touch point podcast

The term “digital front door” has been been often used in healthcare -  by those in marketing, patient experience, IT, patient access and many other departments within a hospital. But what does it actually mean? In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore how the digital front door is defined, what tools and strategies make up a front-door strategy and how to structure different approaches dependent upon the audiences impacted. Also featuring an expert interview from Blake Long, Director of Marketing Technology & Strategy at UnityPoint Health, in which he describes how he has built a digital front door strategy that serves potential patients seeking care.

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This week, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer come to you live from the Fifth Annual Thought Leadership on Access Symposium in Boston, MA. They are joined by a panel of experts, including Chi-Cheng Huang of Wake Forest Baptist Health System, Jennifer Melby of Piedmont Healthcare, and Chris Gervais of Kyruus, in which they discuss the concept of “systemness,” how consumerism is impacting health systems today and the differences between patient-focused and patient-centric design.

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As health systems  continue to focus on digital transformation efforts, the question often arises on which is the right digital team structure to use, Newer digital technologies and a focus on consumer experience are blurring the lines between digital, clinical and IT. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the current state of digital within hospitals and health systems, and share pros and cons of the four typical digital team models that many organizations are using. They are joined by Christopher McKinley of CHM Hire, in which he shares some of the challenges of attracting good digital candidates when building out a digital team.

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Over 55 percent of website content worldwide is written in English. For hospitals and health systems, this can present a challenge when communicating with audiences that do not speak English as a primary language. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the challenges of building digital programs and websites with language localization. They are joined by Tiffani Helberg, VP of Communications and Development of Community Health of South Florida, in which she shares her first-hand experience developing successful multilingual marketing and communication efforts and offers tips on how organizations today can more effectively reach their diverse communities.

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In hospitals and health systems, the concept of “decision support” is often restricted for clinical areas. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith expand on this concept to explore ways marketing (and digital marketing) can be used to help support consumers and patients throughout the customer journey. They share challenges with developing online decision support systems and also explore ways to maximize Shared Decision Making (SDM) in marketing. Sheetal Shah, Vice President of SymphonyRM, joins the episode to discuss Next Best Actions (NBAs) and his experience working with health systems in implementing solutions crossing marketing, access, patient experience and finance.   

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The technology and medical community were abuzz with the latest release of the Apple Watch - particularly the ECG functionality - wondering the impact this wearable device would have on hospital admissions. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer revisit the topic of wearables and medical devices, discussing how the FDA categorizes “general wellness products” vs.regulated medical devices. They also review research on if wearables actually improve people’s health and what people’s attitude are on trackable wellness devices. Featuring a “replay” of an expert interview with Dana M. Lewis, in which she discusses the #OpenAPS community and the #WeAreNotWaiting movement.

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How hospitals and health systems engage in targeted communications and marketing, they use a variety of tools to help them understand their audiences better. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer explore how organizations are using market segmentation - along with personas and personalization - to improve their go-to-market strategies. In our expert interview, we are joined by Suzanne Hendery, CHief Marketing Officer at Renown Health, and Linda MacCracken, Sr. Principal of Customer Engagement at Accenture in which they share how their approach to segmentation helped to shape the way they engaged with a critical audience in their market.

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As healthcare marketing continues to extend past simply promotion to building engaging and loyal audiences, the responsibility of community management is becoming more important than ever. In this episode, Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the four types of online communities and share the best characteristics of a good community manager. They are joined by Dan Hinmon, principal at Hive Strategies and expert on implementing Facebook communities for hospitals in which he shares tips on how to effectively build an online social media community.

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In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss a few legal risks that can potentially impact hospital marketers. In particular, they explore how to stay clear of vague and hyperbolic language, and then use examples from their experiences on how Stark laws can influence the way a health system promotes physicians online. They then invite health care lawyer, consultant, podcast and owner of The Harlow Group, David Harlow, onto the show to discuss his perspective on the pros and cons of current healthcare laws and how marketers can best partner with legal and compliance to ensure success.

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With the introduction of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996), health systems, researchers and data scientists were given access to the use of de-identified patient data for a variety of clinical purposes. Over the last 20 years, however, the advancements of digital technologies, social platforms and marketing data analysis have advanced the usefulness of patient data for many purposes. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss how hospitals and health systems are using this data for effective marketing and personalization, the potential concern patients have with the use of this data and how retail trends continue to evolve the ability to use this data to develop effective experiences. Featuring an expert interview with CRM expert consultant, Justin Rodriguez, in which he share strategies hospitals can adopt to create a data-first strategy with their marketing.

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