Time 28:43

Health care is going through some growing pains when it comes to social media. Word of mouth, especially from friends and family, is the leading resource for consumers selecting a primary care physician, according to a study from the Center for Studying Health System Change.(CSHSC) The concept that consumers would aggressively seek out performance information and cost comparisons from sites like HealthGrades and Carol is not taking place as many predicted.

In Minnesota company that bet on their advertising concept in a phrase - if men and women shopped for a ties and purses they would shop for medical care. After a huge PR splash, consumers weren’t buying the concept proving that PR without audience effective buy-in tactics doesn’t drive the bottom line.

The Edelman Health Engagement Barometer echoes the findings of the CSHCS study in that physicians and, friends, family, and peers are the leading trusted sources of information about healthcare. When it comes to consumers selecting a provider.

Where does this put social media in healthcare? Squarely in the middle. Here’s how.

Consumers do not feel confident enough to select a complex purchase without some guidance according to the CSHSC study. This guidance, I believe, comes in two forms, 1) peer to peer, including friends and family as well as patients who share their real-life experience. There are several sites picking up traction that provide anecdotal real-life insights Healthcare scoop and CareSeek are among them. You can even learn about Maruggi’s kidney stone surgery at St. Joe’s Hospital with Dr. Portis. This “someone like you” information gives patients comfort. In the study more than 50% of consumers use information from friends and family in their decision to select a physician. I would aggregate patient experience blogs in a similar category.

2) Professional information from a physician is also a highly valued component in this study. Nearly 40% of healthcare consumers consulted with a physician about from whom they should seek care. I believe this expert-to-patient exchange provides confidence in the selection. It is essentially a check and balance on the consumers leanings based on peer-to-peer information.

We interviewed one of the leading healthcare bloggers, author of Health Populi Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. She highlights how social media is working its way into one of the last holdouts of web 2.0 implementations, the healthcare industry. While it is slow going, Sarasohn-Kahn says there are many aspects of social media in healthcare, only one of which is the “shopping” aspect. For example, healthcare improvement through greater transparency as demonstrated by Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Nick Jacobs, President of Windber Medical Center is an area of social media that is noticed at the highest levels of the profession and media.

Among the community of physicians Sermo is a fast growing social network with more than 70,000 licensed physicians. The web 2.0 community in healthcare is huge, its leading conference produced by Matthew Holt was overflowing this Fall, no economic crisis was keeping members of this community away from the conversation.

Sarasohn-Kahn talks in this podcast about the relationship consumers have with social media in their healthcare decisions. She also touches on how the once antagonist political entities of universal healthcare may well be ready to reach a constructive solution just in time for the Obama Administration. Her advice, read Critical by Tom Daschle

What does this mean for marketers and PR professionals in healthcare? While comparing Doctor Smith and Doctor Jones along with the cost of an MRI may be a way off in the distance, tapping in to communities and conversation are here today. Whether it is driving health plan members to use online services or a hospital using video to highlight their latest surgery procedures, consumers are willing participants in the learning phase of healthcare decision making.

In the area of public relations, podcasts are used to increasing effectiveness as a source for news reporting, and consumer information tools, Johns Hopkins Medicine podcasts are a classic example. Baby steps in social media is just fine for healthcare for now, 2009 we expect to see further growth as patients, physicians and healthcare journalists are plugging into the budding movement of healthcare transparency.

Jane spoke to the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement in Minnesota in late November, highlighting how social media is slowing being implemented in healthcare.

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Use Giftag, www.giftag.com the website for all your gift ideas and whish lists, and tag your gifts that are up to $25 with Marketing Edge. On December 20 we will pick one gift and purchase it for that Giftag user.

Since marketing is about words and positioning, I’m going to remain neutral on this issue by saying that the advocates of global healthcare will use the term globalization and the opponents of global healthcare will use the term outsourcing. The issue outlines how the future of a US orthopedic surgeon (an other healthcare practitioners) may well follow that of the US assembly line worker in that both now have a larger pool of people who do what they do.

The world is getting smaller and social media is contributing to the elimination of boundaries of information. An eye-opening article from Fast Company: Why Americans Are Going Abroad for Health Care highlights how a world class Thailand hospital, Bumrungrad is a destination for patients around the world, more than 430,000 in 2006 for more than a tummy tuck. Global health care facilities are attracting Americans for everything thing from dentistry to transplants.

Whether your call it Medical Tourism
or just plain global health care, the roots for its recent growth are cost and quality of care. Look it’s not that much different than world leaders coming to the Mayo Clinic in good old Rochester, Minnesota. Only now it’s not Arab sheiks, but modest middle managers looking to save thousands on health care.

From Thailand or Tennessee, competition is seen as a means to drive costs down and quality up. Information is a necessary element of competition which is why social media is being embraced by many players of the healthcare equation.

Because healthcare choice is so important, consumers demand health care delivery information from a variety of sources, healthcare providers, patient experiences, mainstream media, government, and others are all available to the patient making a care choice.

Shopping for health care is not limited to global options like this site called Health Base, in Minnesota consumers can shop for local health care online using Carol.com. Carol it is turning heads in the healthcare delivery profession and so is a blog about patient health care experiences called the Health Care Scoop. The Health Care Scoop is produced by Consumer Aware which has a relationship with health care payer Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s in everyone’s interest to have lower cost health care, right? Their mission, in their words is:

“We believe that consumers should have the information needed to make “best fit” choices. Healthcare shouldn’t be a mystery. Information about all aspects of healthcare should be easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to navigate. Healthcare information should be available to everyone, all the time, and at no cost. We’re going to do our best to help make that happen.”

