Emerging e-patient activities :

47% of adults have used the internet to get information about doctors or other health professionals
41% have read someone else’s commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group or blog
38% have gotten information about hospitals
33% have gotten information about how to lose or control their weight
27% have gotten information about health insurance
24% have consulted rankings or reviews online of hospitals
12% have gotten information about how to stay healthy on an overseas trip
24% have consulted rankings or reviews of doctors
19% have signed up to receive updates about health or medical issues
13% have listened to a podcast about health or medical issues
5% have reviewed a doctor
4% have reviewed a hospital

* Data extracted from the Pew Internet and Life Project Report via Nicola Ziady.

A new info-graphic presented by SpinaBifidaInfo.com is aggregates survey statistics from a variety of sources in an interesting way. It shows, for instance, that two-thirds of doctors are using social media for professional purposes and that 40% of physicians use mobile devices at the point of care; mostly to access drug reference databases, online journals and other patient care tools. Take a look.

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Image Source: SpinaBifidaInfo.com

L.G. Baines, HPM

There’s a saying in the business: “You live by the ratings and you die by the ratings.” Radio’s Arbitron Ratings service and TV’s Nielsen have never been very accurate in the way that they measure listening and viewing habits, even though the say they are and emphasize the science behind the estimates. The reason behind this is simply, “people being people.” Until recently, (and still in all but the larger markets, the ratings measurement companies have relied on the listener/viewer diaries to record which radio stations they were listening to, or which TV shows they were watching, during one of the four “sweeps weeks” in a rating period. In many markets these rating “books,” as they’re called, occur in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter; Spring and Fall traditionally carrying the most importance.

Larger markets now use “people-meters” to attempt a more immediate look at viewership.

So, think about how this might work if you’re asked to keep one of these diaries (by the way, you’ll be paid handsomely for your participation – $10 or $20.) First, the services will randomly pick your number from the phone book and call you to ask if you’d like to participate. If you’ve dumped your land-line and have only mobile service, no problem, they’ve figured a way around that; they’ll randomly find your name and address and send you a letter. You can go online and confirm your agreement to participate.

Next, they’ll send you another letter with your official diary and you’ll be asked to write down every radio station that you listen to, in 15-minute intervals (Arbitron,) or TV show you watch (Nielsen) for a week. If you can’t do it while you’re getting ready for work, at work, driving in your car, preparing meals, doing the laundry….well. Just write it in before you send it back to the ratings company by the middle of the next week. Accuracy is important, so be sure to have a good memory.

What should you believe? What is the value and what role should audience measurement play in marketing and advertising? Your belief should be an understanding that audience ratings are good, broad indicators and not very precise measurements. Their value reside in their use as a single piece in a strategy. Their role should be as a small part in determining how to most effectively achieve your patient referral or referral goals.

And also beware – there are similar issues with the way cable-tv reps promote their services and free newspaper reps calculate their readership.

It’s all about ideas

Using media to achieve marketing goals for your practice is all about ideas. Well-conceived ideas, crafted into compelling messages and delivered to interested audiences. Today’s technology provides many ways to accomplish this. It’s important that these strategic elements precede media negotiations and when the time comes to develop the tactical approach of delivering your message, be sure that you enlist knowledgeable help in the planning, production, negotiation, purchase and execution of your practice growth program.

Note: L. George Baines, Health Practice Media, is a veteran media executive with over 30 years experience in newspaper, radio and television. He is former a former chair of the Radio Advertising Bureau’s national Sales Advisory Committee, past-president of the Advertising Club of Maine and recognized for his technical expertise in publishing and media and also an accomplished photographer and writer.

News has popped up on a popular CrowdSourcing news site that a low-level employee of a medical collection agency may have posted critical patient data to the web while looking for help making an informational graphic.

A medical privacy breach led to the public posting on a commercial Web site of data for 20,000 emergency room patients at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., including names and diagnosis codes, the hospital has confirmed. The information stayed online for nearly a year.

Data on Stanford Hospital patients ended up on a Web site for soliciting paid help for homework.

Since discovering the breach last month, the hospital has investigated how a detailed spreadsheet made its way from one of its vendors, a billing contractor identified as Multi-Specialty Collection Services, to a Web site called Student of Fortune, which allows students to solicit paid assistance with their schoolwork.

Gary Migdol, a spokesman for Stanford Hospital and Clinics, said the spreadsheet first appeared on the site on Sept. 9, 2010, as an attachment to a question about how to convert the data into a bar graph.

Although medical security breaches are not uncommon, the Stanford breach was notable for the length of time that the data remained publicly available without detection.

Even as government regulators strengthen oversight by requiring public reporting of breaches and imposing heavy fines, experts on medical security said the Stanford breach spotlighted the persistent vulnerability posed by legions of outside contractors that gain access to private data.

