touch point podcast

In case you missed it, this episode tackles one of the biggest shifts quietly reshaping healthcare marketing: search is no longer about winning keywords. It is about understanding intent, context, and how AI now mediates discovery.

Chris Boyer and Reed Smith revisit a timely conversation on how generative AI is changing the rules of SEO and why many traditional optimization tactics no longer hold up. As search results become AI-assembled experiences rather than ranked lists, health systems are being forced to rethink how they create, structure, and distribute content.

This ICYMI episode explores why SEO now looks less like a checklist and more like a precision sport, where strategy, patience, and adaptability matter more than brute force tactics.

Thought leader Carrie Liken joins the conversation to unpack what Google’s generative search future means for healthcare organizations, including the rise of zero-click discovery, the collapse of keyword-first strategies, and how hospitals can stay visible when AI becomes the first interaction layer.

If your SEO playbook still assumes users are clicking blue links, this is one worth revisiting.

Mentions From the Show: 

How AI is reshaping SEO: Challenges, opportunities, and brand strategies for 2025 Search Engine Land

Search trends for 2025: Is a new ecosystem emerging?

2025 trend: Generative search will become the new normal, shaking up ad spend

How to navigate the changing landscape of search in 2025

AI-driven search ad spending set to surge to $26 billion by 2029, data shows

Carrie Liken on LinkedIn

Carrie Liken on SubStack

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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We are back with the second half of our annual Holiday Sampler, featuring the remaining three episodes that round out Touch Point’s most downloaded shows of 2025.

These are the conversations listeners kept coming back to. The ones that sparked follow-up questions, internal debates, and hallway conversations at conferences. Together, they reflect the themes that defined healthcare marketing and digital strategy this year, including privacy-first advertising, AI-driven content strategy, and a rethinking of reputation management beyond simple star ratings.

In this episode, Reed Smith and Chris Boyer revisit three standout conversations that explore where digital transformation is actually working inside health systems, how AI is reshaping consumer expectations, and why trust and access remain the real competitive differentiators.

As a reminder, the annual Touch Point listener survey is still open through December 19. This is your opportunity to vote for Best Guest and Best Interview of the Year. The race is close, and every vote matters.

Consider this the second half of the sampler platter. Different flavors, big ideas, and still plenty of great choices on the table.

Mentions From the Show: 

Episode 420 - The 2025 State of Digital Advertising for Healthcare

TP423 – Healthcare Content in 2025: AI, Composability, and the Content Stack

TP424 – Rethinking Reputation Management (Moving Beyond Google Reviews)

2025 Annual TouchPoint Listener Survey

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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Health care did not have a quiet year. AI, experience, platforms, and “vibe” all took turns in the spotlight. In this first half of our Holiday Sampler, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith revisit four of the most downloaded Touch Point episodes of 2025. These clips capture the themes that kept listeners coming back. This episode features standout moments from:

Episode 421: The Evolution of Patient Experience We look at how patient experience grew up. From the days of satisfaction surveys and HCAHPS to a broader, human centered view that includes families, communities, and digital expectations. This clip returns to the point where COVID, consumer behavior, and online access collided and forced health systems to rethink what experience really means.

Episode 428: Breaking the Healthcare Content Mold AI quietly moved from pilot projects to everyday content work. In this segment, we revisit how health systems are using AI to draft education materials, website copy, social content, and SEO at scale, while staying compliant and avoiding PHI. The clip focuses on the human plus AI dynamic and why better prompts and guardrails lead to better outputs.

Episode 431: AI, Are You Killing Our Vibe Vibe marketing became one of the buzz phrases of the year. Here we unpack what people actually mean when they talk about “vibe,” how it influences discovery and trust, and where AI fits in as a tool to shape and scale emotional connection. This highlight walks through concrete examples of how teams brought vibe into campaigns without losing substance.

