Health IT requires good healthcare marketing

This week I had the pleasure of attending the Swaay.Health Live Healthcare Marketing Conference in Atlanta. For those of you who aren't familiar with this conference, it brings together the best healthcare marketing and communications professionals in one place. It's a unique community that you won't find anywhere else. In addition to conferences, we publish Swaay.Health marketing and communications publications and regular weekly email newsletters similar to what we do at Healthcare IT Today, but with healthcare marketing content. The emphasis is on

After the conference, I was struck by how difficult it is to do marketing in the medical field. Every healthcare organization has multiple gatekeepers. In one session, I said that one of the core realities of healthcare marketing is that there are 10 people you can say no to. Many would add that no one can say yes. This is the reality for companies looking to sell IT solutions to healthcare organizations. To be successful, you need to influence all 10 people. Otherwise, one of them can hijack the entire purchasing process. Building awareness and more importantly trust with all of them is difficult, but essential if you want to introduce your product into their organization. I think the good news is that once you join, you have to influence all 10 people to replace you.

What's a little sad about this reality is that it means that our medical institutions are not very agile. Some might argue that this is by design. That's why there is a motto in medicine: “Do no harm.” Of course, I always answer: “Doing nothing often does more harm than doing something.” This is the continuing state of reeling that medical leaders face. How can we continue to innovate in ways that benefit patients, without harming them? Doing nothing is not the answer. Death by pilot or commission is not the answer either.

Obviously, I think there are challenges for both healthcare leaders and healthcare marketers. But that's why you need a healthcare marketer to be more successful. They have real solutions to real problems facing healthcare organizations. If you don't have a real solution, we recommend you not to join Swaay.Health. We don't want, and dare I say, need, healthcare marketing professionals to succeed if they can improve the lives of doctors, nurses, and patients.

The same is true for provider marketing professionals. Marketing to patients and her B2B marketing to doctors is a tough job. In fact, it is made even more difficult by several regulations regarding what can and cannot be marketed due to concerns about PHI being shared. But success requires marketing and communications professionals to help patients find the care they need.

Additionally, we are seeing some very interesting changes when it comes to healthcare IT solutions. Many of the healthcare IT solutions out there are actually large marketing platforms. This may be due to a shift towards values-based care.

If you want patients to behave in a certain way, it's a marketing problem.

If I want to reduce no-shows in my organization, it's a marketing problem.

If you want more patients to use the patinet portal, it becomes a marketing problem.

If you want patients to take a particular drug, it becomes a marketing issue.

If you want patients to see a doctor after a visit, that's a marketing problem.

If you want your patients to take a certain screening test for their health, it becomes a marketing issue.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Much of what we want and need to do in healthcare is a matter of marketing. The good news is that data is now available to address these issues. Not to mention the growth in communication tools available to us to engage with patients at scale. Data and communication tools can be combined to solve all kinds of problems in healthcare. At least it's possible with the right marketing skills.

It was a great experience to spend a week learning from healthcare marketers. As David from our team said, “There are so many beautiful people in the Swaay.Health community.” He's right. The healthcare marketing community is full of amazing people who are truly dedicated to improving the lives of patients and physicians. They have good hearts who want to improve medicine as we know it, despite all the challenges we face every day.

On the way to the airport, one of the participants said, “We're going to leave in good spirits.'' When you work in the healthcare marketing and communications field, it's not hard to get fed up and frustrated with the various barriers and walls you come up against. But when you spend time with your colleagues, it's easy to get excited about the possibilities and renewed energy about how important a healthcare marketer's job is.