Account Supervisor/Digital Strategist
Washington DC Posts: 5
Emily is a Account Supervisor/Digital Strategist within the Social Marketing group at Ogilvy Public Relations. She specializes in crafting, implementing and measuring digital strategy plans that meet core business objectives. Emily works on clients such as the U.S. Food & Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, Emily worked at the American College of Cardiology as a social technologist, where she launched and grew its social media presences, as well as implemented and managed a private social network for cardiovascular professionals.
Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Communication from the George Washington University and a master’s degree in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University. She is active in a number of social media networking groups in the Washington, D.C. area, where she lives. You can follow her on Twitter: @elzeig.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Digital Health Communications Extravaganza (DHCX) conference in sunny Orlando. The conference is completely focused on the intersection of digital technologies and health, my two favorite things. Speakers discussed everything from social media measurement, the mobile web, data mining, gamification, startups, and the ePatient, and I had the opportunity to meet some fascinating thought leaders in the digital health space. In sum, not only was the beautiful weather a treat (70 degrees!), so was the conference.
Here are my top 5 takeaways from DHCX:
Social objects can be used to frame social media experiences. Craig Lefebvre of socialShift discussed how social objects are the things that drive people to talk to each other, and creating engaging digital experiences requires understanding of what your social objects are. What’s critical to remember when creating social media content is that messages aren’t social objects, things are. We need to use objects to get people to talk to each other, not expect the text we write to be a uniter. It won’t be.
mHealth is everywhere. In nearly every presentation, the growth of gadgets that use the mobile web was discussed. Speaker after speaker (including myself) spoke to the importance of having health websites that are ready to accommodate visitors through the mobile web. Jeremy Vanderlan from ICF International spoke to the experience of creating AIDS.gov. By building the site in responsive design, users are able to see the site render properly on nearly any device that uses the mobile Web. Not only is the site accessible on a most mobile devices, it receives preferential treatment in Google search because it doesn’t have a separate URL for its mobile site (e.g., m.aids.gov).
Gamification can work, but it must involve the users at every step of the creation process. A panel of experts discussed their experience creating games for health, including rehab, smoking cessation, physical activity, and HIV prevention. All the speakers discussed the importance of designing with the user in mind, and doing testing to ensure that the design, structure, and content works for both the end outcome and the user. Sheryl Flynn from Blue Marble Game Company discussed her experience creating games for rehab, and how initial progress assessments within the games were more subtle (so as to create a more positive user experience). However, health care providers administering the games wanted to embed gold standard assessments. Upon receiving this feedback, the company added both, and the providers are patients are able to choose which they prefer.
Testing digital programs to build evidence of their efficacy is challenging, but possible. Success is more likely when you build on strategies you already know work. Many of the speakers discussed the challenges of completing randomized trials for digital technologies, given the high speed of technology and the slow pace of the trial process. Applying theories that have been shown to work off-line to the digital space can help ensure success given the lack evidence for digital programs. Jessica Hammer from Lit2Quit discussed how her team applied “breath therapy” (where breathing techniques are used to simulate the experience of smoking a cigarette to help people quit) to a mobile game. Breath therapy has been shown to work off-line, which helped her team know that it could work digitally as well. Testing could be conducted after launch to confirm efficacy of the app in helping people quit.
Best of digital usually involves the blending of digital and physical experiences. Speakers discussed how combining digital and physical experiences can often be the most powerful. Bradley Kreit from IFTF, Ann Aikin from FDA, and Amy Heldman from CDC spoke to how campaigns can successfully do this. Movember (which Ogilvy Washington participated in this year) encourages men to grow moustaches (the physical) and then post about their ‘staches to their social networks to spread awareness of men’s health issues and fundraise (the digital). NASA brings people interested in science into its space center to give them a private tour (the physical), creating an insider experience the attendees will want to share with their social networks (the digital). Often, Aikin said, it can be challenging to convince people in public health that the digital can’t just be online actions—there must be an offline component to truly drive sharing. Their statements support what Lefebvre said about social objects, and I totally agree with them (see my previous post on how Saks did this is in their Christmas window display).
