About the 2018 eHealthcare Leadership Awards

 
// By Jane Weber Brubaker //

The eHealthcare Leadership Awards program recognizes the very best websites and digital communications efforts of a wide range of healthcare organizations. This year’s winners were announced November 7 at a special presentation in Scottsdale, Arizona during the Healthcare Internet Conference sponsored by Greystone.Net.

More than 200 organizations received recognition for their outstanding websites and digital communications. Winners of platinum, gold, silver, and distinction awards represented 17 industry classifications, from hospitals and health systems to pharmaceutical firms and online health companies.

Awards were given in 17 different categories: Best Annual or Special Report, Best Care/Disease Management, Best Intranet, Best Patient Access and Convenience, Best Healthcare Content, Best Social Networking, Best Rich Media, Best Interactive, Best Mobile Website, Best Native Mobile App, Best Mobile Strategy (new this year), Best Doctor Directory, Best Marketing Campaign, Best Internet Home Page, Best Site Design, Best Overall Internet Site, and the Mark Gothberg eHealthcare Organizational Commitment Award.

About the Judging

A total of 109 healthcare digital marketing experts judged the entries. Judges looked at how websites and other digital communications compared with others in the organization’s classification. They also reviewed entries based on a proprietary multi-point standard of digital excellence. The Best Overall Internet Site category, for example, had to address more than 40 factors. (View the list of judges.) Thank you to our judges for contributing their time and expertise.

New This Year

The eHealthcare Leadership Awards program continually evolves, reflecting the evolution of the industry overall. This year for the 19th Annual Awards program, we changed the mobile category, dividing “Best Mobile Communications” into three categories: Best Mobile Website, Best Native Mobile App, and Best Mobile Strategy. As mobile devices continue to overtake desktop computers as the preferred way to access digital content, these new classifications, particularly Best Mobile Strategy, seek to recognize overarching mobile strategies that drive business objectives.

We also added a new scoring criterion to the Best Overall Internet Site category, recognizing that accessibility is an important issue potentially impacting one in four website visitors. Keith Bundy, accessibility community consultant at Siteimprove, gave a presentation on this topic during the awards ceremony. All entries in the Best Overall Internet category, were graded by Siteimprove and given a score on web accessibility. This score was given a weighting and combined with the judges scores to produce the final score for each entry.

Finally, we launched a new awards website, eHealthcareAwards.com to improve access to all information related to the awards. One popular new feature, the judging portal, greatly enhanced the judging experience. If you believe you are qualified to serve as a judge, apply here.

Top Award Recognizes 7 Finalists, 5 Winners

The Mark Gothberg eHealthcare Organizational Commitment Award is a very special award that recognizes the best in digital healthcare communications. This year, we recognized seven finalists and five winners of this prestigious award. Entries are evaluated not only on an organization’s website but on its overall digital approach and strategy through its intranet, marketing campaigns, staffing, and leadership roles. Most important, these organizations are judged by their results.

Award Sponsors

A special thanks to the program’s sponsors:

  • Diamond Sponsor
    • Private Health News provides award-winning interactive e-communication solutions, content marketing, and engagement tools that help clients build ongoing relationships with target audiences
  • Platinum Sponsors
    • Geonetric provides hospitals, health systems, and medical groups with a healthcare-specific content management system, hosting, marketing strategies, and creative services optimized for the unique needs of the healthcare industry.
    • Reputation.com helps large, location-based businesses monitor and respond to consumer feedback on the web, gain actionable insights to make operational changes, and drive financial results.
  • Gold Sponsors
    • Influence Health enables providers, employers and payers to positively influence consumer decision making and health-behaviors well beyond the physical care setting through personalized and interactive multi-channel engagement.
    • MedTouch’s deep understanding of healthcare’s unique market conditions positions it to show clients a direct connection between patient engagement and volumes, and scale marketing efforts.
    • ndp is a leading healthcare marketing agency, providing clients with insights, confidence and, ultimately, results.
    • White Rhino helps leading healthcare brands build trust across the patient journey through a proprietary blend of marketing, psychology, and neuroscience that impacts breakthrough website redesigns, integrated marketing campaigns, and digital health solutions.

Our sincere congratulations to the winners and their design or other agencies and service providers.

2019 Awards — the 20th Annual eHealthcare Leadership Awards Program

The call for entries for the 2019 Awards will open on May 1, 2019. The Awards will be presented at the Healthcare Internet Conference in Orlando, Florida on November 6.

Jane Weber Brubaker is executive editor of Plain-English Health Care, a division of Plain-English Media. She directs editorial content for eHealthcare Strategy & Trends and Strategic Health Care Marketing, and serves as chair of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. Email her at jane@plainenglishmedia.com.