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Presentation to members of the Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Deakin University
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Scoop.it!
Set goals first. If traffic, leads and sales are part of the goal, then gotta have the next focus be on content creation. Then, using social to share. Can't get much value out of social unless you're actively creating, publishing and sharing content. 
rob halkes's curator insight,
September 15, 2017 6:04 AM
You might think that after 10+ years, social media for healthcare is a self evident activity,! Nothing is less true, however ;-) But here's a checklist you need if you still need to sign up ;-)
Formdox's comment,
April 20, 5:34 AM
#Formdox integrates perfectly with several #functionalities for the monitoring
https://goo.gl/HDwSzm
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Stanford University initially responded that the CNBC reporting was "inaccurate." When pressed on the specific inaccuracies, the university issued a second statement this morning confirming the CNBC article in its entirety, stating that there had indeed been conversations with Facebook and as CNBC reported, the project is still in the planning stages on a temporary pause. The university did not respond to any of the questions posed to it regarding its view of the ethics of the proposed project or how the university saw the proposed project complying with its data ethics rules. Just as it seemed Facebook couldn’t outdo itself after weeks of ever more frightening disclosures and leaks about its perspective on privacy, CNBC broke the story this afternoon of a secret Facebook research project involving harvesting our private medical information from a group of major hospitals, with the hospitals’ full permission, but without ever informing patients their anonymized medical information was being handed to Facebook and without ever asking their consent. It seems Facebook simply doesn’t understand the very concept of informed consent. The secret proposed Facebook project apparently never got beyond the planning stages and no data was actually exchanged. The company did not respond to a request for more details, but at its gist it appears the idea was for both Facebook and the hospitals to hash identifying information and merge Facebook’s social understanding of a user with their hospital’s medical understanding of them. Hashing would ensure that directly identifiable information was removed from the records and ensure only anonymized records were exchanged.
Of course, past history with deanonymized datasets offers little reassurance that simple hashing would fully preserve privacy, especially given past reidentification from similar attempts at anonymized medical research datasets. It is also unclear precisely what provisions or exemptions under HIPAA the project was expected to operate under, though such research-oriented efforts have a number of avenues under HIPAA to avoid requesting user consent. On the surface, Facebook’s proposed collaboration could certainly offer a number of beneficial new capabilities in improving the quality of care medical facilities can offer their patients, especially in identifying patients struggling with their care regimes, those lacking a support network to assist them in home recovery and those with lifestyles that might impact their recovery process. The problem lies in how Facebook approached the project – in secret and allegedly with no intent of notifying patients or receiving any form of consent for their information to be shared with the social media giant. Speaking with two individuals familiar with the project, CNBC noted that “the issue of patient consent did not come up in the early discussions.” Had Facebook structured the project from the very beginning as one that would be strictly opt-in, with the idea that patients would be given detailed information about it by their healthcare providers, informed of the risks and rewards and allowed to make an informed decision, there would likely have been little outcry. Indeed, some patients may have welcomed the ability to offer their caregivers greater insight into their lives in the hopes it would improve their medical outcomes. Instead, Facebook’s intent to operate the program strictly in secret mirrors the way our medical information is commercialized everyday without our knowledge or informed consent and the company's broader view that its users have no digital rights. While the company and its hospital partners likely would have legal authority to repurpose and exchange patient data, public reaction really comes down to consent. Unfortunately, Silicon Valley and the international academic community have largely taken the stance that legal authority is all that is needed to harvest or repurpose user data – informed consent is entirely unnecessary. The even greater problem here is the idea that Facebook itself would have access to all of this data. The Verge reports that while the intent was that data would never be deanonymized, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that access to the anonymized records would have been provided to a select set of Facebook employees. In my own career I’ve been involved in countless very similar projects involving merging highly sensitive datasets from multiple companies, including in regulated industries in which none of the companies were permitted by law to see the others’ data. In each case we would act as a “disinterested third party” in which all sides would hash the identifying information for each record and we would merge all of their datasets together and run all of the desired analyses, returning only aggregate statistics, such as the percent of users that had characteristic X or how highly correlated X and Y characteristics were. Each company would send their fully encrypted dataset via special courier to us, where we would decrypt it and store on a standalone system in a special secured room in a high security facility. The idea that hospitals would transmit even hashed medical data to Facebook is simply beyond belief. It strains credibility that such a project even made it to the planning stage with active conversations with major hospitals. On the other hand, at least some of the Facebook-related privacy concerns could have been avoided by using a similar third party approach to the analysis in which an accredited independent research organization would have received both the hashed hospital and Facebook data, merged them, performed all of the analyses and then destroyed the data. This would at the very least have shown Facebook to understand the unique privacy concerns around medical data, even if it did not understand the basics of informed consent. CNBC reported that one of the hospitals in conversations with Facebook was Stanford Medical School. When reached for comment, the university pushed back on CNBC’s report, saying the article was “inaccurate” and that “Stanford has no such data sharing program.” When asked whether it was saying the university had never had any conversations with Facebook, or whether it was simply confirming that the project had never left the planning stage and thus there were no signed data sharing agreements in place, the university did not immediately respond. In the past, however, the university has asserted that the public has absolutely no right of any kind to see the ethical justification for any of its data-driven research, even those projects that may involve their own data harvested from websites they use. In fact, Stanford’s stance has been that the public does not even have the right to know whether a given project was even subjected to ethical review of any kind, nor would it even confirm in the past whether its own rules and guidelines were adhered to in a given project. It is also noteworthy that Facebook announced that it was merely “pausing” the project temporarily, rather than ending it, suggesting the company is merely waiting to ride out the current privacy storm before beginning again. It is worth contrasting Facebook’s project with Estonia’s focus on data-driven medicine, including its new initiative launched last month to offer genetic testing to 100,000 of its residents as a first step towards eventually offering the service to its entire population – something its president touted this week in a visit to DC. The country views such data as making it possible to entirely reimagine personalized data-driven medical care. Unlike Facebook’s proposed effort, Estonia’s initiative is based on a cornerstone of absolute control over one’s medical information. The 1999 Estonian Human Genes Research Act literally codified into law that a person who contributes their genetic information has absolute ownership and control over it and has the sole authority to decide who can see it and what can be done with it. The donor decides what studies they wish to make their information available to (if any) and can log into a secure system to see which of the studies they granted permission to actually ended up using their data. From the initial informed decision to contribute their genetic material to each individual access and use of that data, the individual remains in total control of their genetic information. Putting this all together, Facebook’s proposed foray into medical research is as frightening as it is predictable: users are data points to be secretly exploited, rather than human individuals whose informed consent must be gained. In turn, its hospital partners would happily hand over their patients' most sensitive medical information to Facebook – again without any notification or consent. In Facebook’s world, as in the academic world from which it draws, informed consent is unnecessary when it comes to data – as long as the law says it is probably legal, there is no need to tell users about it or get their permission in any way. Contrast this with Estonia’s approach to data-driven medicine, in which the individual maintains absolute ownership and control over their data, deciding who can see it and why and with absolute visibility into every access they approve. Let’s hope that the future of data-driven medicine follows the Estonian way, not the Facebook way.
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Thanks to digital technology, we’re able to capture, store and analyze information like never before. This is affecting every part of our lives, but especially in healthcare marketing. Data is allowing us to regain, and improve, the clarity and knowledge we once got from in-depth conversations between physicians and sales representatives. It’s allowing us to embrace the endless possibilities of modern marketing. Once, data could tell us where we’d been. Then real-time status became possible. Now, we can use data to predict where we’ll be. And increasingly, it can guide us toward what we should do. We’re moving from historical, to present, to predictive, to prescriptive. Two-thirds of major pharmaceutical and life sciences marketers are already using big data. It’s a big deal – but that doesn’t make it a quick win. Often, our clients don’t even know what data they have, though it’s sometimes incredibly valuable. Seemingly unrelated data points, when synthesized, can help you make better decisions faster and be more confident that what you’re doing is the best choice. “Data is the new creative” has been a mantra in the industry for years, but using data isn’t just about collecting it – it’s about knowing how to draw actionable conclusions. That can look like many different things.
