About Social Media Today
March 6, 2015
The Three Pillars of Wearable Healthcare Technology
wearable health / shutterstock
With heavyweight tech brands like Apple, Microsoft and Nike getting into the scene, wearable healthcare technology is bound to gain visibility and achieve usability a lot faster. It is also inevitable that it generates both interest and concern among healthcare professionals.[read more]
March 6, 2015
Giving Power to the States, But at Whose Expense?
state power / shutterstock
The Burr-Hatch-Upton plan says: “States have a key role to play in expanding access to coverage and helping to lower costs.” The ACA established health insurance exchanges and the (now optional) Medicaid expansion at the state level. So, what does the GOP plan do differently? For starters, I think it does more to harm individual liberty than the ACA.[read more]
March 6, 2015
Sign Posts on the Road to Connected Health Adoption
Understanding telehealth adoption is an important skill because it enables us to predict the future to some degree; it is a useful tool in developing strategy from pilot to scale; and perhaps most importantly, it enables patience during those times when the thing to do is so obvious to you and no one else seems to get it.[read more]
Recent Infographics
More Pharmaceutical Industry Consolidation: Thinning Out the Middle
I've been reading a lot about two acquisitions; Actavis' $66 billion buyout of Allergan, and Valeant's recent bid to buy Salix Pharmaceuticals for more than $10.4 billion. These are sizable deals for both companies, each of which has ambitions to break into the top 10 list of global integrated pharmaceutical companies.[read more]
Rare Disease: Where Precision Medicine Was Born
As the mother of a child with a rare disorder, I’ve watched with interest and admiration as this community has broken one barrier after another—innovating, advocating, collaborating, fundraising, organizing—all with one unwavering goal, to stop or reverse the suffering inflicted by a rare disease on someone they love.[read more]
The Supreme Court and the Subsidy in the Bathwater
Supreme Court / shutterstock
What happens if the Court makes federal health insurance subsidies illegal? Well, barring any corrective action on the part of Congress, the White House, and/or the many states with federally-run exchanges, the results are rather bleak: On average, the price of health insurance premiums would increase by 255% nationwide.[read more]
Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Embrace Telehealth
Thomas Jefferson was an innovative guy, so I guess it should come as no surprise that his namesake university in Philadelphia is embracing telehealth in a big way. Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals CEO Dr. Stephen Klasko is in a hurry to transform healthcare delivery, and sees telehealth as a key enabler.[read more]
The GOP Strategy for Increasing Purchasing Power: Subsidies in Reverse
GOP's plan / shutterstock
In this section of the GOP’s ACA replacement proposal, they state that they “would provide a targeted tax credit to certain individuals that could solely be used for the purpose of helping to buy health care.” This credit would be available to any employee of a small business, which the proposal defines as an entity with 100 or fewer employees.[read more]
Google's Knowledge Graph: Four Things You Need to Know
The Internet has become healthcare’s front door. And your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and medical content had better be first class because Google is shuffling the results deck. Google took notice of the big connection between online searches and health, and you’ll soon find medical content in Knowledge Graph enhanced search results.[read more]
BioPharma Beat: The Uberization of Healthcare - A Silly Extrapolation
Yes, healthcare is, in many ways, like the taxi industry: big, unreliable, unpredictable, price-obscure, highly analog, and lacking good data. However, the vast majority of the ideas coming out of these start-ups are no uber ideas! The ideas worked on by healthcare start-ups are interesting but not disruptive. And that is okay – just don't compare them to Uber.[read more]
Digital Marketing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them in Healthcare
healthcare marketing pitfalls
Any hospital marketing professional will tell you digital advertising can make or break a campaign. Pitfalls, by definition, mean a trap or hidden snare that captures you. Mapping out where these pitfalls lay are part of a successful marketing formula. To do that well, you have to know what they are and where to find them.[read more]
5 Questions with Michael James McCoy
Dr. Michael McCoy
On January 21, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced that Michael James McCoy, MD, would be the department’s Chief Health Information Officer, a newly created position. Thanks to Dr. McCoy for answering our questions about the new position and his vision for a learning health system.[read more]
Is Social Media Worth the Risk for Pharma?
It’s a question that comes up all the time in my discussions with senior industry executives – is social media actually worth the risk for a sector as heavily regulated as the pharmaceutical industry? It’s a great question and an extremely valid one. Every business decision has to consider risk versus benefit.[read more]
The Yoga Nurse: Annette Tersigni [PODCAST]
Annette Tersigni
What is Yoga Nursing? Yoga Nursing® is a new brand, trend and movement in health care, nursing and yoga created by Annette Tersigni, holistic RN, stress relief, back safety expert and medical yoga therapist. Here's my conversation with Annette.[read more]
Are Epiphanies the Key to Fixing Healthcare?
epiphany / shutterstock
Perhaps epiphanies are the key to fixing the healthcare system. In an ideal world consumers would engage in healthy behaviors without any need for extrinsic rewards or other engagement tools and behavioral economic levers. Unfortunately, for many reasons, most consumers simply do not.[read more]
How to Take Great Smartphone Photos for Social Media
We don’t always have a digital camera on us to capture great photos or videos. Most of us, however, do have smartphones. Today, all smartphones make it very simple to take photos or video and easily post to your social media channels. Here are some tricks to make those photos and videos look great for a professional audience.[read more]
Competition and the Revolutionary Rise of Healthcare Marketing
Healthcare’s harsh business reality is that no one can afford to underestimate or ignore the competition today. With the upheavals of healthcare reform, the "once-upon-a-time” story of quiet camaraderie among provider practices has become an unprecedented competitive revolution.[read more]
Beyond the Buzz: Let's Get Visual with Healthcare Social Media
The continuing growth in highly visual platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram, confirm that incorporating visual content into your healthcare social media strategy is a must. In today's article I will share with you 21 different ways you can capitalize on this trend for visual marketing.[read more]
HealthWorks Collective Series
David Davidovic David built and led commercial functions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for 33 years and has been di More »
Barbara Ficarra Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA is an award-winning journalist, media broadcaster, health educator, speaker and consultant More »
David Harlow David Harlow is Prinicipal of the Harlow Group LLC, a healthcare law and consulting firm based in Boston, MA. More »
Stephen Schimpff Stephen C. Schimpff, MD is the retired CEO of the Univ. of MD Med. Center and the COO of the Univ of MD Medical System. More »
Andrew Schorr Andrew, a leukemia survivor and respected medical journalist is the founder of PatientPower, an excellent web resource. More »
John Sharp John Sharp has interests in social media in healthcare and clinical research informatics including secondary use of EMR More »
Christina Thielst Christina Thielst is a hospital administrator, consultant, educator and author with 30 years of healthcare experience. More »
“Some great suggestions Marie. I totally agree with the stock photos point. My eyes just glaze over when I see them. Also a massive fan of Canva and am dying to create something cool with Piktochart. ”
“There's still so many people that aren't using images in blog posts and they are essential aren't they? Both in terms of breaking up the text but also for social sharing. That resizing tool looks really handy - I will check that out. ”