Digital Physician Relations: The Pilot Project

This presentation tells the story of the pilot project at MD Anderson Cancer Center where we empowered two physician liaisons to use Twitter as part of their daily routine - significantly expanding their reach.

1. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Digital Physician Relations, Part II Lyle Green, MD Anderson Dan Dunlop, Jennings April 2015

2. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Setting the Scene – The changing role of the physician; less time to interact with patients – Physicians less interested in being interrupted; setting work/life boundaries – Breaking the existing model of interruption – Physicians moving to digital & social – Rise of physician-only online communities

3. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 We Have to Connect with Physicians 3

4. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Meanwhile, Our Challenges Include: • Improving Operational Efficiency and Value of the Physician Relations program: – Exploring the future role(s) of the physician relations specialist – Covering more ground with a limited number of FTEs • Geographically • Physician specialties • New referral sources

5. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 The Digital Future

6. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Question #1 • How can the reach of physician relations specialists be expanded, allowing them to more effectively form connections between faculty/medical staff and referring physicians?

7. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Questions 2 & 3 • How can we stay ahead of the curve, anticipating the wider adoption of digital communications by physicians? • How can we use digital technologies to support specific programs targeted for clinical growth?

8. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Physician Relations & Content Aggregation • Traditionally, this is what we’ve done. • Today, how can we do this more efficiently? • Aggregating content for digital distribution is simply the evolution of that function. • In the digital future, the physician relations team needs to become an aggregator and distributor of assets that are of value to referring physicians, by way of digital platforms.

9. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Content Aggregation • Physician relations digital assets (site/blog/microsite) as the portal to information valued by community physicians. • The physician relations team, or one designated member of the team, would be responsible establishing processes for receiving regular news updates from various departments and faculty.

10. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 The Digital Physician Relations Specialist Two potential paths: 1. Digital Communication becomes part of the job function of the physician relations specialists. 2. The Physician Relations Department designates a digital content specialist who aggregates, disseminates and distributes digital content via social channels.

11. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Option 1 • Through the use of social media, liaisons would have the opportunity to engage a significantly larger pool of physicians on a daily basis. • Physician relations specialists would need: – Social media training: HIPAA, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube… – Familiarity with the organization’s social media policies – Use of Third Party Apps for efficient distribution

12. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Option 1 Continued • Liaisons would take part in daily physician engagement activities using Twitter. • Scheduling tweets, responding to direct messages from physicians and office staff, acknowledging retweets, and retweeting news and information shared by medical staff/faculty.

13. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Option 1 Continued • Familiarizing & training practice managers and community physicians on info available through digital platforms. • Training practices on the use of digital platforms. • Distribute collateral for practices that promotes social channels/resources for referring physicians.

14. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Option 2 • Physician Liaisons must still learn more about digital communications and social media, but aren’t daily practitioners. • Liaisons spend time training and education community physicians and practice staff on ways to access expertise via digital platforms. • One Digital Content Specialists handles the daily content aggregation, distribution and dissemination via social media.

15. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Our Pilot Program • Piloted with two physician liaisons • 60 day initial pilot • Goal: Assess the impact on the liaison’s role; time demands; ease of undertaking this new social media function; initial receptivity of this new communication from liaisons

16. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Focus on Twitter • A practical choice given the relatively large number of MD Anderson programs and faculty using Twitter • Paper.li – MD Anderson Faculty Tweeters • @PhysRelations - Tweets for Physicians, Researchers and Clinical Professionals from MD Anderson's Office of Physician Relations

17. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Selection the Liaisons to Participate • Criteria? – Some level of comfort with social media – Strong physician relationships – Leverage sales background vs. clinical – Volunteerism – willingness to go outside traditional spaces!

18. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15

19. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 The Role of the Liaison – Pre-scheduling Tweets for the week – minimum of 2 foundational Tweets per day; 40 minutes/week – Daily supplemental Twitter activity (the engagement part of the process that adds authenticity); 30 minutes per day – Monitoring Twitter at points throughout the day

20. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 The Role of the Liaison – Target time for Tweets: 5am – 6:30am and 9pm – 11pm – During practice visits, familiarize physicians and office staff with ways to access the digital assets of MD Anderson – Collateral distribution at practices

21. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Training the Liaisons • Use of third party application for scheduling Tweets and organizing Twitter by hashtags, particularly oncology related tags • Defining elements of a good tweet: hashtag, link to a resource • Importance of engagement activities and Twitter etiquette: TY, RTs, etc.

22. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Protocols • Establishing a naming convention for Twitter handles of physician relations team members – @TT_MDAnderson – @EF_MDAnderson • Reviewing social media guidelines for MD Anderson

23. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Evergreen Content • Roughly 100 foundational Tweets that give referring physicians information about how to access the digital resources of MD Anderson – Clinical Trials – Physician Directory – MDAndersonCancerNetwork.org – Physician Portal – MyMDAnderson.org

24. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Evergreen Content • Physicians: for information about clinical trials at MD Anderson, visit https://www.mdanderson.org/for-physicians/clinical-trials.html #oncology @physrelations • Search MD Anderson clinical trials by cancer type, treatment, physician or NCT# https://www.mdanderson.org/for-physicians/clinical-trials.html @physrelations • As a physician relations specialist, I can provide you with clinical trial updates, information about new treatments, & CMEs. @physrelations #oncology

25. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Evergreen Content

26. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Evergreen Content

27. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Shared Content from Trusted Sources • @MDAndersonNews • @MDAndersonTrials • @MDAndersonGAP • @CancerMedMDA • @MDABrainSpine • @MDAProtons • @CancerFrontline (MD Anderson Blog) • @MDAndersonLeukemia • @KidsandCancer (MD Anderson) • @MDAMelanomaOnc

28. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Original Content • Showcasing the digital assets, faculty and content from clinical programs of MD Anderson

29. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Original Content

30. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Live Content from Conferences & Events

31. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Activities in the Field • Announcing new practice launches or new physicians • Highlighting faculty involvement in the community • Introducing primary service lines and their differentiators • Providing date, time and location for support groups that are disease site-specific involving MD Anderson faculty.

32. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Activities in the Field

33. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Taking It Slow • Starting with a small list of people to follow • Starting with evergreen posts • Our goal was to ease the liaison into this new element of their role and limit difficulties such as writing original posts

34. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 What We Learned

35. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 What We Learned • The liaison more familiar with Twitter found it easier to integrate social media into his role. • The social media element was more time consuming than we had hoped. • Having the Evergreen Tweets was a huge help and necessary time saver.

36. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 What We Learned • Having the Trusted Sources to ReTweet was a another important time saver. • Using conferences and CMEs as an opportunity for engagement also worked well. • Liaisons need to have realistic expectations about results. This is relationship building.

37. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Current Activity Metrics

38. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Where We Think We’ll Go Next – We believe that a physician relations program should have a strong digital component for reaching those “social physicians” – We see several potential directions: • Consolidate social media in the hands of one Digital Physician Relations Specialist. • Hire specifically for this role, looking for a level of comfort with digital platforms • Subcontract daily social media activity to an outside firm.

39. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15

40. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Phase II • New Digital Physician Relations Specialist • Part of her role from Day One • Add LinkedIn Group as a new digital platform – Curate and disseminate content – Initiate conversations • Focus on a specific subspecialty as well • Add physician video to the content mix

41. Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings @DanDunlop @LDGreen66 #HMPS15 Contact Information • Lyle Green, MD Anderson Cancer Center – Email: lgreen@mdanderson.org – Twitter: @LDGreen66 • Dan Dunlop, Jennings – Email: ddunlop@jenningsco.com – Twitter: @dandunlop – Blog: TheHealthcareMarketer.Wordpress.com