STAYING RELEVANT-STAYING CONNECTED
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009-
In December of last year, Thomas Friedman wrote an Op-Ed article for the New York Times entitled “While Detroit Slept” In it he says “ I can’t help but reflect on what, in my view, is the most important rule of business in today’s integrated and digitized global market, where knowledge and innovation tools are so widely distributed. It’s this: Whatever can be done, will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you. Just don’t think it won’t be done.”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this because if I have a choice, I’d prefer it to be done “by me” instead of “to me”. How does this apply to dentistry, how does this apply to my patients, how does this apply to me?
As dentists, we wear many hats; we are scientists, biologists, clinicians, psychologists, and artists. And yes, as small business professionals we are also entrepreneurs. I’m trying to better understand how we can continue to maintain outstanding patient service and customer care, as well as provide our patients a comprehensive approach to dental health that fully integrates health, comfort and beauty. And how do we do this in a world that is changing so rapidly in terms of social interaction, economic turmoil and technological change?
What got my attention today (May 25, 2009) is a posting in the New York Times entitled “Webcast your Brain Surgery? Hospitals See Marketing Tool” by Pam Belluck. It addresses new ways health care providers are using social networking to get the message out about what they do and how they are doing it. In the article, the author writes about a patient at Methodist University Hospital who allowed the webcast of her brain surgery from the operating room. It seems as if education was not the only goal of the webcast. Evidently the concept of webcasting the operation, even though it was done on tape and played later, was also used as an advertising and promotional tool by the hospital; the hospital monitoring how many watched the operation, how many YouTube hits the webcast got and how many people called for an appointment. The competition is so great hospitals are trying unconventional methods to attract perspective patients to their facilities.
In other hospitals individuals are Tweeting directly from the operating room to describe what’s happening. According to Ed Bennett, Web strategy director for the University of Maryland Medical System, more than 250 hospitals now use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or blogs in an effort to reach a wider audience (patient population).
According to Ms. Belluck while some ethicists and physicians raise questions about privacy issues and hospitals painting an overly positive picture, the hospitals feel they must use unconventional, even audacious methods in order to connect directly with the public.
In a world that is changing so rapidly in terms of how we connect to patients, the question I have is this-is the utilization of the new social interactive technology like Twitter, webcasting, and YouTubing in the patients’ best interest or the providers best interest? For sure, if the new avenues of social interaction work to educate and comfort patients, they are wonderful new tools to demystify medical and dental procedures. But if they are utilized solely for advertising and self-promotional reasons, then maybe they need to be rethought. Maybe the best way to answer the question is to ask. That’s something my team and I intend to do.
As always, thanks for listening.
Robert Sorin
