Healthcare professionals and marketing consultants converged in New York City this month to attend Social Communications & Healthcare; Case Studies and Roundtables, a conference hosted by Business Development Institute. Ira Kaufman, President of Entwine Inc, and I were honored to have been chosen to Moderate Roundtable discussions.

Hospitals, non-profits, pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals are searching for effective venues to engage patients. They are investigating the application of social media as they are confounded with compliance issues, newly proposed FDA regulations and conservative management. The conference featured case studies of healthcare companies and organizations that are using social media in different contexts.  Some of the companies included:

Center for Disease Control (CDC)

The CDC has been using social media for the past 3 1/2 – 4 years. They integrate health messages from campaigns and interventions using social media to help get the word out.  They use as many formats as possible to be where the people are. The CDC performs a yearly satisfaction survey and they found that visitors who use social media have a higher satisfaction rating (a full 5 points higher) and rate the CDC site as trustworthy.

Johnson & Johnson

J&J uses multiple platforms and integrates them to redefine relationships. They use blogging, video, Facebook and Twitter along with their main websites to engage and contribute to the conversations. J&J also has a successful social community for it’s Diabetes Institute.

Pfizer

Pfizer is very proud of its progress in adopting social media.  They have gone from crawling to walking. Their Twitter feed is one of the top feeds in NYC. They have an active Facebook page, and more importantly their employees can now access Facebook. YouTube is proving to be a big part of their social media strategy.  Pfizer has successfully used social media to do clinical trial recruitment, monitoring and brand protection, as well as drug counterfeiting education.

Our roundtable discussions were focused on Harnessing the Power of Social Media. We challenged participants to consider six new perspectives in using social media platforms in healthcare environments.

1. Twitter is more than a traditional broadcast tool. It is a powerful conversational initiator. Too many companies only push their brand on social media. Healthcare organizations need to change their mindset and create value to attract visitors.
2. Twitter and Facebook have very powerful search tools that allow users to gain a real time read on the comments and interest of other users and thought leaders in their targeted space.
3. Re-tweeting is a powerful distribution mechanism for your content and messages. Testing the effectiveness of different keywords in stimulating re-tweets produces results.
4. Careful keyword selection and inclusion in blog posts and articles realizes gains in search engine positioning. As each Tweet is a individual  page and optimized by the search engines, targeting your keywords will drive users to your content hub.
5. Social media has proven to be a very reliable sourcing venue for recruitment. Combining LinkedIn with Twitter and Facebook have produced great results for our team. Our results were recognized when Kissito Healthcare was listed as one of the top fifty employers recruiting with Twitter.
6. Monitoring your company brand and industry provides opportunities to engage patients and future clients. It serves as an immediate way to track conversations about your brand. Use 3rd party applications to deliver results immediately to your inbox.

Patient Touchpoint Strategy

Patient touchpoints or interactions with health care facility and professionals define patient centered care. They determine the total patient experience and satisfaction, affecting not only the clinical tasks but patient outcomes.  With the growth of online and social media, healthcare administrators have new tools to evaluate and effect patient centered care.

California HealthCare Foundation Study of Health 2.0 suggests,

“Innovative collaborations online among groups of patients, medical professionals, and other health care players are challenging the notion that health care happens only between a single patient and doctor in an exam room.”

In the growing Health 2.0 model, online and social media have dramatically increased touchpoints (34% of patients use social media, 46% health portals, 67% search engines).

Josh D. McGilliard, VP Marketing, Kissito Healthcare commented,

“Touchpoints or places where our brand constituents come in contact with our brand, are considered the underpinnings that hold the Kissito brand together. Whether they are external or internal before or after initial engagement, it is the only way to identify with the constituents on a consistent basis. Social media is becoming an important part of the mix.”

What are the touchpoints for today’s patient?  Now consumers research diseases, best practices, cures, pharmaceuticals on WebMD.  Medical information is shared by TV commercials, radio talk shows, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and brochures in doctor’s office.  Friends share stories and recommendations; patients join online support communities.  Interactions with medical/hospital staff are critical (admissions, billing, doctors, pharmacists, nurses. dietitians, CNAs, aides, social workers, therapists.) Patient discharge plans include regular interactions with case workers. The summation of these points is the Touchpoint Map.

The next step for healthcare professionals is to design a Touchpoint Optimization Strategy that will increase the quality of the total patient experience:

Step 1: Create a Patient Touchpoint Map

Interview a sample of patients to determine which touchpoints relate to their healthcare experience.

Step 2: Evaluate Patient Touchpoints Effectiveness

Determine which of these touchpoints each patient values at each stage of medical intervention (discovery, treatment, discharge, aftercare) referred as the patient life cycle. Then compare these touchpoints in generating conversations and patient relationships, increasing patient satisfaction and comfort level and effecting outcomes.

Step 3: Design Patient Touchpoint Optimization Strategy

Select a cost-effective mix of marketing tools that target your demographic and stage of intervention to increase touchpoints and conversations and improve the patient experience.

Step 4: Assess Patient Touchpoint Optimization Strategy

Evaluate the effect of the strategy in terms of increasing the quality and satisfaction of the total patient experience.

For example, a McKinsey Study of hypertensive patient’s habits for taking their medicines revealed that the adherence practices were related to six patient segments. They included skeptical patients, confident patients, concerned patients, confused patients, resigned patients, and proactive patients. By targeting a Touchpoint Strategy to these segments, the organization can greatly increase the effectiveness on their marketing efforts.