Hey Doc, Patients First on Social Media

The secret of a successful social media strategy starts with who is in the middle. And that’s not any different than the philosophical and practical approach any successful physician or clinic takes to his/her efforts. Well, at least when the patient is the one at the center of the effort.

 I recently read an excerpt from Dr. Toby Cosgrove’s book “The Cleveland Clinic Way” that reminded me how challenging it can be to put the patient at the center of our work. And simultaneously, how imperative it is that we do just that. You may know Dr. Cosgrove as the President and CEO of Cleveland Clinic.

Early on in his efforts toward being “patient centered”, Cleveland Clinic had decided to reassign the reserved parking spaces near the front of its buildings to patients, not doctors. One physician complained, “What’s this, patients first and doctors last?”

Other physicians wondered whether reform promoting kindness and compassion was necessary. They said, “Dr. Smith is kind of mean to people, but he’s a great surgeon” as if that were enough. Being a great is surgeon is about being technically proficient and treating patients well.

Cosgrove recognized that we live in a time when technology has leveled the playing field with respect to the outcomes patients might receive at competing hospitals. But Cleveland Clinic could differentiate itself by treating its patients well and creating a true healing experience.

Through conversations with patients and their families the clinic learned that many were frustrated by access to medical records. So, they made them accessible. They learned that patients found visiting hours to be a major irritant. This info with data they had on the role of family in healing drove a decision to open visiting hours to “whenever…and to spend as much time as they like” with the exception of the Intensive Care Unit.

Look, you’re not reading this to learn what the Cleveland Clinic did or is doing but it seems a fitting metaphor for the things we talk about with social media. So here....

Like the issue with the parking spaces, many think that practice social media policies should revolve around the doctor’s convenience. A policy wherein doctors aren’t directed to share health information via an occasional tweet might be convenient. But it’s not improving patient health outcomes for those with chronic conditions whose Twitter newsfeeds are filled with hash tag rich tweets concerning their disease from every source but you.

Oh sure, there’s always the risk that the “mean doctor” will be exposed via social media through something he says that demonstrates indifference. But in all likelihood, patients and families who share their feelings about “customer satisfaction” on Facebook pages, Yelp and Angie’s List have already exposed him. Help him improve his bedside manner one post or tweet at-a-time. Yeah, bedside manner. Smartphones have become as common on the nightstand as grandma’s dentures. And many – maybe even your grandma - are using social media first thing every day and last thing they do at night.

And then there was this, a Cleveland Clinic team enlisted a designer to create an alternative to the traditional open back gown. Their goal was to address the frequent patient complaints about the indignity and discomfort they suffered when wearing them. Good for them. But, I couldn’t help imagine how much fun it would have been to engage patients in developing a solution via a simple Pinterest board. So I googled “hospital gowns on Pinterest” and got 279,000 results.

Come on, Doc. Let’s be social. By the way, the Cleveland Clinic is great model for that, too. They’re @ClevelandClinic on Twitter. 

Hey Doc, I Hope You'll Try This

The most important part of your social media presence is not what your hospital or practice has to say, but what your patients have to say – especially to one another. Peer-to-peer interaction is the heart of social media. Likewise, it’s an important variable in the health care.

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, more that 7 out of 10 Internet users living with a chronic illness have gone online to find other people with similar health issues. As a trusted source for health care information, you can use social media to reinforce that role by creating a channel for their connectivity. Your effort provides value and supports patients during their journey to wellness.

Unfortunately, too much of what happens in a health care brand’s social media strategy is marketing and public relations centric. “We’re sponsoring a 5K.” “We have the best doctors.” And so on.

What if instead of posting content that merely announces information, you published open-ended content that creates engagement and starts conversation?

Treating your social media as a sort of water cooler for conversations allows you to move in and out of it as teacher and learner. It enables conversations wherein your patients and their friends as fans and followers learn from one another.

Did I just make this up? Nope. “These (social media) tools help us reach so many more people; we can bring shared interactions into our practice and that is powerful. This isn’t in addition to your job. This is part of your job.  This is a conversation, and that is what we are trained to do. We can engage learners, patients and peers,” Farris Timimi, M.D., medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center.

And, social media allows patients to have the conversation that you’re often reluctant to have – the one that says, “it’s going to be alright”.

It starts with “I’m newly diagnosed” or “My loved one is going through a difficult treatment” and all they’re really looking for is somebody who’s been there and can tell them what to expect.

Patients and their friends are hoping to find answers, information, advice and perhaps empathy. They are hoping to find someone who truly “gets it” or who shares their experience and has made it through. They’re even hoping for an opportunity to share hope with another.

