// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic are ranked #1 and #2 in the country respectively by U.S. News & World Report. But that doesn’t automatically mean that their websites will live up to their stellar clinical reputations. But they did, according to the 2016 eHealthcare Leadership Awards judges. These institutions Read More
Insights from New Study of Healthcare Consumers’ Digital Experience // By Becky Barney-Villano // Retail has done it for years. Restaurants have, too. Even the banking industry is now meeting consumer expectations for on-demand services with such capabilities as mobile deposits, and complicated mortgages are being closed with a few clicks from a smartphone. Healthcare Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // At Mount Sinai’s Institute for Next Generation Healthcare in New York City, artificial intelligence or AI (also referred to as machine learning) is helping researchers to gain new insight into genetic predispositions for cancer and other diseases. Close to 2,000 miles across the country, Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake Read More
// By Becky Barney-Villano // Reputation management has never been more important for healthcare providers and organizations that are actively seeking new patients. Why? The increase in high-deductible health plans has created a new breed of healthcare shopper. The rise of insurance exchanges where consumers pick their plans has resulted in more robust and careful Read More
// By Dagmara Scalise // As the virtual front door to your organization, your website is perhaps the most important marketing platform outside of your onsite patient experience and actual physical environment. And yet, if you’re like most, there’s a good chance it’s outdated, unwieldly, or worst of all, underperforming on your marketing goals. (Assuming, Read More
// By Kyra Hagan // Outside of healthcare, customer experience drives business. Retailers and hospitality providers have realized explosive revenue growth and brand loyalty by deploying best practices in customer engagement. What are those best practices? World-class customer experience requires tightly integrating cross-channel data to bridge digital and in-person encounters. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry has Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Managing change is hard, even for innovative organizations like Boston Children’s Hospital. “That’s something I hear in all the businesses I’ve worked with, from GE to Cigna to here,” says William Gagnon, senior director of global digital strategy and customer engagement at Boston Children’s. Change is risky, and healthcare Read More
This leading awards program, which drew over 900 entries last year, recognizes the very best websites and digital communications efforts of healthcare organizations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers, and business improvement initiatives. Now in its 18th year, the awards program is presented by Plain-English Health Care, publisher of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends and Read More
// By Amber Welch // Need to book a hotel? Customer ratings and reviews are just a click away. Shopping for a car? You can easily compare features and overall quality on Consumer Reports. Looking for a new yoga class? Read the reviews. But what about choosing a hospital, perhaps the most important purchase in Read More
I’m pleased to announce that Plain-English Media, the parent company of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, has acquired the eHealthcare Leadership Awards from Health Care Communications of Rye, NY. The annual competition gives healthcare organizations of all sizes the opportunity to shine the spotlight on their digital success stories. The acquisition reunites the eHealthcare Leadership Awards Read More
Ask the Expert, with Nick Ragone // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Nick Ragone is senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., with 2,500 sites of care in 24 states and the District of Columbia. He leads the “One Ascension” effort from the Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // About one-fourth of the U.S. population listens to Pandora. That’s 82 million active listeners every month. Pandora’s free, ad-supported personalized music streaming service generated more than $1 billion in advertising revenue in 2016. Healthcare advertisers like OhioHealth, featured in a recent eHST article, are getting impressive results on Pandora. Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The nature of our health system in the U.S. is that it is massively complicated, with many variables that impact price. It’s extremely challenging for health systems to give an answer to a patient who asks a seemingly simple question: How much will this cost me? First a provider Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Lack of access to reliable non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is more than an annoyance for patients who need care. It can prevent them from getting proper treatment and result in poor outcomes. The current system is rife with inefficiencies that negatively impact providers and patients. “If you have an Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Millennials are officially the largest generation, edging out baby boomers in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2018, millennials will have more spending power than any other generation, and marketers are lining up to find ways to connect with them. So what do hospitals have to offer Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // A consumer’s experience on a website may be less than perfect at times. In most cases a badly designed website isn’t life-threatening, but in healthcare, being able to find the right information at the right time could actually make a difference. Are health system websites equal to the task? Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Live video is not for the faint of heart. Consider the jaw-dropping gaffe at this year’s Academy Awards, when Warren Beatty got the wrong envelope and broke the hearts of the La La Land producers. So why does the social media team at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin love live Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In a publication like eHealthcare Strategy & Trends that focuses on digital innovation, it would be easy to lose sight of the big picture. We’ve written extensively this year about the need for different skills in healthcare marketing. A recurring theme is: MarCom is out and MarTech is in. Read More
// By Emily Kagan Trenchard // I just got back from HIMSS 2017 in Orlando, Florida, and if this national conference of health IT professionals had a message, it was this: Patient engagement is the goal, so interoperability is the key. Why is that? Because to truly boost consumer engagement, we need to get our Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // If you’ve ever taken the subway in New York from Grand Central Station, you’ve witnessed a highly efficient capacity utilization model. As soon as the line at one turnstile gets a little shorter than the others, transit riders immediately shift over to it, and whatever surplus capacity was there Read More
Veteran Judges Discuss eHealthcare Leadership Award Program Recognizing Digital Initiatives // By Jane Weber Brubaker // When it comes to awards, landing on the podium is a cause for celebration. The annual eHealthcare Leadership Awards are the “Oscars” of healthcare digital marketing. Healthcare organizations of all sizes have the opportunity to shine the spotlight on Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In 2002, years before patient portals were a checkbox to qualify for meaningful use incentives under healthcare reform, MD Anderson Cancer Center created its own patient portal. But the motivation was not financially driven. “Patients were walking around with huge amounts of paper. You would see people—I’m not lying—with Read More
Ask the Expert, with Don Stanziano // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Don Stanziano is corporate vice president of marketing and communications at Scripps Health, an integrated healthcare delivery network in San Diego with five acute care hospitals; 30 ambulatory clinics; 14,000 employees; 3,000 physicians; and $2.9 billion in annual revenue. Stanziano leads branding, public Read More
// By Marlene Kurban // If your CEO walked up to you in the hallway at your hospital next week and asked you what return on investment your hospital is getting for your marketing efforts, could you accurately answer the question? “Four years ago we could not answer that question. Today we can,” says Alicia Read More
eHealthcare Pulse // By Jane Weber Brubaker // “One in four Americans experiences a mental illness or substance abuse disorder each year, and the majority also has a comorbid physical health condition,” says the American Hospital Association (AHA). Treating mental illness contributes significantly to overall healthcare costs. Health Affairs reported last year that Americans spent Read More