The spreadsheet included names, diagnosis codes, account numbers, admission and discharge dates, and billing charges for patients seen at Stanford Hospital’s emergency room during a six-month period in 2009, Mr. Migdol said. It did not include Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit-card numbers or other information used to perpetrate identity theft, he said, but the hospital is offering free identity protection services to affected patients.

The breach was discovered by a patient and reported to the hospital on Aug. 22, according to a letter written four days later to affected patients by Diane Meyer, Stanford Hospital’s chief privacy officer. The hospital took “aggressive steps,” and the Web site removed the post the next day, Ms. Meyer wrote. It also notified state and federal agencies, Mr. Migdol said.

“It is clearly disturbing when this information gets public,” he said. “It is our intent 100 percent of the time to keep this information confidential and private, and we work hard every day to ensure that.”

Diane Dobson, of Santa Clara, Calif., said her “jaw dropped” on Saturday when she intercepted the letter from Ms. Meyer addressed to her 21-year-old son, who she said had received emergency psychiatric treatment at Stanford in 2009. Ms. Dobson said it could have been disastrous if her son, who lives at home, had learned that his name was linked to a mental health diagnosis.

“My son, I can tell you, is fragile and confused enough that this would have sent him over the edge,” Ms. Dobson said, saying she decided to speak publicly now because of her frustration with the breach. “Everyone with an electronic medical record is at risk, and that means everyone.”

Records compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services reveal that personal medical data for more than 11 million people have been improperly exposed during the past two years alone.

Since passage of the federal stimulus package, which includes provisions requiring prompt public reporting of breaches, the government has received notice of 306 cases from September 2009 to June 2011 that affected at least 500 people apiece. A recent report to Congress tallied 30,000 smaller breaches from September 2009 to December 2010, affecting more than 72,000 people.

The major breaches — a disconcerting log of stolen laptops, hacked networks, unencrypted records, misdirected mailings, missing files and wayward e-mails — took place in 44 states.

One occurred at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in January 2010, when a desktop computer holding the medical records of 532 patients was stolen from the heart center by an employee. Hospital officials said at the time that no patient information was compromised.

But the California Department of Public Health fined the hospital $250,000, the maximum allowed, for failing to report the breach within five days of discovery, as is required under state law. The hospital appealed the fine, and a settlement has been reached but not yet disclosed, a department spokesman said.

The Stanford episode reinforces the fear that even the most prestigious medical centers are not immune to risk.

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which trains Harvard medical students, agreed this year to pay a $1 million federal fine after an employee left paper medical records on a subway while commuting to work. The pages included the names of 192 patients, and diagnoses for about a third of them, including diagnoses for H.I.V./AIDS. They were never recovered.

Pre-, mid- and post-roll best video ads for brand marketers

Interactive marketers can’t help but look to online video to take advantage of branding potential richer than that for previous online display ad formats. But like its static display counterpart, banner ads, online video advertising can appear in numerous ad sizes, placements and creative types, making it difficult for marketers to decide where to start.

Research from Yahoo! indicates certain video ad units are better at boosting advertiser and brand recall than others, providing marketers a tentative roadmap for increased online video advertising success.

In Yahoo!’s study, video viewers recalled seeing pre-, mid- and post-roll ads more often than any other display ad type. More than half (53%) of respondents who recalled seeing some advertising remembered viewing these in-stream ads.

However, the pervasiveness of an ad unit type can still have a large influence on recall. For example, 35% of viewers were able to recall seeing static banner ads, one of the most common display ad types. In contrast, only 13% of viewers remembered seeing seemingly more eye-catching video banner ads.

This seems counter-intuitive when comparing the dynamic nature of video to static creative. But users are much more commonly exposed to standard banner ads than online video banner ads; users can hardly recall ads they rarely or never see.

The concept of exposure influencing recall is also echoed in the fact that in-stream units like pre-roll ads—the most recalled ad unit types—are also the most used video units by US marketers, according to Break Media.

Viewers not only remember seeing these in-stream units, they also recall the ads’ subjects. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad. This is not surprising given the often mandatory—and “interruptive”—viewing nature of these units.

Worth noting is the ability of expandable video banners and pop-up video ads to prompt user action: 39% of respondents reportedly acted after viewing an expandable video ad, compared to only 20% of pre-, mid- and post-roll video ad viewers.

Expandable and pop-up video ads were also more likely to aid users in purchase decisions than any other display ad type. Such findings hint at the potential use of these video ad units for direct response-related campaign objectives.

As the industry continues to mature and new formats undoubtedly emerge, video advertisers will be presented with new ways to engage viewers and enhance their brands. For now, brand marketers are best served leveraging the use of in-stream video ads and investing in the creation of professional, branded content to boost brand recall.

