Colleen Young – Online Social Innovator and Community Manager

“The most exciting innovation of the connected health era is people talking with each other.” ~ Susannah Fox from the Pew Research Center.

Thanks to the social web, we can build close-knit and far-reaching networks and join communities online when we need help or advice easier and more quickly than ever before.

As an online community manager and social innovator, Colleen Young witnesses this phenomenon every day. Patients, caregivers, family, friends, and other supporters are increasingly taking part in online health communities to share information and find support, and invariably build a collective knowledge that is second to none.

Colleen is the Founder of Health Care Social Media Canada (#hcsmca) and Manager of Social Innovation at ELLICSR, Princess Margaret Hospital. Colleen is an online community manager who builds virtual health communities that thrive. Health Care Social Media Canada is a community of practice exceeding 7000 members who share and learn via online social tools, making health care more open and connected. As the Community Manager for Canadian Virtual Hospice, Colleen built an community for patients and caregivers seeking online peer support at the end of life and through bereavement.

Talking about how to build and sustain a successful online health community and strategic community management keeps Colleen busy on the conference circuit. After giving her award-winning presentation at the 2012 Medicine 2.0 Congress at Harvard University, Boston, she published Community Management That Works: How to Build and Sustain a Thriving Online Health Community in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Colleen believes that engaged patients and providers can leverage technology and the knowledge of the community collective to be the driving force that will build confidence in peer-to-peer health care and participatory medicine.

Favourite quote: “…this forum [is] like a big cosy blanket when I need someone to lean on …” online community member from Virtual Hospice.