Inmaculada Grau, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Francisco J Grajales Iii*, eHealth Strategy Office, University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, Canada Joan Gene, Consorci d’Atenció Primària de Salut de l’Eixample, Barcelona, Spain Miquel Bernardo, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Marc De Demir, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for patients and consumers Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: MaRS Centre, 101 College Street, Toronto, Canada Room: CR3 Date: 2009-09-17 01:30 PM – 03:00 PM Last modified: 2009-08-13

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Forumclinc (www.forumclinic.org) is an interactive e-public health program in Spanish and Catalan for patients living with chronic diseases. Conceived and developed in 2007, Forumclinic provides high quality; evidence-based, unbiased information transcribed in lay language through a set of audiovisual materials and moderated forums for schizophrenia, diabetes, COPD, cardiac ischemia, breast cancer, depression, metabolic syndrome, bipolar disorder, arthritis, and obesity. Chronic disease audiovisual materials are culturally sensitive to Hispanic and Catalan audiences separately, and available both via web or DVD.
During 2008, forumclinic received over 459 000 unique web visits and distributed 195 000+ DVDs. Presently, its web audience is doubling each trimester, with half of web visitors from the Americas. We believe that there are a number of unique properties that have allowed forumclinc's success and user engagement. These include: 1) disease-specific board-certified moderators; 2) clinician continuity of care from the bedside to e-home care; and 3) multi-stakeholders forum openness (i.e. patients, family members and friends).

This presentation will provide an overview of the lessons learned in the engagement of Hispanic and Catalan audiences, from inauguration to present developments. Forumclinic's user-set, as a public health program, e-learning clinic, and virtual community will also be discussed. Particular attention will be placed on moderator engagement, sociodemographics and user geographical location.