When you build a house you are going to use a lot of 2x4s, most of which are going to require cutting.
The result of that cutting? Sawdust.
Now, there is a tendency to just sweep up and throw away sawdust.
Don’t. There are actually quite a lot of uses for sawdust – from cleaning up spills, to packing garden paths, to filling wood defects.
Bottom line: Sawdust has value.
OK. So, what’s the conceptual application here for healthcare and social media?
Well, healthcare organizations are constantly using vast quantities of substantial evidence based medicine. The algorithms on our EHR, The pre-visit checklists, the post-visit prescription information…. the list is nearly endless. These are the 2x4s of the healthcare business.
But keep in mind the production of these “medical 2x4s” create equally vast amounts of sawdust, all which could be used for marketing, developing new patients, or branding your organization.
Let me give one example: The diagnosis of obesity as a BMI > 30.
This one little factoid could lead to a brief social media blurb on the association of BMI with diabetes.
Or the increased relative health risk for a lower BMI for Asians.
Or the importance of waist circumference with health.
Or a description of what a successful reduction in BMI (5%) means for improvements in dozens of related diseases.
In essence, the medical sawdust (medical micro-content) about one specific subject can be spun off and leveraged tenfold throughout your digital platform. All it requires is a slightly different take and a few keystrokes.
Use your sawdust.