I had a great time geeking out this week with my fellow digital health nerds. DHCX attendees: what were your key takeaways?
Is 2013 the year of digital health? John Nosta of Ogilvy CommonHealth thinks so. In a piece on Forbes.com earlier this month, he argues that 2013 will be turning point for using digital technologies to manage diseases and wellness. Resulting from a convergence of diverse factors—including new technologies being applied health (e.g., gaming), the rise of the quantified self, pressures created by the Affordable Care Act, the amount of data coming out of electronic health records, and growing patient-caregiver connectivity—digital health will finally hit the mainstream this year.
I happen to agree. In 2011 and 2012, we saw the increasing application of technologies to the health space. These applications tested the waters to see in what ways people will use technologies to track and monitor their health. In 2013, we’ll see the lessons from these years being applied to new technologies. I also think we’ll see some of the more niche tools created in 2012 converge with each other, so that consumers can manage more aspects of their health in an integrated way. 2013 is going to be a big year, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.
The growth of digital health was evidenced right here on the Social Marketing ExChange. Here’s a list of posts from the last year that discuss digital health:
SXSW Interactive: Innovating Health Cait Douglas discusses the health track at SXSW 2012, and why we still have a long way to go to innovating health care.
Not too long ago, I stopped in New York City to take in some of the holiday tourist attractions, including the window displays of major department stores. Although I saw several, the one that really stuck out to me was the Saks Fifth Avenue display because of its clever—and unexpected (at least for me)—integration of digital components that invited onlookers to engage with the display. In one window, computers displayed a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns driven by your movement. In another, there was a display featuring photos of regular, everyday people. The display had clear instructions for how to get featured in that space: go up to the 9th floor of the store and have your photo taken. Finally, the side of the building featured a huge holiday light show with a very cute Yeti.
These digital touch points struck me as being good examples of two major digital tenets that we focus on at Ogilvy—value exchange and word-of-mouth—that could also be applied to public health or behavior change efforts.
Value Exchange
The integration of photos of Saks’ shoppers as part of the display is a great example of a value exchange. Ultimately, Saks was offering people the opportunity to become a part of its famous window display, but only if they go into the store. People who might have just looked at the windows and moved on now have a reason to go in, giving Saks the opportunity to sell to them. Both Saks and the consumer win.
With a little creativity, this digital value exchange-based approach can be applied to public health and health behavior change efforts. If we were to create programs that offer people a memorable, fun, and interactive experience by enacting a healthy behavior, everyone involved wins. Think about when The Fun Theory created a piano out of Stockholm’s subway stairs. People got to make music, but they also got extra exercise that day.
7 Drivers of Word-of-Mouth
The overall experience of the display also speaks to the 7 drivers of word-of-mouth. At Ogilvy, we believe that being able to answer “yes” to these questions helps ensure that digital campaigns are going to be talked about and shared. They are:
Do we have a good story?
Can people SHOW their involvement in a visible way?
Do we offer something new to talk about?
Do we let our supporters be creative?
Do we invite people to participate?
Do we offer them some value?
Do we remind people to spread the word?
I wouldn’t say that Saks excelled in all of these areas, but I would say they created a unique and participatory experience that people (like me) are likely to remember much longer than static window displays that didn’t. Keeping these 7 drivers in mind when we create health behavior change programs can help the programs better spread from person-to-person, gaining the credibility that comes from being recommended by a friend.
Below is a video better explaining the display. The shopper photos can be seen at 0:08-0:11s, the light show 0:11s, and the computer kaleidoscope around 0:30s. There are also great photos that people have uploaded to FourSquare (see what I mean about driving word-of-mouth?).
What other examples can you think of where a fun and interactive experience has helped people be healthier or safer?
Patients wish their physicians would communicate with them in between visits, but most say that their physicians don’t, according to a study by Varolii that highlights the disparity between patient expectations for preventative care and physician actions. Half of the adults surveyed said they felt that communication (such as tips, reminders and encouragement) from their provider via text message, email or smartphone could have prevented a health problem they experienced.
