6- HOSPITAL 2.0 by PHARMAGEEK

The web has changed the way the world does business. You don’t have to look farther than 2013′s holiday shopping season, where 10% more shoppers bought online, 14% percent less people visited stores, and even Amazon delivery partners were overwhelmed with unexpected demand for last minute shipping. Consumers spoke with their wallets and showed that convenience was king.

Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge, spoke at a recent marketing and tech conference and said that digital has become a “mainstay of American business” with some great stats to back him up:

• Pizza Hut sells $5.5 billion worth of pizza, of which $2 billion is from online sales.
• Digital viewing exceeded TV for the first time in 2013.
• 52% of the world’s population doesn’t remember a pre-internet world.

Much of the healthcare world seems to think these same consumer forces don’t apply to them, but I argue that all patients are also consumers. Hospitals are no exception to the new rule that “everyone is in the technology business.”

Read more: http://healthworkscollective.com/wellbeme/149631/why-all-hospitals-are-also-digital-companies?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+healthworkscollective_allposts+%28Healthworks+Collective%29

Via Parag Vora

In opening its new, flagship hospital in the state capital last month, MaineGeneral Medical Center took a bit of a gamble promoting the a $312 million Alfond Center for Health on Facebook.


"Healthcare tends to lag a little bit in terms of social media," Nicole McSweeney, director of marketing and communications for MaineGeneral, said. "It really lagged here in Maine."


MaineGeneral counted down the final 100 days before the Nov. 9 opening of the Alfond Center via Facebook and through a temporary website, ournewhospital.org. Posts included photo galleries, history of MaineGeneral and event listings.

Twitter, however, was not really a consideration given local trends, said McSweeney. "Twitter in Central Maine is not that widely used," she said.

Read more at: www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hospital-goes-social-puts-paper-last

Via Parag Vora