You’re not a cynic. You’ve just been conditioned to focus on the serious business of medicine. But that sometimes gets in the way of the hope and promise of medicine - which is what most patients see as medicine’s role.

This notion of hope and connectivity was recently affirmed by a little social experiment. My teammates built a wall, placed it on a street corner in Memphis for one day and invited people to leave a thought related to health. We called it the “I wish you well” wall. There were over 1000 post-it-notes left on the wall and dozens taken by those who happened by.

We learned that patients, family members, friends and passers-by generally want the best for others. They’re notes were hopeful, often funny, sometimes poignant and full of promise. The notes were personal yet widely applicable.

We know that patients want to connect with you, but they also want to connect with one another. You don’t have time to build a wall for post-it-notes. So, use your social media presence to make it happen.

Post a subject header like “What’s the most meaningful thing a friend has done for you during your treatment?”

Your efforts will lead to connections, enable shared experiences and fuel a little hope for better health outcomes.

Come on. Try it. I wish you well. 

Hey Doc, What Women Want

In the 2000 film, “What Women Want”, Mel Gibson plays the part of a sexist guy working in an ad agency. He suffers a sort of semi-electrocution. Instead of killing him, it gives him a super power. He’s suddenly able to hear what women are thinking! As such, he can better connect his marketing messages (and a few other messages – but that’s a different sort of article) to their thoughts. Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

The movie is full of marketing lessons – even for us, Doc. After all, we know that women influence many of the health care decisions in a family. They typically schedule the appointment for their husbands, they definitely plan out the health services for their children, and they’re also taking care of their aging parents.

Among other things, the film reminds us that a consumer’s buying behavior is largely driven by irrational fears, frustrations, hopes and volatile emotions. It’s that way with patients, too.

So, how do you address that? You pin. Specifically, you join the popular social media site known as Pinterest and develop community around it.

Why? Well, first, because women are there. Here’s a little science for you - 80% of Pinterest users are females (mostly adults) and half of them have children.

The Director of Communications for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance says that, for her, “The tipping point with Pinterest was when I noticed that people were actually pinning images from our [web] site.”

(Teaching Moment: Doc, pinning means that the website user is choosing an image from your page to share with her friends on Pinterest. Think “liking” on Facebook but with pictures. Lots of pictures.)

She added, “I can see that our community is actually using this and they are finding visuals that they want to share… [we decided that we need to] make sure that we’re part of that conversation.” You should too. They’ve been on Pinterest now for over a year.

Still, that’s just a place right? Sort of. It’s also a state of mind.

Virtually all advertising appeals to emotion instead of logic because emotions are far more powerful when it comes to influencing behavior.

In the film’s climactic scene (the Nike pitch), we saw how specific we have to be in addressing the fears, frustrations, and emotional impulses of the women with whom we hope to connect.

But how can we find out what these (often hidden) emotions and irrational fears are? First, you gain trust. 80% of the women using Pinterest say they trust it. It’s likely that you can become part of that trusted community. But first, you’re going to have to do some pinning.

You can start by knowing what’s popular and how it relates to your specialty.

The top five subjects on Pinterest revolve around Home, Arts, Style/Fashion, Food, and Inspiration with a strong surge related to Health/Fitness. And there’s a conversation, largely in the form of pinning items that others have curated, inviting others to pin to your board, and following people or brands that pin things that resonate with you.

How do these top five subjects relate to health?

Home – Women living with children, aging parents, or disabled family members want to make a safe, livable space without compromising style. They pin.

Arts – What about images that soothe a discomforted soul or a recovering patient? Pin some.

Style/Fashion – Hey, not everything is science here, but I’ve seen pins of maternity fashion or things women might aspire to wear that would help inform some of the health care decisions. Find someone pinning those and re-pin them.

Food – Recipes rule on Pinterest. Almost any medical condition can be affected in a positive way through a healthy diet. Do you know the foods that might whet the appetite of your patient and help her to achieve a healthy lifestyle? Pin some.

Inspiration – Maybe it’s scripture. But it could be images.  Nature inspires. Movies inspire. Heroes inspire. Offer your patient an ideal to pursue by pinning about it.

Health/Fitness – Like food, there are few health conditions that aren’t improved by regular diet and exercise. Pin some tips.

Hey Doc, this may sound a bit crazy but marketing is full of crazier stuff than this. Imagine what thoughts you would hear from Pinterest users. If you’re pinning, then you’re part of the conversation. And when you re-pin or invite others to pin with you? You just might start hearing what women want.