Webcasts: switch on to knowledge exchange

Abstract

Introduction: Providing supportive structures to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and raise awareness of how telehealth and telecare are used is essential to give staff working in health, housing, social and voluntary sector settings the knowledge base and capacity to develop robust and sustainable services. In Scotland, two knowledge exchange networks were active in this area. The Telecare Learning Network, supported by the Telecare Development Programme 2006-11, and the Telehealth Champions Network, supported by the Scottish Centre for Telehealth 2010-11. These Networks merged in 2011 as a result of the Telecare Development Programme and the Scottish Centre for Telehealth coming together as the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare under the governance of NHS 24. The new Telehealth and Telecare Learning Network presented an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity was to engage with and learn from a significantly larger network of individuals, working across a wider range service settings and with distinctive professional experience. The challenge was how to support this Network with a range of activities which could be delivered efficiently with content that would be relevant, informative and interesting. Results: Our solution was to continue to: * share updates, resources and news with the Network members by email and via our Telehealth and Telecare Community website * to host two annual events, one Learning Network day in May and 1 SCTT conference in autumn * introduce programme of webcasts, multi-professional in nature and with an emphasis on exchanging lessons learned Between February - November 2012 the SCTT Learning Network delivered a programme of monthly webcasts. The webcasts featured operational, clinical, research and service management staff. Participants were drawn from health, housing, social care and voluntary sector organisations. The webcasts topics have included: telemedicine research; approaches to dementia care; supporting individuals with epilepsy; pulmonary rehabilitation and updates on the strategic direction for telehealth and telecare in Scotland. This poster will present progress on this approach including: * the rationale for developing the webcast programme to support the Learning Network * the challenges of raising awareness and delivering the webcast programme * outline the steps taken and the lessons learned * the benefits of delivering a programme of webcasts Conclusions: Delivering a programme of webcasts as one element of supporting Telehealth and Telecare Learning Network allows members of the Network to continue to participate in important knowledge exchange activities at a time that is convenient, while avoiding additional travel. Planning the content of webcasts, preparing the participants and ensuring that the topics covered are relevant to a wide range of health, social care, housing and voluntary sector staff requires continuous and active engagement with the Learning Network members. Challenges including, the difficulty in accessing webcasts from work computers in the public sector; working with clinical schedules; raising awareness of the webcasts and defining the key information points in each webcast are lessons which have been learned during this journey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]