To promote our 7th Annual Ix Conference, “WIxRED: Next-Generation Patient-Centered Care,” we sent out an email to our contacts yesterday with the subject line, “Register for the Ix Conference and Make Your Cat Jealous.”

The first lines in the body of the email were, “Does your cat receive health reminder postcards from your vet? Do you receive more timely health information from your veterinarian than your physician? Join us at the 7th Annual Ix Conference to learn about the latest advances in (human) health care delivery innovation. Your cat will be jealous!”

There may be some debate about whether this statement makes you laugh or makes you cry. For those of us for whom this statement is true (such as myself–as described in a my post “Canine-Centered Care” earlier this year), we better laugh or else we will cry.

The other question that this brings up is the issue of using humor for stimulating consumer engagement. We had presentations about this at the 2007 Ix Conference, when (among other things) we had a Hollywood screenwriter talk about how you connect with average consumers through humor.

The broader issue for those developing Ix interventions: How do we connect with people at an intrinsic level to engage them about their own health care? Is humor the best way to lure people in? If you do, will humor continue to keep them engaged? What are the alternatives to promote “stickiness”?

What gets you and keeps you engaged in your own health care management?