diabetes educators provides patients. with lifelong guidance for managing their to provide diabetes healthcare services. to their employees as part of a medical …
WebEx Customer Success Story
We wanted to make sure that our webinars were easy for general audiences to access and use The WebEx platform offered a solution that was technologically advanced but nonthreatening, so that was an important consideration for us
–Jennifer Mosley, Marketing Coordinator
DiabetesAmerica delivers comprehensive and accessible healthcare education with WebEx
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INDUSTRY
Healthcare
WEBEX APPLICATIONS
WebEx Event Center and Audio Broadcast
SUMMARY
DiabetesAmerica needed an online event solution that would provide information on healthy living and diabetes care both to patients and to general audiences in a convenient, cost-effective manner Using WebEx Event Center with Audio Broadcast to deliver lunchtime webinars, DiabetesAmerica has seen attendance grow more than tenfold WebEx further enables the company to cultivate an ongoing engagement with its patients by providing them with easy online access to diabetes educators ABOUT DIABETES AMERICA, INC Line of Business Comprehensive diabetes care and management Headquarters Houston, TX Number of Employees 100 Target Market Patients with diabetes WebEx Customer Since 2007
Founded in 2004,
DiabetesAmerica provides comprehensive healthcare and management programs for patients with diabetes The companys committed team of physicians, dietitians, and certified diabetes educators provides patients with lifelong guidance for managing their conditions and gives them the tools and support they need to take an active role in their ongoing health DiabetesAmerica currently operates 12 centers throughout Texas, with plans to double in size in 2008 and expand nationally in the near future
The Solution
DiabetesAmerica began looking for an online presentation solution that would provide a convenient, interactive experience for participants while cutting down on travel time for the companys educators The company chose WebEx because it delivered rich interactivity and worry-free connectivity within a user-friendly interface We wanted to make sure that our webinars were easy for general audiences to access and use, says Mosley The WebEx platform offered a solution that was technologically advanced but non-threatening– an important consideration for us Using WebEx Event Center, DiabetesAmerica has replaced its sparsely attended evening meetings with popular lunchtime webinars on a
wide variety of healthcare topics Rather than spend hours driving between centers, educators now hold half-hour events from their desks, enabling them to spend less time on the road and more time working one-on-one with patients in the companys centers Because the presentations cover a broad variety of topics, not all of which are diabetes-specific, they appeal to a broad range of people We are seeing a lot of participants who dont have diabetes themselves, though they might have friends or family members with the condition, Mosley explains The webinar not only gives them healthyliving information that they can apply to their own lives, but they can also pass this knowledge on to concerned friends or relatives
The Challenge
DiabetesAmerica contracts with private and government sector clients such as school districts, local governments, and regional and national corporations to provide diabetes healthcare services to their employees as part of a medical benefits package However, many employees at these large organizations remained unaware that they had access to a diabetes wellness resource or unable to conveniently access events designed to create awareness of DiabetesAmericas
services We wanted to deliver healthy living and diabetes management information to as many people as possible while fostering an ongoing relationship with our patients, says Jennifer Mosley, Marketing Coordinator at DiabetesAmerica We tried inviting patients to evening events at our centers, but few people attended and the travel and long hours put a strain on our educators and on our limited budget DiabetesAmerica needed an easy, convenient, and confidential way to get the word out about its services, educate the general patient population about healthier living, and engage with diabetes patients between doctor visits
WebEx Audio Broadcast provides a way for participants to hear real-time audio without having to be on the phone Delivering presentations this way is si 
mple for people to understand and removes barriers to participation
–Jennifer Mosley, Marketing Coordinator
WebEx Event Center offers DiabetesAmerica a platform for end-toend event administration, managing everything from advance registration through post-presentation follow-up emails WebEx also makes it possible for attendees to participate anonymously, encouraging input from all and ensuring patient
confidentiality Even the postpresentation QA session remains confidential through the use of the chat feature: participants post questions to the presenter via a private chat, which the educator can then answer for the groups benefit WebEx Audio Broadcast has been especially important to the success of these webinars, providing an all-in-one online event solution WebEx Audio Broadcast provides a way for participants to hear real-time audio without having to be on the phone, explains Mosley Delivering presentations this way is simple for people to understand and removes barriers to participation, making it easier for us to get our message out
The Benefits
The noontime eLunch-and-Learn events have been a resounding success Attendance has grown dramatically, up from an average of one or two people per face-to-face meeting to nearly 50 participants per webinar, and attendance continues to grow Furthermore, because the webinars are so convenient and easy to access, the company sees many participants return for multiple events The webinars make it easy for people to fit health education into their busy schedules, explains Mosley In just a half an hour while theyre eating lunch, they can
obtain information that can improve their quality of life WebEx also enables DiabetesAmerica to engage with patients outside of its health centers Weve discovered from post-presentation surveys that patients think this is great way to learn more about diabetes and to interact with an educator in between appointments, Mosley says Most patients typically only visit a center every three or four months With WebEx, we can maintain an ongoing interaction that emphasizes prevention as much as treatment
The webinars have become a key differentiator for DiabetesAmerica when approaching new corporate clients The eLunch-and-Learn events are something new and innovative that we can offer to our corporate clients Other providers dont offer anything like it, Mosley says And when prospective clients see a WebEx-enabled presentation in action, they see the value it provides and want that for their employees
The Future
The noontime webinars have been so successful that DiabetesAmerica plans to expand the program to include its entire patient base and possibly the community as a whole The company also records most webinar sessions and plans to create an online library to provide patients with
anytime access to the information Wed like to make our webinars available to the entire community as a tool to reach patients and non-patients alike, says Mosley Were able to reach more people more efficiently than we ever could with face-to-face meetings Its really been an ideal solution for us
The eLunch-and-Learn events are something new and innovative that we can offer to our corporate clients And when prospective clients see a WebExenabled presentation in action, they see the value it provides and want that for their employees
–Jennifer Mosley, Marketing Coordinator
HIGHLIGHTS
WebEx increased enrollment in patient education events, up from an average of three to five people per face-to-face meeting to nearly 50 participants per webinar WebEx Audio Broadcast makes it possible for event participants to listen to real-time audio from their computers, eliminating the need for attendees to use their phone lines WebEx Event Center enables DiabetesAmerica to provide patients with confidential access to diabetes educators, helping cultivate an ongoing, interactive relationship with patients between doctor visits
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