Health Net Inc. of Woodland Hills and the UCLA School of Public Health today announced the national expansion of their health literacy social media program, T2X. The program was previously limited to its study testing phase, but access to the program now is available to teens nationwide. The T2X project was the result of a partnership between Health Net, UCLA School of Public Health and EPG Technologies. It was funded by a $1.1 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health. The study tested whether a cutting-edge intervention using an online social network would increase low-income teens’ capacity to access and use their insurance, become more engaged in their health care and health behavior decisions, and develop pro-health attitudes. “We believe that this innovative approach has helped create best practices for encouraging all teens to become knowledgeable health care consumers,” Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, Health Net’s director of Health Education and Cultural and Linguistic Services said in a statement. “The study’s findings are currently being evaluated and the highly anticipated results are expected mid-2012. If this intervention is indeed successful in allowing teens to become more engaged in their health care and health decisions, we could validate the use of social networking sites for the rest of our population and open doors to exploring other innovative technology-based approaches to promoting healthy behaviors in the future.” The T2X website offers a teen-only community of users, with teen and professionally produced content, competitions, games, quizzes, blogs, video sharing and other interactive communications. The site covers lifestyle issues for teens including nutrition, fitness, stress management, substance abuse and sexual behavior. On the T2X website, teens have the ability to chat online with health experts 24/7 and ask questions about sensitive health topics that they may not be comfortable discussing with their physician. They can also learn how to access health services at the right level of care. The site also allows teens to text keywords to a designated number and receive customized content back to their mobile devices. They can also participate in health-oriented social networking through blogs, videos and other transmedia tools, which in story telling using different media. The website also includes a Nurse Advice Line, allowing teens to obtain health care information from a registered nurse 24/7. This feature is only available to Health Net members. The project has garnered recognition in prominent publications and was recently highlighted as a best practice in patient engagement in National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) publication, “NCQA Quality Profiles: The Leadership Series–Focus on Patient Engagement.”
