Practical Tips for Targeting Patients on Facebook

“Your people are here,” announces Facebook Business. This is certainly true in the big picture. Around 2 billion people use Facebook each month. And, it might be particularly true for healthcare. For patients and caregivers, Facebook is a thriving community, a way to connect with fellow patients, and a place to find support. There are…

Healthcare Innovation Drivers: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

We live in an era of astounding healthcare innovation. Within living memory, we’ve seen the first cardiac pacemaker implanted and the first successful heart transplant. Measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox were, for all intents and purposes, eradicated in the US through public health vaccination campaigns. CT scans are commonplace. And, the human genome has been…

Patient Opinion Leaders: 4 Major Opportunities for Impact

Patient Opinion Leaders: A New Breed of Influencer “Knowledgeable patients and caregivers who are passionate about sharing what they know with others”- that’s what defines patient opinion leaders (POLs). They don’t claim to have diagnostic skills and they don’t give medical advice. However, they do want to help others who are facing similar diagnoses and…

50 Social Media Healthcare Statistics to Watch

Every healthcare company should be taking notice of social media trends. It’s true that social media is a rapidly evolving landscape, but all signs point to its continued dominance over traditional media when it comes to reaching targeted audiences. Ad spending on social media has grown exponentially over the last several years, but healthcare companies…

For Health Communities, Facebook is Too Important to Delete

No one is happy about Facebook’s failure to protect our data, including its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who issued a mea culpa in newspaper ads over the weekend. “This was a breach of trust and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” Zuckerberg said. “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we…

Patient Advocacy Groups and the Healthcare Industry: Partnership or Peril?

Both patient advocacy groups (PAGs) and the healthcare industry are ultimately working toward the same goal: Better outcomes for patients. Each has its own way to get there, although sometimes their efforts do overlap. Depending on the circumstances, the overlap can present an opportunity for either partnership or peril. Let’s dig a little deeper to…