Admittedly, there’s hype, so it’s vital to remain practical, critical, ask the right questions and have the right expectations. But marketers from the 1980s and 1990s would be flabbergasted by what we’re capable of knowing today – no guesswork required. Our data scientists, like all good analytics teams, specialize in finding value – uncovering hidden stories and patterns that can be used to create competitive advantage, and do what we all always work toward: improving health.
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In the past several years, the healthcare landscape has altered dramatically as consolidation has continued across the healthcare verticals, but the scale of the entities involved now is truly gargantuan as the natural limits within sectors have been reached and this has led to vertical and cross vertical integrations with the pending CVS-Aetna and CIGNA-Express Scripts transactions being prime examples. Another key dynamic is the recent entrance of Amazon into the healthcare ecosystem. Commentary on Amazon’s entrance has run from, ‘they will revolutionize the delivery of care as they have revolutionized so many other industries’ to the more mundane view that ‘yet another tech company is about to get humbled by the quagmire of healthcare in America.’ Our view at ICR runs between these two extremes. We view the healthcare system in the U.S. at an important juncture that will transform care delivery and access, but as with all revolutions, it will take time for the transformation to be more evident and live up to its potential. In fact, the basic building blocks for this transformation are either already being put into place, or are well in the process of being developed and implemented. Electronic medical records…check, bio-sensory devices to record an ever expanding level of human physiological data…check…AI-derived care monitoring and delivery protocols…check…personalized medicine with genomic and immunotherapies…double check. The list of technological innovations goes on. Mandated government payment reforms however, tend to be enacted slowly and implemented measuredly. Here we must recognize that there are always exceptions to these general conditions and meaningful progress has been made in the Medicare Advantage and the managed Medicaid markets driven by private-sector innovations. Payment reforms have been the bottleneck in the evolution of healthcare in the United States since 1965. Yet, we see the private sector reaching a critical cost juncture in the commercial market. We note a recent conversation with a health plan executive that noted one of his biggest customers indicated that before long the cost of providing health insurance for its employees would soon surpass the wages paid to employees. It is the cost of private healthcare, which subsidizes public care delivery that will force change across the healthcare industry and the reason why we expect significant structural changes ahead, regardless of the success or failure of Amazon in its endeavors. It is this dynamic, along with the constant stream of innovations healthcare entrepreneurs grind out on a continual basis that we believe will revolutionize healthcare delivery in America. We see digital capabilities supplanting asset-based care delivery models as the technological innovations accelerate to allow remote monitoring of an ever increasing list of conditions which will climb the acuity spectrum. At ICR, we work with these courageous leaders on a daily basis as they build their companies that will fit into this mosaic of care transformation. For young companies to navigate this changing landscape, it is imperative to:
Before we go, an observation about the Amazon, Berkshire, and JPM joint venture. One of the known facts about the joint venture is that it will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” Over 80% of healthcare delivery in the U.S. is provided by “non-profit” or “not-for-profit” institutions and that has largely done little to arrest the exponential growth rates in the cost of care. However, another factor that has impacted the cost of care in the United States is one of consolidation and this applies across healthcare verticals and provides a lesson for those would be rebel pilots wanting to take down the Death Star. An eco-system of potential Unicorn companies with ownership structures that protect from much larger competitors acquiring at high near-term multiples though low long-term valuations to subsequently reduce competition and raise prices would be a welcome development. It is the consolidation dynamic in the sector that is most likely a major factor in Amazon’s decision to structure the venture as a non-profit. Potential disruptors need to shield themselves from the pervasive short-term investor mentalities that forsake more significant, though much longer-term disruptive opportunities. This can be achieved via multiple share classes with graduated voting rights. Another option is to include in the certificate of incorporation the authorization of the issuance of blank check preferred stock. Blank check preferred stock among other things allows for the issuance of up to a certain amount of preferred stock to fix and designate the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the preferred stock, including voting rights and terms of redemption and liquidation preferences. An even more subtle alternative to assist founders resist near-term temptations is to include multiple board members with past experiences of having sold their companies too early. In building a board, we suggest developing relationships with potential board members to get to know these individuals personally well before offering a board seat. Arming the next generation of healthcare enterprises with a protective ownership structure should allow one or more to break through the defenses of the healthcare industry to deliver the much needed disruptive change required and allow founders to maximize the long-term value of their businesses. Ultimately protecting founders’ abilities to maximize the long-term value of their business will create extra hurdles in the public markets, if the company goes public. However, those hurdles can be successfully navigated when working with partners experienced in these matters.
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Medical marketing is essential for independent healthcare practices, particularly those that have recently opened or are in a competitive area. If you’re short on time and resources — as many small- and mid-size practices are — you’re likely tapping third-party vendors. This might mean working with one vendor to manage your website, another to handle your paid search advertising, and yet another for creating social media content. With so many marketing techniques available to businesses — and so many agencies offering specialized services — outsourcing your marketing might bring you peace of mind. In fact, research has shown that small business owners who outsource their marketing are more satisfied with results than those who do marketing themselves or who delegate to an internal team. But how do you know if your vendor is actually giving you the biggest bang for your buck? Here are a few signs your medical marketing vendors could be skirting transparency when it comes to performance. Related: The Busy Doctor’s Guide to Marketing a Healthcare Practice Performance Data Is InaccessibleIt shouldn’t be a chore for you to gain insight into your online presence and digital reputation, monitor your practice growth, and measure the impact of your marketing initiatives on your practice. If you can’t easily access important metrics like number of website visitors and number of appointment requests at any time, or you can’t interpret a complicated spreadsheet or graph without having to call someone, you’re in the dark regarding return on investment (ROI). Vendors Offer Vague Information OnlyIf you reach out to your vendor for clarification and insights, you should expect specificity in their reporting. But that doesn’t always happen. The team at Truxtun Psychiatric Medical Group & Psychiatric Wellness Center in Bakersfield, Calif., experienced this first hand. “When I asked about performance, [our website vendor] would relay the information over the phone without hard data or proof,” says Marketing Coordinator Kaylee Hoffman. After a long period of frustration, the psychiatry practice took its business to PatientPop in 2017. “The [PatientPop] dashboard is really easy to read. I’m glad I can see data without having to call someone.” Look: Marketing SEO Terms Every Healthcare Provider Should Know Vendors Misinterpret or Cloud DataWith modern technology and data tracking and a sea of information at marketers’ fingertips, it’s easier than ever to gain insights. But an inexperienced or cagey marketer can make comparisons between two different metrics — say last month’s website bounce rate to this month’s successful conversions — and draw the wrong conclusions. You can judge for yourself how performance is going if your vendor presents not only their data takeaways but the data itself. Vendors are Unresponsive or Fail to Take InitiativeYou always want to have the option to speak with a support representative. And you should expect quick responses to issues that come up for you, as well as a steady stream of information, including fresh ideas for ways to boost website views and conversions, or about software product updates and new releases that could benefit your healthcare practice. A proactive, customer service-oriented vendor will take calls, respond promptly to your requests, make data readily available and easy-to-read, and provide regular performance snapshots.
