Health Affairs' portion of the "Why Keywords Don't Cut It" Webinar on May 7th, 2020.

1. Why Keywords Don’t Cut It:
How Structured Semantics Get Far Better Results In Both Discovery
and Content Search Confirmation
Christina Rudyj, Senior Digital Product Manager, Health Affairs
May 7, 2020

2. Health Affairs:
- Journal
- Blog
- Briefs
- Podcasts
- Events
Cross-Cutting Health Policy Topics
• Health Reform
• Cost
• Quality
Aimed at Multiple Audiences
• Scholarly
• Government
• Health care sector
• Media & consumers

3. Health
Affairs
Taxonomy
Completion
• First ever health policy taxonomy
• Completed in 2016
• Needed to overhaul other systems before
implementing:
o Website
o Manuscript and Production Systems
o Marketing Automation and Customer Data
Platforms (in progress)
• Mission: integrate health policy taxonomy
use across all platforms

4. Website
Taxonomy
Implementation
• Uploaded a 1,200 term,
multi-hierarchical,
health policy taxonomy
in SKOS format
• All content is tagged
with our health policy
taxonomy tags

5. Unified Content
Tagging:
Machines and
Humans
Working
Together
• Machine reading of content is the first step
• Human review is still needed

6. Unified Content
Tagging:
Machines and
Humans
Working
Together –
Author Input
• Authors have a chance to review
machine output of taxonomy terms
• Still have keyword input flexibility

7. Keeping
Everything Up
To Date
• How do we do it?
TUG
TAXONOMY
USER GROUP
Members from:
Digital
Marketing & Sales
Publishing Operations
Production
Editorial

8. Keeping
Everything Up
To Date –
(cont’d)
• Seamless workflow – running like
clockwork
Editorial
Manuscript Mtg
New or Updated
Term Needed
Implementation
Date
Update All
Systems
Notify All
Stakeholders of
Updates
Implementation
of New Term
Begins
Updates
Documented

9. Keeping
Everything Up
To Date –
Double Time
• Seamless workflow – running like
clockwork….just at a much faster pace
COVID-19
Pandemic
Declared
New Terms
Needed
Implementation
Date (Now)
Update All
Systems
Notify All
Stakeholders of
Updates
Implementation
of New Term
Begins
Updates
Documented

10. Controlled
Vocabulary,
User Behavior,
and
Discoverability
• Controlled vocabulary is a good way to
organize content
• However, human behavior and the
search journey are not always
controlled
• How do you combine the above two
concepts to help discoverability?
• Studying search term patterns
• Implementing synonyms

11. User
Behavior
and Search
Term
Patterns
• COVID-19 and Coronavirus site
search term patterns for March and
April, 2020

12. Research
Behind a New
Taxonomy
Term
• Health policy spans many areas to consider:
o Global Health
o Mental Health
o Health Care Costs, etc.
• Coronavirus and COVID-19 related areas to
consider:
o Virology
o Epidemiology
o Global Health

13. Using
Controlled
Vocabulary In
Submitted
Content
• Submitted content might have taxonomy
term variations
• Establish standardized style guidelines
“To Protect Palliative Care Patients During The COVID-19 Pandemic, Allow More Flexibility To Prescribe Controlled
Substances By Phone, " Health Affairs Blog, April 26, 2020.
Bartsch SM, Ferguson MC, McKinnell JA, O’Shea KJ, Wedlock PT, Siegmund SS, et al. “The
Potential Health Care Costs And Resource Use Associated With COVID-19 In The United States.”
Health Aff (Millwood). 2020;39(6).

14. Hierarchies
and
Synonyms:
Under The
Hood
• All systems updated
Manuscript System
Taxonomy Database
Website Platform

15. Controlled
Vocabulary
Follows Rules
• The rules can be simple:

16. How It All
Comes
Together
• Unified search results
• Curated topic pages
(…and there’s always more
room for improvement and
innovation)