Healthcare is arguably one of the most important aspects of life that you need to invest in. The pandemic has shown us how valuable it really is to be covered by a healthcare plan as well as insurance. For healthcare providers, now is the perfect time to encourage more people into availing healthcare packages before it is too late. However, marketing such products is easier said than done.

In 2019, 92% of people had health insurance coverage.  Private health insurance was availed by 68% of the population. Of the respondents, 34.1% got their health insurance just by that year. People are just more concerned with their health than ever and healthcare companies are taking notice.

The problem you need to solve now isn’t how you can attract people to get healthcare. They’re now already interested in it. Instead, the main problem is how you can attract people to avail your plans specifically considering that competition is tough within the healthcare industry. Here’s how you can execute a perfect marketing strategy for your healthcare offerings.

Plan Ahead

Any excellent marketing strategy starts with a plan. It’s even more important to plan ahead if you are hoping to lead to conversion healthcare marketing. Converting leads is one of your goals as you want to have more people picking your healthcare package over the others.

The strategic planning begins with you setting the target market. Pick a specific demographic instead of just going through the entire population. Next, you set up a schedule for the marketing materials you are going to produce and the platforms you are going to release those on.

If you want to get better results, you need to have a plan that you’ll stick with. It’s okay to veer from the strategy every once in a while but what’s important is that you stay on track of your schedule at all times.

Pick A Branding, Stick With It

Branding is important in every industry. It’s basically what helps people relate to your company which then helps them decide whether it’s good to choose you over the competition. As you proceed with your marketing strategy, you need to define your branding first, and you need to stick with it for as long as possible.

Are you a healthcare company offering affordable healthcare packages for the general public? Or are you a healthcare company offering premium packages for those with a little more to spend? You need to be specific when it comes to your branding. Ideally, it should be something that people will want to associate themselves with as well.

Study Feedback

One of the most important aspects of healthcare is reading through feedback and implementing the necessary changes on your package. It’s important that you get feedback as it helps you understand the gaps in your healthcare package. Once you determine what these gaps are, make them a key part of your marketing strategy so that people will be more interested and old clients will return.

Feedback can come in many forms. These can be through testimonies that you’ll post on your website. These could also be reviews that your customers will leave on your Facebook channel. What’s important is that others see these reviews and that you utilize it as well.

Reach Out Through Multiple Channels

It’s no longer viable to reach out to clients via one channel alone. The advent of social media has made it imperative that marketers need to use all available platforms if they want to get more leads and conversions. The same goes for healthcare companies who are reaching out to new clients.

According to dagmarmarketing.com, it’s a must that you have a website of course. The website should be the main hub for all the details that your clients need to know. Branch out into popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so that you have a wider reach.

Build Through Doctor Referrals

People are most likely to go to your healthcare package if it is referred to by medical professionals such as nurses and doctors. As early as possible, establish your rapport with doctors so that they have more reason to refer you to their patients. It’s a tried and tested form of marketing that can still help you out today.

The healthcare industry is growing more competitive than ever. With the pandemic still going on, companies are going to be more aggressive with their marketing strategies as well. If you want to stand out as a healthcare provider, then you need to be smarter with regard to how you approach your campaigns.

Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Capsule Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of medical device integration and data technologies for hospitals and healthcare organizations. Capsule’s Medical Device Information Platform – comprised of device integration, vital signs monitoring and clinical surveillance services – connects almost all existing medical devices and EMRs in hospitals through a vendor-neutral system. Capsule’s platform captures streaming clinical data and transforms it into actionable information for patient care management to enhance patient outcomes, improve collaboration between care teams, streamline clinical workflows and increase productivity.