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The Cambridge Analytica scandal that’s rocked Facebook both in headlines and on Wall Street, has revealed the potential risks for users who want to keep their online data private. As the story of the breach has unfolded and expanded to include a second data firm, it’s brought up incidences in which social media platforms and other large tech firms have questionably handled the personal health data of their users. How big tech and private health information can collideThe Cambridge Analytica scandal started after it was revealed that the “political firm” obtained millions of users’ Facebook data under false pretenses in order to create “psychographic profiles” of U.S. and U.K. voters. But even before this scandal, there have been multiple stories about how social media companies like Facebook can compromise personal health information and privacy. In 2016, Splinter News reported that Facebook’s “people you may know” feature was suggesting that patients of the same psychiatrist friend one another, effectively identifying each patient in the practice to one another. In that case, the psychiatrist hadn’t even “friended” her patients, but Facebook had her phone number, which her patients also had. The algorithm then likely thought they would want to connect online after analyzing the contacts. Facebook said at the time that they weren’t sure why the patients were recommended to be “friends” with one another, without additional information. Other companies including mobile health apps used by doctors and even potentially Google, have also been caught in the crosshairs, due to a lack of protection on user data. That at least appears to be the case for a young woman named Rose (who Healthline agreed to identify by her middle name). After she and her partner experienced a pregnancy scare, Rose began to Google questions about Plan B, her menstrual cycle, and a week later, pregnancy symptoms. “A condom broke and I was being paranoid. I didn’t get to the point of thinking I was pregnant,” she told Healthline. Several weeks later, she received a text from her mother. A promotional StrongMoms package of baby formula from the company Similac had been shipped to her family’s home. Rose said she’s close with her parents and she would tell them if she became pregnant. Her mother’s text read along the lines of “‘Oh, this is funny, this came as an accident,’ and I was like, ‘Correct. It did come as an accident,’” she said. Rose said she didn’t know why she was targeted for this promotion. And she has no proof that her parents received the package as a result of her activity online. But searching online, she found a pattern. She saw other stories of women whose actual pregnancies were revealed by the package, or who’d received the packages months after miscarrying. Rose told Healthline that she did purchase a baby shower gift from Babies R Us six months prior to receiving the package, and said potentially that could also have had something to do with the formula arriving. She saw online that other women who bought something at that store had received the formula. A local 2017 NBC report on the packages suggested that the list of names to send the package to were generated by third-party data aggregators, although they had no definitive answers on if it was related to Google searches. In response to Healthline’s questions about cases like Rose, Abbott Nutrition said in part: “We have partnerships that provide us with information about expectant parents who may find our information or products useful. The overwhelming majority of people we send our gift packs to enjoy them and we receive a lot of positive feedback from parents on the StrongMoms program. We also work quickly to ensure anyone who tells us they’d like to be removed from the StrongMoms program is quickly removed from our mailing list.” Google didn’t immediately respond to Healthline to clarify if Abbott Nutrition could have received information from user search history. No matter how the formula arrived addressed for Rose, the story points to a larger issue with companies being able to infer information about users — even sensitive health information — from their online activity. DePaul University computer scientist Jacob Furst, said third-party data aggregators are likely looking at activities that might include a user’s Google searches. “The Google privacy policy doesn’t explicitly mention data aggregators, although there are a number of somewhat ambiguous statements that could provide an avenue,” he said. He said that these aggregators may be able to find information from a user’s Google searches and then send related materials. “There are so many interconnections among applications, among data aggregators. There are often many paths to the same end,” Furst told Healthline, “It can be very hard to understand, and it can be a lot of sources put together.” A common theme that emerges in stories like Rose’s is the interconnectedness of each platform. It’s hard to disentangle a Google search from an ad served on Facebook because of an app downloaded on your smartphone. But the lesson is that your online interactions can mean companies may have more information about your health conditions than you realize. And in the wake of the news that Cambridge Analytica obtained user data under false pretenses, reporters are finding more and more examples of the misuse of people’s personal information. Facebook faces more scrutiny after it came to light that they had plans to share user medical data with hospitals for research purposes, according to CNBC. A spokesman responded to CNBC that the plans hadn’t progressed past the planning stage. Earlier this month, Buzzfeed reported that the app Grindr was sharing its users’ HIV statuseswith other companies. After the report, Grindr announced that it would no longer share this data with third-party companies. Grindr’s chief security officer told Buzzfeed that the situation was “being conflated with Cambridge Analytica.” Weeks before that news broke, the company was praised for its move to remind users to get tested for HIV. What can users do to protect themselves?While these problems will be difficult to solve, Furst said he recommends individual users restrict access to data from apps when they ask. This means not just blindly clicking yes when an app wants access to your contact list or your location or photos. But more importantly, he thinks there needs to be a larger movement to regulate these tech companies to protect users. “I think ultimately there needs to be enough of a societal outcry that we need to get the government to pass laws,” Furst said. Furst added that he doesn’t expect that will happen right away, but he points to Europe as a potential way forward. The passage of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation is poised to impose much stricter regulations on the handling of people’s data. While Furst is skeptical as to how each aspect of the regulation will be enforced, he said it gives him reason to think the United States may follow the E.U. in the coming years.
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Both financial data and health data require the highest levels of security and privacy. Heavy regulation ensures that this type of information is as secure as possible. In principle, that’s a good thing. No one wants their medical profile out there for all to see. But the experience of that safe and secure data exchange, between healthcare and finance, is dramatically (and we do mean dramatically) different. Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions are able to navigate these barriers to talk to one another, making it easier for customers to coordinate payments and understand their overall financial wellbeing. So why can’t patients, doctors, payers and insurance providers do the same for health data? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed with the good intentions of keeping personal identifiable information out of the wrong hands. However, these same regulations also block health information from being shared within the right hands, at the right time. Extended care ecosystems — consisting of family, caregivers, payers, doctors, institutions and providers — would benefit from access to this data to better coordinate care for patients. Instead, this burden often falls to a patient and, if they have one, a family member or friend helping to care for them. From products that would alleviate the burden of coordinating care, to advancements in health research, here are just a few ways designers can look to finance as a model to help bring the healthcare sector up to date. In order for patients to be good advocates for their own care, they need to be provided with the right tools. However, for those navigating the system right now, the tools are not evolving at the same pace as the financial or consumer markets. This leaves patients stuck in endless paperwork and outdated systems, responsible for recording, remembering and communicating their full medical history. This may not seem like such a big deal for healthy people that don’t interact with the system much, but it can become overwhelming for those with chronic illness who have to become their own advocates. When the healthcare sector embraces secure, but open, data sharing, it will unlock a spectrum of new health service opportunities. Much like healthcare, the finance industry has a vast trove of complex data spread across countless interactions overtime. Nevertheless, finance has found ways to both protect and simplify the aggregation and consumption of data through a series of consumer-facing tools. The credit score is perhaps the most ubiquitous. By calculating data from consumer credit reports, the FICO score puts a number to individual’s credit worthiness, allowing users to quickly prove to those they interact with that they will responsibly service their debt or stay current on their financial obligations. With the use of this score, consumers are able to purchase or rent homes or automobiles, open up credit cards, or finance the purchase of other big ticket items like laptops, televisions or furniture. Since the credit score was first established in 1989, many more user-friendly financial tools have arisen to help people take control of their financial data. One such example is ClarityMoney, an app that tracks spending habits and offers recommendations on how to best manage personal spending. The app recommends credit cards that can save the user money, and even highlights all recurring subscriptions, allowing the user to cancel any they may not be using with a simple click of a button. Few tools like these, powered by comprehensive personal data, exist in the healthcare space today. Banks have been utilizing image-recognition technology software for mobile check deposit and secure routing to ensure efficient access and distribution of funds for years now. In addition, advancements in blockchain technology are also opening up many different possibilities for the exchange of protected information in fields beyond finance. Take a look at what’s happening in home security. When the healthcare sector embraces these new and emerging technologies, we will see real advancements in sharing, maintaining and utilizing personal health data, through to making leaps and bounds in broad-based medical research. Not all patient data needs to be personal in order to be valuable. For years, the finance industry has collected anonymized data to track patterns and provide targeted offerings to consumers, even before the customer realizes what they need. And with the rise of emerging technology, there are unprecedented opportunities to learn from new sources of data. Noting the rise of digital banking and social media, Lending Club adjusts their risk-worthiness of consumers in part by how quickly users fill out their online application, what time they fill it out, and the makeup of the social media networks. When larger pools of anonymized data around diagnosis and symptoms are made available in the same way, we will see real opportunities for tangible medical breakthroughs. The sharing or crowd sourcing of diagnoses and symptoms will most certainly be useful for those dealing with chronic illness. Activating this data will inevitably open up new possibilities for treatment advancements. Today, the free flow of personal financial data is so seamless that purchases can be made from almost anywhere in the world with just a thumbprint or tap of an app. But in the healthcare sector, getting medical records from one physician to another may require a patient drive to the facility, provide proof of identity, pay a service fee, fill out paperwork, physically pick up the data and bring it to their next appointment. If it were this cumbersome to share financial data, the entire economy would be paralyzed. When we open up communication, clinicians are able to collaborate by seeing notes from other doctors, cross-referencing medications, reviewing lab and test results, and observing changes in symptoms over time, delivering true, coordinated care. Patients will no longer be burdened with recording and describing health histories across multiple providers and (often) over long periods of time. PicnicHealth is one company already offering medical record management using an e-signature to request permission to access health records, including all doctor’s notes, prescriptions, lab results, X-Rays etc. Let’s take it one step further by incorporating data from patient’s own health or fitness trackers as well to create a fully connected care ecosystem. For both patients and providers, knowledge is power. This means that as designers and strategists, it is crucial to find a way to optimize access to health data, while maintaining the highest levels of security and privacy. Using human-centered design for complex healthcare challenges can lead to data solutions that securely flow from one entity to the next, increasing convenience, advancing medical knowledge, improving (and saving) lives and, most certainly, our sanity.
