Healthcare DXP

The Invaluable Role of the DXP in Healthcare

Once upon a time, legacy management software was the go-to for medical environments. And while they served their purpose, today’s rapidly advancing tech scene makes them look, well, a bit outdated.

Fixing issues on these older systems often feels like putting a temporary patch on a tire. It works for now, but it’s not a long-term solution.

Technology is nudging healthcare towards a digital revolution, one that emphasizes flexibility and responsiveness for everyone involved. In this article, we’ll journey through the perks of swapping out the old with the new, and how it can make a world of difference for both patients and healthcare professionals.

But first, before we venture too far into the weeds, let’s discuss the DXP basics.

What is a DXP?

A Digital Experience Platform, commonly referred to as a DXP, is a sophisticated digital management tool that maintains interactions across various digital channels, including content management, online shopping, and user personalization.

This platform has evolved from the more traditional web content systems, seamlessly addressing every stage of the digital customer journey — from content inception to its deployment and subsequent refinements. The advantage? It allows marketers to efficiently handle data and improve user experiences, letting them focus more on customer engagement and less on the nitty-gritty of digital management.

In essence, a DXP offers a consolidated platform to shape, oversee and refine digital pathways. As our world becomes more digitized, it’s increasingly essential for businesses to ensure coherent and high-quality digital interactions for their audience.

How Does a DXP Work in Healthcare?

In healthcare, digital experience platforms are not just about hosting content or managing transactions; they’re about creating holistic, unified digital experiences for patients, providers and staff.

To truly grasp a DXP’s potential in the healthcare space, let’s take a look at a few key features:

  • APIs & Integrations: Recognizing that healthcare demands specialized tools, top-tier DXPs are equipped with open architectures and flexible APIs. This facilitates easy integrations with specialized medical software and ensures comprehensive patient care.
  • Asset Management: Beyond patient records, DXPs simplify the handling of digital assets like medical images, videos and audio files. Thanks to cloud technology, they adapt swiftly to the diverse needs of healthcare professionals.
  • Commerce Capabilities: For healthcare providers who offer online services, DXPs streamline the process of setting up digital storefronts for consultations, managing payments and tracking appointments.
  • Content Management: Patient education is crucial in healthcare. Through DXPs, medical content can be managed and delivered consistently across various channels, from informational blogs to health apps or patient portals.
  • Customer Relationship Building: In healthcare, this translates to patient relationship management. With the capability to track patient data, DXPs aim to cultivate lasting, trust-based relationships, tailoring experiences for every individual.
  • Deep Insights & Analytics: Healthcare decisions need to be evidence-based. DXPs employ big data analysis, offering real-time insights into patient behaviors and needs, ensuring proactive care and intervention.
  • Experimentation: Innovations in healthcare must be approached with caution. DXPs empower medical professionals to test new content or tools, refining patient experiences based on real-world feedback and evidence
  • Personalization & Automation: Personalized patient care is the essence of modern healthcare. By analyzing patient data and preferences, DXPs can curate individualized healthcare experiences. The best part? Much of this can be automated, leading to consistent, tailored patient care.

As the healthcare sector continues to embrace technology, DXPs will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in crafting more personalized, efficient and impactful patient journeys.

Benefits of a DXP for Healthcare

DXPs can help healthcare organizations increase patient engagement and maximize patient retention by streamlining operations. Rather than using several platforms to perform a bevy of multifaceted tasks and workflows, a DXP can boil a lot of this overhead into one centralized hub.

To illustrate, let’s dig into the tangible benefits of integrating these platforms:

  • Adapting to Current Innovations: DXPs allow healthcare institutions to stay agile, adapting to the ever-evolving technological landscape. These platforms harness the latest digital tools, ensuring that healthcare services remain innovative and ahead of the curve.
  • Enhanced Patient Experience: At the heart of any healthcare service is the patient. DXPs offer an enriched, user-centric experience, making healthcare journeys intuitive, transparent and patient-focused. They transform complex processes into simplified digital interactions.
  • Efficient Processes and Protocols: Administrative tasks, from patient check-ins to medical history updates, become remarkably streamlined with DXPs. This efficiency translates to patients spending less time on paperwork and more time focusing on their health.
  • Empowering the Medical Staff: With DXPs, healthcare professionals can manage their tasks more efficiently, ensuring patients experience reduced wait times and receive more attentive care. The platform’s intuitive features allow for quicker access to vital patient information and more effective communication among staff.
  • Integration of Electronic Health Records (EHR): A central feature of many DXPs, EHRs ensure that patient data is both secure and readily accessible. These digital databases empower medical professionals to make timely, informed decisions, enhancing patient care quality.
  • Streamlined Medical Billing Systems: Financial operations, particularly billing, can be intricate in the healthcare sector. DXPs simplify and expedite these processes, promoting transparency and ensuring that institutions maintain a steady revenue flow.

Incorporating a healthcare DXP is not just about digitization; it’s about optimizing the entire spectrum of healthcare interactions. Through the confluence of technology and patient care, DXPs promise a healthcare future marked by efficiency, adaptability and a heightened patient-provider relationship.

Embracing Modern Digital Healthcare Services: The Legacy Software Hurdle

But, if DXPs are so beneficial, why haven’t more healthcare orgs climbed aboard? The answer is simple: their data is tied up in legacy systems.

From an era defined by stacks of paper forms, laborious data input, and unhurried information transfers, healthcare technology has burgeoned into a modern spectacle featuring telehealth innovations, advanced wearable health monitors, expansive cloud-based data repositories, and cutting-edge cybersecurity protocols.

Legacy systems just can’t keep up. Outdated platforms struggle with interoperability, lack seamless data exchange capabilities, and often demand patches merely to remain operational. It’s common for different hospital departments to maintain distinct IT systems and databases, obstructing integration and patient data sharing.

To break this down for more clarity, overreliance on legacy systems in the post-COVID landscape can lead to:

  • Data Silos in Healthcare: While legacy systems might demonstrate a degree of resilience, they woefully underperform in areas of modern functionality and interconnectedness. These platforms typically function within isolated data “silos,” constricting the free flow of information and hindering collaboration between healthcare professionals. Such data compartmentalization reduces cost efficiency, hampers care quality, and frequently leads to redundant services. While some might advocate for middleware solutions to bridge these silos, such makeshift approaches are ill-equipped to manage the surge of real-time data intrinsic to today’s digital health ecosystems.
  • The Waning Support Dilemma: Another challenge is the dwindling support for these systems. Legacy platforms can be notoriously tricky to maintain and evolve, primarily since the original experts might have moved on, retired or simply forgotten the nuances. Newer staff, unfamiliar with these older systems, are left grappling with their intricacies.
  • Mounting Maintenance Costs: Re-educating developers about these legacy platforms only inflates operational expenses. Some might argue for rewriting the legacy codebase. While this sounds promising, it’s fraught with challenges, from diverting critical resources to the potential pitfalls of missing undocumented, niche functionalities, leading to flawed code outputs.
  • Mismatch with Contemporary Digital Tools: As healthcare institutions strive to stay abreast of technological advancements, they often discover that their legacy backbones are ill-equipped for modern integrations. Consider the rising popularity of chatbots, AI-driven assistants revolutionizing patient interactions. Market Research Future highlights that 52% of patients now access health information via these chatbots. However, many dated systems lack the architecture to incorporate such innovations, leaving institutions at a competitive disadvantage.
  • The Daunting Cybersecurity Landscape: The healthcare domain, rich with sensitive data, becomes an enticing target for cyber malefactors. Legacy systems exacerbate this vulnerability. Their outdated security protocols often resist modern patches, leaving them susceptible to a myriad of cyber threats.

