CardioExchange Site FAQ
Basics:
1. What is CardioExchange?
CardioExchange is an online community for cardiologists and other professionals involved in the practice of cardiology. Community members benefit from access to the latest leading research and breaking medical news selected by our editorial team led by Harlan Krumholz; opportunities to share clinical insights, best practices and challenging medical cases with colleagues and top minds in cardiology, and tools to build a professional network with physicians they know and trust.
2. Who is this site for?
CardioExchange is an invitation-only site for medical professionals interested in cardiology. The site has been designed for physicians and clinical care professionals. It is not for the lay public, nor is it for commercial entities in health care.
3. It’s free to join, and the content is free. Will it always be this way?
Currently, CardioExchange is in a pilot phase, which is set to run through May 2010. Registration and content are both free during the pilot. When the pilot ends, we’ll reassess whether registration, content, or both will remain free.
Management:
4. Who runs CardioExchange?
The site is from the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal Watch. CardioExchange is a pilot program that is planned to run through May 2010. During this time, we hope to learn a lot about what works best for our members, what it takes to run a successful online community, and how we can make CardioExchange an easy to use, productive, and enjoyable experience for our members.
5. Who edits and manages CardioExchange?
We have an impressive group of professional physician editors, group moderators, and expert bloggers. They highlight the best content and commentary, initiate and manage conversations, and write blog posts and other notes about current trends in cardiology. Users are the focus, and the community is managed on multiple levels. We have a professional staff that helps the editors, group moderators, and community members, but ultimately it’s the community that manages itself.
6. Does CardioExchange accept advertising?
Yes. During the pilot period, advertising will be part of the NEJM.org and Journal Watch Online programs. See our Internet Advertising Policy for further information.
Content
7. Where does the content come from?
The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal Watch are providing cardiology content from their publications from September 2008 through the duration of the pilot. We will also be covering news and events in cardiology, and hosting blogs from our group moderators (groups include Interventional Cardiology, Prevention, and Fellowship Training). We also have blogs from other authors with an emphasis on expert opinion, cases, and general observations of the field.
8. How does CardioExchange suggest related content?
CardioExchange uses a sophisticated semantic engine that matches content across the site, allowing us to suggest articles related to other articles, articles related to your clinical and research interests, and article categories likely to merit further investigation.
Membership
9. Why is the site invitation only?
A community is only as strong as its core group of members, so we are starting from a solid base of experts and prominent clinicians, then giving them the tools they need to invite trusted colleagues. Our hope is that the content and community here will make new members want to invite colleagues, participate in discussions, comment on articles, and form community friendships for further dialog.
10. Can people who are not clinicians join CardioExchange?
At this time we are accepting medical professionals engaged in the delivery of cardiac patient care. Individuals who work in the medical industry can request an invitation. They will be asked to disclose fully who they are and their competing interests. We will review these requests on a case-by-case basis.
11. How do I join CardioExchange?
From the homepage you simply select request an invitation. You will be asked to submit profile information. We will review your request and reply within 24 hours. The information you provide in your request will become part of your community profile once you become a member.
12. Will you check my credentials?
We will review the profile information that you supply. We will only check credentials if we have a reason to do so. We believe that transparency and trust in a community should be sufficient, but if we find that a person in the community has betrayed trust or has hidden important information, we will expel them.
13. Do I have to use my true identity on CardioExchange?
Yes. Your name, degrees and location will display as part of your profile. Also, you’re expected to be forthright about potential conflicts of interest, and be honest about your education, training, and credentials. This maintains the quality of the community.
14. What is my profile? Why is it so important?
Your profile is your identity on CardioExchange – it lists your credentials, provides your “face” on the site (so please upload your picture if you haven’t already). Your profile identifies you when you comment, participate in discussions, message friends, and recommend articles.
15. How do I invite colleagues to join?
CardioExchange is an invitation-only site, and members can issue invitations to trusted colleagues. You can extend an invitation from your profile page or from the home page. An invitation to join is also included when you share an article with a colleague who is not yet a member of CardioExchange.
