THE GROWTH OF TELEMEDICINE IN WOMEN'S HEALTHCARE MARKETING

• This trend is an innovative way that gives health care professionals an option to "evaluate, diagnose and treat patients at a distance" using telecommunications technology.
• According to statistics from a study that analyzed 383,565 telemedicine visits by 217,851 patients, women were more inclined to use telemedicine services than men, with female patients making up 63% of patients using telemedicine.

• Telemedicine has been widely used by healthcare providers as this provides more convenience and increases their efficiency, which is a key consideration factor for consumers.
• Healthcare providers are becoming aware that telehealth will speed up the pace of healthcare delivery. Most healthcare providers test telecommunication with one department, but recently, more providers are diving in system-wide.

•  Johns Hopkins Medicine: Johns Hopkins Medicine has demonstrated the growth of telemedicine by expanding their telemedicine service. Their new telemedicine innovation includes using a "custom-made telemedicine cart to examine a patient in the Emergency Department (ED) which is going to help off-site clinicians assess patients and initiate care." The hospital's pediatric cardiologists also use telecommunications to remotely monitor "irregular heartbeats in fetuses of mothers."
•  Children's Hospital Colorado: Children's Hospital Colorado has demonstrated the growth of telemedicine specific to Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Program to patients across the country and on the Western Slope. Women can access the services of fetal cardiologists and maternal-fetal medicine experts without the need to cross the Continental Divide.

THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN WOMEN HEALTHCARE MARKETING

• This trend involves leveraging social media channels to connect with patients in order to build the brand, increase sales, and improve website traffic.
• This also involves posting compelling content, interacting with social media followers, running ads, and analyzing results.
• According to some studies, women are more active on social media than men.

• Social media marketing is widely used by healthcare providers making the US healthcare industry more transparent.
• Statistically, 60% of doctors are of the opinion that social media enhances the quality of patient care; 66% of doctors used social media for professional purposes; 31% healthcare professionals perform professional networking on social media; and 22% of patients rely on Facebook for medical answers.

•  Shenandoah Women's Healthcare: Shenandoah Women's Healthcare has demonstrated the use of social media marketing by posting and sharing upcoming events specific to women like National Midwifery week and Annual Breast Cancer event in their Facebook page. Additionally, they also shared some ways to support a mom and the services they offered specific to women.
•  Center for Women's Health: Center for Women's Health has demonstrated the use of social media marketing by posting a video presentation of one of their OB/GYN that demonstrate his skills in the service in their social media platform. Additionally, they also share information and tips specific to women’s health, like birth control for either pregnancy prevention or menstrual control.

RESEARCH STRATEGY:

Use of Chatbots

About the Trend

• The use of chatbots in healthcare marketing is becoming popular in 2019. Chatbots allow healthcare providers to leverage artificial intelligence to provide immediate and effective patient support through apps or websites, enabling a quick and seamless patient experience.
• It also helps healthcare providers offer 24/7 appointment scheduling online, and "31% of patients stated that they would choose a healthcare provider, solely based on if they offered online appointment scheduling."

Why This is a Trend

• The use of chatbots is being widely adopted by healthcare practitioners in 2019.
• In addition, recent trend reports from several healthcare sources such as Yourstory, Get Referral MD, Circulation, Medical Futurist, and Modern Healthcare.

Examples of Trends by Healthcare Players

•  Chatbots are also being adopted by healthcare players that are focused on women, with chatbots such as SafedrugBot being adopted by "healthcare practitioners dealing with pregnant and breastfeeding women."
•  Izzy is another chatbot being employed by women healthcare marketers to improve the patient experience as it is designed to help women track their menstrual period and find related resources, especially as some women may be reluctant to share such information with another person.
• Bots4Health is another chatbot focused on "helping young women access information about their sexual and reproductive health."
• Conversa Health developed a "chatbot that helps patients prepare for a colonoscopy" and there is also a "Cancer Chatbot is helpful to patients undergoing chemotherapy by sharing with them tips and tricks."

Geo-Fencing Marketing

•  Geo-fencing is about using GPS technology and other means to target people at a particular location for a marketing campaign and it has been identified as a healthcare marketing trend in 2019.
• Healthcare marketers are finding that they can target people visiting similar health facilities as theirs or competitors in their vicinity in order to get such people to visit their clinics. "Geo-fencing leverages GPS signals to identify where an individual is located, so when a patient with a smartphone enters the fenced area and uses their device, an ad will pop up tailored to the location."
• It is even more priceless because it can also get them to target a specific demographic, and marketers are already taking advantage of it. However, as the marketing trend keeps gaining ground, there have also been privacy concerns that healthcare marketers have to navigate.

Why This is a Trend

•  Geo-fencing is becoming more popular among healthcare marketers in 2019 and more are expected to embrace it in the coming years.
• The trend was identified as a key trend by various independent healthcare marketing trend reports such as Yourstory, Healthcare Success, MDG Advertising, Evariant, and Lyfe Marketing.

Examples of Trends by Healthcare Players

• RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics is one of the popular healthcare players that have adopted this form of marketing to reach "young women aged 18-24 who had searched online for information about abortion and--here's the geo-fencing part--who were also near one of 140 reproductive health centers and methadone clinics included in the ad campaign."
•  Bethany Christian Services also used geo-fencing to target women going into reproductive health clinics.
•  Smith and Jones reported that they are running a geo-fencing campaign a hospital client that is showing a 0.31% click-through rate (CTR) on display compared to their standard geo-targeting display ads at 0.08%.
•  Acquisio also describes a geo-fencing campaign they conducted for a US hospital where they used geo-fencing to target all clinics within a 50-mile radius of the hospital and displayed in-app ads while the patients waited. The campaign resulted in a "CTR of 0.18% which was higher than the 0.10% goal of the campaign."

Your Research Team Employed the Following Strategy: