Goodbye Healthcare Technology Online, Hello Health IT Outcomes

By Ken Congdon

Follow Me On Twitter @KenOnHIT

There’s a big change on the horizon for Healthcare Technology Online. So big, in fact, the Healthcare Technology Online brand will no longer be emblazoned on our website, email newsletters, print publications, or any of our other assets in just a few short weeks. Starting in January 2014, Healthcare Technology Online will change its name to Health IT Outcomes. You may have noticed our twitter handle has already been converted over to @HITOutcomes.

Our entire staff is very excited about this announcement because of what it represents for our products and the audience of healthcare providers we serve. This transition isn’t driven by a change in corporate direction or ownership. On the contrary, we’re still owned by the same parent company (Jameson Publishing), and the same staff of talented professionals (including myself) remains dedicated to producing the valuable heath IT editorial content you’ve come to expect from us. Instead, the transformation of our brand is a calculated move to address our evolution as a media outlet and illustrate our editorial mission more clearly.

A sneak peek at our new Health IT Outcomes logo.

You see, we launched our product in 2009 as an online-only health IT resource center. We aggregated valuable health IT content from a variety of sources (e.g. analysts, research organizations, blogs, consultants, vendors, health providers, etc.) and made it available (and easily searchable) to healthcare providers via a single website. Back then, the Healthcare Technology Online name fit. However, we have clearly evolved into a full-blown health IT media outlet over the past four years. We’ve become much more than just a website — we now produce a weekly email newsletter and a bimonthly print magazine. We also generate our own industry research and have an active social media following. As such, we’ve outgrown the Healthcare Technology Online moniker. (Needless to say, Healthcare Technology Online Magazine doesn’t make much sense.)

PEER-TO-PEER EDITORIAL FOCUSED ON OUTCOMES

Central to our product evolution has been the increased focus we’ve placed on generating quality, original health IT editorial. When we launched in 2009, the original content we produced was limited to an opinion column that I would post once a week. Our staff now authors thousands of original health IT stories annually — and these aren’t your run-of-the-mill articles. When we decided to enter the world of health IT media, we wanted to make sure we weren’t viewed as a copycat outlet. In other words, there were already several reputable publications serving the market — we needed to bring something different (and better) to the table in order to stand out. Therefore, before we wrote a word, we spent several months interviewing technology leaders from healthcare providers to identify coverage gaps (i.e. areas where there were opportunities for us to provide value to the industry.) We wanted to find out what types of health IT content were lacking in the space. More importantly, we wanted to know what types of health IT editorial would cause a provider executive to pick up a magazine or open an email newsletter.

The feedback we gathered through this process was a defining moment in the course of our organization. From these discussions, we learned that despite there being several health IT publications to choose from, healthcare providers felt that they still lacked a voice in the media. The consensus was that most of the health IT editorial being produced was news-based or vendor focused. Moreover, much of the subject matter seemed to promote the future promise of health IT rather than document the realities. Providers were hungry for real-world accounts of health IT implementation strategies, best practices, and lessons learned from their peers. Furthermore, they wanted details about the benefits healthcare facilities were realizing as result of their IT investments today. In other words, providers wanted health IT editorial that focused on outcomes, not the hype surrounding the technology.

This became our editorial mission. Over the past two years, we have committed ourselves to interviewing technology trailblazers in the healthcare industry and chronicling their successes, failures, and the associated measurable results in the articles we write. This content has clearly resonated with our health IT audience.

When it became clear that we needed to change our name to one more fitting of the media outlet we had become, we once again polled you, our readership. You encouraged us to select a name that placed emphasis on the original editorial content that has become the life-blood of our products. This led us to the name Health IT Outcomes. It’s been an awesome journey thus far, and the days ahead only look brighter. We thank you for your continued support and loyalty, and we look forward to continuing to serve you as Health IT Outcomes.