May 2010

Schwartz Recognized for Healthcare PR Work On Behalf of Bioness, Leerink Swann

May is treating the Schwartz team well. Last week, the team was recognized with a SABRE Award in "Research for Publicity" for its work in "Research for Publicity" on behalf of Javelin Strategy & Research.

The Schwartz team and Javelin combined professional and social media to promote Javelin's annual identity fraud report, increasing media coverage 126 over previous years, and a whopping 97 percent of all articles emphasizing at least two key messages.

In addition to Javelin, some terrific clients were recognized as finalists: medical device company Bioness, antivirus and desktop security software provider ESET and boutique healthcare investment services provider Leerink Swann. Although they didn't take home trophies, it's the first time Schwartz has emerged with four finalists in the SABRES and the work remains outstanding.

There's a great case study on Schwartz's work with Bioness, including a campaign that delivered $4M in sales leads. Check it out!

Posted by Laura Kempke on May 21, 2010 at 9:41 AM
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Dartmouth Fills the Gap in Health Reform with the Center for Health Care Delivery Science

On May 17, Dartmouth announced it received an anonymous $35 million commitment to establish The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science. This gift will advance a new field of study, harnessing the knowledge and expertise of faculty across multiple disciplines from the arts and sciences, as well as from the medical, business and engineering schools. The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science will focus on five areas with a goal of improving the quality, effectiveness and value of healthcare for patients, their families, providers and populations. Priorities will include research, education, collaboration, implementation and advocacy. You can read more here: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/05/17.html.

Dr. Kim has had a profound impact on a wide range of organizations throughout his distinguished career, including the Harvard Medical School, the World Health Organization and Partners In Health. Dartmouth is no stranger to healthcare. For 30 years, researchers at the College have pioneered the measurement of performance variation in U.S. health care, illustrating the serious value problem in healthcare delivery.

Though many universities have health policy centers, some medical schools offer courses in "medical humanities" and some hospital systems have taken major steps to improve delivery, Dr. Kim said, “we think this is the first to come at these issues in so many ways all under one roof.” Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the health system affiliated with the medical school, will play a large role in the center’s work.

President Kim said the gift will speed Dartmouth’s work on the next stage of needed healthcare reform.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dr. Kim also stated, “… academic institutions have a huge role to play. We’re creating the center as a clarion call to colleges and universities throughout the country and frankly throughout the world to take seriously the science of health care delivery. In five years, if we’re the only center for health care delivery science, we’ll be very disappointed.”

Dartmouth is opening up tremendous opportunities for all disciplines of the healthcare industry – from vendors to hospitals and other academic institutions. Shaping the current and future of healthcare is critical, and this Center is like a massive task force helping to tackle and solve this problem. Not only do we need to work within industry, but we also must educate students, the future workforce, to think differently, and help to transform the current model. Organizations might look into guest lecturer spots, sponsorships, internships and research, as I presume the curriculum will be based on practical experience plus theory and research.

Dr. Kim is fond of quoting former President John Sloane Dickey in his convocation to students in 1946: “The world’s troubles are your troubles. But there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings cannot fix.” And any good doctor would say you need to diagnose the problem correctly in order to prescribe the right treatment.  

Posted by Davida Dinerman on May 19, 2010 at 4:02 PM
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Healthcare PR Pros: Follow the FDA on Twitter

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is now on Twitter.

Posted by Laura Kempke on May 17, 2010 at 12:04 PM
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HIMSS 2011 CFP Deadline Looming: OMG!

Are you a healthcare technology vendor with at least one great customer reference?

If so, have you submitted a speaking proposal for HIMSS 2011?

NO?

Well, you’d better get going! It’s not too late, but time is getting tight. The submission deadline is Monday, May 24, 2010.

HIMSS 2011 will be in Orlando next February. Most healthcare technology companies are thrilled when one of their customers is selected to present. (HIMSS doesn’t allow vendor presentations.) But the field is competitive. HIMSS reports that more than 600 proposals were submitted for the 2010 conference and approximately 120 were selected. Providers and IT experts discussed EMRs, HIEs, interoperability, meaningful use, ARRA and HITECH funding, and many other topics of interest to the healthcare information technology industry.

Let’s keep it real: crafting a winning HIMSS speaking submission is no light task. It’s not about the fact that your company’s product/service is fantastic, it’s about the customer having a compelling story from beginning to end, with key lessons and takeaways for the audience. Ask yourself:
 

• Do I have a customer with a great story?
• What would someone learn from hearing it?
• Can I speak with that customer within the next 1-2 days to understand their story and how it would fit into one of the 20+ categories at HIMSS?
• Am I willing to spend the next week working on a proposal draft, and getting edits/approvals from the customer and executives at my company?
• Do I want to feel the pride of having one of my customers stand up in front of industry peers to tell their story (and describe how my company’s solution helped them achieve success)?

