To Attract Patients, Help Patients Embrace The Future

To attract new patient volume, consumers need to believe that your organization is interested in their long-term health, not just trying to sell them your contribution-rich procedures. As a hospital or practice, you have to live out your mission.

In a New York Times editorial, Frank Moss, the former head of MIT’s Media lab and author of “The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the M.I.T. Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives,” discusses how coming technology and wellness behaviors will save our lives and our healthcare system. Moss writes:

We are in the early phases of the next big technology-driven revolution, which I call “consumer health.” When fully unleashed, it could radically cut health care costs and become a huge global growth market.

Over the past few years, innovations like electronic health records and the use of mobile computing devices in hospitals have begun to improve medical care delivery. Consumer health information Web sites and online disease support groups have made millions of people active participants in their own health care.

But imagine a far more extreme transformation, in which advances in information technology, biology and engineering allow us to move much of health care out of hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, and into our everyday lives

If we want to be relevant to the consumer Mr. Moss is referring to in the phrase, “consumer health,” this is the kind of information that consumers desire from hospitals and healthcare marketers. Usually, consumers get the standard advertising cliches and narcissistic corporate jargon like “world class,” “best” and “second to none” that mean nothing and help no one.

The intent of this post is not about how to position your message, but how your organization will financially benefit by living your healthcare mission.