To truly harness the potential of digital healthcare and meet patient expectations, institutions must acknowledge and address the challenges posed by legacy software. It’s not merely about keeping pace; it’s about shaping a secure, efficient and patient-centric future.

The Differences Between a CMS, WEM and a DXP

Before we get into what you should look for in a DXP, it’s very important to understand the distinction between DXPs and other content management systems. For instance, many organizations depend on a Content Management System (CMS) primarily to organize and manage their website content, handling tasks from editorial oversight to user administration. It’s a foundational tool that supports a solid digital presence.

Web Experience Management (WEM), on the other hand, takes this concept a step further. While it retains the core functionalities of a CMS, its emphasis is on delivering a more personalized web experience to users. For healthcare organizations, this might mean tailoring portal content based on patient data and preferences.

Then there’s the DXP. This system is a comprehensive tool designed to offer tailored experiences across various digital touchpoints, considering multiple languages and geographies.

Although there’s some overlap in what these platforms offer, their unique capabilities can often complement one another. So, it’s common for organizations to adopt a combination of one or more of these systems. As the digital landscape becomes more intricate, understanding the nuances between platforms like CMS, WEM and DXP is valuable. It ensures that organizations make informed decisions that align with their goals.

Ultimately, the transition from relying mainly on a CMS to integrating a DXP signifies a shift from focusing solely on content to prioritizing user-centric experiences across multiple channels.

Why You Should Consider a DXP for Healthcare

Organizations that focus on digital experiences gain a competitive edge in their respective markets, for one very important reason: the market is changing.

A revealing report by PYMNTS pointed out that about 68% of millennials and younger generations prefer accessing their medical histories online. With another 60% of patients beginning their healthcare journey online, the average patient nowadays anticipates a smooth digital experience akin to what they get from other online platforms.

For healthcare entities venturing into the digital space, it’s important to remember that a comprehensive transformation isn’t mandatory from the outset. Initiatives like enhancing the homepage or offering an intuitive service directory can be beneficial starting points.

However, for organizations aiming to provide a cohesive digital experience, considering advanced tools like a DXP might be the next logical step.

What to Consider When Choosing a Healthcare DXP

Navigating the digital health landscape requires a keen understanding of the tools and platforms that best serve an organization’s unique needs. Just as patient care is individualized, so should be the approach to selecting the right digital solutions for healthcare providers.

Here’s a guide to help healthcare organizations make informed decisions in this crucial area:

  • Align Your Requirements with Your Goals
    Every institution has distinct challenges and objectives. It might be tempting to adopt the latest technologies, but it’s crucial to discern which features align with your specific goals. For instance, do you need immediate telehealth integration, or is it a feature to consider in the future? Prioritize based on current necessities and potential future expansions.
  • Consult with Industry Analysts
    Healthcare, being a specialized field, benefits immensely from domain-specific insights. Analyst firms such as Gartner and Forrester provide rankings tailored to healthcare digital solutions. These can be instrumental in guiding your research and ensuring your choices are backed by expert opinions.
  • Dive Deep into References
    Healthcare is diverse, and a solution perfect for a general hospital might not suit a specialized clinic. When seeking references, ask for case studies that reflect your type of healthcare institution. Vendors who provide success stories relevant to your specific healthcare niche can more likely cater to your needs.
  • Evaluate Vendor Ecosystems in Healthcare
    Software platforms should integrate seamlessly, ensuring patient data flows smoothly and securely between systems. Explore the software’s compatibility with other healthcare platforms, its user community, and its available documentation. Certain platforms may even offer integrations tailored for healthcare applications.
  • Stand Firm in Your Choices
    Whether it’s patient data security, telehealth quality or support for specialized services, it’s essential to select a vendor that meets all your criteria. If you feel you’re being pushed to sacrifice a critical aspect, consider revisiting your options.

Arming yourself with the right information and prioritizing based on genuine needs ensures that the chosen digital solution serves both the healthcare provider and its patients efficiently.

Leveraging Expertise for a Seamless DXP Migration

While understanding the principles of choosing the right technology is crucial, the execution of migrating data and systems to a DXP can be a daunting task, especially for major healthcare organizations that handle vast amounts of sensitive patient data.
Here’s where a specialized software solution or service provider becomes indispensable:

  • Deep Domain Knowledge: A specialized provider brings a deep understanding of healthcare nuances, ensuring the DXP solution is tailored to specific needs, from patient confidentiality to regulatory compliance.
  • Experience in Data Migration: Data integrity is paramount in healthcare. With the seasoned expertise of a provider, there’s assurance in the safe and accurate transfer of patient records, clinical data and other vital information without loss or breaches.
  • Scalability and Futureproofing: As healthcare continues to evolve, a DXP solution should too. A professional service provider ensures not just a smooth migration but also sets the stage for future expansions and integrations.
  • Reduced Operational Downtime: Transition periods can often disrupt regular operations. However, with the expertise of a dedicated provider, healthcare organizations can expect minimal interruptions, ensuring continuous patient care.
  • Post-Migration Support: The journey doesn’t end after migration. There’s a need for continuous support, troubleshooting and updates, which a specialized provider is equipped to offer.

Given the intricacies involved, partnering with a seasoned player in the space becomes a strategic move. Geonetric, the driving force behind more than 500 hospital websites and intranets, stands as a beacon in this domain. With a track record of excellence and a commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, Geonetric is eager to assist your organization in realizing its maximum potential in today’s digital healthcare landscape. Contact us today!

Getting Personal: The Power of Patient Personas in Healthcare Marketing

In the fast-paced world of healthcare marketing, making connections that count is like piecing together a puzzle. Imagine having the ability to send messages that truly hit home, guiding patients toward the care they need, exactly when they need it.

This is where patient personas can be a valuable tool. In this article, we’re unwrapping the concept of patient personas to show you how they can transform your healthcare marketing game.

Cracking the Persona Code

Ever wondered why some messages resonate deeply while others fall flat? Or how to explain medical jargon in a way that clicks with your patients? These questions can be the difference between a marketing hit or miss.

The concept of developing personas isn’t anything new. Industries like eCommerce and fintech have long curated personalized online journeys for their clients and customers. The reason is simple — effective marketing is all about timing. The ability to reach a customer at just the right moment, right when they need or are looking for your services, is an incredibly powerful incentive to choose your services over the competition.

Now, let’s dive into how this concept translates within the realm of healthcare.

Why Are Patient Personas So Essential for Healthcare?

