Harnessing the Social Web for Health and Wellness: Issues for Research and Knowledge Translation

Social media is a powerful, rapid, and popular way of communication amongst people around the world. How can health professionals and patients use this strategy to achieve optimal disease management and prevention and attainment of wellness? An interdisciplinary group at University of British Columbia, supported by a grant from UBC Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies, conducted a research workshop in February 2013 to explore what is known and yet to be researched in using social media for nurturing the growth of virtual communities of people for health and wellness. This two and a half day workshop brought together a group of 30 multidisciplinary experts in closed discussions to reflect on five research themes in detail: (1) individual information acquisition and application, (2) community genesis and sustainability, (3) technological design issues, (4) knowledge management, dissemination, and renewal, and (5) research designs. In addition, a public forum for the general public, which attracted over 195 live participants, over 100 participants via Web casting, 1004 tweets, and 1,124,886 impressions following the #HCSMForum hash tag on Twitter, demonstrated the keen interest of the general public in this topic. Key concepts were captured in JMIR publications in this issue, and future directions, including research, knowledge translation approaches, and strategic partnerships of interdisciplinary researchers with policy makers and industries emerged from the workshop proceedings.