Featured Articles

Web Takes … January 2014 Picks

Texas Health Resources – Well-Being www.texashealth.org/well-being Organizations increasingly promote community health, although those efforts usually focus on disease prevention and identification/treatment. This special section takes on the broad and important area of overall well-being, and tackles the job nicely. The site consists of two parts. One part addresses the dimensions of well-being: healthy behaviors, emo­tional Read More

My Internet … Personal Solutions, January 2014

Productivity Apps That Are Fun For many, a key 2014 New Year’s resolution is to become more pro­ductive. An app can assist while also offering some fun along the way. The Any.do app is a simple list maker with all the tasks people re­quire, such as setting priorities, establishing reminders, and getting a push each Read More

eNews Pulse, January 2014

WEBSITES Unique Features Added to Redesigned www.Pain.com. When a 3-D spinning model called PIP (Person in Pain) is clicked, red squares appear on different areas of the body. Visitors who hover over a square will find a callout that fea­tures a selection of articles on the pain problem. A click brings up the article of Read More

eNews Pulse, December 2013

RESOURCES New Public HCAHPS Scorecard introduced by Professional Research Consultants. Although it utilizes the national HCAHPS database, this tool is more user-friendly than the federal government’s Hospital Compare site and allows for direct comparisons of multiple hospitals. It also includes Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Incentive rates. The company’s clients can get an additional tool called VBP Read More

My Internet … Personal Solutions, December 2013

Games to Make Exercising More Fun We all know how important it is to spend time at the gym staying fit, but would we call this time fun? Some smartphone apps can turn exercising into a game and make the experience more enjoyable. With Fitocracy, users get points based on specific exercises and their intensity Read More

Virtual Reality Program Helps Treat Mental Health Problems

by Diane Atwood Imagine for a mo­ment that just the thought of going to an event and meeting new people causes such in­tense anxiety you feel as if you might be having a heart attack. Such a reaction is usually caused by a form of social anxiety – a fairly common phenomenon. Xenodu, a company Read More

Web Takes … December 2013 Picks

Virtual Tours Checking out healthcare facilities in person is difficult and at best limited. Virtual tours fill this important role and have the advantage of providing details that a tour guide might not give. The three reviewed organizations all offer virtual tours that provide full-screen viewing, 360-degree rotation with click and drag, a zoom func­tion, Read More

What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2014? Part Two

Ask The Expert with Mark S. Gothberg Winners of the 2013 eHealthcare Leader­ship Awards, the com­petition’s 14th year, were recognized in November in New Orleans during a pres­entation at a healthcare Internet con­ference sponsored by Atlanta-based Greystone.Net. The November issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends listed the winners. Last month’s “Ask the Expert” column discussed Read More

Telemedicine Pilot Aims to Reduce Costs and Improve Access to Care for Rural Children

by Cheryl Haas Nationwide Children’s Hospital, located in Colum­bus, OH, is one of America’s leading providers of pediatric care and serves a 32-county area in south central Ohio. Much of that area encompasses rural communities where the barriers to accessing pub­lic health are significant. Issues such as reliable transportation, babysitting services, and time to travel Read More

Protect Your Game: Hospital for Special Surgery’s Portal for Golf

by Julie Pelaez and Dagmara Scalise As a hospital marketer, you might have had this scenario play out in your head: Droves of new patients show up at your hospital simply because they know it offers them exactly what they need. And you didn’t even have to tell them about it! Instead, someone they trust, Read More

Hashtags on Facebook Don’t Boost Viral Impact

Facebook introduced hashtags on its news feed in June with the expecta­tion that they would increase reach. But a study by EdgeRank Checker finds that hashtags didn’t increase exposure at all. Posts with hashtags actually had less viral reach. Also, posts with hashtags had a lower level of engagement, and organic reach exhibited a slight Read More

eNews Pulse, October 2013

WEBSITES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS Concussion Recognition App Now Available for Free. The popular Concussion Recognition & Response app from PAR is available at the Apple App Store and at Google Play for Android devices. New Symptom Checker Identifies Conditions Caused by Drugs. The free personalized symptom checker from eHealthMe compares symptoms with more than 40 million drug Read More

My Internet … Personal Solutions, October 2013

Reference Source with a Click How often do you use Google to learn more about something in an online article, such as the location of a town, a person’s background, or the definition of a word? Rather than leave the Web page, get the browser add-on from Curiyo. Once installed on your computer, Curiyo identifies Read More

Web Takes … October 2013 Picks

In this issue we review three hospital sites: DMC Surgery Hospital Coping Club at Kosair Children’s Hospital Onlife Health DMC Surgery Hospital It’s been two years since I visited this site for a suburban Detroit fa­cility. Some changes have been made – some good and some not so good, depending on your perspec­tive. Nevertheless, the Read More

How Do You Build an Effective Dashboard for Digital Marketing?

Susan Solomon

Ask The Expert with Susan Solomon Eleven years ago, Kay Franks, marketing manager for St. Louis Children’s Hospital, got wind that budget re­ductions were on the horizon and it looked like her website budget was on the chopping block. That was all she needed to get cracking on building a compre­hensive dashboard to demonstrate the Read More

Using Google Analytics to Drive Marketing Decisions

by Mark S. Gothberg Going Beyond Website Visits and Page Views “We used to focus all our attention on how many people were visiting our website, what content they were interested in, what was the level of engagement,” says Joe Ebeling, e-business and marketing supervisor at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “Now, we look at Read More

eNews Pulse, September 2013

WEBSITES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS Information on New State Health Insurance Exchanges for con­sumers is the subject of a new site at www.HealthCare.gov. The site has a Spanish language version. New Healthcare Blog presented by Forbes.com and written by the chair of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices and CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, Robert Pearl, MD. Read More

My Internet … Personal Solutions, September 2013

Eyeglasses Online Afraid to buy glasses online even though you could save a ton of money? Now Glasses.com has come out with an app that uses 3Dfit technology to allow consumers to accurately see how frames look and fit without stepping into a store. Available currently only at the iTunes app store.  

Web Takes … September 2013 Picks

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC www.chp.edu This site reflects a growing trend in hospital websites – simplicity. The home page features a strong visual image in the banner area, a half-dozen global links that can be ex­panded to give access to virtually anything a site visitor might want to find, and a highly visible Read More

Salem Health Uses Video to Get Big Media to Pay Attention; Vehicle Leads New Marketing Push

by Mark S. Gothberg Here’s a dilemma that faces many organizations. The hospital is siz­able, but network television origi­nates in a city located about an hour’s drive away and outside the organization’s primary and second­ary service areas. Television stations have long-standing relationships with major healthcare organizations in their city and do not view the hospital Read More

The Digital Future of Physician Relations

// By Lyle Green and Dan Dunlop // In May 2013, a group of physician relations profes­sionals and thought leaders gathered in Houston to develop a vision for the future of physician relations. Recognizing the growing adoption of digital media by medical profes­sionals, the assembled experts sought to define the future role of the physician Read More