Now if you really want to have some fun, have a cup of coffee and compare hospitals in your area. This is the once private, now public, hospital survey called the CAHPS produced by the Hospital Quality Alliance, with a great subtitle “Improving Care Through Information.” Well I might quibble about that subtitle, it’s improving the selection of health care with information to the patient, but I would enjoy a conversation about how this public knowledge will actually improve care?

The answer to that question and many others will be the focus of a panel called Social Media Bringing Change to Healthcare Marketing.

It is sponsored by the Health Care Special Interest Group of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Representatives from Carol, The Health Care Scoop, and Health East, a healthcare provider in Saint Paul, MN will be on a panel. I am serving as a moderator to this great group of innovators in the healthcare space.

It is being held at the Pool and Yacht Club on Tuesday, May 20 from 4pm-7pm. The panel discussion begins at 4:00pm followed by a reception. Register for the social media in healthcare panel l. If you have questions, shoot me an email amaruggi AT providentpartners DOT net.

Time 18:33

There is a new medium to report about in this podcast, I’ll call the integrated channel. As the consumers of information fragment their consumption across a variety of media, so too has sophisticated media properties built new outlets for focused topics.

In this podcast we feature a website that illustrates an Integrated Channel, it is www.UnderstandingCancer.tv It is a production of Supportive Oncology Services and Multiplicity Media . What makes this different is it has a clear single focus (in this case cancer), it incorporates expert advice about a complex topic, it has multimedia formats of text, audio, and video, it includes a television channel for greater mainstream distribution (ION television network), and aspects of social media.

Understanding Cancer, the television show will debut on March 9th at 5:30 pm Eastern on the ION television network The website provides a holistic approach for the patient and their families who are facing cancer treatment. That spectrum of coverage also leads to more opportunities for marketers to embrace, not advertise to, but embrace those turning to this website for information and comfort.

In this podcast you’ll hear Liz Conway of Supportive Oncology Services the research entity which reviews the medical information on Understanding Cancer TV and Terry Merrill Wilcox, the producer whose outstanding video packages deliver the information and emotion about a subject many will agree is difficult to discuss.

You can see more about Understanding Cancer TV on MySpace

And Facebook I Support Understanding Cancer TV

More Healthcare and Social Media

Social media is coming to healthcare. Many hospitals and other healthcare providers have ducked the notion of social media, blogs or otherwise, while the rest of the healthcare system is pushing for consumer choice. This has lead to websites like www.healthcarescoop.com and www.carol.com which look more like people commenting on a hotel stay or buying a big screen TV.

A site like Understanding Cancer TV is a way to participate in social media in a non-invasive way. There is no doubt a number of events are making healthcare a more social purchase and experience. The issue for many providers will be how they handle their social presence on the web.

Social Media Conference Deep Dive

NewComm Forum - Society for New Communications Research conference, www.newcommforum.com/2008/ This is an excellent conference to get to the details of how social media and new communications will impact your profession and company or organization. Set in Sonoma County, CA April 22-25 at the The Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, there will be lively panel exchanges, provocative presentations, and most importantly plenty of 1-on-1 opportunities to bring home concrete information upon which to make decisions on how to interpret social media.

Podcast Timeline

0:00 – 2:00 – Book giveaway with Paul Gillin The New Influencers and preview of Society for New Communications Research conference.

2:00 – 3:00 New book giveaway contest for March The Age of Engage by Denise Shiffman

3:00 – 6:00 Set up about Integrated Channel concept and a frame of reference for this podcast, while it covers Understanding Cancer, the concepts of the Integrated Channel can apply to many other topics beyond healthcare.

6:00 – 17:00 Interviews with Liz Conway and Terry Merrill Wilcox

If you are interested in attending and would like to save $100 send me an email at marketingedge@providentpartners.net for a listeners’ code.

Albert Maruggi, president of Provident Partners, will join the roster of communication professionals and other speakers at the Minnesota Health Strategy and Communications Network’s annual summer conference July 19 and 20.

Albert will give a presentation titled “Storytelling Using New Media,” in which he will discuss emerging trends in the use of social media like blogs, podcasts and online videos for telling stories. He’ll also show examples of new media uses from the health care organizations and recount interviews with people who have used some of these tactics.

Albert has a diverse background that includes work in corporate communications, broadcast journalism and politics at the national level. He’s also the host of the highest ranked marketing podcast on iTunes, the Marketing Edge, in which he offers advice and insight on marketing, public relations and business communications.

“Health care communicators face a lot of unique challenges: regulations, dealing with difficult subject matter, very diverse audiences,” he said. “At the same time, they have many opportunities to make an impact. The personal stories and the emotional elements lend themselves perfectly to using new media to tell stories effectively.”

MHSCN is a network designed to unite health care professionals into one multi-faceted organization for sharing strategies and proven techniques for marketing, public relations and communications in the health care industry. MHSCN’s summer conference is an opportunity for different organizations’ communicators to share their stories and to learn from each other on effectively communicating with a variety of audiences.

For more information about Maruggi and Provident Partners please visit www.providentpartners.net. To find out more about MHSCN and its summer conference visit www.mhscn.com.

Photo from Flickr courtesy of happysnappr