Patient personas enable you to aim your marketing efforts directly at the heart of your intended audience. By understanding the distinct needs, preferences and behaviors of different patient types, you can tailor your messages to resonate deeply.

Beyond this, patient personas can:

  • Build Meaningful Connections Healthcare isn’t just about treatments; it’s about building relationships. Patient personas help you forge connections by crafting messages that feel personal. When patients sense that you understand their unique needs, it fosters trust.
  • Improve Efficiency in Resource Allocation Patient personas empower you to allocate your resources more effectively. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for the best, you can concentrate your efforts where they matter most. This not only saves time and money but also enhances your results.
  • Boost Patient Engagement In today’s cluttered digital landscape, attention spans are limited. Patient personas guide you in delivering relevant content that grabs attention and keeps patients engaged. When your message resonates, patients are more likely to take action.
  • Drive Conversions and Growth When patients feel a strong resonance with your messaging, they are more inclined to take the next step— whether it’s scheduling an appointment, seeking a consultation, or sharing your content with others.

Crafting Your Persona Story: Step by Step

Building a patient persona is like charting a roadmap that guides you directly to patients’ needs and preferences. It ensures your services align seamlessly with their expectations, fostering meaningful connections and successful engagements.

Let’s break down the process:

  1. Assemble Your Audience Think about the patients you’d like to connect with through your marketing campaigns – the ones who benefit the most from what you offer. Take note of what they have in common: age, job, health concerns, what worries them, and what lights them up.
  2. Breathe Life into Characters Consider giving each patient a name and a mini bio. It’s like creating characters in a story, each with their own quirks and needs.
  3. See Things from Their Perspective Put yourself in their shoes. Understand what drives them, what keeps them awake at night, and what they value most when it comes to healthcare. This perspective offers invaluable insights.
  4. Crafting Your Persona Blueprint Now, let’s weave together the traits of all your personas. These common threads are the foundation for creating messages that truly resonate with your patients.

Armed with personas, you’re like a tailor crafting custom suits. Your messages go beyond generic communication; they speak personally, spark conversations and motivate patients to act.

Geonetric Can Help

If you’re curious about boosting your online presence and making the most of your digital strategy, we’ve got your back! Geonetric is the digital engine behind 500+ healthcare websites and intranets.

We can help you create patient personas that not only drive conversions but also foster meaningful patient connections. Contact us today!

5 Top Trends in Healthcare Content Marketing in 2024

Staying updated on content trends is an easy way to maximize your content’s performance. From the coming AI backlash to the rise of voice search, make sure you’re prepared for changes in the industry.

There never seems to be a dull moment when it comes to new trends in the digital and content marketing landscape. Staying updated on content trends is an easy way to maximize your content’s performance. From the coming AI backlash to the rise of voice search, make sure you’re prepared for changes in the industry.

You’ll want to keep these tips in mind while designing new content or optimizing previously published content to keep it relevant and fresh.

  1. It’s Still All About AI:
    AI-generated content and content tools have been top-of-mind across many industries, and healthcare is no exception.

    Recent polling shows 76% of marketers use generative AI for basic content creation, and that number is likely to grow. That same wave of new AI content is slated to continue throughout the next year.

    Whether you’re using Jasper, ChatGPT, or something else, make sure you understand how to use these powerful content tools to their full potential for the best results. Learning to use your AI tool effectively while preserving an authentic brand voice is key when it comes to making your content work for you.

  2. Humanize Your Content:
    For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And there sure has been some AI action lately! Some experts predict that the shine of AI will start to wear off. The overuse of AI-generated content has led to a saturated industry that may cause backlash from audiences.

    What does that mean for you? It means you have an excellent opportunity to capitalize on the growing number of people who crave online authenticity. Sources a reader can trust may be few and far between in a sea of AI-written copy and attaching a real face to your piece can do a lot to increase engagement and trust.

    A lot of industries use influencers to achieve authenticity but that’s not recommended for healthcare. In lieu of working with an influencer, consider centering the human aspect of your organization’s offerings. Featuring patient stories and centering the voices of actual individuals can help readers connect with your content.

    Patient success stories, provider features, and video content highlighting staff are just a few excellent ways to add a human touch to your digital presence. In a sea of machine-generated content, let people connect with the human side of your organization.

  3. The Rise of Voice Search
    Voice search is one of the fastest-growing search trends of recent years and is expected to continue growing in popularity. More and more users search for content by asking Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Voice, or other search functions for what they need. Voice search keywords differ from traditional keywords, which means traditional SEO optimization may not be enough. You need to optimize your content specifically for voice search, mimicking the casual way people speak when using search.
  4. Overcoming Keyword Competition:
    Another side effect of the AI content deluge is increased keyword search volume and competition. Niche content offers a simple way to reach your audience without competing with the growing number of similar results. It may feel counterintuitive, but choosing less popular keywords can net you a higher search ranking.

    Now is an excellent time to add location-specific keywords to your content. Not only will you attract more local conversions but location-optimized content creates a built-in niche that gives you a SERP advantage.

  5. Cluster Your Content
    Want to keep your readers on-page longer, increase your click-through rates, and maximize conversion opportunities? Content clusters, or a group of related content topics, are an organic way to keep readers on your site throughout their search journey. When writing content, put yourself in your readers’ shoes. What are they most likely to ask after reading your blog, article, or service-line page?

    If a user is looking up information about lung cancer, chances are they’ll want information on treatments soon after. If someone is searching for content about the causes of dry skin, they’ll probably appreciate an easy-to-find article on eczema. A patient seeking content on drug trial work has a high chance of looking for trial opportunities near them.

    By spoon-feeding readers the answers to their next query using crosslinks or suggested content, you offer a better user experience and enjoy better KPIs. The end goal is to make it as easy as possible for users to find all the answers in one place. Anticipating your readers’ needs and questions your readers will have benefits you and your audience.

Need Help Incorporating These Trends into Your Marketing Program?

Wondering how to stay on top of these trends and include them as a valuable part of your content marketing toolbelt this year and beyond? When you work with Geonetric, our team of content professionals and digital marketers do the heavy lifting for you with content marketing know-how and the latest industry insights. Connect with us today to supercharge your content marketing efforts!

10 Tips for a HIPAA-Compliant Personalized Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Crafting a personalized healthcare marketing strategy while following Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules needs careful planning. It’s crucial to respect the privacy of the information users provide. Effective personalized experiences can also consider where users come from, what time they visit, if they come back, and where they’re located.

Follow these 10 tips to get you started.

