
Time to play!
Why should you put on an event? Benefits to your patients Face-to-face public engagement: most meaningful Newsletter: ongoing communication and information relevant to families with MS Research – Dr Dobson’s pregnancy survey got 71 responses
You can put on a Digesting Science event: bookings@digestingscience.co.uk Face-to-face events are the most valuable form of public engagement and your patients will benefit Your practice, research and work can benefit from the engagement
Barts-MS blog overview and stats •
Barts-MS Blog Around 14,000 page views a week 2 million users Most popular post has been seen 40,000 times
Why should you blog? Increase your visibility and profile Inform your patients and the public Use your online profile for funding and job searches
How do you blog? Choose a subject that interests you Plan, write then edit Short, succinct, clear and concise
When average sentence length is 14 words, readers understand more than 90% of what they’re reading. At 43 words, comprehension drops to less than 10%. Studies also show that sentences of 11 words are considered easy to read, while those of 21 words are fairly difficult. At 25 words, sentences become difficult, and 29 words or longer, very difficult.
Send your guest blog posts to me: r.aldam@qmul.ac.uk Writing a post does not take long You can improve your professional profile, inform people with MS and further your research
Twitter: do Remember the person, not the condition Tweet regularly to keep your followers informed Engage in debate, use hashtags, retweet people and spend time building the list of who you follow Share pertinent information that can dispel confusion or misunderstandings
Twitter: don’t Tweet medical advice to individual patients, or comment on a patient’s case Misuse hashtags to gain views Leave your follows and tweet numbers so low that no one bothers with your account
Twitter can enable you to join and improve professional MS networks and debates Tweeting is a way to curate the information your patients are receiving about their condition Tweeting takes a short amount of time but can have a large impact
Patient involvement can be easy, not time-consuming, and can improve your practice Beki Aldam r.aldam@qmul.ac.uk
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