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You've heard marketing your medical practice means more money, but you're busy providing patient care and navigating administrative burden. Luckily, medical marketing isn't a race. It's the small consistent strides that provide big returns down the line. Over the next 4 weeks, we'll discuss important healthcare marketing tips for medical professionals who are understandably busy. How to Market Your Practice Tip #3Using social media as a healthcare professional is important, and so is handling it professionally.The use of social media in the medical field remains a hotly debated topic. On one hand, it's a great resource for networking with peers, sharing ideas, and showcasing your business. On the other hand, it's still an unfamiliar territory that some of us are just beginning to navigate professionally. In the article Thou Shalt Not Tweet Unprofessionally: An Appreciative Inquiry into the Professional Use of Social Media, the authors discuss the argument that social media in medicine is a threat to professionalism. As some will argue, the use of social media leads to concerns of "...compromising confidentiality, eroding public trust, and loosening accountability" (Pereira et al. 561). Regardless of where you stand in the debate, it's worth considering if social media is right for your practice. Optimize your Google My Business profileFilling out your My Business listing and really filling it out is crucial. - Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success Optimizing your Google My Business profile is the most important step in improve your marketing strategy. That's the sidebar in Google's browser window where your business information appears. It's not exactly social media related, but it's so important we just had to include it. According to a 2017 Moz survey, Google My Business is the largest driver of local SEO success and "proximity of an address to the point of search" is the number one factor in determining how businesses rank in local searches. When a patient in your area searches for "dermatologist," information is pulled from all the Google My Business listings nearby and compete to rank higher in the search engine results. The ranking is based on literally hundreds of factors that constantly evolve. That's why it's so important to keep your My Business listing robust and current. You want to maximize your chances of ranking higher in those local searches. According to Moz, here are 5 ways to maximize your Google My Business listing:
Don't know SEO? Check out last week's article where we went over search engine optimization (SEO) and blogging. The listing is free. Visit Google My Business now. Decide if social media could benefit your practiceLonnie Hirsch, CEO of Hirsch Health Consulting, says that a medical practice's decision to participate in social media should be strategic. According to Hirsch, 3 factors will help decide if social media is right for you:
Practices that might benefit from a social media presence:
Decide as a team if social media fits into your practice's goals. Establish a social media strategyBefore diving straight into Twitter or Facebook, consider outlining a social media strategy first. This will give you a chance to define your goals and establish some guidelines for using social media. Outline a clear strategy to get your staff on the same page. Here are some tips for establishing a social media strategy:
Create your own contentAccording to Lonnie Hirsch, a commonly overlooked marketing strategy is posting relevant, compelling videos to social media platforms – including paid online ads. Platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram are great places to leverage your own videos. For starters, these days you can easily produce a short video that lets potential patients know who you are and what services you offer. Let patients know what makes your practice unique. Here are some tips for making a video on a cell phone or iPad:
Note: Be sure to never share any private health information (PHI) online! If you have an iPhone, it's $4.99 to download the iMovie app. Schedule posts using social media toolsPosting to social media is time consuming, even for non-healthcare professionals. Fortunately, there are social media automation tools available online. Buffer lets users schedule posts ahead of time. Add your content to a queue schedule and the app will post it for you to multiple social media channels. When choosing a social media automation tool, be sure to look for features such as:
Want to see more on healthcare marketing? Check out our infographic. References:Pereira, Ian, et al. "Thou shalt not tweet unprofessionally: an appreciative inquiry into the professional use of social media." Postgrad Med J, vol.91, Oct 2015, pp.561-564. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2015-133353. Accessed 6 May 2018. Jennifer Henderson
Jennifer Henderson is a NueMD writer currently living in Atlanta, GA. She enjoys commas, hot dogs, and long walks on the internet.
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Several years ago, I delivered a presentation in Tallinn, Estonia and I distinctly remember how plugged in the society was at the time. I enjoyed lighting fast free WiFi that was way better than what I had in Boston and the business leaders I met with were focused on digital first. We can all learn from the Estonia example, especially the way the country has deployed blockchain to manage healthcare and other aspects of everyday life. Since the Facebook data hacking scandal, I’ve posted several times on the situation as well as potential alternatives. First, I shared that I no longer trust Facebook and last week I proposed a blockchain based social network as the solution, but clearly that’s a long way off. Many people reached out to ask me about what such a system might look like. In a social network built on blockchain, every user controls his or her data and can choose to sell or buy attention (or not). In the same way that the blockchain is disrupting the banking system by bypassing it with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and others, a new way to organize social connections is possible, bypassing the established social networks that serve as a clearinghouse between people by monetizing our attention with advertising. Blockchain and healthcare: the Estonian experienceRather than health records controlled by a health insurance company or a doctor, every person in Estonia who has visited a doctor now has an online e-Health record built on blockchain technology that can be tracked. Identified by the electronic ID-card, each person’s health information is kept completely secure via blockchain technology. The resulting e-Health Record is a nationwide system integrating data from Estonia’s different healthcare providers to create a common record that each person owns, they can access online, and they can choose to let others (such as healthcare providers see). Doctors can see accurate health records quickly in the case of emergency even if a patient presents at a hospital other than where their primary care doctor works, giving emergency care teams access to time-critical information such as blood type, allergies, recent treatments, on-going medication, X-rays, visit and the like.
Social Media on BlockchainI’m imaging a future where each person has a social record sored digitally on the blockchain just like Estonia health records. Each of us can choose who we want to share that social record with by establishing a connection with them, just like people in Estonia do with their doctors. We’d be able to sell attention to brands or advertisers we trust. Here's an excellent report on Blockchain Identity Management from CB Insights if you want to learn more. And if such a world is indeed created, it would bypass the for-profit social media companies that are serving that role today.
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Use of social media is a part of our everyday lives and is a widely accepted form of communication for the average American. With familiarity and frequency of use brings more opportunities for misuse. According to a study done by On Device Research, a market analyst firm, 1 in 10 young job seekers have lost a job opportunity because of their social media profiles. The greatest faux pas or errors will happen when people grow too comfortable and/or confident in the social media environment. I’m seeing this happen more and more on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We are letting our guards down and have a false sense of security when posting. Much of the time our posts are harmless, but occasionally something major can go awry if and when the one-off post is seen by the wrong person. Particularly if that post is not inline with your employer or prospective employer’s social media rules and guidelines. Things to know to avoid social media whiplash:
Social media is labeled “social” for a reason and it can be easy to forget how ubiquitous it truly is when you feel safe and loved in your social media bubble. Social media privacy is an illusion that can come crashing down very quickly and the consequence of one little post can be so much more than embarrassment and unemployment. The best way to avoid social media whiplash is to apply this mantra each and every time you make a post: When in doubt, leave it out.
