Tag Archives: healthcare communications

Patient Centric Healthcare

November 12, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

I changed the name of the blog last week. (I am still debating changing the URL since I don’t want to lose too much of the traffic I get today.)  It fits what I want to talk about (with the exception of some of my ramblings about technology, leadership, innovation, etc).

I was trying to describe this concept of patient centric healthcare to someone the other day when I realized that I have a deck I used over the summer that was a perfect fit.  When I was debating moving from a consultant back into a corporate role, I needed to tell people what I wanted to do and how I could help them.  So, I created a slide deck that I used with executives and recruiters.  It worked well.  I trimmed out the “why George” section, but the rest of this is a good summary of how I see the market evolving.

It is also exactly why I joined Silverlink Communications.  We share the same vision and dedication to process excellence.   Their technology already does what I think is critical:

  • Create personalized communications that target patients based on data driven models.
    • Push information
    • Collect information
    • Drive behavior
  • Use dynamic call algorithms that respond to patients words to take them down different paths is key.
  • Using technology to automate processes and augment your human capital based on proven value propositions.
Consumerism, General Thoughts, Healthcare, Leadership, Managed Care, Marketing / Communications, PBM / Pharmacy, Technology
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Unified Communications

October 2, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

Those of you that know me (or follow the blog) know that one of my key issues is how to improve healthcare communications.  I think this is where we (as an industry) missed the boat.  I used to tease our VP of Call Centers that Dominos knew more about me when I called in than we did.

I was glad to see a blog entry from earlier this year by the physician that leads Microsoft’s healthcare group on this topic.

“Healthcare is a communication intensive business.  Good communication has a profound effect on the quality and safety of patient care.  Communication also has a huge bearing on patient satisfaction.  Yet historically, the options for how we communicate with each other in the healthcare industry have been somewhat limited.” 

Obviously, we have a long way to go.  Many times companies simply give up due to regulatory issues or the challenges of changing behavior.  The reality is that communications are difficult.  It is both an art (i.e., messaging, branding, design) and a science (i.e., linguistics, data mining, targeting, personalization).

Technology will drive a step change in the relationship between patients and providers and insurance companies.  This is the time to jump on board and figure out how to improve.

Healthcare, Managed Care, Marketing / Communications, PBM / Pharmacy, Weblogs
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