AHRQ Innovations Exchange Tweetchat: Bringing family violence prevention expert Brigid McCaw, MD to Twitter

I was walking by a desk recently and saw a note left by security. It said, “Call 911 if this individual comes into the building, he will be in violation of a restraining order against him.” A photo of a happy-appearing couple was attached. How many more people does this happen to that we don’t know about?

When the team at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality asked me to host one of their innovation tweetchats, I admittedly thought to myself that they should find a real innovator. Fortunately we didn’t have to look very far. A quick cruise of the Innovations Exchange (which every innovator should scan during the innovation process in any clinical area) brought us to this one: 

AHRQ Innovations Exchange | Family Violence Prevention Program Significantly Improves Ability to Identify and Facilitate Treatment for Patients Affected by Domestic Violence

It so happened that the innovator, Brigid McCaw, MD, is a physician who I recently walked with (see: Giving the voiceless a voice using social media, family violence prevention, and a walk with Brigid McCaw, MD | Ted Eytan, MD), and we talked about …. social media. Since that walk, Brigid hasn’t been on Twitter. Until now.

So now she has a shiny new handle: @brigidmccaw , a tweet chat with myself and the Innovation Exchange set up, happening on September 13, 2012 at 3:00 pm Eastern Time (Hashtag: #AHRQIX), and Twitter has a physician champion for family violence prevention within its ranks. Win, win, win…win win.

Brigid will be tweeting from California, I’ll be tweeting from Washington, DC, and Innovation Exchange staff will be moderating from Rockville. Such a thing is possible in 2012. Brigid advises that she’ll focus on intimate partner violence prevention for this first tweet chat.

A really easy way to participate is to use Tweetchat.com, and plug in the hashtag: #AHRQIX , at the right time.

Brigid has been doing this work for 30 years, supporting a successful national program that’s brought awareness and care to people (see: silentWitness: The people of Kaiser Permanente tell their story) who formerly didn’t receive any of either. Thank you for making this topic and yourself visible in a new medium, Brigid. Chat with you on Thursday.