  1. Get Permission: Before delving into any patient’s health details for marketing, informed consent is essential. Offer a comprehensive explanation of why you’re collecting their data and how you will use it. This ensures patients are comfortable with what they’re agreeing to.
  2. Limit the Data You Record: Uphold the ‘Minimum Necessary’ principle set by HIPAA. This principle advocates collecting only the essential data required for your marketing purposes. You ensure compliance and minimize potential vulnerabilities by narrowing down the data collection scope.
  3. Secure Incoming Data: Handle all user-provided information as if it were gold, meaning you must protect it. Use robust encryption and stringent security measures to safeguard against data breaches and maintain its integrity throughout its lifecycle.
  4. Be Transparent: Build and foster trust by articulating how you will use user information. This should encompass the type of communications they can expect, how often they’ll hear from you, and via which channels.
  5. Provide Easy Opt-Outs: No one likes feeling trapped. Give patients a clear, hassle-free mechanism to withdraw their consent from personalized marketing campaigns. And when they do, honor their decision without delay.
  6. Prioritize Regular Training: As healthcare regulations and technologies evolve, keeping your team updated is crucial. Host regular training sessions to delve into HIPAA’s intricacies and how to ethically incorporate personalization into marketing endeavors.
  7. Perform Routine Audits: It’s prudent to consistently evaluate your marketing practices to ensure they align with regulatory and evolving standards. And if you collaborate with third-party entities, establish they uphold these rigorous compliance norms, too.
  8. Avoid Over Personalization: There’s a fine line between being relevant and appearing invasive. While personal touches can enhance communication, going overboard can alienate patients. Always aim for a balance with a data-driven and goal-oriented approach.
  9. De-Identify Data: When you can, use data that doesn’t directly identify an individual; this tactic provides a buffer, ensuring you don’t inadvertently reveal patient details while still allowing you to convey your core message.
  10. Feedback Mechanisms: Create channels for open conversations with patients. By gathering their input on your marketing tactics, you can refine your strategy and make sure it remains effective and respectful.

Ultimately, the art of healthcare marketing lies in intertwining touchpoints with steadfast compliance adherence. This balancing act is not just about meeting legal requirements; it’s about cherishing and nurturing the profound trust patients instill in their healthcare providers.

How Geonetric & Optimizely Can Help Your Team

Navigating the digital healthcare world is complex, but the personalization path becomes clearer with Geonetric by your side. Optimizely delivers rich digital experience optimization, testing capabilities, smooth integration and innovation records that other CMS’ and digital experience platforms lack.

As the digital engine behind over 500 healthcare websites and intranets, Geonetric understands the balance between personalized patient experiences and the complexity of other products. Marketers prefer Optimizely for its ease of use in traditional and headless deployments without heavy reliance on developers. And it’s more affordable than its competitors.

Beyond technical solutions, Geonetric brings a human touch to digital engagements. If you’re ready to elevate your personalized healthcare marketing, discover the Geonetric difference today!

Updated HHS Guidance Released on the Use of Online Tracking Technologies

We’ve covered a variety of topics related to this guidance including, a general overview of the guidance, impacts to the MarTech stack, the use of Pixels for Tracking purposes, and web & digital analytics platforms. On March 18, 2024, updated guidance was released in an attempt to further clarify the intended message from HHS.

Does it clarify much? Not really. In fact, it may raise even more questions, unfortunately.

For those of you hoping for an official policy document or an exhaustive list of Q&As that provides clearer direction, you’ll be sorely disappointed. From our review, the updated guidance appears to be a modest editorial pass with some minor adjustments and other complete reversals of language. Still, it’s another in a series of tea leaves that we need to read as we attempt to interpret their regulatory intent.

There are a few updates that seem to be related to the lawsuit from AHA, Texas Hospital Association and others from 2023. And the new guidance removes some of the more problematic internal contradictions from the original guidance and tones down some of the less believable statements.

To incorporate some recognition of reality, for example, the following statement has been changed

from:

  • “… when a regulated entity collects the individual’s IIHI through its website or mobile app…it is indicative that the individual has received or will receive health care services or benefits from the covered entity… and thus relates to the individual’s past, present, or future health or health care or payment for care.”

to:

  • “But the mere fact that an online tracking technology connects the IP address of a user’s device (or other identifying information) with a visit to a webpage addressing specific health conditions or listing health care providers is not a sufficient combination of information to constitute IIHI if the visit to the webpage is not related to an individual’s past, present, or future health, health care, or payment for health care.”

You’re undoubtedly just as confused by this adjustment in language as you were by the original guidance release. The above changes amount to a complete reversal of viewpoint.

The updated HHS guidance continues by using “students doing research” as an example of what isn’t IIHI/PHI while other examples identify “health consumers engaging with content” as an example of what is IIHI/PHI.

We used to believe that if we didn’t know the reason a consumer was visiting a page, the fact that they were there did not constitute PHI. However, the change in December 2022 dictated that we must assume every website visitor was there in relation to current or future personal health needs, making that consumer’s information PHI. Now, the updated guidance acknowledges that consumers visit healthcare web pages for a variety of reasons, many not relating to healthcare needs current or future. Yet the guidance still fails to tell us how we translate that information into acceptable and unacceptable (or compliant and non-compliant) actions.

HHS also seems to realize that people became overly focused on IP address as an identifying attribute. IP Address has always been “on the list” but isn’t a very strong identifying attribute, thus very few digital marketers were treating it as PHI. The original guidance came as a shock to many of us as a result. The updated guidance refuses to back down on that position but has added stronger reminders that there are multiple identifiers, including “…an individual’s medical record number, home or email address, or dates of appointments, as well as an individual’s IP address or geographic location, device IDs, or any unique identifying code.”

The updated guidance seems to give more attention to the information an app or a page has vs. what information is sent to a third party through tracking technologies. This intersects with a statement added to the end of the updated guidance stating they’re prioritizing the HIPAA security rule for enforcement actions. The point? You need to first determine what information exists and its classification – is it IIHI or PHI? Then make sure that data is secured properly and not shared inappropriately. For example, a mobile app might have biometric data which then needs to be secured and not sent to Facebook.

An addition we were excited to see is a validation that it is acceptable to “…de-identify online tracking information that includes PHI and then subsequently disclose only de-identified information to tracking technology vendors that are unwilling to enter into a BAA with a regulated entity.” This is the strategy we’ve already employed with Geonetric Privacy Filter for GA4.

In the end, this updated guidance changes very little in terms of the guidance or the clarity required to implement it. We hope to see additional information throughout this year which may help HIPAA regulated entities implement mitigation strategies with greater confidence than is possible today.

Disclaimer:
Interpretations of the December HIPAA guidance vary widely and there is no single agreed standard for compliance. Every organization should seek to establish its own understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable given HIPAA rules today and likely redefinition and expansion of privacy laws inside and outside of healthcare in the future.

I’m not a lawyer. Geonetric is not a law firm. I’m sharing my insights and advice but nothing that I share here should be considered legal advice.

Striking a Balance: Navigating Personalization and Privacy in Healthcare Marketing

In the digital age, healthcare providers face an intriguing challenge: marrying the appeal of personalization with protecting privacy principles. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is at the forefront of this challenge. HIPPA standardizes using and storing private patient health information while avoiding legal penalties and security threats.

Let’s take a look at how HIPAA impacts the patient experience.

Privacy: A Paramount Concern

As personalization potential grows, so does your HIPAA responsibility. Healthcare organizations must protect the disclosure and security of sensitive patient health information (PHI). You must balance leveraging patient data for customized experiences and complying with HIPAA regulations. A breach of privacy can significantly impact your reputation and patient trust.

