Special Categories

 

If you entered any of the following special categories, please submit additional information via the Entrant Portal as soon as possible, but not later than July 10.

Guidelines on what should be submitted for these categories follows:

Best Answer Engine Optimization Strategy

This category recognizes healthcare organizations that are preparing their digital content for the next era of search, where patients, consumers, caregivers, and professionals increasingly expect direct, trustworthy answers across search engines, AI-powered tools, voice assistants, chatbots, and other answer-driven experiences. Winning entries will demonstrate a thoughtful strategy for making healthcare information easier to find, understand, trust, and act on.

Submit a document that outlines your efforts, strategy, and results.

This can include efforts such as structured content, schema markup, FAQ optimization, provider and location data improvements, content governance, medical review processes, entity-based SEO, conversational search planning, and optimization for AI-generated responses.

Judges will consider the strength of the strategy, technical execution, content quality, accuracy, accessibility, user intent alignment, privacy and compliance considerations, and measurable impact. This category celebrates organizations that are not just chasing visibility, but helping people get clear, credible healthcare answers when and where they need them most.

Best Online Health Community

This category recognizes digital communities that bring people together around shared health experiences, needs, or goals. Entries may include patient, caregiver, consumer, or professional communities hosted on websites, apps, social platforms, private networks, or other digital channels.

Submit links to or examples from your online health community. Submit a document that share details about your community’s goals, details, and results.  

Winning entries will demonstrate how the community creates meaningful connection, delivers credible and useful information, and supports members in a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment. Judges will consider the strength of the community strategy, quality of moderation and governance, accessibility, engagement, user experience, privacy practices, and measurable impact.

At a time when people are looking for trusted guidance, real stories, and a sense that they are not navigating healthcare alone, this category celebrates online communities that turn digital connection into support, understanding, and action.

Best Digital Marketing ROI and Outcomes

This award recognizes strategies that achieve demonstrable ROI, business goals, and positive community health outcomes. Measuring healthcare marketing results is crucial for optimizing strategies, allocating resources, and demonstrating accountability. Judges will evaluate reported results against marketing objectives. Results may include ROI, conversion metrics (e.g., volumes, sales, form fills, appointments), campaign performance (e.g., impressions, clicks, CTRs), and also community health outcomes (e.g., vaccinations, cancer screenings, smoking cessation rates). Explain the strategy behind your approach, and how it fits into your organizational priorities. Describe the results you’ve achieved. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Best Video Series

Judges will review three videos from your series. Provide links to the three videos you would like them to review. If you are entering a video channel, and do not specify which videos you’d like judges to review, they will select. Provide a document that explains the strategy behind your approach to video content, and how it fits into your organizational priorities. Describe the results you’ve achieved. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Best Search Engine Marketing Campaign

Submit a document that details your campaign and provides links to the various elements (or screenshots if necessary). In terms as concrete as possible, explain: What were your goals for this campaign? What results were achieved against these goals, including ROI? What did you learn from this campaign? Why is this campaign award-worthy?

Best Online Reputation Management

This award recognizes organizations demonstrating excellence in their implementation of online reputation management. Explain and include examples of your ORM program, including such as review monitoring and response, review generation and amplification, facility and physician profiles and ratings implementation, data integration, technology platforms, organization/department collaboration, and KPIs and other analytics that demonstrate success. Describe the results you’ve achieved. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Best Digital Internal Communications, including Intranet

A number of approaches can be taken. The best approach is to provide direct access to the employee communications/collaboration platforms (e.g., intranet, employee-focused apps) with passwords; this would be for a specific time frame — ideally July 16 to September 20. Other options include providing a slide deck, a PDF, or other screen capture of all key components. A sufficient number of elements should be submitted to provide judges with a thorough understanding of the features and functions of the internal communications platform(s). Entrants should submit a brief write-up that explains the goals of the communication strategy, how it was implemented, and results. How did the internal communications tools and strategy achieve business objectives?

Best Digital Marketing Campaign
Best Integrated Marketing Campaign
Best Children’s Health Marketing Campaign

Submit electronic copies of (or links to) marketing creative, including online and offline components, including:

  • digital ads, emails and web landing pages, or other digital materials
  • print ads (magazines, newspapers, newsletters), television commercials, radio ads, billboards, direct mail, etc.

Please include, if possible, metrics for each item (click through rates or other metrics as applicable) and your media plan.

Please answer the following questions to the degree possible:

  • What were your goals for this campaign? What results were achieved against these goals? Did you measure ROI? What did you learn from this campaign?
  • Did you purchase online advertising as part of this campaign? Provide details.
  • Did you use a multi-channel approach? If so, which channels did you use?

Submit a document that details the campaign and provides links to the various communications elements. You can upload multiple files via the entrant portal or link out to documents on your organization’s server or on a cloud storage service such as DropBox. This way the judges can easily understand the marketing campaign and access all elements.

Best Digital Physician Relations and Referral Marketing

This award recognizes the successful deployment of strategic communications and technology to bolster relationships between physicians and healthcare organizations, driving referrals, supporting service lines, and building healthcare brands. Explain and provide examples of your program. Describe the results you’ve achieved. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Best Use of Data and Targeted Marketing in Healthcare

This award recognizes organizations that use data strategically to drive marketing efforts — through segmentation, personalization, predictive modeling, geotargeting and others, and engage specific audiences to achieve measurable outcomes and positive ROI. Describe how your organization has used data and targeted marketing to drive business results. Include examples of the following (as many as apply), or other tactics you’ve deployed: audience targeting strategies (e.g., behavioral, demographic, geolocation); use of tools like CRM platforms, CDPs, or programmatic media; privacy and ethical data practices; innovative use of first- or third-party data. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Marketing

This category awards the successful application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to achieve marketing goals, including customer acquisition and retention, online content personalization, digital experience, understanding user intent, social listening, physician search, online reputation management, call center optimization, and others. Describe and provide examples of how your organization has used AI. Describe the results you’ve achieved. In terms that are as concrete as possible, explain the impact of your strategy and implementation. Why are your efforts award-worthy?

Mark Gothberg eHealthcare Organizational Commitment Award Entries

Organizations should submit 1-3 pages or more supporting their entry. This can be in bullet format. The focus of this award is on overall digital strategy, investment, execution, and results, in service of the healthcare organization’s business goals and for health-promotion use. (This award does not focus on clinical use of technology.)

The following questions should be covered:

Management Focus:

  • At what level is digital strategy managed within the organization?
  • How many and what type of people are in the group, and to whom do they report (CEO, COO, EVP)?
  • Is there a governance/oversight group for digital initiatives?
  • What senior-level individuals are part of this group?
  • Is digital part of each department’s or area’s business strategy; if so, how are these efforts coordinated at the organizational level?
  • How is the healthcare organization a leader in deploying digital technologies to achieve its business objectives? 

Financial Commitment:

Provide insight into the organization’s budget for digital initiatives, including relevant data such as:

  • Total budget amount
  • Total spend as percentage of capital budget
  • Operating budget
  • IT budget 
  • Marketing budget.

Achievements to Date:

What are the most significant achievements of the organization’s digital initiatives in the past year?  This could include:

  • Financial outcomes, such as savings or increased service line revenue
  • Operational efficiencies
  • Enhanced customer service/patient experience
  • Population health outcomes
  • Marketing results/outcomes.