As the old saying goes, “content is king.” When you run a healthcare website, this means staying current on the latest trends. Since these trends are constantly changing, this is often a challenge, but it’s necessary if you want to keep consistent traffic coming to your website or blog. Here are six current topics that are generating clicks online.
SEE ALSO: 6 Ways to Boost Audience Development for Your Healthcare Website
The Affordable Care Act
Although the Affordable Care Act won’t officially have its one year anniversary until January, 2015, it continues to stay a trend that many healthcare bloggers are staying on top of. Whether it’s Hobby Lobby taking a stand against providing birth control for their workers or politicians vowing to have the Affordable Care Act repealed after the next round of elections, it’s one trend in healthcare sites that is not going anywhere soon.
Healthcare in the Home
You may have thought that doctors making house calls were a thing of the past, but new technology is allowing medical workers to keep up with the status of patients both virtually and through telemedicine. With the market for remote monitoring and telemedicine applications expected to continue in growth through at least 2016, expect this to stay a trending topic for healthcare sites for some time to come.
Infectious Diseases
As concerns about the continued Ebola virus outbreak in Africa began dominating the news in August, 2014, this late-comer topic trend is lighting up healthcare articles and content as the public and healthcare workers express concern about the possibility of an infectious disease outbreak moving toward the United States. Definitely one of the newer trending topics for 2014, expect this one to continue for some time as hospitals and healthcare workers are introduced to new protocol for the early detection of Ebola and other infectious diseases as well as the potential treatment options.
Electronic Medical Records
From visual healthcare in homes to the use of electronic medical records in hospitals and doctors’ offices, these are just some of the new applications appearing in the medical field that are commonly known by the nickname “Big Data.” As these new technologies continue to automate processes in the healthcare industry, expect this trend to continue quite a while into the future.
Wellness in the Workplace
Do employers have a right to ban employees with expanding waistlines or fire those who use nicotine? Since companies are continuing to receive free tools and financial incentives for implementing wellness programs in the workplace, watch for bloggers and writers in the healthcare industry to continue following this trend for on-the-job health.
Private Exchanges
As employers continue to complain about the Affordable Healthcare Act, some employers are looking into private health insurance exchanges for their workers. Since these exchanges offer employers ways to contract with benefit providers, more employers may seek private exchanges as a way to lower insurance costs while staying in compliance with the new healthcare regulations.