North Carolina AHEC Program
summer 2009 newsletter | home
Podcast Web Site Targets Internet-Savvy Medical Students
By Sherry Stafford, MEd, director of educational technology and Karen Mantzouris, BA, director of marketing and public relations, Southern Regional AHEC. (Reprinted from the Spring 2009 National AHEC Bulletin.)
Fewer medical students choosing family medicine means increased competition among residencies for applicants. To enhance visibility of the Duke/Southern Regional AHEC Family Medicine Residency Program in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the directors of educational technology and marketing partnered to create a podcasting Web site as a recruitment tool. The result was www.RadioAHEC.org, the first known podcasting site for resident recruitment.
This innovation by Southern Regional AHEC was motivated by evidence that traditional marketing methods are less effective in a market where online job-search strategies are now widely used. In addition, traveling to recruitment conferences is expensive for both recruiters and medical students. Online recruitment appears to be a logical alternative to travel. By staging an Internet presence, Southern Regional AHEC significantly extended its recruitment territory and is meeting medical students where they are increasingly likely to shop for residencies — on their laptops!
Although the creation of RadioAHEC was based on marketing instinct, current statistics support the use of podcasting as a recruitment tool. An annual study by Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia concluded in its 2008 report that “Podcasting is a viable alternative means to target attractive consumers who are otherwise proving difficult to reach with traditional advertising.” (Webster, Tom [2008]. The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008) The study characterizes podcast users as being college-educated, associated with household incomes above $75,000, and having an active online life. It seems likely that medical students are members of this tech-savvy generation that typically listens to iPods, watches videos online, and can easily navigate the Internet. The Pew Internet and American Life Project details their survey data that indicate accelerated adult use of podcasts and social networking Web sites in the last two years. (Madden, Mary and Jones, Sydney [2008]. Reports: Technology and Media Use, Podcast Downloading in 2008)
RadioAHEC attempts to engage their target audience and begin to build social relationships with medical students even before they arrive at the AHEC for an interview. Podcasts offer candid commentaries by preceptors, residents, and other professionals on the life and work of residents. The creators recently added an interactive video tour of their residency, which one applicant indicated as the reason he applied to the residency. RadioAHEC combines entertainment and information, attempting to attract medical students and convey the spirit of the program, not just cold hard facts. It is a cheerful yet uncomplicated Web site. The focus is on sharing relevant stories – “real world information about resident life.”
Building RadioAHEC
The idea for RadioAHEC was born in 2006. Podcast Solutions by Geoghegan and Klass, was used as a research source, and an open source software (Joomla!) and a podcast plug-in module were used to construct the Web site in-house. “We’ve probably invested about $350 in RadioAHEC since its inception,” reports Mantzouris, director of marketing at SR-AHEC. Although books helped with the technical challenges, the creators credit blogs for their inspiration and solutions to problems.
Promoting RadioAHEC
RadioAHEC debuted at the 2007 North Carolina Medical Residency Fair, which was sponsored by the NC Academy of Family Physicians and the NC AHEC Program. There the authors spoke with medical students and promoted participation in an iPod giveaway. Contestants were required use RadioAHEC’s “Contact Us” feature to register for the free iPod, send their contact information, and suggest podcast topics. Podcast interviews with the winners were posted on RadioAHEC. The podcasts that currently populate RadioAHEC feature the contestants’ suggestions.
Several other AHECs in North Carolina have begun to integrate podcasting into their own Web sites, while RadioAHEC itself has expanded to accommodate SR-AHEC’s pharmacy residency program. Podcasts for nurses will be featured on RadioAHEC in 2009.
RadioAHEC Success and Recognition
Measuring success statistically, RadioAHEC.org has received over 38,000 hits since posting its first podcast in March 2007. The podcasts themselves have received over 3,000 plays. In November 2008, the Carolinas Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society (CHPRMS) honored Sherry Stafford and Karen Mantzouris with a Golden Tusk Award (in the recruitment category) for their creation of RadioAHEC.org. “We felt from the beginning that the site is a unique and effective recruitment tool and we appreciate the recognition from our peers,” says Mantzouris. “While it’s too early to credit RadioAHEC as a deciding factor for medical students choosing us for their residency, it helps them get to know us and certainly has reached thousands more potential residents.”
Podcast Consumption Is Easy
Podcasting has a superbly unique feature: it allows user-controlled subscription. After a user subscribes, new “episodes” of a podcast are automatically delivered whenever the subscriber connects to the Internet. This feature is based on an old technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) that delivers news updates in text format to “newsgroups.” An additional convenience is that, unlike e-mail subscriptions that require a user to sacrifice privacy by divulging an e-address, a podcast subscription record (the podcast site URL) resides on the user’s device. The user can simply remove the URL to end the subscription.
Southern Regional AHEC remains committed to the use of podcasting as a form of social networking to attract medical students across the country to their residency. Podcast technology is also giving them an opportunity to go where health care has not gone before in the delivery of education and information to a unique group of users. Inventive applications of podcasts continue to emerge, appearing to be limited only by the boundaries of creative thought.