Top 5 Technology and Data Articles of 2021

The Top 5 technology and data articles included the topics of data-driven marketing, keeping marketing and websites HIPAA compliant, ‘big data’ challenges…

Utilizing technology for marketing initiatives and getting the most out of, and protecting, patient data were two of the hot-spot issues in technology for chiropractors this year. Reaching patients digitally became even more of an imperative during COVID-19 lockdowns and health care issues in 2021 as technology and data took center stage.

The Top 5 technology and data articles from the Chiropractic Economics website included the topics of data-driven marketing, keeping marketing and websites HIPAA compliant, “big data” challenges and opportunities for chiropractic, and ransomware removal and cyberattacks.

“Your CA’s phone skills and how they welcome and interact with the patient will always be extremely important in getting patients to enroll into a plan, but do you know what one of the biggest factors is? Your communication,” writes Mikes Bodzin, DC, on data-driven marketing and successful follow-up. “Your communication is the biggest component in getting them to say yes to care and enrolling into a plan.”

Ransomware removal and cyberattacks facing chiropractors ranked as the most popular technology and data article of the year.

“Every month the risk of having your office shut down forever, or a doctor of chiropractic or other health care organization having to spend an average of $158,000 in fines and repairs for ransomware removal, relative to a ransomware attack goes up and up,” wrote Ty Talcott, DC, CHPSE. “This year is already proving to be another record setter, with massive increases in attacks against small and medium-sized chiropractic and health care offices.”

Here are the Top 5 most popular technology and data articles from 2021:

5. Data-driven marketing examples and implementation for your practice

BY MILES BODZIN, DC
Think about the last 20 new patients you’ve had come in. Out of those 20 new patients, how many of them did you enroll into care? Now, we all know that not all new patients will be a perfect fit or the right candidate to enroll into care. With that in mind, 18 or 19 of them should have been enrolled. Are your numbers not quite there yet? That means you need to focus on your enrollment. This really translates to how strong your report of findings is.

4. Digging deep into your patient generated health data for marketing – part I

BY MICHELE WOJCIECHOWSKI
The first metric that should always be tracked and managed when it comes to patient loyalty and retention is called “Course of Care Retention” or “Course of Care Completion Rate.” Basically, if the average plan of care for patients is 2x/week for 6 weeks, what percentage of patients are actually attending all 12 visits (or completing their plan of care)? That number provides great insight into patient engagement, satisfaction, and, of course, retention.

3. How your marketing could derail a formerly HIPAA compliant website

BY RACHAEL SAUCEMAN
When you’re working with a marketing partner, in many cases, employees of the marketing agency are unable to do much, if anything, with that patient information that actually helps you understand if your marketing budget led to real live patients coming in the door. That makes it difficult to determine the ROI of existing marketing tactics.

2. Big data challenges for chiropractic: size matters for improving policy, helping more patients

BY JAY GREENSTEIN, DC
So just think about this scenario — every clinical, demographic and financial variable in your EHR can be exported to a data lake — a repository for data in its natural format … If my team of doctors at our multiple chiropractic rehab clinics want to know which specific treatments get the best outcomes based on specific clinical and demographic variables — for instance, females with nonspecific low-back pain between the ages of 45-55 — machine learning can do that.

1. Ransomware removal and the most common health care cyberattack

BY TY TALCOTT, DC, CHPSE
The national average cost to solve a ransomware attack is $158,000. Chiropractic offices and other primary care practitioners are typically on the smaller end of institutional size and the typical costs including ransomware removal are more in the area of $90k or less, but that can still shut down many practices … Some take the attitude, ‘Let them come after me. If I get hit I will just close down and declare bankruptcy!’ Unfortunately, that may avoid some costs, but government fines are like IRS actions and are not typically discharged in a bankruptcy.

For more info or articles on technology and data in chiropractic, go to chiroeco.com/?s=technology+data.