Healthcare Success

This article is the home base for a seven‑part series on “How to Show Up in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity” for healthcare brands. It introduces the AI Visibility Stack—six core areas of AI‑era SEO: brand, content, technical SEO and schema, local SEO, reputation, and off‑site digital PR—then links to six deep‑dive playbooks, one for each area. Together, they’re designed so your marketing, digital, and clinical leaders can work from the same framework instead of chasing disconnected SEO tips.

When does a healthcare app actually improve patient experience—and when is it a costly distraction?

In this week’s podcast, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Erin Rollenhagen, Founder of People-Friendly Tech, to explore how healthcare organizations can decide whether to build an app, what it should do, and how to design it so patients actually want to use it—especially in high-stress healthcare moments.

Search technology has evolved drastically in recent years. “Stop talking about keywords, start talking about queries,” I said in a meeting. What started as simple keyword matching has transformed into a complex, AI-driven system, significantly impacting how we approach digital marketing and SEO. In this two-part series, I explore the evolution of organic and paid […]

In this week’s podcast, I sit down with Matthew Pinzur, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Jackson Health System, to explore how a large public health system aligns mission, operations, and marketing through disciplined planning, measurable accountability, and data-driven patient engagement.

Jackson is a rare organization with a dual identity: it’s both Miami-Dade County’s safety net hospital system, providing the same level of care regardless of insurance status, and South Florida’s primary academic medical center, powered by its partnership with the University of Miami. That combination shapes everything—from brand strategy to growth priorities—because the high-margin, highly differentiated services help fund the mission-driven work that serves everyone.

In this week’s podcast, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Duane Forrester—renowned search and AI discovery strategist, author of The Machine Layer, and former Microsoft leader behind Bing Webmaster Tools and Schema.org—alongside Brandon Schakola, Senior Director of Digital Services at Healthcare Success. Together, they unpack what “AI visibility” really means, why traditional SEO metrics are no longer enough, and how healthcare organizations must rethink discovery as AI systems increasingly summarize, cite and answer on behalf of brands.

What’s the best way to choose a healthcare marketing agency? While I (Stewart) have plenty of ideas about the process of picking the best healthcare marketing agency for your hospital, medical practice, or healthcare network, I thought it would be valuable to ask my friend and venerable colleague, Ed Bennett, to share his opinions during our […]

Drawing from real-world case studies—from the Gossamer Albatross crossing the English Channel to a violin built from a cardiac monitoring device—Bobak shares a practical, grounded framework for innovation that’s less about flashy ideas and more about asking better questions, iterating faster and deliberately doing what others aren’t.

If advertising inside AI assistants is going to be effective in the long term, it must be trust-first by design. For healthcare brands, that standard must also be privacy-first and compliance-forward, even when the platform itself is not processing protected health information (PHI).

Explore how olfactory stimulation, sleep, and brain health are connected in this Healthcare Success podcast with Dr. Michael Leon of UC Irvine.

Originally Published March 13, 2023 Last updated February 9, 2026 If you work in healthcare marketing or SEO, you already know E-E-A-T isn’t new. Google has been talking about Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust for years—especially in healthcare, where content directly influences real-world decisions. What has changed is the environment that content now lives in. […]

Learn the biggest red flags to avoid when choosing a healthcare marketing agency, from compliance gaps to vague pricing, guarantees, and poor reporting.

Why should healthcare organizations choose a specialized marketing agency? In this podcast, Corey Quinn explains how specialization reduces risk and accelerates results.

Explore how healthcare leaders are using AI phone agents to improve access, reduce staff strain and modernize the patient experience.

There isn’t one universal answer to “How much does a healthcare marketing agency cost?” A solo practice leasing a website for a few hundred dollars a month, a multilocation medical group hiring a specialized agency and a global pharmaceutical running multimillion-dollar campaigns are all asking the same question—but the economics are completely different. This guide […]

We dig into how AI is changing who shows up on healthcare websites, what those visitors are trying to do and where many organizations are unintentionally creating friction. Drawing from more than a decade of real-world gSight survey data and nearly 400,000 completed surveys, they share why many health systems are seeing dramatic shifts and how leaders can respond strategically.

Nearly 70 percent of patients now start their care journeys online, according to the National Institutes of Health. AI will change how they find you in 2026 and beyond. AI-driven discovery, collapsing patient journeys, rising expectations for access and increasing pressure on trust and attribution are converging fast. For healthcare systems, hospitals, addiction centers, mental […]

Bill shares real-world insights into how podcasts are helping hospitals showcase physician expertise, strengthen community relationships, and repurpose content for maximum impact across digital channels.