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This is an independently conducted qualitative research study which provides a content analysis of the conversations patients have on rheumatoid arthritis-spec…
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More doctors than ever before and 26% of hospitals in the US are now using social media platforms to improve the care they provide, share healthcare information and interact with their patients. Though the doctor is typically someone we all try to avoid seeing (an apple a day or something, right?), there are some good reasons to add your doctor – or any doctor – to your beloved timeline on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter. HERE’S WHY:Connecting with Your Doctor: 60% of doctors say that social media improves the quality of care delivered to patients, and it’s not hard to see why. Following doctors on social media is a two-way street. You can see what they post about medical information, appointment availability and health concerns like the flu, but they can also see what you’re sharing in regards to eating, exercise, and lifestyle. This allows a physician to personally cater to you and make suggestions that suit your needs and lifestyle. Platforms like Twitter are especially helpful in facilitating dialogue between patient and doctor and can be a fast way to get questions answered. Educating Yourself: With so much healthcare information online, it can be hard to know where to start. We’ve all self-diagnosed on WebMD at some point or another, probably resulting in a major freak-out. Especially for those of us who have specific medical conditions, following doctors on social media can be a great source of reliable information. Take the guesswork out of online medical information and get your data straight from the horse’s…erhm, doctor’s…mouth. Care and Support: Social media has become a powerful forum for medical support groups for patients and caregivers. With doctors participating and offering suggestions on these platforms, they are becoming more valuable than ever before. This offers many a community of comfort and sense of belonging to those with a variety of conditions. YOU DON’T HAVE TO TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT, THERE ARE PLENTY OF DOCTORS OUT THERE TRAILBLAZING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND TAKING THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY INTO THE NEXT CENTURY. CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR FAVORITES:via instagram.com
Doctor Mike: You may know him as The Sexiest Doctor crowned by People magazine, but Dr. Mike is so much more. Check out his YouTube channel for series on subjects like Healthy Routines, Ask Doctor Mike, Real Nutrition, and Medical Curiosity to name just a few. And, if you’re looking for some eye candy (hey, its calorie-free) be sure to become one of his 2.7 million followers on Instagram.
via kevinmd.com
Doctor Pho: Kevin Pho, founder of KevinMD.com with over 3 million monthly pageviews, is changing the way healthcare providers and patients alike think about social media. His twitter#slays, often linking back to helpful articles originally posted on his blog.
via howardluksmd.com
Dr. Luks: Howard Luks, sports medical specialist and orthopedic surgeon, uses his personal blog, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to answer patient questions and explain injuries. He believes that if patients are being active on social media, so should their physicians.
Thanks to physicians like these sharing information and answering questions on social media, the lives of patients are becoming all the more easier
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With that in mind, here are a few tips that health care organisations or their PR agencies should factor in while building up a social media strategy. |
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Eighty percent of people search for health-related information online.(1) And 81% of people have social medial profiles.(2) Given these statistics, a strong social media presence for your dental practice is critical to winning over new patients.In order to take full advantage of the customer engagement and lead generation that social media has to offer, make sure your dental practice uses it properly by avoiding these five big no-nos. No-no #1: Giving medical advice or providing protected health information (PHI)Social media followers ask all kinds of questions, and some of your responses can cause regulatory nightmares. First, don’t give medical advice. It’s hard to tell where followers are from, and you don’t want to give advice to someone who isn’t located in a state where you’re licensed. If an existing patient asks for medical advice, ask them to take the conversation offline by thanking them for their concern and then providing your contact information. It’s very easy to give out PHI while dealing with clients online, whether they’re requesting help or you’re responding to a negative review about a less-than-satisfactory experience. To do so would violate HIPPA, so don’t do it! No-no #2: Using your personal profile for your practiceOn each social media platform, you should have a business profile or page separate from your personal page. Why are separate profiles important? • They separate your personal and professional lives. There may be posts on your personal profile that you don’t want patients to see. • You may eventually want your social media handled by a staff member trained in social media or even by an outside firm. Business profiles make giving and revoking access much easier than personal pages do, which keeps your brand and personal profiles safe if social media responsibilities change hands. No-No #3: Self-promoting constantlyThe ultimate goals of social media are simple: engage existing customers, promote referrals, and recruit new prospects. One sure way not to achieve these goals is by constantly promoting your practice. Imagine your social media profile is a TV channel. Do subscribers want to see constant commercials? Spend a majority of your social efforts making your practice more personable and educational. Give your prospects real value, and two things will happen: (1) you’ll endear your social fans to you, or (2) they will be more receptive when you do put a great offer in front of them. A good rule of thumb is one promotional post per 10 engaging posts. No-No #4: Content that doesn’t match your audienceOther dentists might appreciate learning about recent findings on Th17 cells at the gingival oral mucosal barrier, but they’re not your audience. Stay away from industry jargon and clinical speak in your posts. Be personable with your followers, and help them make informed decisions with educational content. Speak with them, not at them. Most importantly, involve them. Encourage followers to interact with your content by asking them to leave comments and share and like your posts. Promote a culture of engagement, and your follower-base will grow organically. No-No #5: Buying followers and likesIt’s tempting. Who doesn’t want an instant boost of a few thousand followers for only $39? Buying followers and likes puts you and your company’s reputation at serious risk. You can read about more specific reasons why not here, but put simply, when you buy fake followers or likes, you’re left with an impressive number of empty accounts that have zero interest in your practice and will never become patients. Most social media platforms regulate the visibility of your posts based on the engagement of your audience. The more engaged they are, the more they see of you. So fake followers drag down your metrics in the long-term Social media is one of the most effective marketing tools available to you. Don’t ruin your chances of an engaged and loyal following by falling into one of the traps.
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Pharma use of social media is maturing as companies get more savvy about how they use social channels. For its fourth-annual Social Check-up, Ogilvy Healthworld partnered with social data firm Pulsar and looked at the social activity of 20 leading pharma companies in the 11 months between January and December 2017. Its conclusion: pharma use of social media has matured and companies are getting more and more mileage out of their efforts. Specifically, except for YouTube, pharma companies have decreased the frequency at which they post content to social channels. Posts to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were down 3%, 16% and 41%, respectively, during the observation period. But decreasing how much they posted didn't stop pharma companies from growing their audiences on these platforms. On average, audiences increased 15% on Twitter, 47% on Facebook, 50% on YouTube and 67% on Instagram. The bad news: half of the 20 companies tracked saw decreases in engagement, with some, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Teva, seeing significant double-digit drops of between 33% and 77%. But four of Ogilvy Healthworld's five top-ranked pharma companies increased engagement. The top-ranked firm, Novo Nordisk, grew its engagement by 13%, while Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Merck/MSD grew theirs by an even more impressive 111%, 77% and 122%. Quality over quantityHow did these top performers do it? Not surprisingly, Ogilvy Healthworld attributed their success to the posting of high-value content possibly aided by paid promotion of that content "at the right time to the right audience." Indeed, the pharma companies with the highest engagement scores did not post the most frequently. Trends and strategiesWhen it comes to producing high-value content and encouraging engagement, Ogilvy Healthworld offered a number of observations. Being human helpsPointing to Novo Nordisk's all diabetes pro cycling team, Ogilvy stated "Highlighting the human side of the business was the most regular theme across 2017's high-performing posts, such as spotlighting employees and internal initiatives." This makes sense. Given that the pharma industry has been widely panned in recent years, it's smart for companies to remind the public that their employees are real people who are working to help treat and cure illness. Get activeUnbranded advertising has been a big trend for pharma marketers and one of the ways that pharma marketers can get closer to consumers without advertising to them is by getting involved in causes around health conditions. It points to World Aids Day, World Cancer Day and Movember as examples of initiatives that offer opportunities for pharma company participation. But activism doesn't have to be limited to the health realm, Ogilvy points out. It says other initiatives, such as Earth Day and Global Day of Service, can also be opportunities to engage. Partner with celebritiesWhile it's not as easy for pharma companies to team up with celebrity influencers as it is for, say, shoe companies, celebrity partnerships do hold promise. In 2016, Novartis partnered with actress/singer Queen Latifah as part of a Rise Above Heart Failure initiative designed to call attention to heart failure, a condition her mother suffers from. With that blueprint, other pharma companies have formed relationships with celebrities. For example, last year, Novo Nordisk and Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram worked together to promote #ChangingDiabetes. Embrace new techniques and technology to create compelling contentOgilvy observed that on Instagram, aerial drone content posted by Bayer and Eli Lilly of their headquarters was a hit, reminding pharma companies that new techniques and technology can help create content that will resonate with consumers. Be prepared to pay to playNoting that organic reach has declined significantly and rapidly, Ogilvy reminds pharma companies that paid social, employed strategically, is increasingly required to ensure that content cuts through the clutter.
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Physician recruitment is changing in the digital age. Jackson Physician Search recently reported on the trend of physician recruitment with social media in their report titled "Physician Workforce through 2030: Social Media for Physician Recruitment." Here are five key thoughts. 1. Peer-to-peer communication has always been a great way to recruit new physicians; now that communication is happening on social networking platforms. Around 65 percent of physicians use social media for professional purposes, according to the report. 2. Platforms and services such as NEJM Resident 360 connect training physicians with clinical and career insight as well as other residents, serving as a "virtual doctor's lounge." Credentialed physicians can also connect and speak openly with others about the business of medicine. 3. Around 70 percent of physicians in the U.S. are verified members of Doximity, which they can use to connect with other physicians and discuss career opportunities over the smartphone app. 4. The 87 percent of physicians aged 26 to 55 years old report using social media daily, which means there is a huge pool of potential passive job seekers on social media platforms. They may be interested in a change, but aren't proactively looking for new options. 5. Enlisting current physicians to build their social network with former classmates, colleagues and others can help build the center's reputation among industry professionals.