HIPAA’s Role: Drawing the Line

HIPAA sets clear parameters for how to approach personalization:

  • Informed Consent: Obtaining explicit consent is essential before using patient data for marketing purposes. Your organization should communicate how you will use patient data and get their consent to use their PHI. This approach ensures patients maintain control over the use of their data.
  • ‘Minimum Necessary’ Rule: HIPAA stipulates that you only access the specific patient data necessary for your operations, which includes marketing initiatives. This principle helps maintain data confidentiality and protects you as a healthcare organization.

Healthcare organizations must apply data security measures to protect PHI from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. On top of these measures, you need to be transparent and accountable by informing patients about your data privacy practices and any breaches or violations.

Personalization: A Clear Advantage

Personalized healthcare marketing strategies aim to tailor messages and services to individual patients’ needs, preferences, and behaviors. This customization can improve and streamline their healthcare journey because they are more likely to:

  • Pay attention and act on messaging relevant to them
  • Manage their health more effectively by making informed decisions
  • Follow treatments and take medications
  • Feel satisfied with their patient-provider relationship

The value of personalization is evident. By tapping into your CRM system, you can identify target groups to improve satisfaction and cultivate trust through personalized marketing.

The ROI of Personalized Healthcare Marketing

Get a big return on investment (ROI) with personalized healthcare marketing. Personalization boosts the effectiveness of healthcare organizations’ marketing. Companies in all industries that grow faster attributed 40% more revenue to personalized marketing than their slower-growing counterparts.

Delivering an outstanding patient experience has value and can amplify your:

  • Brand strength
  • Profitable services market share
  • Favorable patient health outcomes

Like everything else in healthcare, marketing strategies are evolving. Personalization has emerged and is here to stay. You don’t have to choose between ensuring patient privacy and personalized healthcare. By striking the right balance between the two, healthcare entities can deliver individualized experiences and uphold privacy, paving the way for patient trust and engagement to grow.

How Geonetric & Optimizely Can Help

Navigating the digital healthcare world is complex, but the personalization path becomes clearer with Geonetric by your side. Optimizely delivers rich digital experience optimization and multivariate testing capabilities. It has a proven track record of integration and innovation that other CMS’ and digital experience platforms lack.

As the digital engine behind over 500 healthcare websites and intranets, Geonetric understands the balance between personalized patient experiences and the complexity of using other products to achieve your objectives. Marketers prefer Optimizely for its ease of use in traditional and headless deployments without heavy reliance on developers.

According to Gartner and Forrester, Optimizely has the strongest upward trajectory in the market. Yet, it’s more affordable than competitors whose capabilities lack differentiation.

Beyond technical solutions, Geonetric brings a human touch to digital engagements. If you’re ready to elevate your personalized healthcare marketing, discover the Geonetric difference today!

Disclaimer:
Geonetric is not a law firm. We’re sharing insights and advice but nothing that we share here should be considered legal advice.
Interpretations of the December HIPAA guidance vary widely and there is no single agreed standard for compliance. Every organization should seek to establish its own understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable given HIPAA rules today and likely redefinition and expansion of privacy laws inside and outside of healthcare in the future.

10 Transformative Benefits of Personalized Marketing for Healthcare

In the healthcare world, where everyone has a unique story and needs, personalized marketing emerges as a refreshing, empathetic voice. As healthcare leaps towards a more patient-centric ethos, it’s exciting to delve into the transformative benefits of personalized marketing.

Here are 10 reasons why personalization is reshaping healthcare:

  1. Enhanced Patient Engagement: Messages are more powerful when they feel crafted just for you. That’s the magic of tailored content. It captures hearts, kindling a deeper bond between patients and their healthcare providers.
  2. Championing Proactive Health: Armed with insights into individual health journeys, healthcare providers can suggest timely health checks and preventive steps. It’s all about nudging folks toward a healthier tomorrow!
  3. Increased ROI: Why cast a vast net when you can find what you’re looking for with a well-aimed throw? Targeted campaigns lead to better engagement and a more efficient use of marketing resources, giving more bang for the buck.
  4. Building Trust: Imagine a friend who remembers little details about you; that’s how trust builds. Through personalized communication, patients feel seen, heard, and cherished.
  5. Smart Resource Allocation: When you know what someone needs, you can prepare better. Healthcare organizations can fine-tune their services, leading to happier patients and streamlined operations.
  6. Targeted Digital Experiences: A digital journey should feel like it’s paved just for you. That’s the delight of personalized online interactions, which enhance the digital experience.
  7. Structuring Brand Loyalty: When people feel catered to, they stick around. Personalized touches mean patients are more likely to continue their healthcare journey with providers they’ve grown fond of.
  8. Improved Treatment Adherence: Receiving a gentle nudge or health advice makes patients more inclined to stick to their doctor-prescribed treatments or medications. It’s like having a personal health cheerleader by your side!
  9. Better Feedback With a tailored touchpoint, patients often feel more comfortable sharing their needs, concerns and preferences with healthcare providers. This open dialogue leads to valuable feedback, helping service providers evolve and adapt.
  10. Data-Driven Decisions: Behind every personalized message is a wealth of data. This treasure trove helps healthcare organizations refine their strategies, ensuring they’re always at the top of their game.

The wins of personalized marketing in healthcare are evident: it’s about communicating in a way that feels personal, relevant, and comforting. As the healthcare world turns this exciting page, championing this approach will undoubtedly make waves, fostering business growth and warm patient relationships.

Geonetric Can Help With Your Personalization Efforts

Navigating the digital healthcare world is complex, but the path becomes clearer with Geonetric by your side. As the digital engine behind over 500 healthcare websites and intranets, Geonetric understands the balance between personalized patient experiences, data privacy and product capabilities.

Marketers prefer Optimizely for its ease of use in traditional and headless deployments without heavy reliance on developers. And it’s more affordable than competitor CMSs and platforms with similar capabilities.

Beyond technical solutions, Geonetric brings a human touch to digital engagements, prioritizing the patient’s journey and the healthcare provider’s goals.

Ready to elevate your healthcare marketing with genuine care and top-tier compliance? Discover the Geonetric difference today!

Healthcare Marketing Analytics

The healthcare world is quickly realizing just how important digital marketing can be. It’s a powerful way to connect with patients and meet business goals. But to really make the most of digital marketing, it’s essential for healthcare organizations to get a good grip on what digital healthcare analytics is all about.

Digital marketing is a lot like a toolbox. Inside, you’ve got various tools (like websites, social media, and online ads) that help you reach out to patients. But to use these tools effectively, you need to know what’s working and what’s not. That’s where healthcare marketing analytics comes in.

Digital Analytics: At a Glance

Digital analytics involves examining data from online sources like websites, mobile apps, and social media. This process gives a clearer understanding of user behaviors and preferences in the digital space. By analyzing this data, we can learn what users are searching for and how they’re interacting with digital platforms. This knowledge is crucial for improving customer experiences and refining our marketing strategies.

This data is collected from various channels, providing a comprehensive view of the customer’s online journey. By analyzing different sources, we gain insights into the most effective paths that lead to a customer deciding to engage with our services or products.

