Health Care

INDUSTRY FACTSHEET

Copyright © 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.

Industry Overview

The health care industry is comprised of hospitals, doctor offices, emergency units, nursing homes and social services providers. Demand for such services is largely driven by the particular region’s demographics and advances in care and technology. Typically, customers of this industry are individuals requiring routine check-ups, urgent medical care, long term nursing home care, day care, or social services. The marketing initiatives within this sector vary significantly, depending on the type of service. Although doctors still primarily rely on traditional print ads or word-of-mouth referrals, an increasing number of physicians incorporate websites and blogs to reach their existing and/or potential clientele and patients. On a larger spectrum, hospitals typically target doctors, and insurers via medical presentations, brochures, magazine or newspaper advertisements, press releases, TV and informative website.

Business Challenges

Considering the rising costs of international health care and the sociological nature of today, this industry faces unique and diverse challenges.

¾ Controlling Rising Costs: With an aging population demanding more care, the increasing costs of medical technology and the already costly prices of prescription drugs all contribute to the industry’s rising expenditure. Proposed efforts to manage costs include the implementation of electronic records, higher focus on quality and efficiency, emphasis on less expensive preventative care and government regulations to keep insurance payments low.

¾ Shortage of Physicians & Nurses: As with much of the global population, a considerable amount of the health care industry’s workforce is approaching retirement age. In the United States alone, experts predict a shortage of almost half a million nurses and nearly 100,000 doctors.

¾ Medical Errors: Incidence of medical errors resulting in a patient’s death is an issue of vital importance to the health care industry. In North America, such deaths already cost the industry over $9 billion. Naturally, hospitals are seeking ways to reduce patient deaths, including procedural checklists and higher emphasis on safety training.

Industry Opportunities

Clearly, the health industry is one with substantial demands. The weighty expectations and the responsibilities placed on a large part of this industry create fantastic opportunities for growth and technical advancement:

¾ Handheld Technology: Portable, handheld devices are currently making a significant impact on the health care field. One particular device is GE’s Vscan portable ultrasound, which is designed to allow doctors and emergency responders to gather medical data in the field and then transmit the data to a hospital or emergency room. Additionally, smartphones and health apps – image viewers especially – are being actively tested as useful medical devices as well.

Health Care

INDUSTRY FACTSHEET

Copyright © 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.

¾ Health Information Technology (HIT): Governments around the globe are increasingly initiating incentives to encourage health care professionals to adopt HIT as a way to significantly improve medical care and lower costs. This includes electronic health records (EHR), decision support systems, and computerized physician order entry for medications.

¾ Telemedicine: This particular opportunity allows doctors to use videoconferencing and online technology to treat patients. Telemedicine has the power to radically improve the way doctors consult and treat patients who live in rural areas, while also empowering patients with access to specialists who are not locally available. Further, telemedicine consultations may prove to considerably increase access to care and control costs.

Digital Marketing Trends

The Internet Considered Essential to Physicians

Physicians around the world are finding the Internet an essential tool to their professional practice. According to eMarketer, 85% of physicians in the US agreed the Internet is essential to their practice, while 83% of health care providers in EU-5 said the same about the Internet. Meanwhile, 81% of physicians in Brazil admitted they rely heavily on the Internet in their day-to-day business. If this is the case in these countries, it is highly probable that physicians in other countries around the world consider the Internet essential to their professional practice.

Online Activities of Health Care Consumers

When evaluating the online health activities among US health care consumers, we see that the majority of people search for treatment information online, specifically 39% of Generation Y, 45% of Generation X, 44% of Baby Boomers and 38% of seniors. Another popular online activity among health care consumers is searching for provider quality information (34% of Generation Y, 33% of Generation X, 24% of Baby Boomers and 19% of seniors). Another common health activity among health care consumers is searching for cost information online. Researcing health care costs is more common among Generation Y consumers as opposed to the other generation groups. Meanwhile, the first mentioned online activity (searching for treatment information) is more popular among Generation X and Baby Boomer consumers than those in the Generation Y age group and seniors.