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Physicians with negative online reviews do not receive similar reviews on formal institutional patient surveys, yet they often score lower on factors beyond their immediate control when compared with colleagues without negative online reviews, a study has found. These findings were published in the April issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. "These findings are important, not only in disassociating formal [institutional] scores from online review comments but also in emphasizing that physicians need to be cognizant of their reputation both online and in-person," and highlights the "stark chasm between patient perception of the physician-related performance and non–physician-specific variables," write R. Jay Widmer, MD, PhD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues. During a 4-month period from September 1 through December 31, 2014, the researchers identified 113 providers with negative online reviews and matched them with 113 randomly chosen physicians without negative reviews to provide an equal number of physicians representing 28 divisions/departments. The researchers then compared the Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys (PSSs; a validated tool that evaluates the patient experience across several domains) of the entire cohort during that same period. These PSSs scores were divided into physician-specific and non-physician-specific questions and compared for the entire cohort. The study authors found that there was no significant difference in the mean PSSs between physicians with negative online reviews (4.05; 95% confidence interval [C], 3.99 - 4.11) and those without (4.04; 95% CI, 3.97 - 4.11; P = .92). The researchers did note, however, that the mean scores on the non-physician-specific questions were significantly lower among physicians with negative online reviews (3.91; 95% CI, 3.84 - 3.97) compared with those who did not have negative online reviews (4.01; 95% CI, 3.95 - 4.09; P = .02). These non-physician-related issues included things such as wait time, interactions with the front desk staff, billing, and parking. In an accompanying editorial, Bradley C. Leibovich, MD, from the Department of Urology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, writes, "these findings speak to the leadership of health care organizations as they underscore the totality and integrity of processes, elements, and encounters — and not just the patient-provider interaction — that all need to be effectively and cohesively in place to ensure optimal patient experience and welfare." The authors suggest that one way to potentially negate the effects of negative reviews from unstructured and unsubstantiated online reviews may be to "allow patients access to vetted physician-specific PSS scores and reviews." This is a view shared by Leibovich, who notes that the best to way to help patients make informed decisions about their healthcare is through "transparently sharing results of validated measures of patient satisfaction, morbidity and mortality statistics, complication rates, and other quality metrics." The authors acknowledge that this study included only a small number of physicians over a limited period of time and note that a study over a longer study period of time is warranted. They conclude, however, "[t]hese data underscore the importance of health care organizations and their physicians to be aware of patient experience content posted on social media platforms and be proactive in managing their online reputation." The authors and the editorialist have reported no relevant financial relationships.
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Every summer, fans across the U.S. flock to Omaha, Nebraska, for the NCAA Men’s College World Series (CWS). For a city without a professional sports team, it’s a big deal. The locals happily cheer for all eight teams vying for a championship, but the biggest fans happen to be the smallest. When the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers made their first appearance at the CWS in 2016, the team already had a special connection to Nebraska Medicine. In 2006, then 1-year-old Caroline Hogue received a small bowel transplant at Nebraska Medicine. Caroline’s father, Matt Hogue, is the athletic director for Coastal Carolina University. When the team learned they were coming to Omaha, Caroline and her family also made the trip – and asked the team to visit pediatric patients at Nebraska Medicine. Media was invited to cover the team’s hospital visit, which included a game of baseball between the players and patients. It gained a lot of attention on traditional and social media outlets. From there, an idea sparked. Before every CWS game, the kids created a special message for Coastal Carolina, which was shared via the Nebraska Medicine Twitter and Facebook pages. The messages were produced by Nebraska Medicine child life specialists, a senior media relations coordinator, and videographer. In return, Coastal Carolina retweeted the messages to their 35,000 followers, which ignited a social media frenzy. Several of the messages were shown on ESPN and television stations in South Carolina and Omaha. To everyone’s amazement, the Cinderella team made it all the way to the finals and won the CWS! They dedicated their win to our pediatric patients. Because this social media campaign was so successful, Nebraska Medicine did something similar in 2017 when the LSU Tigers baseball team made it to the CWS. After a visit to Nebraska Medicine, the players received special messages before each game via the Nebraska Medicine Twitter and Facebook pages. The team retweeted the messages to their 274,000 followers. Even though LSU didn’t win the CWS, the social media campaign still had a huge impact, with ESPN and media outlets in Louisiana and Omaha sharing the stories. Everyone loves cheering for an underdog. This time, the underdog wasn’t the team, it was their small but mighty pediatric fans. As one baseball fan put it, “the @NebraskaMed tweets have to be the best part of the College World Series.”
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Facebook admits to negotiating with US hospitals to access patient data, abandoning talks last month
In the latest controversy for the beleaguered social network, Facebook has conceded it approached US hospitals and medical groups about the sharing of patient data for a proposed research project, which the company now claims has been paused.
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Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. What are hot research challenges in social media analytics in health care? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images) Answer by University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics, Educating leaders in health informatics since 1997, on Quora: With the increased social media usage in the patient population, researchers have started to capture this data and put it to better use to improve and personalize the care provided. There are multiple areas within social media that researchers have focused on. A few of the key areas are:
Generating meaningful data from social media is a challenge at many levels. A few of the challenges could be:
Social media analytics is still at the research stage for text based social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Whereas social networks that are available have moved ahead to speech based (Second Life) and image based networks (Instagram). This keeps researchers a decade or two behind with lots of technology to catch up on.
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Healthcare revolves around the doctor-patient relationship and the treatments the doctor prescribes. That will always be the most important staple for your practice to uphold, but while word-of-mouth referrals from happy patients can keep new patients coming through the doors, that’s not enough on its own. Like all other industries, medical practices, urgent care centers and hospitals all need to keep their online presence in mind and actively work to improve it. If you don’t, after all, that practice down the street will, and they’ll scoop up all your new patients in the process. With both the healthcare industry and the marketing industry both evolving quickly in some ways, it’s essential to stay on top of the latest best practices. In this post, you’ll learn about the 6 most important healthcare marketing trends for providers in 2018. 1. Everything is Going OnlineRemember the good old days of pen and paper? While paper charts are still a thing in some cases, most patient data is going digital—and the patients are starting to expect that. Patient portals are being expanded on and improved, and are a lot more common. Four of my doctors currently have patient portals that allow me to log in to check on my appointments, see all the details of my blood work or other test results, and see the notes that the doctor entered in about my appointment. Even the urgent care provider I saw after a car accident had a patient portal, which was immensely helpful because I had an awful concussion causing bad short term memory loss for a few days. For patients who want to be involved in their healthcare and treatment plan, this is a big deal, and in many cases, it makes your job easier in the long run, too. It can also speed up the process—I can actually email my providers through a secure message instead of waiting on hold or hoping to get patched through to a nurse for minor, non-emergency questions. This big step is all about convenience for the patient, and it allows you to better treat them even when they’re not right in front of you. In the same way, healthcare marketing is happening more and more online these days. People turn to the internet to find healthcare information and to identify which practices they want to use for their healthcare needs. If you want to capitalize on this trend, you need to be marketing your business online. 2. Content is More PrevalentDoctors are busy people, but hiring someone to tackle healthcare marketing will benefit your business significantly. After all, there’s a lot of terrible information out there (even on popular sites), and there’s a lot of alarmed people Googling their symptoms becoming convinced that the rash from their new laundry detergent is MRSA. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that increasing numbers of healthcare providers and medical practices are starting blogs on their site. This is a great way to capture clients at the top of the funnel, because if someone is Googling “symptoms of carpal tunnel,” they’re probably experiencing them and could use a doctor’s help. And boom, you’re right there with reliable information and the rest of the site hanging around in the background. You can keep this content on your site, or even take it to other platforms. Orlando Health has a great series of videos on YouTube where doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners talk about not only their experiences, but what different medical conditions and treatments involve. This demonstration of knowledge can build trust in potential patients long before they see you, and patients must trust their providers to have a successful treatment plan. 3. Healthcare Marketing on Social MediaSocial media can be a little trickier for healthcare providers—they can’t just go around sharing customer stories willy nilly, after all, with HIPAA laws (and basic morality) in place. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be used, because the contrary is actually true. Social media is now more important for healthcare providers to be on than ever before. I think this is particularly true of Facebook, which:
