Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy: How Social Media and Mobile Apps Can Boost Health Outcomes - Hardcover

'An engaged patient is a healthier patient, yet patient-centered activities are just getting started. Affinito and Mack's book, offering extensive and practical advice about how to incorporate digital techniques into marketing and communication strategies, is a great introduction to this rapidly expanding focus. A "must read" for anyone involved with moving their organization toward integrated care.' Joel S. Weissman, Harvard Medical School, USA 'The past decade has ushered in challenges and opportunities for those seeking to use technology to optimize health and wellness on a broader scale. As patients increasingly embrace technology to learn, manage, and track their own health outcomes, providers and vendors seeking to engage or motivate consumers to take action (or change behavior) must embrace a patient-focused strategy within their overall marketing and communications strategy. Affinito and Mack provide a historical overview of the market trends as well as a future roadmap that is helpful to anyone charged with making the shift to patient-centered care today - and planning for what is possible tomorrow.' Mark Bard, Co-founder Digital Health Coalition 'My colleague and trusted friend John Mack, and his co-author, Letizia Affinito, have prescribed an end-to-end tome that serves as both "vaccine" and "novel treatment" to advance patient-centered digital communications. Their guidance informs and gives thoughtful consideration on how to design and create digital communication strategy, maintain relevance, and ultimately transform the conversation with the ultimate end-user of all of our work - the patient. In an increasingly commoditized industry sector, these profound insights proclaim the value of digital, mobile, and social, that no one engaged in health care should be without. Mack and Affinito have dispensed a patient-centered imperative embracing new media, methodologies, and messaging, inviting us each to reflect and accelerate this dynamic area of innovation and engagement.' Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., Managing Partner, AXON and editor emeritus of Journal of Communication in Healthcare '...cuts to the core of how [patient engagement] is an essential component of delivering positive outcomes and value to the healthcare market. To call this book a beginner's guide to patient engagement ... would do the experience of the authors and its content a disservice, because it has much greater depth. But it does nicely cover the basics of patient engagement, dispels some of the common myths and provides a simple framework for companies to follow.' Paul Tunnah, CEO & Founder of pharmaphorum media

Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy makes the case for a fundamentally new approach to healthcare communication; one that mobilizes patients, healthcare professionals and uses new media to enable gathering, sharing and communication of information to achieve patient-centricity and provide better value for both organizations (in terms of profit) and patients (in terms of better service and improved health). Letizia Affinito and John Mack focus on three priority areas for actions: Improving Health Literacy (e.g. web sites; targeted mass digital campaigns), Improving Self-care (e.g. self-management education; self-monitoring; self-treatment), Improving Patient Safety (e.g. adherence to treatment regimens; equipping patients for safer selfcare). The authors explain the healthcare context to the digital communications revolution; the emerging digital marketing and communications techniques that enable this revolution and the core elements behind a patient-driven digital strategy. Drawing on the authors’ research and consulting practices, as well as on the practical experience of managers in medium-large companies worldwide, the book provides a proven framework for improving the development and implementation of patient-centered digital communication programs in healthcare organizations. It is an engaging how-to/how-not-to book which includes tips, advice, and critical reviews that every stakeholder dealing with the healthcare system must have in order to participate in the evolving healthcare system and be more active in making strategic patient-centered choices. Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy includes interviews with experts and leading case histories of successful digital communication programs in the healthcare arena. While there are books that focus on specific healthcare communicators within different types of organizations, in their book the authors recognize that effective patient-centric communication crosses all organizational boundar