Application of social media in the environment and health professional community

Abstract

The purpose of the EU FP6 funded coordination action HENVINET was to create a permanent network of environment and health professionals. The main outcome is a networking portal (http://www.henvinet.eu), based on the concepts of social media to support communication between professional stakeholders in the environment and health fields. Its aim is to enable sharing of relevant information in an innovative and interactive manner to eventually support policy making. A social networking tool is not necessarily a typical platform for communication in the professional context, or between scientists and decision-makers. The aim of this paper is to look upon the use of social media in relevant professional communities in the light of the HENVINET experience, and to reflect on the acceptance and usefulness of such a new approach. The portal was designed over the course of HENVINET through intensive interactions by a multi-disciplinary group, involving environmental as well as health scientists, but with only limited access to decision-makers' opinions. After the social networking portal was launched, a recruitment campaign was run during the last six months of the project, taking every opportunity to present the portal and to get feedback from users. This feedback was used to improve the functionalities of the tool. Additionally, a feedback session was organized at the final event of the project, attended by over 50 professionals, about half of whom participated from the beginning in the entire HENVINET project. We have also compared the HENVINET portal with similar tools employed by other related communities, and made a literature-based survey on the use of social media for scientific communication. At the end of the project, the portal had more than 300 members with registered professional profile, over 10 topics and 15 discussion groups. The HENVINET consortium members were the most active group of users. The quality of the portal content was considered more important than having a large amount of information. To maintain the content, the majority of the participants declared their willingness to use their time, stating however that dedicated content providers would be also necessary. In theory, professionals see the value of such a tool, and are willing to contribute. Only time will tell if the tool is viable in the long run.

Figure 1

Participant’s background (multiple choice) 1 - Developing policy/legislation related to Environment and Health 2 - Applying policy/legislation related to Environment and Health 3 - Addressing stakeholder interests (Industry, NGO, …) 4 - Providing public information on Environment and Health 5 - Medical practice 6 - Consulting 7 - Developing risk assessment / decision support activities 8 - Research 9 - Other

Figure 2

Most frequent way of communication (multiple choice) 1 - I write reports which are sent to the person or organisation who gave me the job. 2 - I call regularly with journalists to provide them with information or produce press releases. 3 - I present my work results in workshops or conferences. 4 - I write mainly articles about my results. 5 - I do not communicate myself. 6 - Other ways of communication.

Figure 3

Stakeholders that the HENVINET portal is most valuable for (multiple choice) 1 - Scientist at university 2 - Scientist at research institute 3 - Policy-maker at (inter)national level 4 - Policy-maker at regional or local level 5 - Environment and health consultant in private sector 6 - Other relevant social groups such as: Employer organisations, Labour unions, Environmental organisations, Patient groups, Consumer organisations 7 - Citizens 8 - All of the above

Figure 4

Actions that could best increase the number of active portal members (multiple choice) 1 - All HENVINET partners have to contribute with content to the portal. 2 - A paid scientist (task force) should work on building the content of the portal website. 3 - HENVINET should promote the portal with leaflets, email announcements and conference presentations. 4 - The quality of the content of the portal is more important than the amount of information. 5 - The portal should have a lot of additional features such as links to other websites, conference announcements, research calls. 6 - Other actions are better to apply.

Figure 5

Most important portal feature to best assist policy-makers in doing their policy work (multiple choice) 1 - The portal has valuable and scientifically sound information. 2 - The provided information is a confirmation of the information they get from other sources before. 3 - The portal is user friendly. 4 - Make sure that the level of detail is sufficient for their purposes. 5 - The content is only evidence-based. 6 - An automatic system for notifying new messages or items on the portal. 7 - Users can identify on the portal what the current issues are to be considered. 8 - Policy-makers can find experts within their network/field of interest.

Figure 6

Most valid statement for making a policy-maker becoming a successful user of the HENVINET portal (multiple choice) 1 - The policy-maker can interact with a well-known scientist. 2 - The policy-maker can ask a question anonymously to protect his/her own identity. 3 - The policy-maker sees that there is a lot of content on the portal. 4 - The portal provides prepared answers to a range of specific policy issues. 5 - The portal responds within a day to a posed question by a policy-maker. 6 - The portal provides automated lists of topics which are placed on the website. 7 - Other reasons are more valid.

Figure 7

Willingness to invest time in using a virtual network portal such as the HENVINET portal (multiple choice) 1 - Yes, to provide content on my own field of interest 2 - Yes, to learn from others and to take information from the portal 3 - Yes, both to provide content and to take information from the portal 4 - Only limited as I get my information mainly from other sources 5 - No, not interested 6 - Only to read the discussions in the discussion groups or forum

Figure 8

Most important factor in the development of a policy advise today (multiple choice) 1 - The policy-maker uses a limited amount of scientists to provide information for a policy advice. 2 - The policy-maker uses a changing group of advisers. 3 - The policy-maker only uses scientific information to support the political opinion of his employer. 4 - The policy-maker wants only evidence-based information to support his/her policies. 5 - Traditional evidence-based culture is in need of critical discussion and innovation because of the limits of current scientific practice with respect to complex important issues in environment and health. 6 - The policy-maker is highly influenced by the media in developing policy statements.

Figure 9

Most important factor in the development of a policy advise – ideal procedure (multiple choice) 1 - The policy-maker uses a limited amount of scientists to provide information for a policy advice. 2 - The policy-maker uses a changing group of advisers. 3 - The policy-maker only uses scientific information to support the political opinion of his employer. 4 - The policy-maker wants only evidence-based information to support his/her policies. 5 - Traditional evidence-based culture is in need of critical discussion and innovation because of the limits of current scientific practice with respect to complex important issues in environment and health. 6 - The policy-maker is highly influenced by the media in developing policy statements.

Figure 10

Best option to make different disciplines work together in tackling environmental health problems (multiple choice) 1 - The EU has to set up interdisciplinary workgroups on different topics. 2 - The EU has to oblige participants in EU-projects to join the HENVINET portal and add results of their project to the portal. 3 - We have to organise international soccer matches between toxicologists and epidemiologists. 4 - The creation of glossaries (perhaps through a wiki function) for scientific terms and policy terms. 5 - Continuous professional education needs to include obligatory courses of other disciplines. 6 - I have a great idea myself.

Figure 11

Most important factor in the use of decision support tools (DSTs) (multiple choice) 1 - HENVINET should play a role in distribution on the possible use of decision support tools. 2 - Policy-makers have enough insight in the use of decision support tools. 3 - Decision support tools can only be used when they have been sufficiently validated. 4 - Decision support tools are overrated instruments. 5 - Researchers have to use decision support tools and give the results to policy-makers.