What are you waiting for? 

Posted by Julie Goldman on May 14, 2010 at 2:44 PM
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Boston Event: World Health Medical Technology Conference

Conference to Highlight Innovation in Emerging Healthcare Markets

If you’re in the business of healthcare and have an interest in global health, check out the inaugural World Health Medical Technology Conference.

It’s taking place at Boston University’s Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship & Commercialization this Monday, May 17.

Leading providers of global healthcare, innovative medical technologies, and investment funds will direct panels about innovative medical technologies that are changing the face of patient care in the developing world.

The prestigious line-up of speakers include:

-          Dr. Thomas Burke

Director of the Division of Global Health

Massachusetts General Hospital.

-          Earl Jones

Senior Vice President and General Manager

GE Healthcare’s eHealth division

-          Dr. Una Ryan

CEO

Diagnostics for All;

Click here to register and view the full conference agenda. If you’re a Schwartz client, you’ll get a discount on the registration fee.

The event is sponsored by MassDevice, with local event partners including Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBIO), Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMedic), Schwartz Communications, and others.

We hope to see you there!

Posted by Dana Conti on May 13, 2010 at 12:01 PM
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Good Healthcare PR Combines New and Traditional Communications Tools

Recently a client sent to me a link to an online commentary that said “you need a blog, not a PR agency.”  This was my reply to my client:

Thanks for forwarding that online story to us. We see articles like this one quite often.  It’s almost a standard approach now for someone to stake out the provocative position of something like “PR is dead” or “all you need is social media.”  Many self-styled social media gurus take positions like this.  It gets attention but of course it ignores the realities of communicating in today's environment.

The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.  For years we’ve been very strong believers in the communications power of online media – blogs, Twitter, Facebook, digital content creation and everything else.  We have great services to help our clients in these areas and we handle this for many of our clients. At the same time, even as the traditional media disaggregates and communications channels fragment, there is still a strong need for such traditional PR tools as press releases, media briefings, customer case studies, print articles (and their online versions), analyst briefings, executive bylines, picking up the phone and calling a reporter, and all the other ways to generate leads and reach your prospects.

Why? Here are a few reasons.

First, even today not all (perhaps not even most) prospects in some industries are getting their information online.  Think of the way you gather your information. It’s probably a somewhat random mix of newspapers, magazines, blogs, local TV news and their websites, Google feeds, AP on your iPhone, etc.…we’re omnivorous media consumers and we don’t go about it with a careful plan.  So our view is that you need to be everywhere your target buyers go to get their information.  A new survey from Middleberg and the Society for New Communications shows that 30 percent of reporters are not using social media or blogs. Fifty-two percent don’t use Twitter and 75 percent don’t listen to podcasts.

In healthcare PR more of communications is moving online, but the trade publications still exert great influence.  The ideal combination is to get a great trade or business media story, link it to your website, write a blog posting about it, Tweet it to your followers and spread it around. But often that starts with one of those old, boring, soon-to-be dead magazine placements – you know, the kind that just keep not dying.

Second, there is still some degree of “document of record” provided by press releases, particularly for public companies. In July, 2008 the SEC described some new guidelines  that expanded acceptable disclosure tools to include corporate websites. Sun was the first company to post its earnings announcement on its IR website alone, and not through a press release issued on a wire service.  That’s fine, and it’s a growing trend, but there are still many companies which prefer to issue a press release, on a wire, to announce significant news.  For any good PR agency the distribution mechanism isn’t a big deal – we use a variety of wires, direct email, blog postings, Tweets with the link…it’s the content that counts.

Third, building an online community and reaching them directly is very important, but it is not sufficient. The appeal of this is that companies can project their message directly to those who have expressed interest, and engage in a conversation (sometimes a nasty or contentious one). There’s no editorial judgment or “interference.”  But there is a role and a need for journalistic standards that produce a story researched and conveyed by a disinterested third party – in this case, a reporter.  I want it all for my clients: good, positive coverage from a presumably reliable source in which there has been some reporting and editorial discretion, along with an active, ongoing discussion through blogs, Tweets, Facebook and online communities. 

I’ve worked in business communications for a long time. I place great value on new technologies that help us communicate and I use them. But I’ve also learned that no hot new communications technology is a panacea.  You don’t replace one with another – you augment and extend your communications channels to include each new technology. I know from experience both as an agency client and as an agency guy that a good PR agency can help with all of this.  It’s not either-or – that’s too easy and too facile.  Actually, it’s harder than that. It’s this, plus this, plus this….and so on in the right mix. The chaos of the current communications environment means that now, more than ever, there are many ways that PR experts can help.

Posted by Dave Close on at 11:38 AM
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