Privacy
16. How do my privacy settings work?
Your privacy settings control what other members of CardioExchange can see about you (nobody outside CardioExchange can see anything about your membership). You can make your public profile visible to all members, make it visible only to your friends, or keep it private so that only your name and location are displayed. Because we believe trust is essential to any community, our default privacy settings allow other members to see your public profile.
17. What can other CardioExchange members see on my profile?
If you limit your visibility severely, other members can only see your real name and location. They can request friend status, but will only have these two elements of your identity to help them make this decision to request a connection. If you set your privacy so that only friends can see your profile, then members who are not friends will only see your name and location, while friends can see your entire public profile. Your public profile includes your real name, current location (city and state), specialty, work setting (office, clinic, hospital, etc.), current professional position, education history, clinical interests, and recent activity (recommendations, comments). If you use the default privacy settings on CardioExchange, other members will be able to see your public profile.
18. Do you sell information about CardioExchange members?
No. We do not share your personal information with third parties. Any descriptions of the membership are stated in aggregate (e.g., number of members, numbers in a specialty, etc.). For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.
19. How will you use information about CardioExchange members?
Information that is automatically collected is used to monitor usage patterns order to help us improve the site and its service offerings. We may send you information about our products and services, unless you have indicated you do not wish to receive further information. For more detail please refer to our Privacy Policy.
20. If non-physicians can join and they can see my personal information, what’s going to keep them from getting access to it?
Every member of CardioExchange agrees to our Terms of Use. These prohibit using information from the site for commercial purposes. If we discover this occurring, we will act quickly to stop it and make things right. The quality of the CardioExchange community is our paramount interest.
Key Features:
21. Are comments screened and moderated?
Comments are screened by site staff after they are published. Items that are clearly inappropriate will be removed. We also provide abuse reporting tools so that you can report comments that you don’t feel conform to the goals of the community. Reports of abuse are evaluated by our staff. Users who consistently abuse the site will be dealt with administratively.
22. Are good discussions highlighted?
Comments or discussions that are especially interesting or relevant to the broader community will be brought to the attention of others through our Community Highlights feature, through emails, and through our groups.
23. What happens when I recommend an article?
Recommending an article acts like a vote of confidence for a piece of content, and elevates its prominence in the community and to the site’s editors. Recommendations can move items up in the view of people interested in that particular topic, or alert editors that a particular topic is of wide interest and requires further attention or elaboration.
24. What are the groups on CardioExchange?
There are three special-interest groups on CardioExchange, each moderated by a prominent expert in the area. These groups are Interventional Cardiology, Prevention, and Fellowship Training. Members with a strong interest in any or all of these areas are encouraged to join these groups, where deeper discussions, private blog posts, and private calendars are available. We are also interested during the term of the pilot to see how these groups evolve and grow, and we will try to make group membership a major benefit of joining the site.
25. How are the calendars on CardioExchange created?
There are four calendars on CardioExchange – a general interest calendar, and three group calendars (Interventional Cardiology, Prevention, and Fellowship Training). Any member can email a suggested event for the general interest calendar. Members of a group can email the group moderator with suggested events for their group’s calendar. All four calendars can be seen at the Calendar landing page, and then each can be viewed separately as well.
26. How are the NEJM CareerCenter jobs on CardioExchange selected?
We’ve worked with the NEJM CareerCenter to locate jobs that are most likely of interest to cardiologists. To see a complete listing of available jobs, visit the NEJM CareerCenter at www.nejmjobs.org.
27. Can I earn CME credits on CardioExchange?
During the pilot phase, we will be evaluating interest in continuing medical education (CME) programs on CardioExchange, and to learn how they might work better in the setting of an online community. For selected articles, links have been created so that subscribers to the corresponding CME exams and programs at The New England Journal of Medicine and Journal Watch can use those programs more easily. There are no free credits given through CardioExchange currently.
Staying connected:
28. How can I stay in-touch with CardioExchange?
You may subscribe to email alerts that summarize the editors’ picks and track specific topics of interest. When you join a group, you'll automatically be subscribed to email alerts to help keep you updated on activity from the Interventional Cardiology, Prevention, and Fellowship Training groups.