Episode 435: The Website Is Now a Platform In this conversation, we challenged the idea of the hospital website as a static brochure. The clip you will hear looks at what happens when you treat the site as a true platform for access, engagement, and growth. We talk about scheduling flows, self service tools, data capture, and the privacy and trust questions that come with a more intelligent experience. It is a snapshot of how digital front doors are becoming digital operating systems.

Taken together, these four episodes show how quickly the ground is shifting under healthcare marketers and digital leaders. Experience is broader. Content is more automated. Brand is more emotional. The website is more operational. The leaders who follow these threads are already working differently heading into 2026.

Our annual listener survey is open through December 19. It is your chance to vote for the best guest and best interview of the year and to tell us what you want more of in the year ahead. We will share the results and celebrate the winners in our final episode of 2025.

Mentions From the Show: 

2025 Annual TouchPoint Listener Survey

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

Final note

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In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore how health systems can make smarter decisions about Human In The Loop and Human Out Of The Loop models, and why these choices will define trust, safety, and experience in the coming years.

What HITL and HOOTL actually mean

How healthcare is applying these frameworks

Why governance is the missing layer

Where humans must remain as the final authority

Chris then sits down with Carrie Liken, CEO and founder of Sotto Strategies and a leading voice in healthcare search and AI driven consumer behavior. She offers a grounded perspective on how agentic AI, new browsing models, and health system data strategy are reshaping digital engagement. 

Mentions From the Show: 

Carrie Liken on LinkedIn

Carrie Liken on SubStack

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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It would not be Thanksgiving without a little tradition. Each year we pull together the three Touch Point interviews that listeners came back to again and again. Think of it as a sampler platter for the long weekend. No turkey, just the conversations that defined 2025 for healthcare marketers. This year’s top downloads brought a mix of AI momentum, creative reinvention, and a fresh look at online reputation.

In this episode, Chris and Reed revisit highlights from:

TP428 – Dianne Hammons, WG Content on how custom LLMs and structured content workflows pushed healthcare teams into a new era of speed, consistency, and brand clarity.

TP431 – Matt Cyr, Loop Agency discussing why AI became the creative sidekick of choice for lean teams. Matt explains how his work with Roper St. Francis Healthcare showed that creativity gets better when AI takes the busywork off the table.

TP424 – Dean Browell - how provides a reality check on Google Reviews. Dean explains why their influence is fading and what signals matter more as patients change how they evaluate care.

These three episodes tell the story of a year when everything felt in motion. Content evolved. Creative teams retooled. Reputation strategy shifted under our feet. And marketers adapted at a pace that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. 

A perfect listen for your drive, your kitchen time, or your post dessert recovery. Thanks for spending another year with Touch Point.

Mentions from the Show:

Dianne Hammons on LinkedIn

Matt Cyr on LinkedIn

https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp428-breaking-the-healthcare-content-mold-rethinking-risk-embracing-prompt-power/

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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Healthcare digital strategy is changing faster than most systems can keep up with. Privacy restrictions are tightening, AI is rewriting search, patients are shifting expectations, and many of the digital tactics health systems still rely on are quietly becoming obsolete.

In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith count down six digital habits the industry needs to retire. They explore why consumer behavior, AI-driven browsing, telehealth recalibration, and the rise of machine-readable content have fundamentally changed what “good digital” looks like in 2025. From outdated SEO assumptions to bloated maps and embeds to the myth of the “digital front door,” this episode challenges legacy thinking and separates modern strategy from comfortable habits.

If your organization is still operating on models built for 2015, this countdown will help reset your digital roadmap for the next decade.

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Recorded on-site at the 2025 HealthCare Internet Conference (HCIC) in Las Vegas, host Chris Boyer sat down with consulting experts Cynthia Newton, Therese Lockemy, and Christine Albert from Solutions Central to discuss the biggest trends shaping healthcare marketing and digital strategy today.

