Medical Casting or “Medcasting” is the commercial podcasting application for medical related institutions. Medcasting is the distribution and publication of audio and video sources, which offer medical information delivered over the Internet, for listening on demand.
This is a new step in the evolution of the delivery of medical information on demand, making it accessible, informative, useful and attractive. This combination presents the medical industry with a unique opportunity to reach their community through this new medium. Those people, who are already actively seeking medical information, will use the RSS subscription technology built into each podcast feed to receive information immediately as it is updated by the medical institution. With the click of a button, a user can subscribe to a potentially interesting feed, and any related information that is updated in that feed will be automatically processed in your personal aggregator. An aggregator can subscribe to a feed, check for new content at user-determined intervals, and retrieve the content.
To take this process one step further, podcasting publishes each stream with the ability to be transferred to any portable audio or video device. So with the growth of the iPod and all other portable media devices, you have the ability to take Medcasts and put them on your portable player for listening or viewing. Most users connect their portable players to their computers daily or weekly, and once the player is connected, they automatically receive new medcast updates.
The flexibility of this medium is what will greatly drive the growth of Medcasting in the coming years. Currently, the most useful application for medical institutions around the world is to complement existing medical information web pages. Most institutions have numerous web pages that provide medical information in text format, by providing an audio or video link on that page, you provide the user with a different and potentially more effective format for receiving the information. This is also a great way to teach your existing users how to get started with medcasting services.
The popularity of portable information on demand will grow even more as wireless Internet services continue to thrive across the country. These portable devices will no longer have to be connected to the internet; they will receive information wirelessly as it is updated. Also, as cell phones and wearable devices continue to merge, the market is growing.
Additional formats that are being used consist of; medical talk shows, where various specialists within each institution will speak or answer questions on a given topic. Medical lectures and seminars can be recorded and made available to the public or employees for easy download on demand. Additionally, any information that needs to be delivered to employees can be recorded and made available on an internal delivery network. For institutions that have thousands of employees, the distribution of company information is very important, and once again this offers each institution an on-demand delivery method that is convenient for everyone. Medcasting can also be used as a direct line of communication, by recording video feeds of company messages from executives for distribution throughout the company.
There are numerous uses for medcasting today, and it will only grow in popularity in the coming years. It is beneficial for both institutions and consumers, and will be seen as a great tool in the operations of any medical organization.