Nov 12, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Only two lab companies in the United States currently tap social networking to meet their med tech staffing needs
Everyone in the clinical laboratory testing industry knows that there is an acute shortage of medical technologists (MTs) and clinical laboratory scientists (CLSs). But laboratory professionals may be astonished to learn that their MT recruiting programs consistently fail to hire adequate numbers of MTs and CLSs because they nearly always advertise and recruit in the wrong places!
This is one of the best-kept secrets in med tech recruiting. That’s the opinion of Peggy McKee, CEO and Recruiter of PHC Consulting in Celina, Texas. She’s got surprising advice for clinical lab managers who struggle to recruit and retain enough med techs to keep their lab fully staffed at authorized levels.
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May 26, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
First-mover medical laboratory marketers are engaging customers on web sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com
Social networking is a radically new concept that innovative clinical laboratories, pathology practices, and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) manufacturers are beginning to use as a new marketing channel to their customers and prospects. The first wave of pathology and clinical laboratories are establishing a presence on such popular social networking web sites as Facebook.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and Twitter.com.
Clinical laboratory marketing experts are using social networking sites like these to push products and services and to interact with customers. These sites allow pathologists, clinical labs, in vitro diagnostics manufacturers, and other companies to promote themselves and to tout the performance of their services and products by connecting lab directors and pathologists to physician clients and consumers in ways that were not possible years ago.
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Jun 5, 2009 | Laboratory News
Social networking services gain acceptance by healthcare organizations
Late last April, during the A/H1N1 influenza outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began using a social networking service called Twitter as a way to provide instant updates on H1N1 cases and developments. By the middle of May, more than 130,000 Twitter users were signed up to receive these updates!
If social networking is not on your clinical laboratory’s radar screen yet, it will soon be. The CDC’s use of Twitter as a valuable resource to instantly communicate news about the H1N1 influenza outbreak demonstrates how people, companies, and government agencies are rapidly finding useful ways to use social networking Web services.
Twitter is a simple concept. Wikipedia defines Twitter as a “free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers).” In the pathology profession, pathologist Bruce Friedman, M.D.—known for his blog Lab Soft News has been “tweeting” for over a year. @LabSoftNews & @Dark_Daily
Probably the best known social networking Web sites in the United States are Facebook and MySpace. For business, LinkedIn has become popular. Nexopia is big in Canada. In Europe, such sites as Bebo, Hi5, and Skyrock have high traffic. For South America, it is social networking Web sites such as Orkut and Hi5.
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