We're exploring the uses of a "story capture" (in small caps) process in healthcare-related communities.  One pilot project under discussion is with the Community Healthcorps.  

The ability to aggregate and weave together a wide variety of conversational media (email, Twitter, blogs, even SMS) into persistent stories could have applicability in many aspects of provider workflow as well as patient/provider communications and program evaluation.

We've been talking to a variety of professionals and program administrators, and there's a lot of resonance.  We'd be very interested in finding more groups and individuals to talk to about pilot projects and developing the methodology in this area.

The value of narrative in general, and of success stories in particular, in healthcare communities, seems to be well established.  The CDC has a tradition of using stories as part of the documentation of public health initiatives ... 

Success Stories Workbook

There are examples of using narrative data as part of program evaluations in nursing, and an interesting program in narrative medicine at Columbia. 

Please let us know if you have more examples of combining narrative data collection with healthcare practice.  We're going to be posting more about this in the future!