Hiring a new marketing agency can be challenging, even for senior marketing executives who have hired many agencies over the years. While the wrong agency can turn out to be an expensive mistake, the right agency can act as your strategic partner in many areas, from leading successful new growth initiatives, building your brand, leading […]

In this episode, we dig into a problem I’ve seen repeatedly over the years: healthcare companies that either have a strong clinical mission but fail to scale it—or scale aggressively without the clinical substance to support long-term success. Vasanta explains why neither approach works, and why sustainable growth requires intentional alignment between clinical vision, operations, marketing, leadership, and governance.

In this week’s episode of the Healthcare Success Podcast, I sat down with Michael Baer (TechCXO) to talk about two ideas that are especially relevant for healthcare and healthcare-adjacent companies right now: the rise of the fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Michael’s concept of “stratecution”—the inseparable pairing of strategy + execution.

Explore how doctors can take advantage of free and low-cost marketing strategies with tips from Stewart Gandolf, CEO, and Kathy Gaughran, Senior Marketing Strategist, at Healthcare Success.

Explore the real drivers of hospital safety today—and why some organizations consistently outperform when patients’ lives are on the line.

(Because AI isn’t coming. It’s already sitting in your lobby, drinking your coffee.)  If you’ve been telling yourself, “We’ll deal with AI next quarter,” I have bad news: AI didn’t wait.   Search is evolving FAST, and if your website still looks and behaves like it did in 2019, it’s basically wearing skinny jeans in a […]

How Justin Gardner built Active Skin Repair into a leading healthcare consumer brand, combining innovation, data-driven strategy, and authentic storytelling to disrupt a legacy market

How understanding healthcare’s core terminology empowers marketers and leaders to communicate more effectively, align strategy, and drive clarity across complex systems.

How can health systems expand access, improve quality, and reduce costs at the same time? In this episode, Stewart Gandolf talks with Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, Founder and Executive Chairman of KeyCare, about building a national “virtualist” medical group on Epic, aligning incentives for physicians, and using AI to amplify, not replace, clinical care. Why Listen? […]

Learn why authenticity is a must in healthcare branding. See how organizations can build trust, loyalty, and differentiation in competitive markets.

What does it take to truly win the hearts and minds of healthcare professionals in an increasingly complex industry? In this week’s podcast, I sit with Ajoy Mahtab, Founder and Partner at Strategility Consulting, to explore how genuine curiosity, empathy and purpose can transform healthcare sales and marketing. With more than 25 years of leadership […]

How can marketing, innovation, and AI transform patient care while supporting the unique mission of an academic medical center? Ahead of his keynote presentation at the Healthcare Interactive Conference (HCIC) in Las Vegas, David Feinberg, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Mount Sinai Health System and Dean for Marketing and Communications at the […]

How can healthcare leaders address burnout while driving operational efficiency and scalable growth? In this week’s podcast, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Edisa Shirley, Chief Mental Health Officer at ClinicMind, to explore the intersection of mental health, leadership, and operational efficiency in modern healthcare practices. Together, they discuss the systemic challenges of provider burnout, strategies […]

Our SEO team is on the leading edge of healthcare AI and digital marketing. Together with Stewart, they’ve compiled insights and recommendations on how health systems and healthcare organizations can leverage AI to supercharge SEO and patient engagement. AI is here and it’s transforming how health systems and healthcare organizations connect with patients, deliver care […]

How can healthcare leaders and marketers build trust and meaningful connections with rare disease patients and caregivers? In this week's episode, I sit down with Sugata Biswas, Co-Founder & Managing Principal, and Emily Anderson, Associate Director of Patient-Centered Research at Cadence Communications & Research, to explore their human-centered approach to rare disease research and patient […]

What does it take for healthcare leaders to market stigmatized services with trust, transparency, and measurable results? In this week’s podcast, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Neil Walker, VP of Growth at Oar Health, to explore strategies to effectively market telehealth services for stigmatized healthcare conditions and treatments (e.g., alcohol use disorder, GLP-1, low T, […]

How can health systems use storytelling to cut through the noise and build real patient connections amid a push for AI-driven, digital-first marketing? In this week's episode, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Skip Hidlay, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to discuss how storytelling, search and smart use […]

AI search moved from novelty to mainstream way faster than most of us expected.Like, many lightspeeds faster. After Google I/O 2025, even seasoned digital strategists realized the shift from traditional search to AI Overviews wasn’t years away; it was already here (and stomping all over traditional search analytics). In the past, digital visibility centered on […]

