Today at The Civitas Networks for Health 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust Summit, I was fascinated by a session that looked at the importance of education and communication for healthcare organizations when it comes to encouraging adoption of technology. For example, this has been an important effort by DirectTrust when it comes to educating users of how and when direct messaging could be used. I was interested to hear what this panel had to say about their experience.
kicking off the “Education and Communication as a Catalyst for Technology Adoption” with @KAWickenhauser moderating a rock star panel. #Together4Health2022 pic.twitter.com/zB8YzA1y4D
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
One thing that intrigued me about this panel is that none of the panelists had marketing or PR titles. However, that’s exactly what they were doing. It illustrated first a lack of investment in marketing by many of them, but also how many of the people charged with marketing are also tasked with many other efforts as well.
The session started with this important question:
Technology is not the barrier to interoperability.
Do you agree or disagree? #hitsm #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg @civitas4health @KAWickenhauser
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
Their main answer to this question was this:
Technology is not the problem. Communicating the message is the key. #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
I think most in the industry agree that technology isn’t the problem anymore.
Then, they offered some ideas for how to communicate better.
When you communicate in a rural area like ours, your messaging has to be very different. -Anne Sanitizer #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
It’s easy to think that everyone is like us. Doing marketing that understands them, looks like them, and speaks the way they expect is a powerfully important lesson here.
Great idea from Katherine Lusk to add your direct address to your fax cover sheet. #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
Very practical idea to move from fax to direct messaging.
Great to see and hear examples of @SHAREarkansas using social media and an email newsletter to get the word out about the work they do. They get a lot of good engagement from their community on social. #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg pic.twitter.com/3QapsmS0Ab
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
Really cool example of simple efforts that can have a big impact. She also emphasized the need to keep it simple for their community.
I think @Colin_Hung would love @CommonWell using GIS to educate through storytelling and visualization. @liz_buckle would love to work with @Esri. Every HIE could benefit from overlaying their data with GIS to tell their story. #healthgis #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg pic.twitter.com/ZLpT1O6hsJ
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
Storytelling was highlighted as an important part of a successful communication plan. It’s amazing how quickly a visualization can tell a story as compared to text.
Liz Buckle added more color to this idea:
Figure out how to bridge the gap between data and stories. That’s really an art. @liz_buckle @CommonWell #Together4Health2022
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
That can be a challenging gap to bridge, but it’s essential to good communication.
We need more listening. We are experts, but we don’t know everything. Listening is important to know your end users’ needs. @SHAREarkansas #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
Listening is the key to finding good stories.
This last thought was a really powerful one when it comes to communication efforts:
You have to remember that life is a journey and that we’re going to continue to improve what we do over time. #Together4Health2022 @DirectTrustorg
Don’t wait on perfection.
— John Lynn (@techguy) August 23, 2022
It was clear that there was a real need for better marketing and communication for many of the projects HIEs were doing. It was nice to hear about some of the ideas that were working. It’s easy to get so caught up in the data and technology and forget how important the right communication and marketing plan can be for the success of these organizations.
John, great summary of an important session. Maybe a new track at #hitmc?
There seemed to be some interest in the overlap of marketing with HIEs. I could see some interop between Civitas/DirectTrust and HITMC.