As I mentioned before, I have been invited to participate in the International Seminar “Aplicación de las nuevas tecnologías a la prevención y asistencia en adicciones (”New technologies applications to prevention and assistance of addictions” (26th and 27th, June). Here goes my presentation:

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I have been invited by Government of La Rioja, through the Regional Ministry of Health, to participate in the International Seminar “Aplicación de las nuevas tecnologías a la prevención y asistencia en adicciones (”New technologies applications to prevention and assistance of addictions” (26th and 27th, June) located at CIBIR, the Biomedical Research Centre of La Rioja. The seminar is organized by Drojnet an European project that evaluates the usefulness of new media in informing teenagers about drugs and their effects on their health. Deadline for registration is June 13, 2008.

I’m going to participate in the track “Health , Communication and New technologies” talking about “Health and the Internet. The transition of health system to Network Society: an empirical analysis of Catalonia” based on E-Health and Society: an empirical study of Catalonia directed by Prof. Castells.

I’m excited about this Seminar for many reasons: I will meet interesting people who are working in eHealth in Spain and Europe; Drojnet project looks like a good initiative to explore eHealth and Digital Natives topics and I will have the opportunity to talk with their authors; and it will be a good opportunity to know Regional Ministry of Health of La Rioja initiatives in eHealth. Finally, I would like to thank to the organization of the seminar for the invitation.

I’m glad to announce that Health and Web 2.0 in the Information Age videos are available at YouTube.

Health in the Information Age by Rita Espanha

Health and Web 2.0 by Michael Hardey

Health and Web 2.0: initiatives from Catalonia Government by Joan Guanyabens

Enjoy them! Thanks again to those who made this conference possible. Of course, Feedbacks are welcome!

First of all I would like to thank Gustavo Cardoso, Miquel Angel Mayer and indeed Rita Espanha and Michael Hardey for the marvellous working days we had in Barcelona. It was a honour to have the opportunity to share during three days thoughts, reflections, past researches and ideas about health and the Internet. I’m sure those are just the beginning of future collaborations. Thank you very much for such a wonderful days.

The conferences matched the audience’s expectations. Michael and Rita have allowed me to upload their presentations to the Internet as long as many people have showed their interest in the conference but they were not able to attend to Barcelona. I ‘m pleasure to announce that both conferences were video recorded and will be available in two week at UOC YouTube Channel.

Rita Espanha and Gustavo Cardoso have been reserching the transition to Network Society in Portugal. Most of the researches are available at OberCom. OberCom (Observatory for the Media) is directed by Gustavo Cardoso. He and Rita Espanha supervise the centre’s scientific research development; manage the centre research networking and institutional relations. OberCom is a non-profit research centre whose main goal is the production of data and diffusion of information about the Media, thus contributing to better knowledge of the field of communications in Portugal.

As I posted before, they have developed a research project titled Health in the Information Age. Their main conclusions were showed in Rita’s presentation

In 1999 Michael Hardey wrote Doctor in the house: the Internet as a source of lay health knowledge and the challenge to expertise. He was one of the first researchers who started to analyse Health and the Internet and the transformation of the relation between health professions and their clients/users/patients. In 2001, “E-Health”: the Internet and the transformation of patients into consumers and producers of health knowledge was published. Is it sound like Web 2.0?. His forthcoming paper will be Hardey, M. (2008) Public health and Web 2.0, Journal of the Royal Institute of Health Promotion 128(4):171-179

Finally, I would like to thank International Graduate Institute (Open University of Catalonia) and TicSalut Foundation for sponsoring the conference.

Yesterday, I was invited by Cristina Iniesta, Hospital del Mar Manager Director and Health Promoting Hospital Network Coordinator, to present the results from Internet, Health and Society in Catalonia in one of the network meetings at Hospital Sant Joan de Deu.

The aims of the presentation were: (1) to analyse in what way and to what extent the Internet is adopted and embedded by Catalan health system; (2) to discuss the implications for health promotion, taking into account Health Promoting Hospital objectives and, (3) to find ways of future collaborations.

The atmosphere of the session was excellent. I’m sure we will find many ways of future collaboration. Finally, I’m grateful to Kathryn O´Connor, my wonderful English teacher at UOC, for introducing me Cristina Iniesta and, last but not least, I would like to thank Cristina Iniesta for her kind invitation and her open thinking.