DSOs are facing a new challenge as patients are exposed to an increasing amount of misinformation online.
Ash ElDifrawi, the chief commercial and brand officer for The Aspen Group, recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the role social media plays in consumer engagement and the challenge it creates for organizations.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What challenges do you predict DSOs will face this year?
Ash ElDifrawi: Something we're doing a lot is engaging people the way they want to be engaged with through social media. There's so much content being created, so helping consumers understand their options. You're starting to see a lot of people start to get much more in terms of how to engage consumers through social media, what that looks like, and all the content created. The downside to that is I think it can get confusing for consumers. While people are just putting a lot of content out there, one of the challenges for all of the DSOs is, how do you break through the noise and help consumers separate fact from fiction? Anytime somebody sees an area growing, what you start seeing is this gold rush, and it's not always really responsible. [Patients] go out there and see things like, "Implants for $299." There's a lot of stuff out there that's filling the noise, and I think DSOs are trying to figure out, how do I help consumers navigate this without joining the fray? That's something we're trying to figure out because when you're the leader, a lot of that flows to you, and so we have to be responsible and thoughtful in how we sort through that.