Okay, get “prepped” for this. The Pink Glove Dance goes Colonoscopy. Humor is tricky to carry off, but Dr. Rosenfeld of Simi Valley, California, nails it. This proctologist’s Bowel Prep Shuffle (remix of Pitbull’s Give Me Everything), will have you laughing out loud. Especially if you’ve ever had a colonoscopy. 

Irreverent? No, a brilliant healthcare marketing strategy using humor to break down barriers and lessen patient discomfort in discussing a difficult topic. All the while making the doc seem more like a “real person”.

I will say no more, except you need to watch this. And share in honor of Colon Cancer Awareness Month.

Dr. Oz is all abuzz and excited about a health and wellness social media platform – Sharecare – that launched in 2010 by the founder of WebMD, saying it is the “Facebook of health information”.

Sharecare claims to be a social media platform that allows people to ask/learn and act upon question of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice. So, I decided to check it out to see if there was any truth to his claim.

I began my experience by asking a common health question:

I was surprised and impressed with the simple, easy to understand answers that could be filtered by contributor:

Within each answer, users can rate if they felt the answer was helpful. But, out of the 4 searches I did, no one had actually rated any of the answers. 

I also noticed that many of the topics and questions that I searched came back with little or no answers.

I then tried the “experts and people” section:

You can search for experts, people or organizations. I began my search for an “expert” in family medicine in my zip code. My results were less than successful. While a lot of results appeared, none of them had actually been updated by the practice/doctor to include any information that would make my search easier. Instead, it was generic listings of family practice doctors. No reviews, no ratings, this was info I could have found simple by starting at Google.

The “topics” section kept giving me an error, so I was unable to review that.

The “videos” section also left much to be desired.  It was confusing and seemed very generic. Even the categories available seemed limited.

Then I moved onto the Health Reference section – which to me was by far the most impressive section of the entire site.

You could easily search articles, research a drug, look of symptoms, browse treatment options, they even have a “pill identifier” if you don’t know what something is. I tried all of the searches out and was happy with the results.

Overall, my opinion stands that Sharecare had potential of making health information searches easy, but not with their limited network. They really need to do some heavy marketing and pitching to doctors/practices/etc. to expand their reach.

Also, based on the Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released their Health Online 2013 report, a lot of the facts support the fact that the direction of the social media platform may not be the best idea:

• 8 in 10 health inquiries start at a search engine, only 1% of people say they start their search on a social network.
• Only 1 in 5 internet users have consulted online reviews/rankings of health care services or treatments.
• People are less likely to post a review of a treatment/hospital/clinician, only 3-4% have done so.

What are your thoughts on Sharecare?  Have you seen any other healthcare social media platforms that you think are worth sharing?

Pinterest, the virtual online pin board, seems to be the most recent trend that is starting to catch on in the healthcare world. It’s so new that even the trendsetters – Mayo Clinic, Children’s Hospital of Boston, etc. – only just launched their pages. With that, we thought it would be helpful to do a list of the top trends that we have seen from some of the hospital social leaders, and give examples in order to get some direction and inspiration to get started.

Top Trends of Hospitals on Pinterest:

1. Recipes – During our research, we noticed that recipe boards were being repinned the most frequently. While many hospitals seem to be repurposing other user’s content to fill their recipe boards, Mayo Clinic has been developing and posting many of their own recipes, which is a unique way to help position themselves as a leader in health.
   
2. Fitness – The majority of hospital pages on Pinterest have fitness boards. This is another area in which Mayo Clinic is doing really well as they are posting fitness tips and videos from their health experts directly on mayoclinic.com.
3. Hospital spaces/design – Pinterest really is one of the best places to visually get across the idea of your brand, image and your hospital. This naturally means we see the masses using their boards to showcase their hospital layout, décor, etc. Check out these cool images from Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
   
4. Clinical Areas – Specialty hospitals are focusing on having boards per specialty area. We think Cleveland Clinic’s boards for Colon Cancer are a great example of hospitals focuses on clinical areas. They do a really nice job of visually presenting data, info and background for someone interested in that key area.
5. Patient Stories – People love real stories, and a patient story board allows viewers to feel that emotional side of your brand. Dayton Children’s Medical Center has a great example with their Miracle Stories board that also includes videos. This board is a true testament of how to get users engaged with your boards.
6. Hospital Facts – The Cleveland Clinic has done a really nice job putting together some infographics about their system’s hard facts; quick and witty, making it actually interesting to learn about the hospital.
   
7. Health Infographics - We think this is one of the greatest trends and most helpful for people, hospitals are building infographics simply put for health purposes. Scripps Health has some nice examples; love the when to call 9-1-1, when to visit urgent care vs. er, signs of a stroke, things that make life easier, visually.
8. Safety Tips – We also noticed the majority of hospitals included some type of variation of a board dedicated to safety tips. We really like how some of the infographics make it easy to understand the information. Nationwide Kids has a great example of a safety board.

If you are just starting to think about creating a Pinterest page for your hospital, hopefully these trends give you a good base for your core boards. Also, note that it’s important to continuously add content, so pin and re-pin as often as you can. A good rule of thumb is to re-pin 4 times per day.

Have you seen any other trends or good examples of hospitals on Pinterest?

Music heals the body and soul. Which is why I think Mount Sinai Hospital Chicago’s new “Sounds of Sinai” fundraising innovation is really cool. It’s also cool that anyone can participate. You simply upload a video of your music performance (no matter how off-key and silly you may appear), let your peeps know, and voila, pledges for the hospital start coming in. All performances, including “favorites” and “highest pledged” are viewable on the soundsofsinai.org site. This is the springboard for sharing to other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

The competition, spunk and goodwill make for a great internal morale and team booster for any level of hospital employee, from security guard to doctor. And what an inspiring opportunity for the whole Chicago community -  kids, parents, church groups, school choirs, employers. It's totally inclusive, allowing anyone to raise money for this leading inner city healthcare provider.

Earvin Magic Johnson, a strong supporter of the Chicago urban healthcare community, is the spokesperson and was the first to sing, with his own rendition of The Temptation's "My Girl" . But he's not even in first place! Take a look at the current leading video below (with over $1000 pledged). It's something you could imagine doing with your friends and colleagues.

The spirit and creativity displayed with Sounds of Sinai makes me feel good about this hospital. How about you?