Next Monday, the Healthcare Internet Conference will start. I can’t believe it will be the 15th Annual. How quickly time has passed from that day in November of 1996 when John Eudes, I and the rest of the “early” Greystone gang opened the first Healthcare Internet Conference at Bally’s in Las Vegas. We didn’t know it would become an annual event.
This past September marked the five year anniversary of receiving my MBA. At a recent informal get-together to celebrate the occasion, it was a pleasure renewing acquaintances with former classmates and discussing the various paths we have taken. What a wild ride it has been! Career changes, relocations, layoffs, promotions – you name it. When we graduated, the Goizueta Business School Class of 2006 could not have possibly imagined the changes our country and our economy would go through over the next five years. Our trials and tribulations would make for a fascinating documentary.
Free is good, especially when it comes to marketing your hospital or health system. So you jump in with free opportunities to display your brand through social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter; then you start a blog and then all of a sudden, it doesn’t feel so free anymore.
The conversation continues about QR codes. According to Mobio™, QR barcode scanning in North America grew 1200% in the last half of last year. Quick response codes already make sense with consumer products for purchase information, competitive pricing information, coupons or discounts, but how are they relevant for healthcare? Relevance is the key question about how QR codes can work with your healthcare marketing strategy. Are you just adding QR codes because it’s a hot ticket right now, or do you actually provide a value added to your current or prospective patients?
Several times a year, Greystone.Net conducts its own primary research on a hot industry topic. Recently our study on the use of patient portals concluded, with more than 40 organizations participating. The results reveal a number of useful findings for both healthcare marketers and vendors:
Meaningful Use – what a powerful phrase! In the context of healthcare, it’s tied tightly to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the use of certified EHR technology. Healthcare organizations across the nation are moving down the path of demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records, congratulations on your progress! Meaningful Use does matter, but let’s take a step back for a moment and consider the words “meaningful use” in a broader sense. Just as important as the technology is how we work to make its use meaningful. We like to think in broader terms and incorporate meaningful customer-centric uses into our Web planning. With the explosive growth of mobile devices, mobile applications and Web technologies, this concept remains very important. Just as with EHRs, meaningful use of any technology is enabled by understanding the need, collaborating with a cross-functional team on a solution and working together to ensure it is successful.
On Friday, the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) bestowed a posthumous award to John Eudes for Individual Professional Excellence. SHSMD’s Award for Individual Professional Excellence is the highest honor the Society bestows on one of its members.
The finalists for the Best in Class Awards have been selected so let the voting begin!
What a great group we had for the Webmaster Workshop last week in Chicago! I thought the food and the service at the Sofitel was fantastic. The networking and the conversations seemed to be valuable to all and, as usual, it was like drinking through a fire hose as we were trying to take in all of the good ideas and case studies.
When I saw the breaking news alert last night that Steve Jobs had resigned from Apple because he could no longer handle the duties of the CEO, I have to admit I was probably more than just a tad sad.