Comments on: Frailty, Thy Name is Non-Transparency http://blog.agencypja.com/2007/02/23/social-media/frailty-thy-name-is-non-transparency/ An open source take on marketing the hard stuff: BtoB Enterprise, IT & Life Sciences. Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:01:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Scott Monty http://blog.agencypja.com/2007/02/23/social-media/frailty-thy-name-is-non-transparency/#comment-540 Scott Monty Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:39:14 +0000 http://blog.agencypja.com/?p=50#comment-540 Adam - great points. I think the reason that hospitals are so far behind on this is because they have always considered themselves immune from competition. The way so many healthcare network contracts have been written, patients have traditionally had no choice. But the times are changing and the era of consumer-driven healthcare is beginning to dawn. Today we have more control over our healthcare dollars (in addition to being on the hook for a larger portion of the deductible, co-pay and premium) through a variety of health savings accounts. The next step is the widespread availability of institutional data, followed quickly by the availability of quality-of-care statistics about providers and more insight into the prices they command. Adam - great points. I think the reason that hospitals are so far behind on this is because they have always considered themselves immune from competition. The way so many healthcare network contracts have been written, patients have traditionally had no choice.

But the times are changing and the era of consumer-driven healthcare is beginning to dawn. Today we have more control over our healthcare dollars (in addition to being on the hook for a larger portion of the deductible, co-pay and premium) through a variety of health savings accounts. The next step is the widespread availability of institutional data, followed quickly by the availability of quality-of-care statistics about providers and more insight into the prices they command.

]]> By: Adam Darowski http://blog.agencypja.com/2007/02/23/social-media/frailty-thy-name-is-non-transparency/#comment-536 Adam Darowski Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:17:23 +0000 http://blog.agencypja.com/?p=50#comment-536 Hospitals are not going to be immune from the popular corporate blogging mantra "They're going to be talking about you anyway, you might as well take part in the conversation." In fact, we're seeing companies start to crop up in order to facilitate this conversation. Take Cambridge-based <a href="http://patientslikeme.com/" rel="nofollow">PatientsLikeMe</a>, for example. It is a platform for ALS patients (more diseases coming soon) to connect about their treatments, side effects, and other experiences. Basically, if hospitals don't start publishing this data on their own, people are going to start writing about their experiences—and people usually tend to write about bad experiences. Those interested in finding out this information are going to search and probably not like what they see—and go with your competitor. It's better to just be clear up front. Hospitals are not going to be immune from the popular corporate blogging mantra “They’re going to be talking about you anyway, you might as well take part in the conversation.” In fact, we’re seeing companies start to crop up in order to facilitate this conversation. Take Cambridge-based PatientsLikeMe, for example. It is a platform for ALS patients (more diseases coming soon) to connect about their treatments, side effects, and other experiences.

Basically, if hospitals don’t start publishing this data on their own, people are going to start writing about their experiences—and people usually tend to write about bad experiences. Those interested in finding out this information are going to search and probably not like what they see—and go with your competitor. It’s better to just be clear up front.

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