Every week we find great pieces of information regarding healthcare and its rapid online growth. Based on this, we thought it would make sense to highlight some of the more interesting topics. Hopefully this will help you make more informed decisions regarding how you engage patients online.
- The "If you build it, he will come" philosophy still has only worked for Kevin Costner and even after over 20 years of trying this theory out in healthcare we still need personal relationships and engagement no matter how hard we try to remove that aspect from healthcare - Patient Portals. PHRs, & On-line Decision-Support Tools Alone Will Not Lead To Greater Patient Engagement "Successful patient engagement is predicated upon the existence of a strong, trusting, mutually satisfying relationship between the patient and their physician." Great article by Steve Wilkins from Healthworks Collective.
- Educate, entertain, inspire and convince are all things you should want to do on your hospital's website. Daniel Bosomworth, at Smart Insights provides an excellent breakdown of the types of content you should employ on your site. Check out "The Content Marketing Matrix".
- John Sharp from the Cleveland Clinic reflects on his social media predictions from two years ago and provides some good examples of social media being used in an engaging way. He mentions Boston Children's Hospital as a great example of social media in action. Great perspective on where we were and where we are going: A Look at Social Media in Health Care -- Two Years Later. It is awesome seeing healthcare organizations using social media to engage patients instead of just regurgitating the same old junk.
- The Mayo Clinic already had fourteen or fifteen paid apps in the App Store but they just took it to the next level on Monday when they launched the first free app specific to patients. A novel concept in that it is not only free but it also attempts engage directly with patients and help them become more involved with their healthcare. You can get a quick summary here: Mayo Clinic launches first free app specifically directed at patients. Check out one of the reviews at the bottom of the article, "“Not only do we get access to my medical information, but I can use this when I am looking for things to do, places to eat etc. This is such a wonderful tool and is really putting me first. Good work team Mayo!!!”"