Digital analytics, which includes analyzing website data, is a subset of behavioral analytics. Behavioral analytics focuses on all forms of customer interactions with a business, not just digital. It’s about understanding and responding to customer behaviors and needs, enhancing our ability to serve them effectively.

What Are Digital Healthcare Analytics?

By extension, digital healthcare analytics involves gathering, studying, and making sense of data from various digital sources that provide information about how patients and healthcare providers interact with digital marketing channels. The main aim here is to delve into the behaviors, preferences, and needs of patients and providers. This deep dive helps us understand what they’re looking for and how they respond to different digital platforms.

By analyzing this data, we can pinpoint what’s working well and what’s not in our digital marketing strategies. For example, we might discover that patients are more engaged with certain types of email content or that providers prefer specific features. This insight is invaluable. It allows us to tailor our digital marketing efforts more precisely, ensuring they are more effective and resonate better with our audience.

The ultimate goal of digital healthcare analytics is to enhance patient engagement and meet our business objectives more efficiently. Through understanding and responding to the digital footprints of patients and providers, we can create more personalized, relevant, and effective digital marketing campaigns. This not only helps in building stronger relationships with our audience but also drives better outcomes for our healthcare marketing efforts.

Why is Data Mining Important for Healthcare Marketing Analytics?

Imagine your healthcare organization is launching a social media campaign to introduce a new service. If they don’t use digital healthcare analytics, they won’t know if their campaign is hitting the mark. But with analytics, they can track how many people like, comment, share, and click on their posts. This data is key to understanding how well the campaign is doing and helps in making informed decisions for future marketing efforts.

Digital analytics plays a crucial role in fine-tuning these campaigns. It helps in delivering content that’s relevant to the audience and drives them to take action, like signing up for a service. Analytics provides a comprehensive view of the campaign’s performance, ensuring that patient experiences are engaging and memorable.

Additionally, digital analytics is invaluable in managing the financial aspect of digital advertising. It tracks metrics like cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). These figures are essential for understanding the return on investment (ROI) for ad spending. Knowing this helps shape a more effective and efficient digital marketing strategy, making every dollar count in reaching and engaging the target audience.

How Do Digital Analytics Work in Healthcare Marketing?

In digital healthcare marketing, the success of campaigns is gauged using various metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Let’s look at some of the most commonly used ones:

  • Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on a link or call-to-action (CTA) in an email or digital ad.
  • Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as filling out a form or making an appointment.
  • Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): The cost of acquiring a new patient or customer through digital marketing channels.
  • Return on Investment (ROI): The revenue generated by digital marketing campaigns relative to their cost of implementation.
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): The revenue generated for each dollar you spend on an advertising campaign.
  • Website Traffic: The number of visitors to a website.

Choosing the right metrics and KPIs depends on what your healthcare organization aims to achieve. For instance, if your goal is to boost patient engagement with a specific service, focusing on conversion rate and CTR might be most useful. However, if reaching a broader audience is the target, then website traffic and social media engagement are key metrics to monitor.

Best practices in tracking these metrics include using tools like Google Analytics, setting up goals and events to monitor conversions, regularly reviewing data, and basing decisions on the insights gathered. This approach ensures that healthcare digital marketing efforts are not only effective but also aligned with the organization’s engagement goals.

Types of Digital Healthcare Marketing Analytics

In digital healthcare marketing, we often talk about three types of analytics: descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. Each of these plays a unique role in shaping effective digital marketing strategies.

Descriptive Analytics is all about looking back at what has already happened. This includes checking out website traffic, how people interact on social media, and the rates at which emails are opened. By examining past performances, healthcare organizations can figure out which digital channels and campaigns have been most successful in engaging patients and healthcare providers.

Predictive Analytics takes things a step further by using statistical models and machine learning to guess what might happen in the future. In healthcare digital marketing, this could mean scoring potential leads, segmenting customers, or modeling behavior patterns to predict how likely patients and providers are to interact with certain digital channels and campaigns. It’s a great tool for identifying who is most likely to respond to your marketing efforts.

Prescriptive Analytics goes even beyond descriptive and predictive analytics. It doesn’t just analyze data or make predictions; it actually suggests specific actions to enhance patient and provider engagement. Using a mix of data analysis and decision-making algorithms, it guides organizations on the best steps to take to meet their goals. In healthcare digital marketing, this might involve using marketing automation, personalizing content dynamically, or making real-time bidding decisions.

Together, these three types of analytics provide a comprehensive approach to understanding and optimizing digital marketing in the healthcare sector, ensuring that efforts are not just effective, but also highly targeted and efficient.

Healthcare Marketing Analytics VS HIPAA-Compliance

Recent updates to HIPAA guidelines, and on-going changes to state-level privacy regulations, have presented a formidable challenge for healthcare marketers, especially in the realm of web performance tracking. These changes have tightened the regulations around the use of Personal Health Information (PHI), posing significant hurdles for marketing professionals accustomed to leveraging detailed patient data for targeted campaigns and analytics.

This regulatory shift has not only constrained the traditional methods of digital marketing but also necessitated a fundamental rethink in strategies that hinge on the accessibility and utilization of PHI. The impact is far-reaching, affecting everything from ad retargeting to personalized content, and forcing marketers to navigate a complex landscape where compliance is critical and the margin for error is increasingly narrow.

In a recent post, Ben Dillion took a deep dive into these challenges, highlighting the need to harness the power of digital analytics tools without compromising the sanctity of patient data. Additionally, organizations need to leap over these compliance hurdles without further impacts to their performance metrics and patient experiences.

Tips for Implementing Privacy-Conscious Digital Healthcare Marketing Analytics

Start with a thorough understanding of the latest HIPAA regulations and how they impact digital marketing. This foundational knowledge is crucial for ensuring compliance in all marketing activities.

  1. Prioritize Data Privacy and Security: Implement robust data protection measures. This includes secure data storage, handling, and transmission, especially when dealing with PHI.
  2. Practice Good Data Governance: Ensure analytics are not overly applied to areas where it’s not needed and that the proper amount of oversight is utilized during implementation. If the need for analytics changes, minimize risk by removing analytics tracking.
  3. Leverage De-identified Data: Use de-identified or aggregated data in your analytics to gain insights while respecting patient privacy and complying with regulations.
  4. Invest in Secure and Compliant Technologies: Choose CRM systems and analytics tools that are designed for the healthcare industry, ensuring they meet all necessary compliance standards.
  5. Develop a Strong Content Marketing Strategy: Create valuable, educational content that addresses general health concerns, which can help in SEO and patient engagement without the need for PHI.
  6. Optimize Social Media Engagement: Use social media platforms responsibly to provide general health information, avoiding the sharing of PHI.
  7. Employ Predictive Analytics: Integrate predictive analytics to forecast trends and patient behaviors, guiding marketing strategies without relying on sensitive data.
  8. Conduct Regular Team Training: Ensure that your marketing team is continuously trained in the latest HIPAA regulations, data handling practices, and digital marketing techniques.
  9. Utilize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measure the success of your marketing strategies with KPIs and use these insights to refine and improve your approaches.
  10. Collaborate with Legal and Compliance Experts: Work closely with legal and compliance professionals to ensure that all marketing efforts are in line with regulatory requirements.
  11. Stay Abreast of Emerging Technologies: Keep an eye on new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that can revolutionize healthcare marketing while maintaining privacy standards.
  12. Incorporate Telehealth and Digital Health Trends: Integrate the growing trends of telehealth and digital health into your marketing strategies to connect with a tech-savvy patient base.
  13. Focus on Multichannel Marketing: Diversify your marketing efforts across multiple channels (email, social media, web, etc.) to reach a broader audience while tailoring messages to each platform’s norms and audience preferences.