The acquisition of Capsule is a strong fit with Philips’ strategy to transform the delivery of care along the health continuum with integrated solutions. Philips’ current portfolio already includes real-time patient monitoring, therapeutic devices, telehealth, informatics and interoperability solutions. The combination of Philips’ industry-leading portfolio with Capsule’s leading Medical Device Information Platform, connected through Philips’ secure vendor-neutral cloud-based HealthSuite digital platform, will greatly enrich and scale Philips’ patient care management solutions for all care settings in the hospital, as well as remote patient care

“Integrated patient care management solutions supported by essential real-time patient data and AI are core to our strategy to improve patient outcomes and care provider productivity by seamlessly connecting care,” said Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader Connected Care at Royal Philips. “The acquisition of Capsule will further expand our patient care management offering. We look forward to integrating our strengths, adding a vendor-neutral medical device integration platform that further unlocks the power of medical device data to enhance patient monitoring and management, improve collaboration and streamline workflows in the ICU, as well as other care settings in the hospital and beyond its walls.”

“We are very excited to become part of Philips and step up on our goal of empowering clinicians with simplified workflows and timely, actionable insights,” said Hemant Goel, CEO of Capsule Technologies. “Together, we will be even better positioned to liberate, aggregate, analyze, and share clinical data from connected devices that will support clinicians making more informed decisions, and ultimately drive the transformation from reactive care to insight-driven, proactive care delivery.”

Founded in 1997, Capsule is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts in the U.S., and serves over 2,800 hospitals and healthcare organizations in 40 countries across the world. Capsule’s innovations are developed by strong R&D teams in the U.S. and France. In 2020, the company achieved sales of over USD 100 million with strong double-digit sales growth. The majority of sales is related to recurring software-as-a-service and licensing revenues. The acquisition will be accretive to Philips sales growth and Adjusted EBITA margin in 2021.

Philips will acquire Capsule for a cash consideration of USD 635 million (approximately EUR 530 million). The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory clearances in relevant jurisdictions outside of the U.S. Through an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have already confirmed that they allow the transaction to be completed. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. Capsule and its approximately 300 employees will become part of Philips’ Connected Care segment.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.

Medtronic plc, the global leader in medical technology, announced the first enrollment in ADAPT-PD (Adaptive DBS Algorithm for Personalized Therapy in Parkinson’s Disease), its trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Adaptive deep brain stimulation is an investigational feature of the Percept™ PC device that could be enabled if approved. The investigational feature used in this study allows for automated adjustment of brain stimulation to provide therapy to manage symptoms of Parkinson’s disease based on a patient’s clinical state.

The randomized study will take place across 12 study sites at leading Movement Disorders research centers in the United States, Europe, and Canada. An estimated 36 subjects will undergo a total evaluation period of 15 months. The primary endpoint of ADAPT-PD will compare standard continuous DBS (cDBS) to aDBS for hours of ‘On’ time without troublesome dyskinesias, a measure of treatment efficacy versus side effects, as reported by patient diary. Qualifying subjects in the study will receive cDBS at baseline followed by randomized evaluation of two different aDBS algorithms in a blinded manner.

Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart, the John E. Cahill Family Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University and who is the North American principal investigator for the ADAPT-PD study, enrolled the first patient at the Stanford Movement Disorders Center. Dr. Bronte-Stewart and her collaborators previously laid the foundation for ADAPT-PD by performing the first closed loop deep brain stimulation studies in Parkinson’s disease using an investigational prototype research-only system (Activa™ PC+S-Nexus D3). ADAPT-PD represents an evolutionary leap from these early studies in that sensing of brain signals and automated adjustment of stimulation are performed by using unlocked investigational features of the commercially available Percept PC DBS device, allowing patients in the study to be both treated and measured while outside the clinic.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, more than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease and while similar, the progression of symptoms is often different from one patient to another due to the diversity of the disease. People with PD may experience tremor; slowness of movements (bradykinesia); limb rigidity; gait and balance challenges.