When it comes down to it, social media gives you another way to take word of mouth healthcare marketing and amplify it in a public setting. Instead of having someone tell just one or two friends how great their experience was with you even though you had to rebreak their arm or give them a root canal, you can have them tell everyone who visits your page. To get the most out of your social media account, don’t forget to link to it in a prominent place on your website, too. 4. Location-Based SEO Is a NecessityIf you’re a patient going to see a doctor, you clearly are going to want to find one as close to you as possible. While there are exceptions to this, in most cases a patient won’t willing to take a four hour drive to find a primary care specialist, let alone go cross-country. Local SEO is a necessity for healthcare marketing in 2018, especially with more “near me” searches popping up in voice search (we’ll talk about this next). Your practice should absolutely be trying to rank well for local searches, popping up in that much-coveted location preview on Google. To help with this, make sure you’re optimizing for location-based keywords, like “central Florida gastroenterologist” or “Richmond podiatrist.” This will help you significantly, especially as voice search continues to grow in popularity. Which brings us to healthcare marketing trend number 5… 5. Voice Search is Becoming a PriorityIf you’re sitting at your computer and need to find a dermatologist to check out a suspicious mole, what would you Google? Probably something like “urgent care Oviedo late night.” We’ve been trained to search for the specific keywords we want to see results for, and only that in order to prevent clutter and irrelevant results. Voice search is changing that. Now, if you were to ask Siri or Alexa to help you locate a doctor, you’d likely ask “Siri, can you find an urgent care center near me that’s open?” These are very, very different search phrases, but the patient is still looking for you. Voice search is changing things up in SEO because it’s so different from a conventional search, but it’s becoming more and more common. Ready to optimize for voice search? Implement a few of these strategies:
6. Well-Designed, Mobile Optimized SiteMobile usage has only continued to increase, and now instead of having a mobile version of your website, you should instead be focusing on a mobile-optimized site. After all, if you’re out and about when you get hurt or have a headache or develop symptoms, are you likely to wait until you get home to start looking for a doctor or are you going to start searching on your phone quickly? No. If you’re anything like me, you do a quick webMD search, become half-heartedly convinced your headache is a brain tumor, and try to find a doctor who can help. Okay, so you probably aren’t like me, but nobody likes feeling bad and everyone typically wants a quick solution. There are several steps healthcare providers should take to make sure their site is mobile optimized in a way users need, including:
ConclusionHealthcare providers are often endlessly passionate about providing great patient care, and in this day and age that involves providing an excellent experience every step of the way—even long before they actually come into the office, or long afterwards. Improving your online presence will not only help you find new patients, but better connect with the ones you’re already treating, making it a win-win for everyone involved. By the way, if you’d like help with your own healthcare marketing efforts, let me know here or in the comments. I’d love to help!
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I recently read some great counsel from Steve Crider about what happens when you leave a job:
While Steve refers specifically to LinkedIn, the same is largely true with Twitter, Facebook, and blogging as well. Unless you’re doing it on a corporate page, your personal social media efforts are something you take with you after leaving your job. They’re part of your professional profile and experience. While I eventually became a full time professional blogger, I originally only started blogging about healthcare IT as a way to show my professional skills. I figured it was a great resume builder and it was. I got a number of job interviews thanks to my blogging. Social media connected me to a wide variety of people that I’d have never met or connected with otherwise. Plus, my efforts to blog about EHR showed a passion for the subject that was hard to convey in a resume. I know it’s sometimes hard to think about doing social media after a long hard day of work. However, it’s worth remembering that the efforts you make on social media are thing that you take with you once you leave your current position. So, the efforts you make can have a long lasting impact on your career.
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Your hospital bands are actually used as an internal mechanism for hospital staff to identify patients. Prior to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, those bands would identify you by social security number. With fraud and identity theft on the rise the HIPAA Act of 1996 required medical providers to no longer use social security numbers and instead identify the patient with an MR (medical record) or MRN (medical record number). The HIPAA law includes provisions to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. It also defines requirements for the privacy and security of protected health information.
On your bands are your date of birth and patient account number sometimes referred to as an encounter number that represents a particular visit or series of visits when there is an inpatient stay. Your MRN follows you forever, while your encounter/visit number is created per visit. The barcode serves as a purpose to further identify you, charge capture of hospital supplies and eliminate medication errors. Your wristband could also be color coded for the safety of yourself or for the hospital staff caring for you. Some colors represent infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis, that you are at risks for falls or are on oxygen.
All of this information is the perfect recipe for an experienced hacker to commit insurance fraud and identity theft. It's no different than taking a picture of your driver's license and sharing it with your social media friends. As a patient you should know your rights in the event of a breach.
So, as a patient how do you protect yourself? First, refrain from sharing this information with others. Secondly, know your rights as a patient. If you feel your records have been compromised you have the right to request copies of your records and the names of hospital staff who have accessed your records.
If you'd like to learn more visit https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/YourHealthInformationYourRights_Infographic-Web.pdf ;
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A medical student was attending a clinical genetics clinic as an observer. Patients with rare genetic conditions were being reviewed. Some had physical abnormalities, for example, severe skeletal abnormalities of the hands and feet. The student was asked to take photographs for the medical records of a patient's extremities by a consultant. Appropriate consent was sought from the patient to allow the photographs to be taken and stored in their notes, and the patient consented to the images being used for teaching purposes within the department. After the clinic the student uploaded the images from the department camera to the department computer. The images were identified by the patient's identification number, rather than by name. Whilst the student was still at the computer he emailed the images to himself and tweeted one of them making a comment about the appearance. He did not mention the patient's name but did name the condition she was suffering with the hash tag. The patient was later informed by a friend, who also had the condition and was part of a worldwide Twitter community for sufferers, that the image had been posted. The friend had recognised the patient's hands due to the deformity and a characteristic ring she was wearing. The patient checked herself and confirmed that the image was of her hands. As the only photograph that had been taken of her hands had been done in the clinic, the patient knew that a member of staff at the hospital must have been the source of the tweet. The patient made a complaint to the trust that the image had been used without her consent and that she had been identified from it by a third party. This was a breach of her confidentiality and had been done without her express permission. The trust investigated the incident and identified the student involved. The matter was referred to his medical school and a fitness to practise investigation followed. With the assistance of an MDU medico-legal adviser, the student explained he had not appreciated that the patient's express consent was needed before the images were used as he had not identified her by name and they were not of her face. In preparation for the investigation, the student was advised to review the trust's policy on confidentiality and review the GMC's guidance on the use of social media and on using visual recordings of patients. The investigating team were satisfied the student had reflected on his behaviour and had addressed the concerns raised. Learning pointsIt is important to remember that patients can be identified by means other than their name or face. Consent should always be sought before using patient images and the patient should be fully aware of what the images may be used for. Twitter has a worldwide audience and using a Twitter account, even if it is anonymous, does not protect you from being identified. This is a fictional case compiled from actual cases from the MDU's files.
