Communications and Media
Increased technology has greatly affected many sectors of our lives. Communication in many sectors has been made easier among people. The health care system is one of the sectors of the economy that is affected by the new technology. Communication between the customers and health care providers has significantly been transformed. New methods of communication like the use of E-mail have been introduced and are proving to be more effective than the previous traditional methods. The use of the E-mail for instance is beneficial to the patient in that he/she can book an appointment online, as well as request information without the need to travel to the health center.
However, there is the need to maintain confidentiality when using this method of communication since critical information may be leaked to unsuited recipients. For example, the employers and also sensitive issues regarding the illness may be revealed. It is therefore important to ensure that one uses his/her private e-mail address when communicating to the physicians to avoid occurrence of such incidents. A clear frame work therefore needs to be put to ensure that there are no incidences of leakage of information at whatever cost (Brandt, 1998).
If properly used, this method of communication has many benefits to both the patient and the medical practitioners. Increased communication is one of the benefits as physicians can communicate as much as possible with their patient, even in scenarios where there is a distance barrier (McKibbon, 2010). Any queries a patient may have to the physician can be catered for online without presenting themselves physically.
The difference between the usage of e-mail and other means of communication is majorly on the benefit it brings, more than the other methods. Development of computer- based communication is possible since it is easier to document and supervise the progress of the patients. It is also easier to keep a record of the E-mail, unlike a telephone call that does not usually record the conversation. Medical records can be kept through the data that is got from the feedback of the patient through the E-mails (Brandt, 1998).
Health care sector just like the other sectors of the economy has been affected by new methods of communications. The new methods of communications like the development of media and social networks are greatly improving the health care sector. Media and social communication might change healthy communication in a great way. New channels of communication might be adopted, and transmission of information might be transformed from one way to multimodal. Usage of multimodal information will mean a greater transmission of information as well as more effectiveness in information transmittal.
However, social marketers might face the challenge of competition among themselves for public attention. Communication to the public may be transformed to be message-based, where they can be used to inform the public of desist from risky unhealthy trends. Increased usage of this method might lead to a scenario that the low income earners as well as people of lower education are not been able to access the information that is provided by social marketers. The solution to this problem is to ensure that a target population is determined which the information is transmitted to (Evans, 2008).
This method of communication can best fit in marketing health care products to the general public. Analyzing the targeted population that they want to sell their products to is a start of their selling technique of advertising their products. The health provides should make their products known to the prospective buyers by use of commercialized techniques. Through this, they create awareness of their products to the target group. Developing a strategy of approach then follows; the main aim of this is to lay a strategy of how to approach the market.
Then selection of the best channels of distribution of the product or the service is the next step; it is usually dependant on the product that is been put in the market (Evans, 2008). The implementation of the strategy follows: in this case since it is a communication strategy, the effectiveness of the information passed is what is important. The message passed must give a good exposure about the product or the services offered highlighting its benefits as well as the side effects. The effectiveness of the method used is then checked to ensure that the method used was beneficial to the organization. Finally, the feedback to the whole process is got; the importance of having it is to ensure that in future if the same method of communication is used again, it will be more refined due to improvement from the responses got.
Just like the other major sectors of the economy, healthcare sector needs to be transformed in a way that it is at par with the recent technology. Communication between a doctor and a patient is one of the most important relationships for effective medication. The new technologies offer solution to this problem by introducing better and faster means of communication, which can be beneficial to the two parties. The introduction of the electronic mail can be of great help since information can be transmitted any time, and at a faster rate.
List of references
Brandt, Allan M. I. S. (1998). Internal Medicine. Web.
Evans, W. D. (2006). How social marketing works in health care. Web.
McKibbon K Ann, Looker C. Gentels.S.G. (2010). Health Information Technology to Facilitate Communication Involving Health Care Providers, Caregivers, and Pediatric Patients: A Scoping Review. Web.