On a recent tranquil summer evening, the bucolic park in the center of our little town was overrun with hunters — from grade-schoolers to graying Boomers — all with their heads down, peering into their phones as they meandered throughout the park. They were all in search of Pokémon. And they were everywhere — the […]
I recently discovered some of the freshest thinking in patient engagement in a city better known for tapas and sangria than healthcare transformation. At the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the mobile phone industry gathers more than 101,000 people to talk technology, lifestyle — and now health, I was a featured speaker on […]
Those of us who live mostly on the “inside” of healthcare sometimes need to go outside to realize what the patient experience is really like — and how it might be improved. I have long preached that healthcare insiders should not be the chief architects of the healthcare experience. It must come from the patient’s […]
Think of all the great things that go great together. Ice cream and summer. S’mores and a campfire. Coffee and morning. But what about patient engagement and social media? Maybe, but not how you might think. Social vs. Engagement There’s a prevailing feeling that existing social media tools and channels, like Facebook and Twitter, […]
I am donating my body to science. Well, to be more accurate, I am donating data about my body, via my iPhone, to some world-class medical researchers. That’s because I am now enrolled in my first-ever medical research study — 3,080 miles from my home. The medical study originates out of Stanford University in California. […]
It seems we’re all into health tracking these days. It started with weight and calories, moved on to steps and miles and then to sleep (or in most cases, lack of sleep). Now it’s turned to heart rate, blood sugar, cholesterol, oxygen saturation and NikeFuel. The Quantified Self In Apple’s Health app for iPhone, for […]
There is a lot of talk in the patient engagement space about helping patients change behaviors to live healthier lives. But healthcare providers — from hospitals to physicians to staff — could use some behavioral change as well. That was a constant discussion at the inaugural Modern Healthcare Strategic Marketing Conference held this week in […]
Every patient is different. And, so it seems, is every definition of patient engagement. No real revelation there. But it does expose a foundational imperative — where does patient engagement start? The easy answer, of course, is with the patient. But reality shows us that it often starts with caregivers and health care administrators who […]
As IT professionals prepare to convene for the Health Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) annual conference and exhibitiion February 23-27 and the topic of patient engagement takes center stage, guest blogger Jim Rattray offers his thoughts on effective engagement. Hardwire. Analytics. Evidence. Patterns. Models of care. These terms all mean something to health care […]
Patients are asked to sign a lot of papers. But there is an especially important document handed to patients about to undergo lung surgery at Baystate Heath Center in Springfield, Mass. — it’s the Caregiver/Patient Pledge. The pledge begins with: We are committed to providing the care steps necessary to ensure the highest quality care […]