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Social media has exploded as the dominant marketing avenue for cosmetic procedures. Thanks to controversial boundary-pushers like Dr. Michael Salzhauer (AKA “Dr. Miami”), what was once an occasional post has morphed into a high-stakes arms race with 40-part Instagram stories, “trademarked” hashtags, and graphic one-upmanship. Social media’s inherent image-centricity, combined with its micro-targeting marketing capabilities, naturally lends itself to cosmetic medicine. But other traditional, disease-related specialties are following suit by increasingly leveraging these platforms for promotional purposes. We’ve reached a point where Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the leading journal for plastic surgeons, felt compelled to propose ethical guidelines for social media video posting. These guidelines came on the heels of an Aesthetic Surgery Journal study demonstrating that the majority of plastic surgery-related hashtags are attached to posts by non-board certified doctors, nurses, and other under-credentialed practitioners. None of this is to suggest that medicine and social media shouldn’t mix. Each physician has the prerogative to use social media in a way that dovetails with her personal and professional goals. But patient safety and privacy issues, along with the maintenance of medicine’s integrity, rightfully places social media within the crosshairs of board-mandated, and potentially even government, regulation. Yet, while this important debate intensifies, there is arguably a more consequential issue being overlooked: how social media is impacting the quality of our medical work, as well as our Hippocratic mandate to prioritize overall patient well-being. Toxicity and Negative Side EffectsSince the dawn of the smartphone era, with advertising and data collection as the dominant monetization strategies, product design goals have subtly shifted from maximizing contentment to maximizing attention. In this race to the dystopian bottom, social media has been particularly effective in leveraging addiction science to manufacture dependence. This has recently taken center stage in the lay press, where experts are sounding the alarmregarding the rapidly shifting mindscape of young adults, ostensibly linked to smartphone and social media adoption. The data shows that this cultural overhaul has led to unprecedented epidemics of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and suicidality. So, with a spotlight squarely focused on social media’s negative impact, why highlight the physician? For several important reasons. Doctoring involves drawing from years of intensive experience to achieve diagnoses or navigate complex surgical anatomy. Decades of passive and active exposure to patients and disease leads to this much-touted “art of medicine”: pattern recognition, nuanced intuition, and the vital subtleties of bedside manner. To do justice to this process, “Deep Work” is required — a term coined by Cal Newport’s book of the same name — which describes mindful and undistracted attention. The disruptive nature of social media is putting a dangerous damper on this delicate and finely-tuned ability. When we go back-and-forth from the intensity of operating to Facebook Live narration, or spend regenerative time between consults mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, we are suffering an expensive switching cost, ultimately upending the vital flow of focused thought. Absent this flow, I fear we are practicing medicine beneath our potential. A recent New England Journal of Medicine Perspective piece put it succinctly: “It’s ironic that just when clinicians feel that there’s no time in their daily routines for thinking, the need for deep thinking is more urgent than ever.” Beyond diagnostician and care taker, a physician is also a scientist. And a cornerstone of scientific insight is recognizing unforeseen connections between disparate observations. As elegantly detailed by Manoush Zamarodi in Bored and Brilliant, unfocused “boredom” is a vital ingredient for inspiration. Not long ago, natural, “in-between” moments existed throughout the day: standing in an elevator, using the restroom and — yes — walking between consult rooms. But hyper-connectedness, typically via social media, has consumed nearly all of this fruitful boredom. This drastic shift has the potential to subtly impact serendipitous medical discovery. There is also the touchy issue of envy and self-worth. Millennia ago there was a survival advantage in observing others and comparing their techniques to our own. Yet, by providing on-demand access to a cultivated stream of polished photos and carefully-edited narration, this once-vital trait has been hacked and exploited. It’s no wonder a recent, longitudinal studydemonstrated that the more you use Facebook, the worse you feel — despite a sometimes-obsessive need to engage. This habitual comparison is particularly toxic for physicians. We are continuously bombarded with the supposedly perfect lives of our intellectual peers, who pursued “easier” careers that seemingly facilitate endless leisure time or fancier lifestyles. Yet while these posts highlight (or exaggerate) merely the positive, they fail to remind us why we initially made certain trade-offs. Perhaps to perform more meaningful work. Or maybe for increased independence and job security. Without this comprehensive recognition we may question our paths, foment resentment, and grow increasingly disconnected from the potential joy of practice. This does not bode well for already epidemic levels of physician burnout, no doubt at the hands of other unrelated factors like overwhelming paperwork and plummeting reimbursement. Physicians also have a duty to examine the impact of social media on our patients. We are the ultimate guardians of health and well-being, yet social media is undisputedly a product engineered for addiction that can lead to mental illness, including the exacerbation of body dysmorphic disorder. If social media is the new smoking, do we have a responsibility to discourage patient use (as opposed to fueling it)? Are we the modern-day versions of those doctors in cigarette ads? Powerful Tools, Used ResponsiblyBut we must also recognize how social media’s power has been harnessed to benefit medicine. I am fortunate to work amongst physicians who use social media to reach patients who may otherwise never receive education about a particular disease or treatment option. And I’ve personally improved my own practice by reviewing shared videos from other thoughtful and generous physicians. Perhaps most tangibly, social media has efficiently connected physicians around the globe who can leverage collective experience to arrive at difficult diagnoses. Patients also use these networks to benefit population health by stemming epidemics and collaborating in rare disease support groups. So what can physicians do to harness the benefits of social media, while avoiding its pitfalls? The first step is an honest reckoning of one’s relationship with these networks. Is the expenditure of time and energy intentional, or is it compulsive or obligatory? Which practices have a positive impact on ourselves and our quality of work, and where are the sources of negativity? How are current habits affecting patient care and one’s general disposition? Does patient-targeting via a purely addictive product jive with one’s own moral compass? Systems and boundaries are then needed to leverage the positive benefits, while minimizing detriment. Advice abounds for reigning in and positively constraining social media (and smartphone) use. Notification tailoring, app deletion or even opting out are viable techniques to loosen the grip. Post planning, batching and scheduling, unfollowing or even outsourcing account management can also positively transform use. No matter the techniques used, authenticity is the key ingredient. In a misguided attempt to compete, emulating other physicians in use-patterns or content is a losing battle, and at the very least could backfire by attracting patients who are not a good fit for your practice. No matter the medium, promoting elements of your authentic self and practice will lead to a happier, more harmonious personal and professional life. “Create more, consume less,” a maxim popularized by the Minimalists, elegantly summarizes another recommendation. With more time spent composing meaningful content than judging, digesting, and counting the posts, comments and likes of others, you will start to naturally feel greater harmony in your social media consumption. You will also generate more value for yourself. As social media evolves, there will be new challenges for physicians in meaningful use and boundary setting. This is already occurring with the recent explosion of time-stamped video stories and live streaming. It will take persistence, courage, and honesty to maintain an intentional and unobtrusive relationship with this medium, and to promote this same healthy relationship to our equally vulnerable patients.
Scoop.it!
More than half (54%) of U.S. consumers have replaced their phone books with online searches to find a local business, according to comScore. To attract these prospective customers (or patients, in the case of healthcare providers), local businesses must build and maintain a robust online presence. An effective way to do this is to claim listings on business directories. Business directories help prospective patients determine whether a healthcare practice could fit their needs. Listings include important business information (address, hours, industry), contact information (phone and fax number, email address, website URL), interior and exterior practice photos, driving and parking instructions, services and products offered, and more. Claiming your business listings and adding information seems like an easy task — until you realize there are dozens of business directories across the web. To make the best use of your time, focus your efforts on the following business listings or profiles. Also See: Why It’s Important to Optimize Your Healthcare Directory Profiles Google My BusinessGoogle My Business is a free tool healthcare providers can use to manage their online presence across Google. Your Google My Business listing is the box that displays on the right-hand side of Google search engine results pages (SERPs). A Google My Business listing can also be seen on Google Maps. According to Vendasta, Google My Business is the most important consumer and business review website. On average, Google My Business receives 158.03 million views per month, which equates to 34.3% of total U.S. online traffic. Google+Google+ (or Google Plus) is a social media website with more than 40 million members. Where the purpose of a Google My Business listing is to provide helpful information to prospective patients, a Google+ profile is intended to build community. Businesses that regularly post quality information to their Google+ page can see an increase in search engine rankings. Make the most of your Google+ profile by sharing helpful medical information, showcasing new services, and interacting within communities. According to Statista, the number of U.S. Facebook users is expected to reach 207.36 billion in 2018. Vendasta ranks the social media website No. 2 on its list of Top 10 Consumer and Business Review Websites because it receives an average 85.57 million monthly U.S. visitors, accounting for 29.10% of total U.S. web traffic. Similar to a Google+ profile, businesses only reap the rewards of a Facebook page when they regularly share quality content and interact with users who have liked their page. Use your page to share information prospective patients will find interesting, to post photos and links to your practice website, and to offer limited-time discounts on services or products. Related: What Healthcare Practices Need to Know About Facebook Advertising Yellow Pages (YP.com)Prospective patients might never carry the phone books left on their stoop inside their homes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t use the Yellow Pages to search for healthcare providers. Nearly 60 million consumers search yellowpages.com each month, according to the website. Of all the listings included here, a ypProfile can be the most detailed, with options to include accepted insurance, number of years in practice, practice affiliations, price range, and more. |
