Delivering Mayo Clinic's Health Information to Younger Consumers via Different Media Channels

Summary: Lee Aase, Mayo clinic's manager of national media and new media is a self-described borderline Baby Boomer/GenX-er charged with tapping new media channels such as podcasts and streaming video to deliver Mayo's health information to increasingly younger consumers. Experience has shown that it takes a life event such as the birth of a child or a parent's illness to get young people thinking about health coverage and care. But sometimes an emergency can be a defining moment. When an uninsured family member suddenly took ill, Lee pressed his organization's newly launched cell phone health tool into action and averted a costly ER visit. Aase and Scott Schroeder, president and CEO of Cohorts, Inc., along with Aric Hooverson, account director, Grey Worldwide San Francisco and Shelley Patchin, director of advertising, Wellpoint, provided an overview of the media preferences of these generations and the impact these preferences are having on healthcare marketing, products and services during a March 28, 2007 audio conference, Healthcare for the New Generations: Understanding and Engaging Generation "Xers" and "Yers" Through Tailored Products and Channels.