Welcome!
Written April 10th, 2007 by Delia KonizeskiWelcome to WebiScope.com, a blog and companion forum for healthcare web professionals. This site has roots in the Healthcare Web Developers’ listserv (HCwebD) where members wanted to expand the list beyond the e-mail format that often proves cumbersome to navigate in different mail systems. So here you have the benefits of the listserv—you can reach out to colleagues across the country—with an added avenue to be a guest blogger. Happy writing!
What’s so great about blogs anyways?
A consultant once mentioned to us that the popularity of blogs doesn’t have longevity. Information theory—specifically Information Foraging Theory— asserts otherwise. Here’s how:
RSS (otherwise known as feeds) is one of the major components of blogs nowadays. RSS allows for easy and simple syndication of content to readers. Using RSS, it is possible to easily keep track of multiple sites which may be constantly updated.
RSS feeds work in tandem with a main premise of the theory (as outlined in HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks by John M. Carroll)— that “people prefer…and select technology designs that improve returns on information foraging.” By pulling together information on a chosen topic from different blogs into one spot on a person’s desktop, RSS feeds/readers increase the amount of relevant information that can be compiled in a short time in an easy manner.
We know that “people prefer information-seeking strategies that yield more useful information per unit cost.” This theory asserts that user choices are based upon cost-benefit (value) analysis. And, given that users can have relevant information delivered to them with the click of a button, RSS feeds and blogs will remain beneficial and become an increasingly popular medium.
So what does that mean for me?
Simply put: RSS and blogs are not only here to stay, but they have the potential to help us develop and synergize globally with one another.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
What is your experience in terms of how many and what kinds of people are using these technologies? We’re finding it very rare that anybody in our target audiences are doing much with blogs or rss. Not that they aren’t being used, but it is in some rather tightly defined audience profiles.
April 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I would have to admit that you’re right in the sense that the majority of our current demographic does not use RSS or other modern technologies. However, I think that’s why this is the perfect time to get our feet wet and start implementing things like RSS. Right now there isn’t a high demand for it (at least for those of us in healthcare), and we can get over the learning curve before our demographic shifts.
I also think that we should strive to not only be leaders in our community, but online as well. By supporting a newer technology such as RSS or the blog format, we are saying to the community: check this out, it’s worth your time. Some people might pick up on this and tell their friends, some might not. But I think it’s worth it in the long run.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Much of this has to do with how many hospital websites are interpreted.
I would LOVE for mine to be used as a tool for daily health/wellness updates, getting blogs from our fitness center advisors and nutrition experts; how-to videos from oncology, etc.
But most people don’t think of us in that way.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am
That’s an excellent observation. Most patients just don’t view their hospital or doctor’s web site as that kind of a place. So what do we need to do to change that? Or can we change that?
April 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I would love to try, but with everything that’s going on around here at Children’s Memorial — a new hospital for which we are trying to raise $800 million dollars, implementing electronic medical records, electronic “time cards,” upgrading our hospital’s billing system, etc etc — the Web site is still relatively low priority. But I just keep plugging….
April 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Sounds like a topic for a Tradeshow breakout session — ‘How to Use Your Hospital Website as a Regional Health Information Source”. Personally, I’ve tried to feature our well-known and speciality departments to get the interest of the ‘viewership’, assuming that they’ll put more trust if they know its an area in which we excel.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:41 am
While we all would like people to come to our sites for lessons on nutrition, or even for the latest cancer study findings from a source like Medline or whatever, if we all have it, why would they come to our particular site?
In order for people to use our RSS, it should be content that is specific to us. Something better, or at least different. I think that’s the struggle and it’s the same in other industries. Your local news site (hometown papers going hyperlocal) can do it because they have the resources to provide unique content.
I’d be interested in hearing from somebody who is have success using RSS. What’s the content?
April 16th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
We’ve had pretty good success using rss from our news release page. A few hundred subscribers, as best as we can tell.
April 16th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Hey, Aaron… nice job on this project and thank you.
The new I.E. with MS recently released Vista will include a ‘web feed’ (Microsoft’s name for RSS/XML) feature… it will be interesting to see if more people start catching on.
Nonetheless, just offering RSS feeds for the sake of offering RSS feeds doesn’t cut it. The quality of ‘content’ will drive your RSS success… as the old PR adage goes, “tell me something useful that I didn’t already know. Otherwise, you’re annoying me.”
April 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Thanks Swanie, I appreciate it. It was fun putting together, and I’m looking forward to seeing it being utilized by everyone.
I agree with you, and am glad to see that Microsoft is (finally) implementing RSS/XML. And I agree that offering RSS feeds just because it’s the thing to do is a good thing, your content will definitely be the keystone to what you have to offer – RSS just makes it easier for people to have access to it.