November 19, 2008

Healthcare and New Media: Case Study

Wayne Glowac

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/humana/?ndmViewId=news_view&news...

Humana Inc. in Lousiville, Kentucky is jumping on the new media train. Take a look at their website. It features some simple ways to integrate new media into a program to encourage more patient participation.

What’s unique about this kind of approach is that the healthcare provider is making communication a two-way street. Humana has insight into its consumers – that patients don’t necessarily understand healthcare. So, instead of just telling them what Humana wants them to hear, they are encouraging a two-way discussion about care in general. Smart strategy!

Social Media Assists With Healthcare

Humana is a pioneer to implement new media practices into their patient communications.

Today, even small cities are connecting with their audiences. Take the city of Round Rock, Texas. Using Twitter, they get reports from local citizens on what's happening around town. Stoplight out? Local citizen "tweets" to the city and they jump on the problem. They engage and endear the community with a Flickr.com account where the townspeople post pictures of what's happening in their neighborhood on a Round rock Flickr account for all the share.

Humana, Inc. use of the new social media resources will find it's not only a great public relations resource, engaging with their patients will encourage and reveal new ways to provide a higher quality of patient care. Hopefully other healthcare providers will follow their example.

Arleen Anderson
Kaneohe, Hawaii
http://www.AlohaArleen.com