As the study indicates, social technologies can play a leading role in helping providers more easily transition from acute care to preventative care. Texting, email and smartphone apps can allow providers, health systems and health/wellness-focused organizations to quickly reach patients in a format that is most convenient to them. Through technology, patient preferences and needs can be taken into consideration when determining through which communication channel and how often to send messages, allowing the messages to have maximum effectiveness. Communications can be tailored to the level of health literacy of the patient, and direct patients to more detailed information.
Certainly, managing these preferences and crafting effective digital health messages will take more time than the current system of doing nothing. But, if, for example, providing a reminder to a patient to take his or her medication everyday helps them remember to actually take it, and prevents them from needing additional care, both the patient and the health care system win.
David McCann, CEO at Varolii, said: “We are in the era of the informed, digital consumer. They want more information, sooner, when it suits them, and via the channel of communication they prefer.” So true. Health care providers need to put into place systems that can help them reach the consumer where and when the consumer would like to interact, in order to maximize the effectiveness of their health communication. Digital technology offers the best opportunity to do this.
What do you think? Is it reasonable to expect that health care providers could provide preventative care to patients via digital technologies?
***Photo credit: Alvimann from morguefile.com
We’ve all had at least one frustrating experience with the health care system. A moment where you’re left thinking: “There has to be a better way of doing this.” For me, these moments often come when the paper-filled world of health care doesn’t jive with my increasingly mobile-based lifestyle. (You can count me in the 35% of all U.S. adults who own a smart phone.)
Mobile health (mHealth) technology offers a potential solution to connecting an increasingly mobile population (83% of U.S. adults own a cell phone) to our experiences with the health care system.
For me, this means a world where after you visit your doctor, the name and dosage of your prescriptions are transferred from your doctor’s electronic health record system to an application in your phone, along with the name of the condition you’re being treated for. The condition links over to a website trusted by the physician that has more information about that condition, which you can read on your own time. From there, you can send your physician additional questions you have through a secure messaging system. That same app would also allow you to enter your symptoms as you experience them, so you aren’t stuck trying to recall their frequency and intensity at your next appointment.
All of this and much more could be possible in the near future, according to a new report from PwC resulting from interviews with 1,805 patients, physicians and health care payer executives. Patients surveyed for the report said they thought mHealth would help improve the convenience (52%), cost (46%), and quality (48%) of their health care within the next three years. Sixty percent of the physicians and payers surveyed said that widespread adoption of mHealth is inevitable.
Despite agreement that mHealth is coming, people interviewed for the report noted there are substantial hurdles to jump through before we’ll see widespread adoption of mHealth solutions. According to the report:
mHealth will require a big shift in how the health care system operates—and most health care systems hate change. mHealth tends to focus on prevention and, unfortunately, most health care systems don’t reimburse enough for prevention.
Players within the health care system—health care providers, patients, payers—all have different interests in mHealth and these differing interests will make it challenging to implement solutions.
For mHealth adoption to become widespread, any solutions must appeal to payers, because patients are “highly sensitive to price” and won’t be willing to foot the bill for mHealth technology.
The report offers several recommendations for overcoming these hurdles. The two that resonated most with me:
In developing mHealth solutions, focus on actually providing a solution to a business problem; don’t focus on what technology can do. In my work, we say this all the time: Don’t focus on the tactics, focus on the strategy. From there, the best tactics to achieve the strategy will follow.
mHealth creators should build partnerships to create solutions that can be part of an mHealth ecosystem rather than stand on their own. These partnerships can help identify the best ways to implement a solution and move its adoption along. Interoperability with other mobile health solutions is one of the ingredients to a successful mHealth model, says the report.
All that said, even a perfectly designed mHealth solution requires something bigger to be successful: it requires behavior change on the part of everyone involved in the health care system. All physicians will need to be electronic so that data can be shared with their patients, and they’ll need to input quality data so patients understand what they are reading. Payers will need to provide incentives, likely financial, for physicians to be active participants in making these solutions work. Finally, patients will need to take an active role in their care: using mHealth solutions to track their symptoms, interact with their physician and research their conditions (in other words, become a “quantified patient”). All of this will take time, but like the people interviewed for the PwC report, I believe we will get there.
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