DBS is a well-established, safe and effective therapy for the treatment of motor symptoms in PD, including tremor (shaking); slowed movement (bradykinesia); and stiffness (rigidity) when medications aren’t as effective as they used to be. Opportunities exist to improve the efficacy of DBS therapy. Current commercially-approved DBS systems deliver stimulation continuously (cDBS) and are adjusted manually within physician-defined limits to optimize therapy for the patient. In contrast, aDBS therapy may individualize and optimize PD therapy for the same motor symptoms as with cDBS by automatically adjusting stimulation within physician-defined limits, based on brain signals detected by the DBS system. ADAPT-PD will be using the Percept PC DBS system with investigational aDBS feature. While the aDBS feature is investigational and has not been approved for commercial use, the Percept PC device (cDBS) was approved by the FDA in June 2020. The Percept PC device (cDBS) utilizes proprietary BrainSense™ technology making it the only DBS system with the ability to capture patient-specific brain signals. The sensing feature of the Percept PC system is intended for use in patients receiving DBS where chronically-recorded bioelectric data may provide useful, objective information regarding patient clinical status. Clinical benefits of brain sensing have not been established.

“Percept PC was developed with a significant amount of capabilities built into its system. We see this technology evolving to deliver even more value over time. The recently initiated ADAPT-PD is the first trial to gather clinical evidence to unlock those capabilities,” said Mike Daly, vice president and general manager of the Brain Modulation business, which is reported as part of the Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic. “Additionally, stimulation adjusted based on patient need, aDBS, could reduce total power output and possibly extend the life of the device.”

Medtronic is a pioneer in DBS, developing a small, pacemaker-like device, placed under the skin of the chest or abdomen, to send electronic signals to an area in the brain that controls movement. DBS may help control movement symptoms associated with PD when medications are no longer as effective as they used to be. To date, more than 175,000 patients have been implanted with Medtronic DBS devices for management of Parkinson’s symptoms and other conditions such as Essential Tremor, Epilepsy, Dystonia and OCD.

“aDBS technology will allow DBS to be responsive in real-time, communicating with the patient’s brain, as needed – which could reduce the amount of programming burden on a clinician,” added Professor Andrea Kühn, head of Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation, Charité University Hospital, Berlin. Professor Kühn is one of the leading scientists on electrophysiological markers for PD and designers of the ADAPT study; her team at the Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin implanted the first Percept PC DBS patient in the world.

About Medtronic
Medtronic plc , headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is among the world’s largest medical technology, services and solutions companies – alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world. Medtronic employs more than 90,000 people worldwide, serving physicians, hospitals and patients in more than 150 countries. The company is focused on collaborating with stakeholders around the world to take healthcare Further, Together.

Nuance Communications, Inc. launched an AI-powered patient engagement virtual assistant platform to transform voice and digital experiences across the patient journey. Combining decades of healthcare expertise with award-winning intelligent engagement technology trusted by 85 percent of the Fortune 100 companies worldwide, the advanced platform integrates and extends the capabilities of the electronic health record (EHR), customer relationship management (CRM), and Patient Access Center systems to enable healthcare provider organizations to modernize their ‘digital front door’ and improve clinical care.

Patients are demanding the same conveniences from healthcare organizations that they enjoy from major consumer brands. A recent survey reveals that consumers are ready for digital changes such as telemedicine options (44%), digital forms and communication (41%), and touchless check-in (37%). What’s more, 68% value a customized patient experience. In fact, a poor digital health experience caused more than a quarter of patients to change medical providers in 2020 — up 40 percent from 2019.

Leveraging the same conversational AI technology that leading consumer brands such as Albertsons, Best Buy, Humana, H&M, and Rakuten trust to drive their consumer experience and healthcare information technology leaders such Epic and Cerner use to power their provider facing virtual assistant solutions, Nuance’s patient engagement platform now enables healthcare provider organizations to deliver world-class patient experiences.

