Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of the book. The patient first is a priority for all healthcare communicators and the book focuses on how to achieve that and provide better value for both organizations and patients. The book highlights improving health literacy, improving self-care and improving patient safety areas for actions. It introduces the basic concepts of digital health marketing communication. The leading trends and forces affecting health marketing communication in the era of social media and patient empowerment, the book discusses the key steps in the digital communication process and introduces the topic of value creation with a case history from the Cleveland Clinic (CC). The book explains how to use the rise of online conversations for research purposes with tools such as private online communities and active/passive web listening. It explores some new approaches to analyzing healthcare digital campaigns results.