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New community outreach database ready

by Lisa Giles
Community outreach director, MUSC Marketing Services
A new database tool, myOutreach, is now available online to serve as a central location for housing university and Medical Center community outreach offerings. 

Developed as a joint effort between MUSC Marketing Services and the Information Technology Laboratory, the goal is to encourage MUSC groups involved in community outreach to enter information in this database. Currently, it is impossible to know all the outreach offerings available campus-wide. This database seeks to organize this type of information in one centralized location for easy access. 

This database will be able to track the following community outreach classifications: Educational exhibits/Displays; Educational Materials; Presentations/Speakers; Health Screenings; Special Events/ Programs; and Support Groups.

In addition, it will collect data about target audiences, internal and outside sponsors, promotional methods, contact information, dates, times and locations for scheduled programs, events or offerings. The database offers many different options for users. You can add new offerings as well as search offerings and view or print monthly outreach calendars.

Once a significant amount of outreach information is collected, the database will offer numerous benefits: 

Improve communication
This is probably the most important benefit. For example, MUSC does not currently have a complete listing of support groups available. This database will allow MUSC employees to search available support groups for use with patient care and promotional efforts.

Provide a resource for community outreach requests
Frequently, Marketing Services, Public Relations and the President's Office receive calls requesting health screenings, educational exhibits and presentations for community events. This tool will provide a ready reference of MUSC groups that offer these services.

Create awareness about duplicated services
Many times more than one area will offer the same service—such as health screenings, educational materials, etc. This database provides a way to search all available resources dedicated to a specific area which could lead to collaboration of efforts and consolidation of resources. 

Provide information for promotional purposes
Marketing Services will be able to pull information from the database to use in community calendars, MUSC’s consumer Web site (MUSChealth.com) and more.

Allow record keeping and report generation
 Groups that add information consistently to the database will be able to use it, in a limited way, for record keeping purposes.

We are ready for MUSC groups to begin adding their outreach information to the database. If you are involved in community outreach efforts, we encourage you to try the database out and begin entering your information on a regular basis. We encourage colleges, departments and services to also think about designating one person from your area to be responsible for entering this type of information. 

You can access the database at <http://herman.itlab.musc.edu/projects/outreach/>.  Please bookmark the site for easy reference. 

This site is for use by MUSC employees only - you will need your MUSC user name and password to submit your information. Once you add information, if you are listed as the contact, you will receive monthly e-mail reminders to update your entries. The ultimate goal is for this database to be the central location for housing the outreach classifications listed above. 

Please take advantage of this important tool. We are anxious to hear how the database works for you. Your comments will help us make any needed improvements. 

If you would like to begin entering information to the database or have any comments or questions about this effort, e-mail gilesl@musc.edu.