By following these comprehensive steps, healthcare marketers can successfully create effective, privacy-conscious marketing plans that leverage digital analytics to their fullest potential, ensuring both regulatory adherence and marketing efficacy.

Who Can Help a Healthcare Organization Implement Privacy-Conscious Digital Marketing Analytics?

Implementing a digital analytics strategy for healthcare marketing can be approached in different ways, each with its own set of advantages and considerations. The choice between an in-house solution or leveraging a vendor agency depends on various factors such as the organization’s resources, expertise, and specific needs.

In-House Solution

  • Expertise: An in-house team is made up of employees who are intimately familiar with the organization’s goals, culture, and specific healthcare context. They can tailor analytics strategies closely aligned with the organization’s unique needs.
  • Control and Integration: Having an in-house team allows for greater control over the analytics process and ensures that the digital marketing strategy is seamlessly integrated with other organizational strategies.
  • Cost: While in-house teams provide better control and alignment, they can be more expensive in the long term due to salaries, training, and technology investments.
  • Time and Resource Investment: Developing an in-house team requires significant time and resource investment, particularly if the organization needs to train staff or hire new talent.

Agency-Led Solution

  • Specialized Services: Agencies often bring specialized knowledge and tools tailored to healthcare digital marketing. They can offer innovative solutions and insights that an in-house team might not be aware of.
  • Broader Perspective: Agencies work with a variety of clients, which can provide a broader perspective and innovative strategies that have been successful in other contexts.
  • Coordination Efforts: Working with an agency requires coordination and clear communication to ensure that their strategies align with the organization’s objectives.
  • Cost-Efficiency: It can be more cost-effective in the short term, as it eliminates the need for extensive training or hiring.
  • Data Privacy and Security: It’s vital to ensure that any agency understands and complies with healthcare regulations, especially concerning patient data privacy and security.

Ultimately, the choice between in-house or agency-led digital analytics for healthcare marketing depends on the organization’s specific context, resources, and priorities.

Need Help?

Healthcare organizations continually grapple with how to effectively track and analyze their digital performance without stepping over the critical boundaries set by privacy regulations like HIPAA.

This is where a hybrid approach to digital analytics for healthcare really shines.

Geonetric, a digital healthcare marketing solution, has over two decades of experience helping healthcare organizations like yours innovate and evolve. With Geonetric at your side, your organization will have access to HIPAA compliance-friendly performance tools like Geonetric Privacy Filter, which can unlock the full potential of your digital marketing efforts while firmly adhering to privacy guidelines.

If you want to learn more about how Geonetric Privacy Filter can help you supercharge your digital marketing efforts, contact us to learn how we can help to align metrics with your goals.

HIPAA Guidance Series: Pixel Problems

Throughout our HIPAA Guidance series, we’ve been discussing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance relating to the use of online marketing tracking technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and its implications for healthcare digital marketing professionals. The topics we’ve covered so far – our overview, our insights on how to manage your analytics under the new guidance, and our recommendations for your MarTech stack – are pretty straightforward as we have several strong approaches to embracing the guidelines.

Things start to get a little messy as we dive into how to track the effectiveness of our digital advertising efforts.

Why You Should Track Ads

Before we explore why the guidance makes tracking digital advertising complicated, it’s worth reminding ourselves why we use the different tracking tools available to us.

For a start, you want to know what’s working, and not working, in your advertising portfolio. Digital advertising makes it easy to target different groups of people, deliver creative messaging, and test different campaigns to find what works best. It also makes it easy to learn how many people see an ad from a particular platform, how many people click on the ad, and what people do when they land on your website.

To understand what’s working, you don’t need your site to send data to the ad platform. By carefully using UTM codes, you can connect the dots between the view and click data that exists in the ad platform and the on-site activity tracking that exists in a HIPAA-compliant analytics solution.

This allows you see what efforts are working best, and then optimize campaigns (sometimes using automated tools) to maximize click-throughs or minimize cost per click. You can even adjust campaigns for desired on-site activities (usually conversions), although this is a manual undertaking.

The challenge is that we don’t care much about click-throughs. You want to optimize for conversions, and you want to be able to do so at scale. That ability requires automated tools, and those tools need data from your sites. The more data, the better.

How Pixels Track Conversions

Facebook/Meta, Google, and other advertising platforms introduced the tracking pixel to monitor conversions. This code sits on the pages of your website and relays information about every site visitor and every page they visit to the ad platform. It also sends information when someone completes the conversion tasks, such as downloading a brochure or completing a form.

The pixel closes the loop for the ad platform. It knows who saw an ad, who clicked on it, and who converted, so it can use advanced algorithms to present the ad to people who are similar to those converting, thereby mining more conversions for every dollar invested.

And these pixels go further. They also monitor people who complete tasks without viewing or clicking on the ad. This gives the platform even more data on which to build target audiences for the desired ads.

There are additional benefits to this pixel-powered approach as well. For example, it allows for much more sophisticated marketing attribution for conversions. A user may see an ad several times before clicking on it and may come back to a site later to complete a conversion.

Pixels provide data to support the consumer journey and share with advertisers a complete picture of how their campaigns guide consumers towards interaction.

Of course, advertising platforms need to identify specific individuals who are taking these actions. Connecting conversions to a specific user allows them to use data from other sites with tracking pixels to build a profile of what a high-value marketing target looks like.

The Problem with Ad Tracking in Healthcare

Let’s say your organization wants to use Facebook’s suite of tools to optimize campaigns for on-site conversions. To do so, you need to send information that will identify visitors. At a minimum, you’ll need to pass along the ClickID, name, or email address.

This is where the Health and Human Services guidance makes it difficult. To comply with the guidance, there are a few options:

  • Hosting analytics yourself
  • Selecting a HIPAA-compliant cloud analytics solution that will sign a BAA
  • Anonymizing your analytics data before sending it to the analytics platform using a tool, such as Geonetric’s Privacy Filter

As we look at ad tracking:

  • You can’t host your own ad platform
  • There aren’t any ad tracking solutions (that I’m aware of) that will sign a BAA
  • You can’t anonymize the data without losing very valuable features of the platform.

So, we need something different in our toolkit. We need to flip the playbook.

Our Solution

Information needs a few characteristics to be considered PHI:

  • It’s individually identifiable
  • It tells us something about that individual’s health
  • It’s stored or transmitted electronically at some point in its lifecycle.

For the “anonymization” strategy that we talked about in our analytics post, we remove the individual identifiability element. For ad tracking, however, we need to remove the health information component.