“Nuance’s omnichannel patient engagement platform represents a new integrated philosophy for enabling healthcare’s digital front door and a well-thought-out, well-implemented, and highly-practical solution for delivering an enhanced level of digital services to patients,” said Stephanie Lahr, MD, chief information officer and chief medical information officer, Monument Health. “As Nuance has already demonstrated with its clinician-facing healthcare solutions, the company is now bringing its AI technology to bear to help solve the pressing challenges that healthcare organizations face with patient engagement – improving the overall patient experience and driving better clinical outcomes while at the same time enhancing the financial performance of the organization during these transformative times.”

Nuance’s new patient engagement platform provides an array of leading capabilities and business outcomes including:

• Seamless, consistent and unified omnichannel experiences – Unlike competitive solutions, Nuance’s technology enables healthcare organizations to deploy a single unified virtual assistant/bot platform to manage patient engagement across voice, web, mobile, messenger and smart speaker/IoT interactions. No longer do healthcare organizations need to purchase, integrate, deploy and maintain separate siloed virtual assistant/bot systems for their voice (IVR), web, mobile/SMS and smart speaker/IoT devices to deliver natural, user-friendly and high-performing patient engagement applications that patients love.
• Integrates and extends capabilities of core systems infrastructure – Nuance’s platform integrates into and extends the capabilities of the healthcare organization’s key clinical, financial, customer and telephony systems including the EHR, Patient Financial systems, CRM and patient access center (call center) telephony infrastructure. Enables more personalized and engaging experiences for patients and higher automation rates and lower costs for healthcare organizations.
• Provides “out-of-the-box” solutions and an advanced Do-It-Yourself (DIY) development tool – With Nuance’s patient engagement platform, clients can utilize prepackaged applications that meet specific pain points around patient access, patient support, virtual care and messaging, work with Nuance to develop custom applications or use Nuance Mix to build their own DIY platform solution.
  Proven business outcomes – Based on more than 20 years of enterprise-class deployments with the largest brands in the world, Nuance’s leading omnichannel customer engagement platform has helped companies achieve results including a 42% reduction in agent handle time, 85% first contact resolution, and greater than 50% improvement in customer satisfaction.
• Advanced and unified data analytics – Enables organizations to monitor, assess, and react to service performance metrics and identify improvement opportunities across channels.
  Runs on Microsoft Azure for high reliability, security and performance – Built on top of the Microsoft Azure HITRUST CSF-certified cloud platform.

“Our new omnichannel Patient Engagement Virtual Assistant Platform takes a holistic approach to powering healthcare’s new digital front door, overcoming the shortcomings and inconsistencies of partial point solutions,” said Peter Durlach, Senior Vice President, Strategy and New Business Development, Nuance. “By marrying the capabilities of our healthcare experience and the proven omnichannel customer engagement technology trusted by Fortune 100 companies worldwide, we can help address the urgent need of providers and patients alike to transform access to, and delivery of, care in the modern age of digital medicine.”

About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications is a technology pioneer with market leadership in conversational AI and ambient intelligence. A full-service partner trusted by 90 percent of U.S. hospitals and 85 percent of the Fortune 100 companies worldwide, Nuance creates intuitive solutions that amplify people’s ability to help others.

Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Modernizing Medicine announced it has acquired orthopedics electronic health records (EHR) vendor Exscribe. The acquisition brings together two of the healthcare industry’s leading, all-in-one orthopedic EHR vendors with a shared mission of increasing practice efficiency by transforming how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized.

With a commitment to streamlining practice operations through intuitive, customizable solutions that adapt to orthopedist’s workflows, Modernizing Medicine and Exscribe will work together to accelerate innovation and bring to market advanced EHR, practice management, and technology solutions intended to improve physician efficiency, reduce burnout, and support value-based care.

