People spend about 10 hours a day consuming media (reading newspapers and magazines, watching television, listening to the radio, using the internet). These activities are increasingly being done on digital devices – mostly mobile ones. New studies show that more than 50% of mobile digital minutes are spent within apps.
As more patients look for ways to be proactive about their own health care, companies and facilities that offer digital access and interactivity have a better chance of reaching them. From websites to apps and augmented reality, your audience is looking for more of their health information resources to be digital.
So how does that impact patient education? You have more avenues than ever to provide your consumers with quality information. Digital media opens up a variety of learning opportunities that were previously unavailable. Ebooks make printed materials more portable and convenient. Videos can be streamed or posted online as an additional resource for visual learners. Podcasts can reinforce other media types for people that are auditory learners.
The newest for of digital media – augmented reality – brings an interactive digital component to traditional printed materials. Text and photographs are enriched with related videos to strengthen a lesson. CCI is rolling out this technology in our books. Using an app on their mobile device, readers simply scan an icon to launch a video linked to the printed topic.
These days, your patients are more likely to engage with information and services they can access on demand from the mobile device they carry almost all the time. The more of this you can offer, the better you can connect.