How can healthcare organizations authentically showcase their employee experience online to win the talent war? In my latest podcast, I sit down with Cynthia Newton, President and Founder of Cynthia Newton Consulting and a healthcare brand strategist with 25+ years of experience. Cynthia has earned an excellent reputation helping health systems manage and scale both […]

How is AI transforming healthcare marketing, and what can leaders expect at HCIC 2025? Healthcare marketing is evolving at a breakneck speed. From AI reshaping SEO to new expectations for patient engagement, leaders face both challenges and opportunities. To get a preview of what’s ahead, and what the big conversations will be at this year’s […]

How can pharmaceutical and healthcare brands most effectively reach doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in the changing media landscape? In this episode, I sit down with Walt Steenbergen, President of CWG, Inc., for a candid conversation about how publications, associations, and digital platforms continue shaping healthcare professional (HCP) marketing. Walt shares his insider perspective […]

Strong healthcare brands drive higher patient volume and foster lasting loyalty. Patients and referring physicians choose organizations they perceive as trustworthy, competent, and consistent. And that perception is shaped long before any in-person interaction. A well-defined brand also communicates your market position, which clarifies your organization’s strengths and unique value proposition in a saturated healthcare […]

What separates healthcare organizations that use CRM from those that truly leverage it? In this episode, I sit down with Laura Lee Jones, Founder and CEO of LionShare, for a candid conversation about what healthcare CRM looks like when it’s done right. Laura Lee brings decades of experience guiding hospitals and health systems through CRM […]

If your paid search conversions have mysteriously dropped (or your dashboard looks too good to be true), you’re not alone. AI is rewriting the rules of paid search. From shifting search engine results page (SERP) visibility to murky performance metrics, AI Overviews and Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are challenging how healthcare organizations measure success. In […]

Google’s new AI Mode redefines how content is evaluated and displayed in search, especially for sensitive, YMYL (Your Money Your Life) categories, like healthcare, that can impact a person’s well-being. The new feature heavily prioritizes content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), a framework that Google uses to assess content quality. AI algorithms […]

How can reimagining oral care and patient engagement disrupt a market? In this episode, I sit down with Hans Kaspersetz, CEO of Oralucent, to explore how his medical device company is redefining a common consumer product—the toothbrush—into a wellness-driven, data-backed health device. But this conversation isn’t just about oral care. It centers on what happens […]

Yes—your traffic and rankings are down. But that doesn’t mean your strategy is broken. Across industries, brands are noticing the same trends: What looks like a drop in visibility isn’t an SEO failure.It’s a paradigm shift. AI-driven search has fundamentally changed how visibility works. At Healthcare Success, we’re watching this shift closely, adapting our strategies, […]

How can today’s pediatricians truly connect with time-crunched, digitally-savvy parents and build lasting loyalty? In this episode, I sit down with Rob Klein, Principal of Klein and Partners, to unpack the findings from his 2025 National Consumer Insights Study (NCIS) – Peds Edition. Rob’s research offers an unfiltered look at what’s shaping parental decision-making, what’s […]

AI Overviews were launched in the U.S. in May 2024, and their impact on analytics dashboards is still taking shape. While marketers and healthcare leaders have been busy speculating about their impact on organic traffic and brand visibility, Google isn’t offering much in the way of clarity. Tools like Google Analytics and Search Console still […]

How do you redesign specialty care delivery when geography, workforce limitations, and infrastructure stand in the way? In this episode, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Paul Rosen, MD, MPH, MMM, Professor of Pediatrics at West Virginia University, a former official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the first pediatric rheumatologist to […]

Find Out How Google’s AI-Powered Search Is Rewriting Healthcare Marketing For healthcare marketers, this isn’t just a minor update. It’s a fundamental shift in how patients search for care and how your brand shows up (or doesn’t). What’s Driving the Shift? Three important things: To stay competitive, healthcare marketers must treat content like a strategic […]

With digital noise at an all-time high, how can healthcare leaders stand out and make meaningful connections? In this episode, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, Founder of Rise25.com, to explore how podcasting can become your most powerful tool for building trust, authority, and lasting business relationships. Why This Conversation MattersPodcasting is a […]

How can an established healthcare leader harness AI to drive innovation, growth, and lasting competitive advantage? In this episode, Stewart Gandolf sits down with Michael Krachon, President of Theragenics, to discuss how Theragenics is transforming its operations through enterprise-wide AI adoption. This includes everything from enhancing marketing and customer service operations to streamlining clinical and […]