“Exscribe and Modernizing Medicine have a shared commitment to customer success and improving patient outcomes and we are excited to work together to leverage our combined orthopedics expertise to move the industry forward,” said Dan Cane, CEO of Modernizing Medicine. “Both companies were founded on the belief that the best EHRs are built specialty specific ‘by physicians, for physicians,’ and that product excellence is a direct reflection of the strength of our team. With that, we are excited to welcome the talented individuals at Exscribe to the Modernizing Medicine family and are confident that we can leverage our combined expertise to enhance and grow our solutions to meet the needs of customers of virtually any size and orthopedic specialization.”

Exscribe was founded in 2000 by nationally-renowned orthopedic surgeon Ranjan Sachdev, MD, MBA, CHC, who was looking for a better way to manage his orthopedic practice. Working with a team of orthopedists and IT professionals, Dr. Sachdev developed the Exscribe Orthopaedic EHR, which today is among the leading specialty-specific healthcare technology solutions available. Leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence, Exscribe’s EHR is intuitive, enabling orthopedists to use one-click treatment plans for specific conditions, including orders for surgery and therapy, prescriptions, patient education, referral letters, and more. Exscribe Founder and CEO, Dr. Sachdev and other members of the Exscribe team will be joining Modernizing Medicine, and through the increased scale and combined expertise, both companies intend to continue providing world-class technology solutions and support to orthopedic customers.

“Modernizing Medicine is known for its state of the art web based offerings, growing presence in the orthopedics space and commitment to working with customers to build solutions that meet the needs of orthopedists and their office staff,” said Dr. Sachdev. “Existing Exscribe customers will experience very few immediate changes. In the long term, we look forward to leveraging the decades of expertise from both companies to build fully interoperable EHR technologies that solve administrative inefficiencies and promote orthopedic excellence.”

Modernizing Medicine’s top-rated specialty-specific orthopedic electronic health records (EHR) system, EMA® Orthopedics, has been named the number one EHR in orthopedics for three consecutive years by Black Book™. The mobile-, touch- and cloud-based solution was designed to help orthopedic physicians move through exams and procedures efficiently. The modmed® Orthopedics suite of products includes Practice Management, Business Operations Services, Analytics and patient engagement tools, as well as modmed Telehealth.

About Modernizing Medicine

Modernizing Medicine and its affiliated companies empower healthcare providers and medical practices with a suite of solutions designed to transform how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized to increase practice efficiency and improve patient outcomes. The award-winning healthcare technology company works with providers nationwide in the specialties of dermatology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, gastroenterology, pain management and urology, as well as ambulatory surgery centers. Modernizing Medicine and its affiliated companies provide a suite of solutions including the electronic health records (EHR) system, EMA®, and the GI-specific EHR, gGastro®. The healthcare suite includes Practice Management, Business Operations Services, Analytics, payment processing services and patient engagement tools such as telehealth. Built with the help of on-staff practicing physicians, the all-in-one EHR systems help provide a more complete picture into the clinical, operational and financial aspects of specialty medical practices with the goal of helping practices focus even more of their time on patient care.

Teladoc Health, Inc., the first and only comprehensive virtual care system, and DexCom, Inc., the leader in real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), announced that joint Livongo for Diabetes and Dexcom members will now receive CGM-powered insights, a new set of features and reports that help members more easily visualize their health information and understand how lifestyle decisions affect their blood glucose levels. By combining Dexcom CGM data with additional signals from Teladoc Health, including activity data and food intake, CGM-powered insights offer members a complete health profile and recommendations that support ongoing diabetes management. In January of 2020, Livongo, which merged with Teladoc Health in October, and Dexcom announced the first phase of their strategic relationship, a data sharing agreement for Livongo for Diabetes members using Dexcom CGM technology.

“Teladoc Health’s partnership with Dexcom further empowers whole person health through an innovative combination of advanced technology and human expertise,” said Amar Kendale, chief product officer of Teladoc Health. “Our focus is to offer a consumer experience that makes it easy, safe and affordable for people to manage their health with confidence. We are excited about our continued work with Dexcom and new features that enable smarter care, leading to measurable consumer behavior change and better health outcomes.”

