NIH is the primary government agency working toward important medical discoveries that improve human health.

In 2007, NIH began a partnership with NANAINA (National Alaska Native American Indian Nurses Association). NIH nurses were to train and learn from NANAINA nurses regarding health care issues prevalent in reservations.

NIH required not only a tight and secure communication network to connect the dispersed NANINA nurses with NIH staff, but also an online platform that could facilitate eLearning with online discussions, webinar capability, professional networking, shared calendars and data gathering tools.

Working hand-in-hand with NIH nurses, iCohere configured an online community that focused on enhancing eLearning collaboration and inter-reservation communication. NIH nurses introduced the platform as a virtual home for the NANAINA partnership at a face-to-face event.

After that event, NIH published quality content relating to NANAINA and opened up multiple discussion areas for feedback and comment.

Through the iCohere platform, the partnership between NIH and NANAINA has become stronger and more action-oriented.

With a secure online platform, the program has a virtual home where participants can explore, learn, and network. Additionally, nurses now have a communication clearing house and platform for eLearning. NIH has been using the community to give presentations, hold discussions, and share stories.

The platform, hailed by NIH as a great step forward, has allowed NIH to meet its mission goals with the partnership and within budget.

NIH is the primary government agency working toward important medical discoveries that improve human health. In what is considered one of the most prestigious and competitive fellowships in the American medical community, each year 250 of the nation’s brightest medical students are chosen as NIH fellows.

In order to facilitate a richer experience for the fellows, NIH needed an online community to support the culminating program of the fellowship—a three-day conference at NIH’s Bethesda, Maryland headquarters.

In addition to serving as a virtual welcome area, NIH wanted the online community to archive conference presentations, offer areas for announcements and continued discussion, and ultimately serve as a post-conference professional networking community for the fellows.

To promote the networking and educational potential for the fellowship’s conference, NIH enlisted iCohere to build an online community to meet the program’s networking goals and to serve as an educational tool for fellows to reference before and after the face-to-face event. Fellows were invited to visit the online community several weeks in advance to introduce themselves and get to know other fellows.

During the conference itself, the site served as a virtual home with announcements, bulletin boards, calendars, and other information. Face-to-face presentations were made available on the site, along with discussion areas for continued dialogue and networking tools to help maintain relationships developed during the event.

The iCohere platform helped NIH fellows develop a working knowledge of each other prior to the conference, which, in turn, led to a more productive experience—fellows began collaboration and networking immediately.

The NIH staff was pleased with the streamlined communication and ease of use of the iCohere platform, and fellows responded positively to having a virtual home base for their conference experience. Users could access presentations, discussions and networking areas.