by Jane Weber Brubaker The 2014 Sundance Film Festival lineup includes a documentary titled “Web Junkie,” a film about an Internet addiction treatment center outside Beijing. In a clip from the film posted by The New York Times on YouTube, a title appears over scenes of the military-style treatment center: “In 2008 China declared Internet Read More
// By Sandra Fancher // Mark Twain once said, “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” As a Web and marketing professional, you know it’s easy to immerse yourself in a Web project and assume every choice or assumption you make will be clear to everyone. You know what’s worked in the past. You Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis “Hi. I’m Myra. When you’re ready, click on one of these links to get started,” she says in a warm voice with a confident and professional tone. “As a lifestyle health coach, I can tell you a good program starts with a health risk assessment. So, we have some questions about your Read More
Determine Your Fitness Age Quickly Measurement of your aerobic fitness level can be difficult, if not impossible, on your own. But researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology came up with a simple, low-tech way to estimate your “fitness age,” which is how well your body functions physically relative to how it should Read More
WEBSITES Details of Healthcare Reform for Consumers is the focus of www.myHealthCareReformed.org, which is presented by CaroMont Health and The Gaston Gazette, both of Gastonia, NC. The home page features a large banner that rotates five messages of individuals and families who are now benefiting from insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The site Read More
Nash Health Care www.nhcs.org There is nothing subtle about this site for a North Carolina provider. It generally doesn’t follow conventional navigation, and everything seems to be in the viewer’s face. But the site grabs attention to draw visitors in and forces them to pay attention. The home page – in fact, numerous pages – Read More
by Scott Zimmerman There is no question that collecting outstanding balances is a challenging process. Not only is it difficult to allocate time for staff members to repeatedly contact patients to obtain payments, it is also crucial to not alienate patients in the process. However, collecting self-pay balances electronically can take the pressure off staff Read More
Ask The Experts with Mark Gothberg and Michele Von Dambrowski We have covered strategic marketing and business development subjects for nearly 30 years – with an added focus on Web and digital communications since 1999. A lot has changed during this time, but we have observed recurring issues that have limited the effectiveness of marketers, Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson User-Friendly, Customizable Program Helps Employers Reduce Healthcare Costs Hospitals and health systems are not the only organizations focused on reducing healthcare costs and improving outcomes. Employers are also concerned about rising insurance costs, along with lost workdays when employees’ medical conditions prevent them from working. Susquehanna Health, a four-hospital integrated system Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg OSF HealthCare is an integrated health system comprised of eight hospitals in north central Illinois. Service lines are structured to serve consumers at every hospital, but the market areas of many of the hospitals overlap. Consequently, hospital service-line marketing efforts are confusing and even frustrating for many consumers, inefficient from a Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis Personal computers, tablets, and smartphones bring a world of information, commerce, and communication to millions of users wherever they may be. Now, this technology is helping healthcare providers overcome the barriers of cost, distance, and inconvenience to deliver checkups and urgent care to people in their homes, places of business, and retail Read More
Ask The Expert with Ted Balowski With the healthcare Web environment rapidly changing, new technologies are constantly emerging and are being adopted in varying degrees by demographic target groups. Now, four generations have unprecedented access to healthcare information and the providers that deliver it. According to a 2013 survey by Econsultancy, four in 10 global Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg “There is no industry more likely to be affected by analytics in the next five to 10 years than healthcare,” wrote Jeanne Harris, co-author of the seminal book, Competing on Analytics. Kevin Fickenscher, MD, president and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association, said in the June 17, 2013 issue of Read More
by Kaysha Kalkofen Hummingbird, Google’s new search algorithm introduced at the end of September 2013, has marketers in every industry scratching their heads. According to Google’s search chief, Amit Singhal, Hummingbird is the biggest algorithm change since 2001. Hummingbird pulls from different data points so that search results are more refined and conversationally sequential. It Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg “Four years ago our administration looked at our online presence and urged us to do more, to learn as much as we could and try different things,” says Doreen Pichotti, senior marketing analyst at UC Davis Health System, which serves the greater Sacramento, CA, area. “Since then, our online advertising as Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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