L.G. Baines, HPM

CPP
From a practical view, the worst measure of advertising performance is the one that’s most commonly used and almost universally accepted as the standard measurement for electronic media; “CPP,” or Cost Per Point.

The real problem is that CPP is really about how it’s used. Ad agencies and “professional buyers” use the CPP measurement to determine the “efficiency” of a buy, based upon the cost to achieve a number of points (audience percentage points) in a given demographic segment, e.g. Persons 18-49 years of age or Women 25-54 years of age. It’s a method of converting the commercial time (spots) purchased on a radio or television station from inventory available for sale in a commodity and, therefore, the best deal for the client (you.)

But all “points” are not the same. Rating (percentage) points are based on the size of the audience at the time the commercial message airs. And radio points are actually different because of the audience size and the different way that consumers use the medium. Consumers watch TV programs and listen to radio stations and that’s a HUGE difference! It’s the equivalent of each TV program being a single radio station for an entire day. The biggest efficiency in this measurement just might be how efficiently the agency can confuse the client (you) into believing that the agency got them a great deal.

CPM
This measurement is seldom used by the ad agencies but is used more often by radio and television sales reps who work directly with their clients. Cost per thousand (CPM) is a generic term for cost calculations relating to audience, circulation or some other other unit of measurement. The M in CPM stands for the Latin ‘Mille’, or thousand. It’s simpler, with more direct comparisons, than the CPP method. How much does it cost to buy ads that reach a thousand people? Ten thousand? On radio or TV…morning…noon…night. See? It’s simpler, more logical, and creates “apples to apples” comparisons across any media that you chose.

But there’s a weakness here, too. Like CPP, you’re only measuring the comparable cost of your purchase, which should not be ignored but be used only for that purpose.

What’s the best measure?
As a health practice, your primary interest is care of those you serve. Your best strategy

L.G. Baines, HPM

As a consumer, what question would you naturally ask if you were considering laying down hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars to promote anything?

Right. “Is this going to work?” And would that question be followed by, “How much will I get in return if I do this?”

Return on Investment (ROI) is the gain from a program or project minus the cost, divided by the cost of the program. Take a look at the following example to get an idea of how important this concept is.

– You invested $30,000 in a new advertising program that yielded $400,000 in incremental revenue that same year. The the gross profit from this revenue was $150,000. When you subtract your incremental advertising dollars ($30,000) from the incremental gross profit generated ($120,000), you see that you have generated $90,000 of net operating profit.

Since ROI is usually expressed in percentages, your ROI is 300 percent.

If you’d like more information about developing a ROI system for measuring the result of your health practice marketing, email or contact me at the following:

L. George Baines
(866)843-5945
lgbaines@healthpracticemedia.com

From eMarketer.com –

Interactive marketers can’t help but look to online video to take advantage of branding potential richer than that for previous online display ad formats. But like its static display counterpart, banner ads, online video advertising can appear in numerous ad sizes, placements and creative types, making it difficult for marketers to decide where to start.

Research from Yahoo! indicates certain video ad units are better at boosting advertiser and brand recall than others, providing marketers a tentative road-map for increased online video advertising success.

In Yahoo!’s study, video viewers recalled seeing pre-, mid- and post-roll ads more often than any other display ad type. More than half (53%) of respondents who recalled seeing some advertising remembered viewing these in-stream ads.

However, the pervasiveness of an ad unit type can still have a large influence on recall. For example, 35% of viewers were able to recall seeing static banner ads, one of the most common display ad types. In contrast, only 13% of viewers remembered seeing seemingly more eye-catching video banner ads.

This seems counter-intuitive when comparing the dynamic nature of video to static creative. But users are much more commonly exposed to standard banner ads than online video banner ads; users can hardly recall ads they rarely or never see.

The concept of exposure influencing recall is also echoed in the fact that in-stream units like pre-roll ads—the most recalled ad unit types—are also the most used video units by US marketers, according to Break Media.

Viewers not only remember seeing these in-stream units, they also recall the ads’ subjects. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad. This is not surprising given the often mandatory—and “interruptive”—viewing nature of these units.

Worth noting is the ability of expandable video banners and pop-up video ads to prompt user action: 39% of respondents reportedly acted after viewing an expandable video ad, compared to only 20% of pre-, mid- and post-roll video ad viewers.

Expandable and pop-up video ads were also more likely to aid users in purchase decisions than any other display ad type. Such findings hint at the potential use of these video ad units for direct response-related campaign objectives.

As the industry continues to mature and new formats undoubtedly emerge, video advertisers will be presented with new ways to engage viewers and enhance their brands. For now, brand marketers are best served leveraging the use of in-stream video ads and investing in the creation of professional, branded content to boost brand recall.