Monday, October 6, 2014

Continuing Our Chats - More Than 140 Characters


Over the past year women have contacted us via e-mail or direct message for more information about topics we have discussed in our monthly chats. Many others have used the resources we provide on this blog site and let us know how useful they were in their situation. We also know that there are those who “listen in” to our chats but are not comfortable asking questions or responding in an open environment such as Twitter. So we’ve been thinking about how and where we might continue our chats in a private setting which will allow a larger than 140 character response. We have examined many wonderful online patient community platforms. Each platform has different goals, styles and functionality.

We believe we have found one that meets our identified needs and goals for providing a space to continue our monthly #gyncsm Twitter chat discussions. We are excited to share that we will be partnering with Roni Zeiger and Gilles Frydman, founders of Smart Patients, to bring our community to the Smart Patients platform.

Roni Zeiger and Gilles Frydman founders of Smart Patients. (Photo courtesy of Smart Patients.)

Smart Patients is an online community where patients and caregivers can learn about their disease, share questions about their conditions with other members who have the same diagnosis, find clinical trials, share information they know about their disease with others and use what they have learned. Both Christina and I have individually been participating in conversations on the Smart Patients site for some time now.

Membership in Smart Patients is free but is limited to patients (anyone living with or living beyond cancer or other chronic diseases) and caregivers. They have a policy (https://www.smartpatients.com/terms) to ensure that our conversations are private. You may register for an account by visiting https://www.smartpatients.com/gyncsm. By joining Smart Patients through that page, you will automatically be part of the gyncsm community and “tag” on Smart Patients but feel free to join other gyn cancer conversations by following other Smart Patients tags such as: ovarian cancer, vaginal cancer, vulvar cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, uterine cancer, and fallopian tube cancer.

Our tweet chat topic questions will be posted on Smart Patients just prior to our monthly chat and significant tweets that are posted during the chat will appear within each topic question conversation. Both Christina and I will moderate the conversations just as we moderate the #gyncsm tweet chat and hashtag.

We look forward to having patients, survivors, caregivers and loved ones join us on the Smart Patients site where you will be invited to continue the conversations we have during our chats and interact with others members of the Smart Patient site.

Dee Sparacio & Christina Lizaso
Co-founders #Gyncsm


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