Health Care

INDUSTRY FACTSHEET

Copyright © 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.

Online Video Ad Views

When it comes to viewing online video ads, we see that ads in the pharmaceuticals industry are the second most likely to be viewed. According to eMarketer, worldwide Internet users spend an average of 13.20 seconds viewing online video ads in the pharmaceuticals industry, just under the 14.35 seconds viewing time for ads in the public service industry.

Social Media - LinkedIn

Another study released by eMarketer shows that LinkedIn is an important social media platform for those in the medical industry. Medical was ranked as the top 4 industry on LinkedIn based on the number of users. As of March 2011, there were 6.2 million LinkedIn users worldwide, just under the 6.9 million users in the manufacturing industry and 9.6 million users in the finance industry. The #1 industry in LinkedIn is high tech companies with approximately 11.6 million users worldwide as of March 2011. Other industries mentioned in the top 10 on LinkedIn include: educational, consumer goods, recreational, corporate, construction and government.

Mobile Health Care Solutions

When we evaluate mobile health care solutions that are emerging in the industry, we can see that a lot of the revenues are generated by paid downloads. According to eMarketer, paid downloads of mobile health care solutions accounted for $279 million of revenues worldwide, and this is set to increase in 2012 to $398 million. Mobile health care device sales went from $0 in revenues to $205 million in sales between 2010 and 2011. This revenue channel is expected to increase year over year and will reach $1.87 billion by 2015. Other mobile health care revenue channels mentioned in the study include services, transactions and advertising.

Health Care

INDUSTRY FACTSHEET

Copyright © 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.

In staying on the topc of mobile health care solutions, we can see that app stores were the #1 distributor of mobile health solutions in 2010 according to 53% of respondents. However, this trend is expected to change in the coming years. Statistics indicate that hospitals will become the primary distributor of mobile health care solutions (68%) by 2015. Additionally, health care consumers will receive mobile health care solutions directly from physicians by 2015 (according to 65% of respondents). Another popular distribution channel we can see by 2015 will be health care websites (56% of respondents), while app stores will continue to remain popular according to 51% of respondents. Other distribution channels mentioned in the study include: web pages of mobile health solution providers, mobile network operators and pharmacies.

Digital Marketing Opportunities

Immediate Areas of Focus for Social and Mobile

When we look at the latest digital marketing opportunities of social media and mobile for the health care industry their main considerations

and focus should be on how they go about making it easier for patients to share their personal health experiences, locate their local health providers, conduct research on health care practitioners and enable them to track their own health progress. Some health care companies have become quite involved in the social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. But for the most part, when it comes to what social technologies and mobile marketing strategies they should focus on, below is where we see the majority starting from a strategy standpoint.

Social Technologies

Blog Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube News Feeds/ Social Alerts

Social Bookmarking

Forums Review Sites

9 9 9 9 9

Mobile Marketing

Mobile Site Mobile Local Search

Mobile Ads/ Text

Mobile Apps

9 9 9

Health Care

INDUSTRY FACTSHEET

Copyright © 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.

Popular Pay-Per-Click Keywords

Keyword Advertiser Competition

Global Monthly Searches

Estimated Cost per Click

health services 0.2 6600 $1.19 gentiva health services 0.2 5400 $2.94 mental health services 0.63 3600 $2.35 health services research 0.05 1900 $2.39 boynton health services 0.01 1900 $8.28 department of health services 0.04 1900 $2.22 student health services 0.27 1900 $7.39 health services administration 0.32 1600 $15.20 university health services 0.03 1600 $12.58 behavioral health services 0.14 1600 $3.00 health care services 0.37 1300 $3.06 magellan health services 0.01 6600 $4.51 samaritan health services 0.32 2900 $2.05 dept of health and human services 0.12 2400 $2.07 health net federal services 0.1 2400 $1.65 health and human services texas 0.09 2400 $1.37 department of social and health services 0.07 1900 $0.72 secretary of health and human services 0.01 1600 $0.10 occupational health services 0.58 1600 $3.13 dental health services 0.68 1300 $2.94