Measuring and Influencing Community, Patient and Public Engagement Through Social Network Analysis

Jon Salsberg, PhD has undertaken participatory and integrated KT research with a wide range of stakeholders in health care services, policy and within communities; and is co-author of CIHR’s Guide to Researcher and Knowledge User Collaboration in Health Research. He was a founding member of Participatory Research at McGill (PRAM), and is currently Senior Lecturer in Primary Healthcare Research – Public and Patient Involvement, in the Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick, Ireland

Abstract: In order to create and translate knowledge for action and change, researchers engage with knowledge users – such as patients, providers or communities – who must ultimately take ownership of the issue under study and the means of addressing it. Social network analysis provides useful tools for measuring changes in levels of engagement and ownership over the course of a researcher-knowledge user partnership. This talk will introduce social networks and basic concepts and measures from social network analysis, and provide results from a study tracking the evolution of community stakeholder ownership.

Frontiers for Network Analysis in Health Systems Research and Implementation Science

Health services and systems researchers are increasingly interested in studying the role and utilizing the power of social relations.  Social networks have been studied to inform, promote, and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of health interventions.

The focus for this year’s Health Services, Systems & Policy Seminar Series at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto is on applications of social network analysis techniques and theories to study health services and systems. The series will engage Canadian and international scholars to discuss empirical and theoretical efforts to highlight the promise and potential, caveats, and limitations of network analysis in the field.

In person or webinar presentations and Q/As will be broadcast online, and will be archived on the IHPME website. To access previous lectures in the series please go to: https://ihpme.utoronto.ca/hssp-seminar-archives/