How Do Healthcare Organizations Go Beyond Minimum Requirements to Make Digital Experiences Welcoming to People of All Abilities?

Ask the Expert with Simon Dermer, Managing Director, eSSENTIAL Accessibility // By Jared Johnson // Healthcare organizations that invest in their patients with disabilities reap significant rewards. They enjoy loyalty and high patient satisfaction from the largest minority group in the world. But doing so requires going beyond the minimum requirements for website accessibility. It Read More

How to Make Your Chatbot More Human-Like

Continuing Evolution of Healthcare AI Improves Consumer Experience // By Althea Fung // Chatbots — a computer program or artificial intelligence (AI) that has text or voice conversations — are redefining customer service, especially in healthcare. A 2017 Juniper Research study found that healthcare providers that use chatbots can expect average time savings of just Read More

Best Practices for Managing SEO Internally

Insight from the Bozeman Health Digital Team // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Bozeman Health is a rural health system serving southwest Montana, with two hospitals, 20 clinics, and 150 providers. “Montana is an interesting puzzle when it comes to healthcare because we are about 90 percent of the size of California with about a Read More

Evolving Website Redesign: Duke Health’s Research-Driven Approach

// By Melanie Graham // It’s been more than five years since Duke Health relaunched its consumer website (DukeHealth.org), but the redesign process is far from over. “We planned for our website to evolve into an engaging user experience as we learned more about our audience, who they are, and why they’re coming to our Read More

What Is Digital Transformation?

Ask the Expert with Chris Riegger, COO, Modea   // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Digital experience isn’t just digital anymore. It’s not enough to build a great new website, or launch a mobile app. Your digital initiatives have to connect with and support the entire customer experience. That’s what consumers have grown to expect. Read More

Teaming Up with Entrepreneurs to Tackle Healthcare’s Biggest Challenges

// By Melanie Graham // Every year, thousands of investors and healthcare industry leaders descend on San Francisco for the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. It’s a huge, four-day event that brings together start-ups, large corporations, providers, and pharmaceutical companies. But down the street, while the J.P. Morgan conference is just getting started, another community Read More

Blurred Lines: Marketing and Ethics in the Brave New World, Part 2

// By Daniel Fell // The following article is Part 2 of a 2-part series. (Read Part 1 here). The series was adapted from the panel presentation Blurred Lines: Marketing and Ethics in the Brave New World held at the 2018 Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC) in Scottsdale, Arizona. Panel members include Karen Corrigan, founder and Read More

Was Your Healthcare Website Hit by the Medic Update to Google’s Search Algorithm? Here Are 3 Ways to Recover

// By Ramya Sriram // In August 2018, Google made an update to its core search algorithm that affected thousands of websites worldwide. The update was nicknamed “Medic” after Barry Schwartz, CEO of New York-based web services firm RustyBrick, reported that more than 41 percent of the websites impacted were healthcare-related.   The update aimed to Read More

Podcast Picks

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // What is it about podcasts that makes the good ones so fun to listen to? Here’s what I think: It’s the same reason you wind up sitting in your parked car, having arrived at your destination, so you can hear the end of a great story on NPR. It’s Read More

Is Healthcare Ready for AI-Enabled EQ?

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The Innovators, Walter Isaacson’s follow-up to his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, is a history of the development of computers and the internet, and the creative minds behind them. The book closes with a chapter about artificial intelligence (AI) and a discussion of whether it will ever be equal Read More

Blurred Lines: Marketing and Ethics in the Brave New World, Part 1

// By Daniel Fell // The following article was adapted from the panel presentation Blurred Lines: Marketing and Ethics in the Brave New World held at the 2018 Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC) in Scottsdale, Arizona. Panel members included Karen Corrigan, founder and CEO of Corrigan Consulting; David Feinberg, chief marketing officer at Mount Sinai Health Read More

Incorporating Location Details into Your Digital Strategy Leads More People to Your Door

4 Key Insights from UNC Health Care User Experience Audits — Plus 7 Tips for Your Location Strategy Success // By Lisa D. Ellis // Do you include your facility locations as a component of your organization’s digital strategy? If not, you could be sacrificing market share.  Growing Opportunities with Mobile Search With a growing number Read More

How Healthcare Organizations Can Adapt Digital Strategies Used by Google, Amazon, and Uber to Solve Problems Throughout the Patient Journey

Ask the Expert with Dan Greenwald, CEO, White Rhino // By Lisa D. Ellis //  The latest technologies provide consumers with an array of conveniences — from the ability to summon a ride with a click of their phone to ordering fast food online and having it delivered right to their door. As these types Read More

How to Create a Personalized Web Experience Without Getting Creepy

// By Melanie Graham // When talking about healthcare provider websites, the word “personalization” will give most people pause. With today’s heightened awareness around patient privacy and HIPAA, how can a healthcare provider effectively personalize a website without going too far? This was a question Main Line Health faced in 2015-2016 when it took on Read More

M&A News: Healthgrades Acquires Influence Health

Conversation with Rob Draughon, CEO, Healthgrades // By Jane Weber Brubaker // On January 8, Healthgrades announced its acquisition of Influence Health at the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. We spoke with Healthgrades CEO Rob Draughon to hear more about the strategy and plans for the combined portfolio of products and Read More

Gamified Cybersecurity Tool Empowering Consumers – Coming Soon!

