Is Your Health Technology Website Alienating Readers?

Healthcare technology is making patient care more efficient, convenient and connected than ever. Often, though, healthcare technology website content doesn’t seem to reflect that convenience and connectivity. In fact, it sometimes does the opposite.

We talk a lot about the importance of health literacy and plain language in healthcare content, and we can apply the same principles to tech-focused content, too. Will your readers — the healthcare executives, chief information officers and physician leaders — be able to quickly and easily understand your message? The success of your product could depend on it.

The benefits of healthcare technology

Before diving into website best practices, let’s first get some background: Healthcare technology is bigger than ever.

According to The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, “More than 90% of large, medium, small rural, and critical access hospitals are meaningfully using certified health IT.”

That means the majority of hospitals and providers see the benefits of healthcare technology. Some of these benefits include:

Streamlining patient care with electronic health records (EHR)

EHRs allow providers to instantly and securely share patient records within the same health system or health information exchange (HIE). This allows for more coordinated, efficient patient care. Epic and Cerner are two common EHRs health systems use.

Helping patients organize their personal health records (PHR)

PHRs help patients keep track of their personal and family’s health history easily and electronically. While a doctor or pharmacist can create a PHR, the patient controls it. It can exist on its own or be linked with an EHR. Examples of PHR platforms include Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health.

Improving patient safety through electronic prescribing

With e-prescribing, providers can safely and quickly prescribe medications virtually. This helps reduce medication errors since the prescriptions are not handwritten.

Analyzing important health data using artificial intelligence (AI)

AI software can imitate human thinking to help analyze and interpret complex data. AI is producing faster diagnoses, helping facilitate more precise surgery, matching the right drug to the patient’s genome, improving the patient experience and more.

Meeting the growing demand for care delivered via video platforms

Telehealth visits have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic — and this virtual care platform is here to stay.

These benefits are just the beginning. The healthcare technology business keeps developing every day. In fact, the healthcare IT market is expected to be worth $511.06 billion by 2027.

Hospital systems and other segments of healthcare that have jumped on the healthcare technology bandwagon already need to keep jumping if they want to keep up. So how do you help your healthcare customers understand that they need your technology to make them more efficient? Simple — by making sure the content on your healthcare technology website and other platforms is clear, concise and engaging.

Tips on making your health tech website engaging

Writing clear, concise content is not always as easy as it sounds. Below are some tips to help you.

Avoid tech jargon

The word agnostic has a much different meaning in the tech world than the everyday world. While you may know that agnostic means that your software can operate across various systems, the everyday person will be left confused. If only fellow “techies” understand what your healthcare technology website is saying, you’re missing out on communicating with other audiences — often decision-makers — who may want to learn more. That leads us to our next point.

Use plain language

As highlighted in the above example, healthcare IT is a different language, with many terms that are easily misused. Plain language means using words that anyone can understand — from the most tech-savvy person to the least.

For example, agnostic really means your software is interoperable across various systems. But what if I change interoperable to able to operate? I took a difficult term and changed it into language that everyone can understand. That’s plain language.

Get to the point

Communication works best when it is concise and to the point. Instead of going on and on about your (very exciting) technology, get to the point. How will your technology help hospitals and make them more efficient? What pain points will you resolve? Highlight that (in simple terms, of course!)

Be human

We know computers aren’t people. But that doesn’t mean your healthcare technology website can’t sound like a person. Business-to-business (B2B) communication sounds like one organization talking to another one. But in reality, it’s always one-on-one.

Your content should speak to the individual who’s reading it. More “you” and less “we” can keep your potential buyer engaged longer to consider your message. Customers are likely entrusting you with their valuable (and confidential) data, so make sure your content is inviting and empathetic.

For example, try this:

The platform gives you the power to connect with patients quickly, saving you time and improving care delivery.

Instead of this:

We can help providers create efficiencies and optimize patient care by giving them tools to easily connect with patients.

Make the next steps clear

You don’t want to assume those clear, concise instructions that make perfect sense to you will be the experience of every visitor to your site. Consider forming a user experience (UX) focus group and testing your content with people who don’t have your inside knowledge to get their input. Do they know what to do next?

Make sure you also offer options for asking questions or getting support — an email address, question and answer page, and a phone number to call. You want potential clients or patients to feel welcome and be able to access what they need on your site.

Combining a clear access point with easy-to-understand content and benefit statements is the ultimate one-two marketing punch. By following these steps, your website will be poised to be a powerful tool for your business development.

Find a marketing partner who can help you reach your audience. WriterGirl can provide custom content solutions for your healthcare technology website. Drop us a line to learn more about our services.

Laura DiGiulio

A self-described “grammar nerd,” Laura has enjoyed writing and editing for as long as she can remember. She is passionate about healthcare content because she likes helping people understand complex medical topics. Besides being a WriterGirl, Laura loves animals (she has two dogs and a cat) and spending time with her daughter, Melanie.

The original version of this page was published at:  https://www.writergirl.com/how-to-write-content-for-a-healthcare-technology-website/