This requires an approach similar to the approach used for analytics where information is intercepted between the browser and the ad tracking platform. However, the controls that are applied to the data are different. For instance:

  • We only send data when a conversion occurs, not for every visitor to the site on every page they interact with.
  • The data sent is the minimum necessary to utilize the automated campaign optimization tools. Typically, a type of ClickID and what conversion occurred.
  • We also mask the actual conversion. Instead of sending something like “$99 heart screening,” we send a more generic phrase like “Conversion 123” which only the people in the organization recognize as a heart screening.

 

Many healthcare organizations are comfortable with this approach. However, with a wide range of interpretations of the new guidance, not every organization is on board. We’re happy to hop on a call and talk with your team as well as your legal and compliance leadership about your options.

Learn More

Disclaimers:
I’m not a lawyer, Geonetric is not a law firm. I’m sharing my insights and advice but nothing that I share here should be considered legal advice.

Interpretations of the December HIPAA guidance vary widely and there is no single agreed standard for compliance. Every organization should seek to establish its own understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable given HIPAA rules today and likely redefinition and expansion of privacy laws inside and outside of healthcare in the future.

Choosing Between a CMS and a DXP? Why Consider a DXP for Your Healthcare Organization

In today’s digital age, when people interact with healthcare services online, they expect a smooth and user-friendly experience.

Traditional content management systems (CMS) make it easy for organizations to organize and manage website content to support their strong digital presence. Organizations that want to take their digital efforts a step further and create tailored experiences across multiple touchpoints, however, are adopting modern digital experience platforms (DXP).

Before we get too far with our comparison between a CMS and DXP, let’s cover the basics.

What is a DXP?

A DXP enables you manage and deliver digital experiences. It relies on a framework of modular and interchangeable components rather than a single, all-encompassing solution. This approach empowers organizations to create a digital experience ecosystem that fits their unique requirements, because you can easily add or replace components as necessary.

Here’s a breakdown of the crucial aspects of a DXP tailored for healthcare:

  • Agility: Teams can work independently and efficiently because changes can easily be made to one component. This facilitates quick adoption of new features, updates, and improvements.
  • Flexibility and Scalability: Adapting to shifting needs is straightforward. Components can be augmented, modified, or removed without the need for a platform overhaul. This flexibility ensures resilience in the face of future technological advancements and changing customer expectations.
  • Interoperability: Components are designed to seamlessly communicate and integrate through well-established APIs, ensuring consistent data and functionality flow throughout various parts of the digital experience platform.
  • Modularity: Key components like content management, personalization, analytics, and more are distinct modules that work together harmoniously. This gives you the freedom to select the most suitable solutions for each function.
  • User-Centric Design: Thanks to the platform’s ability to integrate various tools and technologies, organizations can create a user experience tailored to their specific audience. This leads to enhanced personalization and user engagement, leveraging relevant data and content across multiple touchpoints.

Healthcare organizations that embrace a DXP position themselves to build a digital experience that not only aligns with their mission, workflows, and patient needs but also ensures seamless integration with healthcare-specific systems. This enables compliance with industry regulations and the delivery of a secure and user-friendly experience.

DXP vs. CMS

A CMS focuses on managing and storing content, making a clear distinction between the content itself and how it appears on different platforms. Content is easily shared across channels and devices using APIs, offering flexibility in how the content is presented.

On the other hand, a DXP takes a more comprehensive approach, weaving together a variety of tools and features to create, manage, and deliver a complete digital experience. It supports the modular connection of different services and functionalities, ensuring a seamless and customized experience across all digital interactions.

Which Platform is Better for Healthcare: CMS or DXP?

In healthcare, making the right choices when it comes to digital tools is essential for delivering excellent patient care and improving operational efficiency. To help you determine which option suits your organization best, let’s explore who might benefit the most from either a CMS or a DXP.

A CMS is an excellent fit for healthcare organizations that:

  • Are undergoing a digital transformation and require a flexible system that can adapt quickly to changes.
  • Work with a tech-savvy team capable of working with various front-end technologies to deliver content seamlessly across multiple channels.
  • Need to ensure their content is easily accessible not only on websites but also on mobile apps, patient portals, and other digital platforms.
  • Seek a cost-effective solution that still offers robust functionality and flexibility.

On the other hand, a DXP is a better choice for healthcare entities that:

  • Operate within complex digital ecosystems with various integrations, requiring a robust solution to bring everything together.
  • Aim to provide highly personalized patient experiences by leveraging data from different sources.
  • Wish to orchestrate intricate digital health campaigns and patient engagement strategies.
  • Seek a solution that not only consolidates their digital tools, but also provides advanced capabilities for analyzing, optimizing, and enhancing patient interactions across the digital landscape.

While a CMS offers simplicity, flexibility, and the ability to distribute content widely, a DXP provides a more comprehensive and integrated approach. It ensures that every aspect of your digital presence is considered and optimized. Choosing between the two ultimately depends on understanding your organization’s specific needs, goals, and the complexity of your digital initiatives.

Getting Started with Optimizely + Geonetric

If your healthcare organization is thinking about stepping up its online game, the partnership between Geonetric and Optimizely could be just what you need.

Optimizely is a versatile DXP specifically crafted for creating captivating and personalized websites and digital interactions. This platform empowers content creators to generate, modify, and oversee content across multiple websites. Optimizely also offers a wide array of customizable tools to help your organization streamline digital experiences and enhance customer retention.

However, it’s essential that healthcare organizations adhere to specific regulations, such as HIPAA compliance, when selecting a DXP. That’s where Geonetric comes in.

This partnership provides clients with a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) built within a fully-managed, one-stop solution for healthcare organizations. Here are a few notable benefits you can look forward to:

  • Flexible Setup: This partnership gives you a DXP that you can shape to fit your healthcare organization needs. It’s a digital platform that’s custom-made, ready to adapt to whatever you need for your patients and services.
  • All-In-One Solution: From setting up easy-to-use patient portals to managing your online content and using patient data smartly, we offer one big toolbox where everything works together seamlessly.
  • Grows with You: Your healthcare organization is always changing and growing, right? Optimizely DXP can change and grow with you. It’s designed to keep up with new demands and trends in healthcare.
  • Smart Use of Data: This partnership makes ethical (and compliant) use of patient data to give more personalized care. Think of it as being able to automatically intuit what each patient needs and prefers, to give them better care.
  • Safe and Secure: With all the patient information you handle, security is super important. This partnership makes sure patient data is kept safe and follows the rules, like HIPAA.
  • Easy for Patients to Use: A fully-managed DXP can help your organization make sure the digital information your patients will find (make?) it easy to use your services online.
  • Help and Support: Starting with a digital platform can be tricky, but Geonetric, an Optimizely partner, is here to help. We guide you through implementation and keep your sites running smoothly.
  • Better Marketing and Communication: This solution also helps you get the word out about your services and talk to your patients better using digital marketing tools.

In short, Geonetric and Optimizely joining forces means your healthcare organization can get a digital experience platform that’s easy to change as needed, keeps data safe, and makes your online healthcare services better and easier to use.

Check out our FREE eBook to learn more about how Geonetric and Optimizely can supercharge your digital footprint, today!