This question was sent in by Mike Lynn, from Storandt Pann Margolis:

I have read a lot of research about “cyberchondriacs”, the huge percentage of people searching online for health information and I am trying to figure out how hospitals fit into this process. All the data indicates that the majority of searches are for information about a particular issue and usually start at Yahoo, Google or MSN.

So, does this mean that the people who go straight to a hospital site are not included? (Were they searching for “health” information or for hospital information?) And when they get to the hospital site, where do they go, and why? (Are they just using the site for general information about directions, hours, doctors, etc?).

Because of the empowerment of the internet, I’m wondering how the hospital sites fit into the equation. What role do hospital websites play… can they play?

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I’ve been using Google Reader to handle all my RSS feeds and be my primary start page for nearly 2 years. For handling RSS feeds, I’ve found nothing better. I’ve used Netvibes, Pageflakes, Google Home, and an assortment of desktop RSS aggregators.

The one thing that keeps me coming back to Google Reader is so simple it’s laughable:

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We recently added a patient card feature to our site, and the results have been positive – and unexpected.

Our patient card feature works like many of yours: friends and family can enter text that is printed on a nice card design and is hand delivered to patients in Duke University Hospital. Our Volunteer Services staff handles the printing and delivery of the cards.

We added the form to our Patients and Visitors section of DukeHealth.org. It appears as an option in the flyout of the global left navigation.

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The answer, of course, is both. Let me back up. The Pareto principle would have us focus on 20 percent of items to get 80 percent of whatever it is we’re trying to maximize. But, the Long Tail has catapulted such Internet businesses as iTunes and Amazon. The Long Tail can best be explained by the quote of an Amazon employee, “We sold more books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.” That is, the niches end up being more important in aggregate than the few popular items.

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With much of the initial frantic coverage of the 35W bridge collapse over, the spotlight turns to analyzing what went wrong and how it was handled. The local hospitals and other health facilities will be analyzed for their prompt action and organization of patients and diagnoses. Likewise, their web communications team will ultimately be judged on their ability to promptly post important information clearly so families and media alike can find what they need.

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Ranking lists have always been popular. The Billboard Top 100, The New York Times Best-Sellers Lists, and the Dave Letterman Top 10 List are just a few examples. It’s no surprise that after the Web took off in the mid-90’s, Web popularity tools came along that claimed to rank websites by traffic.

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