Well, here we are.  My first blog post as Social Media Manager for Community Health Center’s new blog, Healthy Communities Online.  I’ve been blogging for many years with a lot of my focus on politics, education and journalism.  Much of this has really been around how to build healthy communities online, although I may not have been thinking about it in these terms as I was writing.

When I heard that Community Health Centers, Inc. was looking for a social media manager, I jumped at it.  It sounded like a great opportunity to be much more involved in building healthier communities.  At the same time, I had my hesitations.  What do we mean by healthier communities?  How do we use social media to build them?

I am still finding this out, and I invite you to join me on a journey together as we discuss what this means.  Some of this will be patient oriented.  What sort of information can we give to patients so that they can live healthier lives?  It might be a health tip.  It might be information about getting access to care.  It may be talking about bring health care patients where they are.

Some of this will be about sharing innovations.  What can we learn from residency programs?  What can we learn from the Weitzman Center for Innovation and their annual symposium?  What can we learn from Community Health Centers from around the country gathering to share best practices?  Some of it will be about the radio show, Conversations on Health Care.  We’ll probably even talk a little bit about social media.

Yet what makes any community health are the people in the community and that will be another important aspect.  We will talk about the HealthCorps volunteers, our Nurse Practitioner residents, a day in the life of a pod and any other stories we can share about using social media to build healthy communities.