by Lisa D. Ellis An innovative pairing of Google Glass and QR codes is transforming the way physicians “see” patients—and is ramping up the cutting-edge delivery of clinical care. Using technology in innovative ways Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), which is a major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School in Boston, has long been Read More
Ask the Expert with Ben Dillon Health systems are complicated organizations, in large part due to constant mergers, acquisitions, and expansions. The challenge for marketers is to simplify this inherent complexity on the Web and provide consumers with a clear message. It’s been a natural choice for many health systems to create an array of Read More
// By Dan Dunlop // It has been said that the patient is the most underutilized resource in health- care. With the rise of the “connected patient,” clinicians, administrators, and marketers have started to place greater emphasis on patient insights and desires. Hospitals and health systems, how- ever, have been slow to address the changing Read More
by Mike Maloney and Katrina VanTyne In 2012, Google published a landmark study about the hospital selection process, “The Digital Journey to Wellness.” According to the study, 75 percent of searches by prospective patients revolve around four specific areas: conditions, diseases, symptoms, and departments. Our web team at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT, Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Proactive Planning and Simulating a Situation Prepare Social Media Managers Healthcare organizations may not have moved as quickly to adopt social media as other industries, but of the 1,562 hospitals self-reporting social media use, 1,300 hospitals have Facebook pages, 1,005 have Twitter accounts, and 1,084 use Foursquare, according to the Social Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Automating Process Reduces Need for Staff and Saves Advertising Dollars When the University of Utah Health Care added physician ratings to its website (as detailed in the May 2013 issue of eHST) to combat the less reliable results found on rating sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, or RateMDs, Matt Gove was Read More
Ask The Expert with Daniel Fell Recently, my 91-year-old father voiced considerable frustration about changes in his insurance plan. Rather than presenting changes in a clear, concise manner, the plan used language that only confused him more and forced him to spend hours on the phone talking to customer service representatives. At the time, I Read More
Ask The Expert with Ben Dillon With the growing number of ways that consumers access the Internet, responsive design is fast becoming the industry standard for hospital websites. Responsive design enables websites to adapt to the device being used, presenting an optimal experience on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Research by Geonetric, an online solutions company, Read More
Ask The Expert with Daniel E. Ansel A daughter stops by her mother’s house on her way to work and finds her mom unable to get up and that her speech is slurred. She’s had a stroke. A young wife and her husband are enjoying a vacation, and he suffers a brain aneurysm. In an Read More
Ask The Expert with Mark S. Gothberg Key provisions of the Affordable Care Act will be in full force on January 1 – less than two months away. Millions of newly insured consumers will be seeking health services, with many of them having limited knowledge of how the healthcare system works or the providers serving Read More
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
// 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
by Mark S. Gothberg “Humans are fundamentally emotional – rather than analytical – in how they process information and make decisions, and there is no better way to connect with someone’s emotions than through stories,” says Betsy Chapin Taylor, principal consultant for Third Sector Strategy, a healthcare philanthropy consulting firm. Compelling communication weaves together emotion, Read More
Ask The Expert with Ben Dillon Content management is one of the most difficult – and most overlooked – pieces of Web development. The average hospital website comprises more than 1,500 pages of unique content. Creating and maintaining all that content requires more work than most administrators can easily manage, especially if they lack full-time Read More
Ask The Expert with Daniel Fell On balance, most hospital system websites are consumer-oriented, meaning the content and its presentation are organized to appeal to patients and potential patients. Although some sites have links to unique content for other user audiences such as employees and healthcare professionals – and a few even utilize prominent tabs Read More
The Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame announced its class of 2012 inductees at a special luncheon on November 13 at the 16th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference in Las Vegas. The Hall of Fame was established in 2011 to preserve history and honor innovation. A 13-member board of judges reviewed candidates. The inductees in the four Read More
by Susan Solomon Facebook has had better years than last year. There was the rocky IPO. And before that, General Motors announced it would pull the plug on $10 million in Facebook advertising. The reason GM gave was the inability to effectively track an ROI for Facebook advertising and the general belief that the medium Read More
// By Dan Dunlop // In 2010 several hospitals and health systems made news by pioneering “speed-dating” events, where prospective patients could meet physicians in five-minute intervals in the hope that this brief introduction might spark a future relationship. This development created a furor among some healthcare professionals who felt that these speed-dating events were Read More
// By Ben Dillon // The greater Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area is one of the country’s most competitive healthcare markets. There are dozens of acute care hospitals and hundreds of ambulatory and practice sites. Mercy Health System, the largest Catholic healthcare system in the area, competes with half a dozen community hospitals and is Read More