Starting off the morning at the Healthcare Marketing Strategies Summit with Thomas Goetz, author of The Decision Tree, now with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. What follows are my stream-of-consciousness style notes…not exact quotes.

70% of health-care costs [and mortalities] go to behavior-related conditions. How do we get patients engaged in their health care?

Title of the talk: “Old Stories and New Technologies”

Storytelling is important.

Jean Nidetch — Learned about how to lost weight from NYC Department of Public Health — calorie reduction, keep moving — but it was presented in a very scientific, cold way.

Nidetch turned that into something better:
Goal [One of first before/after shots for weight loss]
Process [Evidence, relevance, consequence, action feedback loop]

The results of her spin on the information helped found Weight Watchers.
Weight Watchers still believes the community of the WW meeting is critical to success.

Goetz says, Goal + Process = Story

homo narrans – the idea that humans are driven by stories

To a large degree, we have pushed the existential struggle out of our daily lives in Western society — but of course, some of the evidence of that is also killing us — Goetz shows map of all McDonald’s in US.

We have to counterprogram against civilization. We’ve removed our existential challenges with a system perfectly designed to create bad health [another existential challenge!].

We’ve done a lot of negative health advertising…Goetz shows an anti-drinking ad from Canada that may have actually increased teen drinking, not decreased it. People reject negative ads.

Pinterest is wildly popular because it helps us catalog our hopes and aspirations. How do we tell a health story about our hopes and aspirations?

Goetz gives examples of sites/apps that are working on goal-setting:
Lift
Stickk
Nike FuelBand
Misfit – Attaches to the back of your phone. Aims to remove some of the friction in all the steps of tracking health care.
Basis Watch – Accelerometer but also measures your body’s responses.
Kinsa — Theremometer that plugs into smart phone. Going through FDA approval.
Archimedes IndiGo – Clinical tool, no patient interface yet.

Goetz says, be very cautious about dashboards with patients. Do we give too much information? Is it overwhelming? Are we meeting their health literacy level? Has a friend [missed name] who says, you can’t give people dashboards without giving them a steering wheel.

1. Speak to the individual. The patient is the person we have to design for.
2. Minimize friction. Reduce the amount of effort people have to make to improve their health, track their results, etc.
3. Allow for failure. We have to understand failure is part of the process, and allow for it.
4. Mark progress. We have to celebrate small victories.
5. Make the future visible. Help people see the different paths they have.

When people are building toward a purpose, they tend to have better results. Goetz cites some surveys that shows several specific positive outcomes — lower risk of Alzheimer’s, lower risk of heart attack, increased telomerase activity, etc. — when people have great sense of purpose in their lives.

I just got a preview of Megan’s presentation for PodCamp Nashville tomorrow….it’s a don’t miss, folks. Megan starts by talking about her professional transformation from a writer and editor into a full-fledged content strategist. But then she follows up with the tips you need to be a great editor in 2013 — the mindset and the tools you need.

It’s so solid. If you’ve been struggling with how best to approach your content in 2013, be at PodCamp Nashville tomorrow for Megan’s presentation!

Where Creativity And Tech Skills Meet: How to Be a Good Editor in 2013
Hotel Preston
PodCamp Nashville
Saturday, May 4, 2013
2p

Wow, we are celebrating our good luck here this week — both Megan Pacella and I had sessions accepted for 2013 Podcamp Nashville. While traditional podcamps and barcamps are billed as “unconferences,” with no planned sessions, for years, Nashville has stepped it up a notch to offer slots in advance. However, they’re distributed by lottery if more sessions are proposed than can be accommodated in the time allotted. The great thing about this is that new speakers have just as much luck as the rest of us, so it’s a great way to break into the speaking thing.

Podcamp is slated for Saturday, May 4, 2013, at the Hotel Preston. But the organizers still need some help from you: They allocate rooms to speakers based on pre-camp interest in the sessions. So, please head over to the Podcamp Nashville site, and select the sessions you think sound interesting. It’s not a commitment to attend, but it gives them an idea of how to spend the space.

Here are our sessions — and if you’re interested, please log in to the Podcamp site to give us a vote!

Talk Down to Your Audience: Why You Need Plain Language
Laura Creekmore
It’s easy to assume that you have an educated audience — that your audience knows what you’re talking about — and that you don’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about making your language accessible.

But we all secretly know that’s not the whole story, don’t we? Our audiences are varied in their education levels, and let’s face it: A lot of the concepts we’re dealing with — no matter what our industry — are complex. This session focuses on the need for understandability in your content, and helps you create strategies that will make your content understandable, no matter who your audience is.

• How to assess your audience
• How to evaluate your content for understanding
• Creating heuristics that all your content creators can use to measure understandability

Where Creativity and Tech Skills Meet: How To Be a Good Editor in 2013
Megan Pacella
The word “editor” used to conjure up images of a bespectacled man or woman poring over important documents with a red pen. And while some of us are still rocking nerdy glasses these days, our job description has changed considerably. In a world where every organization is a content provider, editors have to bridge the gap between creative prowess and technical know-how.

If you’re wondering what it means to be a good editor in 2013, or how you can develop the skills needed to include “editing” on the skills section of your resume, this session is for you.

Things you’ll learn in my session:

• The characteristics of a good editor in 2013 (hint: It’s more than just proofreading)
• How to change your mindset about editing
• What it takes to advocate for good content
• Tips for curating your content to enhance your brand
• How to jump back and forth between all of these jobs without losing your concentration