Capsule expands marketing program

Sep 8 2009

After extensive planning, strategizing, and consulting, Capsule, the leading provider of medical device connectivity, has announced that they are expanding their marketing program to include social media. From Twitter, to Capsule's very own Facebook fan page, Capsule is ready to engage and gain new insights in order to better serve the clinical and HIT community. Capsule's main goal is to be a trusted source in the industry and to provide useful content and meaningful commentary and feedback. They plan to do so by engaging in meaningful conversations on topics related to connectivity, patient association, clinical workflow requirements, HIT and patient safety and providing their own contributions as well.

"The marketing team is really excited and eager to engage in social media," says Heather Hitchcock, Director of Marketing at Capsule. "We want to let the medical and IT communities know that we are here to answer questions, to share ideas and get feedback, and to be supportive of their choices involving device connectivity solutions."

Research has shown that many healthcare vendors are not actively involved in social media yet. This is likely due to the strict regulations and policies that public companies have. As a privately held organization, Capsule has the advantage of being able to engage with the community and to respond to their suggestions more quickly. "We plan to take a more personalized approach to the community and hope to serve as a trusted source for providing information related to our technology, to the market, and to the health care industry as a whole," adds Hitchcock.

The market for healthcare information technology now represents a $36.7 billion per year industry. It therefore seems more important than ever before to find alternative ways to gather and share information with the community. Social media could be an ideal vehicle for such sharing. In fact, research shows that the health care community agrees. According to Edison Media Research, over 250 hospitals currently use some form of social media. Facebook, for example, is a growing phenomenon, with over 175 million active users, including 80 hospitals with their own Facebook pages. Twitter™ is another trend that is rapidly growing; currently, over 160 U.S. hospitals have Twitter accounts. Additionally, 131 hospitals in the U.S. publish videos to their individual YouTube channel. So it would appear that the social media trend in healthcare is only growing and that Capsule is poised to be in the right place to take advantage of this trend.

"Capsule believes it is important to become an active participant in all that the social media community has to offer, especially since the trends in health care are rapidly changing. Technology continues to evolve; unfortunately, often technological changes don't take into account how they are going to affect the clinicians who are asked to adopt these technologies. We therefore believe it is essential to hear from the community on what they need, hear what their opinions are related to technological advancements, and to respond appropriately to those suggestions. Social media is just one more way for us to reach the community we serve and we are excited to embark on this journey," Hitchcock concluded. "Social media could be the wave of the future. Only time will tell for sure but it will be fun to watch."

How to Join Capsule's online community

Capsule is hopeful that members of the clinical and HIT community will join our efforts to share ideas, gain feedback, answer questions and simply learn from one another. To follow Capsule please visit us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. You can also visit our website at www.capsuletech.com for direct links to our social media pages and for the latest articles, blog posts, and news that we've found on the web related to device connectivity. We look forward to sharing with you.

SOURCE: Capsule Tech, Inc.