Healthcare blogs vary in content and style; they range from commentary on a topical issue to patients sharing the lived experience of a disease and healthcare professionals educating patients on the management of an illness.
Blogs written by doctors, nurses, health researchers, patients, and healthcare and digital marketers and innovators add much to the richness and diversity of the online healthcare conversation.
Creating a blog is relatively easy; the challenge lies in consistently updating the content. If you are struggling to come up with new ideas on a regular basis for your blog, then this list of 16 content ideas should help get you going again.
#1 Share Facts About A Common Medical Condition
What kind of questions do your patients most frequently ask about a specific medical condition? Compile a list of these frequently asked questions and answer them on your blog.
#2 Curate Content
Creating original content is time and resource intensive. Curation helps you provide your audience with relevant, high quality information on a regular basis without sacrificing your time and resources. Don’t rely on curation alone; curated content is designed to complement your content creation plan—not replace it.
#3 Announce a New Product or Service
Are you rolling out a new program, product or service? Write a blog post to introduce it and highlight its features and benefits.
#4 Update Readers on Industry Trends
Healthcare is constantly changing and evolving. Can you predict or comment on the latest healthcare trend? Readers will enjoy learning about it through your blog, particularly if you share your own unique perspective. Set up Google Alerts to keep updated on emerging trends in your industry to provide the latest information for your readers.
#5 Create A Poll
There are several online tools you can use to create a readers’ poll. If you have a WordPress.com site, then you’ve got Polldaddy polls already built in. You can create, manage, and see results for all of your polls directly in your WordPress.com dashboard. If you use a WordPress.org install on your self-hosted site, install the Polldaddy WordPress.org plugin. Use it to get a snapshot of readers’ attitudes to health topics like vaccination, screening, complementary therapy, mental health – the list is endless. Publish a follow-on post with your findings.
#6 Write About A Day In The Life
Write about a typica day in your working life as a healthcare professional. Be careful not to write about specific patients or to commit any breaches of privacy or confidentiality.
#7 Plan Posts Around Seasons and Events
Use an editorial calendar to track seasonal, cultural and industry events and write a blog post which fits the theme, for example, “How To Eat Healthily During The Holiday Season”.
#8. Share The Latest Medical Research
Have you been to a conference recently where you learned about new medical research? Or read about the latest research in a medical journal? Let your readers know about it through your blog. Make sure you provide full references and link to online publications.
Here’s an example of this done really well by breast surgeon, Dr Deanna Attai on her blog.
#9 Invite A Guest Blogger
Ask a colleague to write a guest blog on an area of their expertise.
#10 Interview An Expert
Choose a respected healthcare professional and interview them for your blog. Alternatively, contact several experts in your field and have them answer a question: Take all the answers and turn them into one big blog post.
#11 Write About A Trending Topic
Provide your unique perspective on a trending topic. Find out what’s “hot right now” online by using Google Trends, Twitter.com/Search and Reddit.com.
#12 Provide a Weekly Round-Up Of Healthcare News
Gather the week’s healthcare news into a round-up post. Provide links, attribute sources and add your own commentary.
You might also like to read 3 Places To Find Interesting Ideas For Your Healthcare Blog
Thank you so much. These are some really good ideas. I’m bookmarking the page. As I was reading, I thought, I could even write about what a patient went through during a treatment or so.
So pleased to hear you found it helpful Steven. Feel free to leave a link to your blog here.
Another option is to critique a favourite paper – maybe one that has changed your practice, or is seminal in your field. Explain the context, the positive and negative aspects, and why it is so important. Declare any interests, though!
It’s always interesting hearing a expert expound on their topic of expertise (so long as they’re concise, intelligible & gave a point to make. Top tip: always be honest, don’t shy away from the difficult bits!
I love this idea Kit – thanks for sharing!
Hello thank you for this wonderful blogs that you shared.
nice explain of 16 ideas that are needed for healthcare blog, thanks for sharing information.