The Business Case for Web 2.0 in Healthcare: Building Brands and Redefining the Patient Experience

"Overwhelming. If we had known, we would have done it sooner." the reaction of Susan Reid, marketing manager of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health, on the impact of placing UAB Health's videos on YouTube. Health-related videos, podcasts, blogs and wikis represent a mashup of Web 2.0 and healthcare that is revolutionizing how consumers learn about and experience healthcare. And ready or not, healthcare organizations must learn to engage their audiences where they are which is becoming more likely at sites like YouTube, iTunes and Facebook. In The Business Case for Web 2.0 in Healthcare: Building Brands and Redefining the Patient Experience, Reid and counterparts at the Cleveland Clinic and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)recount how strategic utilization of Web 2.0 tools is driving prospective patients to their Web sites and to their facilities in record numbers. Even recruiters are feeling the impact of these efforts. In this 40-page special report, Reid and fellow contributing authors John Sharp, Cleveland Clinic project manager for IT web services, and Dave Bennett, MUSC director of web resources, share their marketing and health IT successes and offer strategies for Web 2.0 adoption. They provide details on: -The fundamental difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0; -The best (free) Web 2.0 channels for brand-building; -The value of views, comments, ratings and traffic; -Measuring the "sticky" quotient of your Web site; -Care providers as content providers and other content sources; -The impact of Web 2.0 on health literacy; -Legal and privacy considerations surrounding social media; -The art of creating content for search engines; And much more! This beginners' guide to Web 2.0 and health, with more than 15 pages of Q&A, is based on a February 2008 webinar on leveraging the benefits of Web 2.0 in healthcare.