To that end, Teladoc Health and Dexcom will launch a pilot demonstrating the impact of CGM-powered insights for people with Type 2 diabetes. Eligible members will receive an integrated product experience, including the Livongo for Diabetes program, Dexcom CGM technology and CGM-powered insights at no cost. Through the pilot, members will access a new experience that contextualizes their health data and trends with the mutual goal of better health outcomes. Teladoc Health and Dexcom intend to launch the pilot more broadly throughout 2021.

“We are excited to announce the next phase of our relationship with Teladoc Health, along with launching a commercial pilot demonstrating how Dexcom’s leading CGM combined with Teladoc Health’s data science capabilities enhance the diabetes management experience,” said Matt Dolan, senior vice president and general manager of new markets for Dexcom. “We have received powerful feedback from people with Type 2 diabetes using our technology, and through additional innovative product features, we fully anticipate that we will deliver an even greater impact.”

It is estimated that 463 million adults around the world live with diabetes[1], a number expected to rise to 700 million by 2045. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular physical activity, weight management, and improved blood pressure management are important factors for preventing diabetes-related complications[2].

About Teladoc Health

Teladoc Health empowers all people everywhere to live their healthiest lives by transforming the healthcare experience. As the world leader in whole-person virtual care, Teladoc Health uses proprietary health signals and personalized interactions to drive better health outcomes across the full continuum of care, at every stage in a person’s health journey. Ranked best in KLAS for Virtual Care Platforms in 2020, Teladoc Health leverages more than a decade of expertise and data-driven insights to meet the growing virtual care needs of consumers and healthcare professionals. For more information, please visit www.teladochealth.com or follow @TeladocHealth on Twitter.

CVS Health recently introduced the Symphony medical alert system to help caregivers monitor the safety and well-being of loved ones, even from afar.

This collection of in-home and wearable devices offers a new at-home experience by connecting a suite of sensors that can monitor for falls, motion, and room temperature while also providing a 24/7 personal emergency response platform for use when needed. Symphony is designed to support the growing number of seniors choosing to maintain an independent lifestyle at home, as well as those involved in their care.

“We’re committed to helping consumers on their path to better health and new consumer health innovations like Symphony can help give caregivers peace of mind as they monitor a loved one’s safety and well-being through a truly differentiated connected health approach,” said Adam Pellegrini, SVP of Enterprise Virtual Care & Consumer Health at CVS Health.

The center of the Symphony ecosystem is the voice-activated Smart Hub which enables hands-free calls with caregivers or emergency responders, while also monitoring motion, temperature, and air quality within the home.

Symphony features a free app for caregivers that provides alerts for falls or other emergencies and assists with facilitating care coordination. Additionally, smart algorithms within the app track and alert caregivers when normal conditions, such as average room temperature or air quality, are disrupted, suggesting when the caregiver may want to check in with their loved one.

Designed to fit a family’s specific needs and adapt to a variety of homes, two easy-to-use Symphony device options are available: the Basic Bundle and Essential Bundle. While both systems come equipped with the Smart Hub and a wearable care button, the Essential Bundle also includes motion sensors and a voice-activated Fall Sensor to automatically detect falls in the bathroom, where the majority of accidents occur. Complementary devices are available for both bundles if desired, including additional motion sensors to extend the range of coverage in larger homes, and entry sensors for use on doors, cabinets or windows.

Pricing starts at $149.99 for the Symphony Basic Bundle and $249.99 for the Essential Bundle. A monthly service fee is required, although no long-term contract is needed to activate. Once activated, each Symphony bundle can help support safety at home as well as in the event of an emergency. Customers can find Symphony available now at CVS HealthHUB® locations or online at cvs.com/symphony.

About CVS Health

CVS Health is a different kind of health care company. We are a diversified health services company with nearly 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing health care to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model engages one in three Americans each year. From our innovative new services at HealthHUB® locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making health care more accessible, more affordable and simply better.