I’m a huge fan of new media as you can probably imagine. I do not only this blog, but also a number of other blogs as well. I’m all over Twitter and I even recently started the EMR, EHR and HIPAA wiki. Every day I’m amazed at how technology can enable people to connect in amazing ways.
That’s why I was really interested in an email I got recently about a Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference that’s happening in Phoenix. Here’s a look at the topics they’ll be covering:
- Utilization of online media to reach patients, community groups and special interest groups
- Healthcare Blogging Pros and Cons
- Podcasting for Health Care Systems
- Creating Patient Communities with Social Networking Sites
- Metrics: Proving the value of New Media
- VideoCasting: How to Effectively Use Sites Like YouTube
- Best practices in utilizing Google for Health information
- Content Management Systems for Health Care Websites
Of course, my only question is why they didn’t ask me to speak at the conference. I’ll forgive them this once. I do wonder if they’ll be streaming this conference on Ustream or some other free video streaming service.
Check out the Press Release which contains full details on the event:
Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference Teaches Strategic use of Web 2.0 Applications
Connecting to Patients in Today’s Healthcare Environment
(PHOENIX, March 4) Social Media has gone beyond the use within individuals’ personal lives, and now healthcare professionals are responsible for utilizing the various forms of web 2.0 applications to ensure consumers and patients are receiving accurate and positive portrayals of their organizations and services.
One of the primary challenges faced by marketing executives that are enhancing their new media efforts is finding and justifying the costs associated with these new campaigns. Making time for these plans as well as quantifying the results are mounting obstacles for today’s health care marketing, communication, and public relations professionals.
An exciting two-day conference will be held at The Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 15-16 to highlight these issues and educate healthcare professionals with cutting-edge case studies, accurate methods for measuring results and a high-level of real-time information related to new media opportunities in healthcare systems.
Attendees will walk away with the requisite know-how and tools to implement and to ultimately reach their target market in an accurate and appropriate manner.
Topics discussed at the conference will include how to utilize online media to reach patients, community and special interest groups. Participants will receive accurate training on how to implement an effective marketing strategy utilizing blogging, podcasting, YouTube, and social networking sites including Facebook and twitter. In addition attendees will learn proper website content management skills and the benefits of partnering with Google to generate awareness.
For more information visit: www.q1productions.com/healthcarenewmedia
When: June 15-16th, 2009
Where: The Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa, Phoenix, AZ
Who: The conference is designed for healthcare professionals interested in learning the latest in New Media and web 2.0 techniques. Presenting organizations include: Cleveland Clinic, Duke University Health System, Henry Ford Health System, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Patient Power, LLC, Raven New Media, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Emory Healthcare, Palomar Pomerado Health
About the Organizer
Q1 Productions prides itself as leading provider of educational conference and webinar programs for the Health Care industry. Whether focusing on new or pending legislative issues, enhanced business processes or technologies that will drive efficiency and customer service, our conference programs provide solutions to the urgent needs of our attendees.
It is significant that a conference clearly dedicated to marketing and reaching out to patients decides to include Google Health in its topics. Such an inclusion only supports my belief that nobody is taking – nor will take – Google Health seriously as a tool to improve healthcare delivery.
Thank you for sharing this; I wish I could go.
Web 2.0 was 2 years ago. While I enjoy reading your blog, entries such as this one cause me to struggle with the notion that healthcare information systems will ever actually catch up with real world. I suspect that everything one might learn at this conference could be gleaned from an eager 22 year-old in just a few hours. Too bad these guys are looking at anything very meaningful.
Ryan,
Certainly web 2.0 has been around for a while. More than 2 years in fact. However, the term is still widely used and so that’s why I used it here. The concept is still there and health care has done little to adopt even web 2.0 technology.
I guess I do agree with you that healthcare may never catch up with the real world. At least not until all the 22 year-olds finish medical school and become the doctors of the future. Then, we’ll see dramatic change. Until then, we’ll still see conferences like this trying to pull health care into this century. At least that would be a step forward.
John,
I wish I could agree with you. Medicine is one of the few industries where the revenue generators (the physicians) are not the big-picture decision makers (usually MBAs and businesspeople). How can we see dramatic change if the 22 year-olds are too busy trying to work 10-hour days to make any decisions on bringing healthcare IT to the level it could be?
Yes, there are exceptions, but for the most part, healthcare executives are not MDs.
As long as one group does the work and the other group creates the industry decisions, healthcare will never progress.
I think you’re right when you’re talking about large group practices or hospital systems. However, I don’t think this is usually the case with solo doctors which still comprises a large part of the health care industry and also represent that largest number of clinicians that still need to implement an EMR.
I do agree that most MDs don’t have the time or don’t want to make the time to be part of the decisions related to EMR.