…even if that’s not what you want them to have.

It’s a common problem for healthcare marketers: we aren’t clinicians, by any means, but there are times where we don’t want to give into media-driven concerns or criticisms. And yet, meanwhile, many of our visitors and potential patients are looking for that very same information. Do we give in and give them what they want?

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Seeing that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I think it’s only appropriate I get up on my soapbox and say a few words of thanks.

As most of you are aware, WebiScope originally started as the Healthcare Developer’s ListServ. Even though it was an antiquated email listserv application that either mangled your email or made it painful to read, it was still one of the best ways to meet other people in a similar position and ask them the questions that you just couldn’t answer by yourself.

Since then we’ve pulled together this nice little corner of the web to be our safe haven. WebiScope launched back in April and it’s been amazing to see how involved and active everyone has been (granted, there are some lurkers out there that are a little shy ). I’m proud to be a part of the WebiScope community, and I grin every time I hear about how it’s helped someone do their job just a little bit better.

Putting together and maintaining WebiScope is a pretty big job, and it’s only going to get bigger. Obviously, running WebiScope won’t pay the bills, and for some reason my boss still expects me to come to work everyday. For that reason I’ve asked Thomas Ames from St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Jake Bunger from Crouse Hospital in Syracuse to come aboard and help make WebiScope better. They’re both very talented individuals and I look forward to their expertise in helping make WebiScope better.

Thank you for the trust, support, and involvement you’ve shown us in this endeavor. Thank you for giving me the chance to do something cool and allowing me to stand up here and pretend like I know what I’m doing.

Hope you all have a great Turkey Day tomorrow (and for those who don’t celebrate it - have a great day/weekend as well!). Be safe, and we’ll see you back here next week!

While so many of the WebiScopers were off in Las Vegas basking in the sun, I was holed up with our team and members of usability firm watching patients and area residents navigate our web site and a demo site and provide general feedback on things they are looking for from us online.

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First let’s preface this one with the fact that it’s our very own Neal Linkon, presenting. So A) that’s kewl for webiscope, and B) we can all harrass him with comments and questions (hint hint, people) right here.

Right now, the first couple rows in front of the podium are webiscope members - here to heckle er ah ahem support Neal. Aaron, Kat, Wendy, Drew, James, Andy, Keith, Bart myself, and I believe there’s more in back (they’ll get more airtime w/ the tomatoes). We gotcha covered, Neal!

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Description: Seeking a unique way to stand out that the competitors couldn’t match, McGreevy Clinic Avera focused on utilizing online technologies to improve their level of service outside the traditional office visit. The concept would enable patients to request appointments online anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the comfort of their home. Discover the process from concept to roll out for launching a full-fledged online appointment request system, including the ROI results.

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8:03 The main session is starting for the last day of the conference. I’m glad that the conference is sponsored but the sales pitch about smart cards is a little tired. I’m really interested in what Shel has to say. I attended his session at the last Internet Healthcare Conference last year.

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Description: Health care organizations wanting a higher ROI for Web initiatives must move beyond content publishing. Providing visitors with a personalized online experience through segmentation and content recommendations can create more engaged patients, more effective marketing campaigns and increased conversion rates. Today’s content management solutions make it easy for marketing staff to quickly create and deliver targeted content to the visitors who have the highest likelihood of responding. Explore the basics of segmentations, learn how to implement segments and targeted content on the Web, and hear ideaes for using personalization to support marketing objectives. (more…)

1:58:10 We’re still getting set up here in the presentation entitled Touring Healthcare’s Best Strategies and Sites. I think this presentation could be even more popular than the first presentation I attended, New Media Requires New Strategies. Should start here in a few minutes, so stay tuned.

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12:26:03 Bill Crounse, MD, Worldwide Health Director of Microsoft Corporation is presenting on The Future of Healthcare Delivery: 5 Trends That Will Shake the World. I look forward to this presentation with a double-edged sword: in one sense, it should be a very interesting presentation from an obviously reputable source. On the other hand, as a traditionalist, I tend to criticize many new media-based trends. We’ll see how this goes.

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10:45 Michael Gowan and Bart Hubbard from Duke Health (WebiScope members) are giving the presentation on incremental redesign approach to redesigning a website.

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