touch point podcast

Live from the National Harbor in Maryland, host Reed Smith passes the baton to Chris Boyer, who shares field reporting from the annual Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development 2022. With short yet insightful interviews with Ed Bennett of Martech. Health, Justin Wartell of Monigle, Reba Thompson of WriterGirl, Jeff Speer of Revive Agency, Jessica Walker of Care Sherpa and Greg Gossett...

As health systems continue to evolve their online patient experience efforts, more and more are focusing on developing a “digital healthcare ecosystem.” In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the concept of the Digital Healthcare Ecosystem (DHE), how it’s defined, how it differs from a Digital Front Door and the benefits that health systems can gain when launching this type of p...

For anyone in healthcare, the rise of health misinformation has become quite a concern. It is only exacerbated by the rise of social media platforms, and the ability to spread and amplify the content online is disturbing. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the challenges of health misinformation, how front line healthcare workers are responding and how we can leverage these...

Hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the latest Pew Research study that shows a remarkable shift in how teens are using social media and technology, and discuss how this is a bellwether for how hospitals and health systems need to shift their approaches to reach future generations seeking healthcare. They even share examples of how leading health systems are shifting the marketing and communic...

In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss how digital health and digital marketing solutions can help address the “triple aim” - improving patient experience, improving population health and reducing healthcare’s costs. They also share the five main traps healthcare organizations should avoid, to prevent them from falling into “digital myopia.” Mentions from the Show: The Future of...

In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss how the rise of the recommendation engines in social media is potentially hastening the end of social media as we know it. From discussing the impacts of influencers on the innovation of social media platforms, to the overwhelming need to engage in social media advertising to stay relevant in the sea of social media content, the way hospita...

Health systems across the United States are feeling a number of pressures that are impacting the industry today, including very narrow margins, elevated labor costs and shifts in patient patterns. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss how these challenges are impacting hospitals and share how marketing and IT are shifting their strategies to embrace these changes. Alan Shoebrid...

Four years ago, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discussed the impacts that the “disruptive healthcare trifecta” - Google, Facebook and Amazon - were predicted to have on the industry. In this episode, they reflect back on how these organizations have evolved and changed their strategies. They cover Google Health’s recent announcement of expanding the AI capabilities to organize patient data, Face...

Health systems face significant challenges in today’s age when developing first-party data strategies. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the need for digital marketers to adopt a data first strategy, including prioritizing data security and understanding the various different data security laws being implemented across the United States. They are joined by Jeremy Rogers of...

In this episode, Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the concept of the “Digital Front Door” (again) and really attempt to define it and outline the various technologies and approaches that comprise typical health system front door initiatives. Ben Dillon shares his expertise in the “Ask the Expert” segment of the show. Overall, they conclude that perhaps the challenge with trying to define the “Di...

For many health systems, digital transformation initiatives that began in the pandemic are starting to falter, which begs the question: why is digital transformation so difficult? In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer share insight on the seven skills that digital leaders need to have, the importance of embracing a shared governance model and how some digital transformation efforts are...

Recent news revealed that a number of hospital websites were found to have passed sensitive PII (personal identifiable information) to the Meta company via the use of the Facebook Pixel. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the importance of pixel tracking for digital marketers, how many websites encourage the use of tracking pixels and the legal and privacy concerns that aris...

Marketing and communications are sometimes considered the cornerstone of any business plan. However, for hospitals and health systems, often these disciplines are often treated as separate and distinct. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the differences (or similarities) between marketing and communications. They are joined by David Shiffrin of Jarrard Inc., who shares insig...

As health systems consider the needs of the modern healthcare consumer and reflect on how their current brand efforts align, it’s always important to understand our audiences. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss different audience segmentations. Justin Wartell from Monigle joins to share the latest findings from their 5th Annual Humanizing Brand Experience study.  Mentions fr...

The role of the health system CMO is changing - in both responsibilities and their mindset. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss how marketers need to embrace a “disruption mindset” (tip of the hat to Stephen Moegling), and the metamorphosis of the modern CMO. Laura Kreofsky from Pivot Point Consulting joins to share her insights on how Healthcare Retailization is forcing us t...

In this encore episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer are back to talking about ROI, and sharing the differences between true ROI, ROMI and ROAS - the three stepbrothers of marketing measurement. They share the basics of Marketing ROI to outlining the activities needed to measure marketing impacting and then are joined by Dan Small, Senior Director of Digital Strategy at Hartford HealthCare, wh...

In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith reflect back on the most recent Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategy Summit, and share insights and topics that were discussed including improving ways teams work together, approaches to digital transformation and content, as well as how to better engage our employees through communication and content. Kirsten Lecky from WriterGirl joins to...

Recorded live in Salt Lake City for the 27th Annual Healthcare Marketing and Physician’s Strategy summit, host Chris Boyer is joined by Vanessa Hill, of Beth Israel Lahey Health, Stephen Moegling from Hailey Sault, J.K. Llyod of Eruptr and Ahava Leibtag of Aha Media, where they share their reactions of what it’s like to finally attend a conference in person, the biggest challenges health systems f...

In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss some of the latest news and articles that impact our industry. They first discuss how marketers are returning to traditional advertising and share their perspective on why this represents a pendulum shift away from digital-only approaches. Next, they share tips on how health systems can begin to build their first-party data to improve their...

The trends in healthcare consumerism are leading organizations to introduce more self-service and choice. But how can health systems know when they are going too far? In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss how necessity is becoming the strongest consumer force, and they also discuss why too much choice might be a bad thing for healthcare consumerism. Steve Leibforth of Everyday...

Today, there are a myriad of ways that patients can share their experiences with hospitals and health systems online. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer focus on two systems: Yelp and HCAHPS and discuss their differences, and how organizations should view both in the larger scheme of measuring patient experience. Featuring an expert interview with B.G. Porter of the Studer Group in...

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are one of the most important tools healthcare marketers can adopt to understand the efficacy of their efforts, yet even in 2022 there is still a lot of confusion on how best to leverage this platform. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss if CRM solutions are keeping pace with our industry needs and share alarming findings on the...

For hospitals and health systems, digital transformation continues to prove difficult. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss Gartner predictions for digital transformation and tech leaders, and share the top five hurdles most organizations face with these initiatives. Tom Hileman of the Hileman Group joins to share important steps of the digital transformation journey including...

Almost universally, health systems, clinicians, and even patients agree that the health care system needs digital transformation. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the biggest opportunity for successful digital transformation and share the latest HMSS study on the state of digital healthcare. Shelli Pavone, CEO and Co-founder of Inlightened, shares her experience leading in...

The way healthcare is being delivered has significantly shifted over the past few years. The impact is being felt by every segment of the healthcare industry - from providers to payers to digital health. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss the latest digital trends to watch for and even ponder if this is a “bubble” that is about to burst. Ann Stadjuhar joins us to discuss her...