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // A few days ago, a headline popped up: “Marriott Hacking Exposes Data of Up To 500 Million Guests.” Not again. First a health insurance company. Then a credit reporting agency. And now a hotel chain I frequent. How does this happen? Where is the weak link that allows major Read More

How Information Architecture Improves the User Experience: Clearing Out Your Junk Drawers

// By Althea Fung // We all have that miscellaneous drawer somewhere in our houses. Mine is filled with instruction manuals, incense and lighters, a sewing kit, leftover screws from Ikea furniture, and my label maker. While the junk drawer seems like a great way to store small, useful household items, in many cases, it’s Read More

Q&A with Amber Welch of Ochsner Health System on Her Organization’s Consumer-Focused Website Strategy

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Online consumer giants like Amazon and Google have been rolling out the red carpet for consumers, offering quick, easy, and personalized experiences. This level of service is reshaping consumer expectations, and the effect is spilling over into the healthcare sector. At the 2018 Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Read More

Chris Boyer’s Crystal Ball: Top 7 Digital Trends in 2019

// By Sheryl S. Jackson // We asked Chris Boyer, 2018 Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame inductee, director of digital and analytics at University of Minnesota Health and Fairview Health, and host of the touch point podcast to weigh in on digital trends that will affect hospitals and health systems in 2019. Digital transformation is Read More

Healthcare Marketing Analytics: 6 Things We Learned with Our New Data Scientist

// By Jared Johnson // Data-driven marketing is the holy grail in today’s environment of accountability. To get there, many organizations are investing in data scientists. Phoenix Children’s Hospital is one of them. In this article, Jared Johnson, manager of marketing technology and analytics at Phoenix Children’s, shares his experience from Year One of having Read More

Hospital Digital Experience Index: Webinar on Demand

Details from the latest study of 15 top-ranked hospitals’ websites — and takeaways you can apply at your organization

// Sponsored Post //

An eHealthcare Strategy & Trends webinar on demand for healthcare marketers and digital strategists

Your Presenters:

• Dave Wieneke, Healthcare Practice Director, Connective DX
• Aaron Watkins, Senior Director of Internet Strategy & Digital Content Marketing, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The latest Hospital Digital Experience Index (HDX-15) is out — and it’s chock-full of actionable insights based on detailed benchmarking and analytics.

Get an expert tour of the best digital work happening among leading organizations like Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and others.

Dave Wieneke, healthcare practice director at Connective DX and lead developer of the HDX-15 methodology, will highlight the emerging trends and best practices observed across these 15 top websites.

Dave will be joined by special guest Aaron Watkins, senior director of internet strategy and digital content marketing at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

You’ll Learn:

• How to better connect with and serve your community by reflecting and representing diversity on your website
• Why this may the the year of the phone, and how you can use digital to support it
• Where most of your website traffic may be coming from
• How you can respect the patient journey and personalize the digital experience

Join us on January 23 and get insights from top healthcare organizations that will help you enhance the digital experience for your website visitors.

Watch now »

Healthcare Consumer Engagement Hubs: A Framework for Improving Consumer Health Journeys

// By Melanie Graham // Healthcare marketing today is about much more than getting someone in the door for an appointment. Rising care costs, evolving technology, and new payment structures have changed the way consumers make healthcare decisions and altered how healthcare marketers approach patient loyalty. Healthgrades’ recently published white paper “The Longitudinal Customer Journey” Read More

Can You Imagine Amazon Without a Checkout Button? How About a 3-Week Delay for Your Order?

// By James A. Gardner // Let’s imagine Amazon’s website without a checkout button for a moment. And a three-week delay on all our orders. It would be unimaginable. You’d be asked to load your cart and then phone or email in your order. Or fill in a form and wait for Amazon to get Read More

Cleveland Clinic Builds on Trustworthy Content with Renewed Podcast Strategy

// By Melanie Graham // Podcasting is a medium that has swept nearly every industry, and experts and amateurs around the globe are producing and publishing thousands of episodes every day. The list of topics is endless, and it seems nearly everyone is plugged into a podcast while commuting or exercising. So it only makes Read More

The Importance of Adopting an Accessibility Mindset for Healthcare Websites

// By Keith Bundy // Keith Bundy is an accessibility community consultant at Siteimprove. The following article is based on his speech during the 2018 eHealthcare Leadership Awards. This year, we added accessibility as a scoring criterion in the Best Overall Internet category, combining a weighted score derived from Siteimprove’s Digital Certainty Index automated tool Read More