Together, they explore how health systems are navigating rapid change—balancing technology innovation with real-world challenges of collaboration, governance, and growth. The conversation dives into:

Why outside perspectives help organizations see beyond internal blind spots

How cross-department collaboration unlocks smarter, faster decision-making

The role of technology and partnerships in solving core business challenges

Emerging conference themes and what they signal for healthcare marketing in 2025

Plus, the episode wraps up with a special Touch Point Hot Takes segment, where each guest shares their boldest predictions for the future of healthcare digital strategy.

Mentions from the Show:

Cynthia Newton on LinkedIn

Therese Lockemy on LinkedIn

Christine Albert on LinkedIn

SolutionsCentral on LinkedIn

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

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AI is no longer just a search companion; it’s becoming a digital negotiator. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore how agentic AI and new AI-driven browsers like Atlas and Comet are transforming the healthcare consumer experience.The discussion examines how these emerging tools are rewriting the rules of visibility, consent, and control - shifting healthcare from a web built for people to a web built for machines.

As AI learns to summarize, recommend, and even schedule care, health systems must rethink what it means to be findable, trustworthy, and human in a machine-readable world.Key themes include:

Mentions from the Show:

Carrie Liken: The Google Checkmate: Has Atlas Sparked the End of the Internet as We Know It?

John Munsell: How AI Browsers Harvest Information Without Your Consent

Accenture: Technology Vision 2024: Human by design

Deloite:. AI in health care: Balancing innovation, trust, and new regs

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

Sources discussed include recent work by Carrie Liken and John Munsell, alongside insights from Accenture, Deloitte, and federal agencies guiding AI ethics and data use.

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In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore what it takes to build a future-ready marketing organization that connects intelligence to impact. They break down why the next phase is about velocity—turning insight into action—rather than visibility alone, and how maturity depends on integration, governance, and access to data.

Then, Priyama Barua of Merge joins the conversation to discuss findings from her latest marketing maturity research. She shares how high-performing health systems operationalize insights, the gaps holding teams back, and what the next three to five years could look like as marketing evolves from a campaign function to a growth ecosystem.

Key themes:

Why speed of learning and action will define the next era of digital marketing

How unified data, AI, and governance reshape marketing’s role in growth

The CMO as ecosystem integrator across brand, access, and operations

Practical steps to move from campaign cycles to continuous learning

Mentions from the Show:

Marketing in healthcare: Improving the consumer experience

Accenture Technology Vision 2024: “Human by Design” Technologies Will Reinvent Industries and Redefine Leaders by Supercharging Productivity and Creativity

PriyamaBarua.com

Priyama Barua on LinkedIn

Merge Marketing Maturity Study: Results and Analysis

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore why traditional healthcare marketing is falling behind, and how focusing on relationships instead of reach may be the only sustainable path forward. They unpack the data showing the industry’s growing gap between visibility and value:

Only 28% of healthcare marketers have a documented content strategy.

65% of patients search online before contacting a provider, yet most health system sites still frustrate or confuse.

Retention costs up to 25x less than acquisition, but most budgets are still chasing awareness.

Chris and Reed discuss how loyalty and lifetime value (LTV) are reshaping the marketing playbook - arguing that connection, not conversion, is the next competitive advantage. They explore what happens when hospitals treat patients as long-term partners instead of one-time encounters, and how CRM, automation, and authentic storytelling can turn engagement into measurable growth.

Key themes of this episode include:

Why healthcare must shift from transactional outreach to relational engagement

How trust and personalization directly influence lifetime value

Practical steps to audit patient touchpoints and measure engagement beyond claims data

Why the future of marketing belongs to teams who build community, not campaigns

Mentions from the Show:

Calculating the Lifetime Value of Review-Generated Patients: The Complete ROI Framework for Healthcare Providers

Reed Smith on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer on LinkedIn

Chris Boyer website

Chris Boyer on BlueSky

Reed Smith on BlueSky

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