Tomáš PruÅ¡a*, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Adam Zbiejczuk*, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Michal Baumann, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for patients and consumers Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2012-09-10

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Information in the area of public health and nutrition in the Czech Republic is made available by responsible institutions. They use standard forms of communication, mostly ignoring the opportunities of social media and other new possibilities. The latest statistics show that the citizens of the Czech Republic use information technologies on a similar level to people in the rest of the EU, and that internet users are interested in information on health issues. But there hasn’t been any reliable, high-quality source of information on nutrition that takes advantage of social media. Among the reasons are the lack of funds and of educated professionals, the low adoption rate of social media within the community, and mistrust of social media.

Based on the analysis of social media usage in the field of nutrition in the Czech Republic, and the experience from abroad, the main communication channels were chosen, and also the basic topics, the specific ones and the topical ones. The aim is to create a new and interactive approach to communication with the public as a whole in the field of nutrition, taking advantage of social media. An important part of the project is the involvement of students of the Faculty of Medicine at Masaryk University, especially dietetic students.

The project incorporates elements of corporate communication. Innovative components include considering readability, accessibility, topicality, interactivity and metrics. To ensure readability on websites, randomly chosen texts were given readability tests with the focus on the Czech situation and language. Based on the results and the comparison with the needs of the average Czech population, the style of the communication was altered. Accessibility issues include translation of chosen articles into Czech sign language. This is the first time that information about nutrition has been available for deaf people. The topicality of the content is ensured through regular monitoring of the Czech media landscape and tracking the users’ interests. For social media, guidelines were created to help the team members use social media wisely and to react appropriately online. The guidelines are under constant development to ensure that new factors and changes are addressed.

An integral part of the project is setting up metrics that can be measured and analysed. Based on the reaction of the public (measured by page views, comments, responses, information shares, and so on), we will see which parts of the portal need more focus, what interests the users most, which areas are not covered adequately, and so on.

By including the students of the Faculty of Medicine, we have built one of the first really professional online spaces to enhance the dialogue between the academic sphere and the public. The project is also valuable since it helps us reach the target groups and bring the knowledge out from the academic domain. Recent studies have shown an increasing interest in nutrition among the general public, and the absence of non-biased, non-commercial information; studies have also confirmed that social media might be the right information channel to reach the general public.