Is Mobile Health Marketing the ultimate solution to move patients from dependent to informed, engaged, and actually empowered to control their own health care?
As Eric Topal predicts in his 2013 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition keynote, health care will move away from the confines of the hospital and eventually live in the palm of the patient’s hand. Essential health care data will enable individuals to make their own health care decisions with the aid of physicians acting as specialized advisers.
This move from physicians and hospitals controlling and dictating health care to delivering the power to the individual patient is a huge shift. It’s a fundamental change is the role and responsibility of the patient and the health care provider.
Who and what will drive this sea change in the health care landscape? Will Mobile Health… and yes, Online Marketing… transform health care as we know it today? “Patient Engagement” buzz seems to indicate that this just might be the case.
Inside Patient Engagement Buzz: Why Mobile Health and Marketing Matters
With the looming Meaningful Use mandates within The Affordable Care Act, along with the promise of what mHealth is potentially able to deliver, “patient engagement” is sure one hot topic in health care circles today.
As Rob Lamberts,MD points out in his article below, a stroll around the Internet or listening to the HIMSS Conference topics discussed, it appears that slapping the buzz word “patient engagement” on what ails health care is the be all, end all health care solution. It’s not. Not unless health care providers move beyond health care record documentation to actual “meaningful” communication with patients. For health care providers to be able to provide engaged, educational, two-way communication with patients, isn’t mobile an essential part of the conversation?
If patient engagement matters, is mobile technology the difference maker in making it matter?
Why Patient Engagement Really Does Matter and Why So Many People Are Getting It Wrong
“Patient engagement.” What is “Patient Engagement?” It sounds like a season of “The Bachelor” where a doctor dates hot patients. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was. After all, patient engagement is hot; it’s the new buzz phrase …
And if mobile technology matters in impacting patient engagement, perhaps the power of marketing has an even greater influence in changing individuals’ health-related behaviors?
Do doctors and hospitals realize and understand the marketing dynamic? Are they willing to influence patient behavior to create healthier outcomes? Will they create the social networks online that act as a source of information that patients seek to answer their concerns and ease their fears?
Patient Engagement in Healthcare: What is Online Marketing’s Role?
Patient engagement has been a buzz word in the healthcare industry for awhile. Where does online marketing fit in this engagement? View this article to find out more.
Empowered, informed patients plus health care providers that communicate and educate. What are the connecting components to make this equation work? Mobile and Marketing.
photo credit: digiensemble via photopin cc
3 thoughts on “The Empowered, Smartphone Patient: Is Mobile Health Marketing the Answer?”