Healthcare Marketing

Time Your Medical Device Product Launch to Maximize PR Impact

Schwartz EVP and Healthcare Practice Leader Lloyd Benson takes on the question of how best to time a medical device product launch for greatest public relations impact in a new white paper. We invite you to download "Medical Device Product Launches: Issues & Answers About Timing."

Lloyd's perspective on the question of "when to launch" is informed by Schwartz's work over the years with what we believe to be the PR industry's largest portfolio of medical device clients. A small sampling of our work, which has reached patients, physicians, payors, advocacy groups, hospital management and others, includes introductions of:

- Philips Medical Systems HeartStart home defibrillator
- Cyberonics VNS Therapy for pharmacoresistant epilepsy and VNS Therapy for treatment-resistant depression
- NxStage System One portable home hemodialysis machine
- CYTYC (now Hologic) ThinPrep Pap test
- Hologic Cervista HPV test

He notes that product launches are like "one-pitch softball--you only get the one pitch to swing at. It's not going to happen again in the product's lifetime. So it behooves the healthcare PR pro to closely examine all possible alternatives in terms of timing and effectiveness." Lloyd believes that the received wisdom among many medical device executives causes them to allow that singular PR opportunity to pass them by, effectively turning what could be a chance to reach tens of millions of people into just another press release that crosses the wires unnoticed.

Take a look at the white paper, or drop the Schwartz Healthcare Practice a note if you'd like to talk more about product introductions, seeding the market before regulatory approval, raising awareness of a product already on the market or revitalizing an established brand. We look forward to talking about your company's communications needs.

Posted by Laura Kempke on August 24, 2010 at 2:09 PM
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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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Press Release Titles Matter, Part Two

The intersection of PR and SEO for B2B healthcare and technology companies is My Current Obsession. Naturally, then, I'm fascinated by how Google works. We all know it's a Google world, right, but I care in particular about Google's treatment of news releases and content generated by the media.

I was interested, then, in last week's BusinessWire post on "Why Your Release Might Not Make it Into Google News." Not often, but every now and again a client doesn't find their release on Google News and they wonder what happened. Sometimes they ask us to "call Google and fix it." Tragically, we can't do that, so it's going to be easier to write the release in the first place to maximize its chances of getting picked up by Google News.

In the BusinessWire blog entry, Joseph Miller lists four reasons that releases may not be indexed by Google News: the release is too short (fewer than 125 words), too large (e.g., an earnings release with huge associated tables), appears to be fragmented into unrelated bullet points and, most important, the title is too long. Specifically, Mr. Miller says, a news release headline shouldn't exceed 22 words.

Really long press release titles should be avoided because they're clumsy, of course. Beyond that basic guideline, we've understood for some time the importance of prominently including keywords in press release headlines to improve SEO--they should appear toward the beginning of titles. It's useful to also know now that verbose headlines not only don't help SEO, they likely hurt it by causing releases to be tossed out by Google News altogether.

Posted by Laura Kempke on March 30, 2010 at 12:20 PM
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The Changing Media Landscape: What it Means for Healthcare Companies

When you convene a group of leading healthcare journalists, in front of a room full of healthcare PR professionals, sometimes there's no telling what you might hear. Journalists and PR folk, especially healthcare PR agency specialists, have a bit of a love hate relationship. We both need each other, for different reasons of course, and in light of the different media world we live in today, it's more critical than ever that we best understand how we can help each other. As a PR practitioner, I'm most concerned with finding creative and impactful ways for my medical device, biotech and biopharmaceutical clients to get their message out to their key target audiences. The game has changed and in fact continues to change on what often seems like a minute-to-minute basis. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating but you get the point.

To that end, we prepared a special report with our takeaways from this session, thoughts on how the media environment is altering communications strategies and ideas on how healthcare companies can capture the right mix of influential mindshare. Is it shocking that healthcare journalists are busy (no), have fewer resources (no) and have less time to pursue feature-based stories (no)? How about the fact that several of the reporters we heard from have yet to jump on the social media bandwagon? Probably not shocking, but interesting, yes especially when the media organizations they write for are knee deep in trying to drive eyeballs to their respective Web sites via the multitude of social media tools and channels available. Check out the report and read on to uncover the good, bad and the ugly of what to expect in 2010. Feel free to opine on our blog with your thoughts and observations, we would love to hear from you.

 

Posted by Risa Goldman Burgess on January 26, 2010 at 8:58 AM
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Crisis Communications Guidance in Healthcare Public Relations

Jim Weinrebe, executive vice president and leader in our healthcare public relations practice, will join several panelists on Monday, October 26 at Schwartz Communications for a Publicity Club of New England panel program to talk about crisis communications preparedness.

As much as we try to avoid them, crises are inevitable and usually strike at the most inopportune times. The emergence of social media alone has exponentially increased the urgency and need for being prepared. When the pressure is on, it is important to get the facts in order as quickly as possible before any public communication is disseminated and determine the key target audiences that need to be addressed. The pre-determined crisis communications team should be prepared to deliver relevant information in a timely and appropriate manner to minimize the rumor mill and restore order and/or confidence. It's absolutely critical to have a crisis communications team and protocol in place before an emergency or potentially controversial situation strikes.

Jim will be joined by several leading industry executives to discuss effective crisis communications protocol and offer insight into real world case study examples. More specifically, Jim will provide insight into managing a crisis in healthcare PR. Participants will walk away with an understanding of what works, and what doesn't, when under the gun and how to best prepare an effective crisis communications plan in a time of turmoil. To register for the program, please visit www.pubclub.org. Space is limited so please reserve your spot!

Posted by Risa Goldman Burgess on October 20, 2009 at 12:16 PM
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Have a Heart--Congratulations SynCardia Systems on 800th Artificial Heart Implant

Over the weekend, I saw a Tweet (http://tinyurl.com/ljjwla) that the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, performed the 800th implant of the SynCardia CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH‑t). Congratulations SynCardia! Back in October 2004, in my capacity as PR counsel to Syncardia, I was at the FDA Panel Meeting when it approved SynCardia’s CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart as a bridge-to-transplantation in cardiac transplant-eligible candidates at risk of imminent death from non-reversible biventricular failure. What an exciting time for not only the company who spent years and years working on and perfecting the device but also for physicians and patients whose lives were greatly changed—and saved—by this amazing device. I spoke with numerous patients including a cyclist who is an award winning member of the Transplant Olympic teams who had a second chance of life after being implanted with the CardioWest device. I am thrilled that more than 800 patients have since benefited from this device.

While this was the pre-Twitter, Facebook era, SynCardia made headlines news—from cover stories in its local Tucson papers to the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Associated Press. This was one of the most exciting, heartwarming (excuse the pun) launches I ever worked on and will stay with me forever.

 

Posted by Lauren Arnold on June 23, 2009 at 12:26 PM
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Politics, Stem Cells and the FDA

One of the more interesting recent medical stories to hit the mainstream media was the news that for the first time, the FDA has cleared the use of embryonic stem cells in human clinical trials. This particular trial will use a stem cell line developed by Geron, Inc. of Menlo Park, CA and will be implanted in people who have suffered acute spinal cord injury. As somebody who has actually seen the Geron-developed video of the stem cell’s affect on paralyzed mice walking and running after having been implanted with the Geron cells, the raw potential of the therapy is breathtaking. Of course, it will take many years of rigorous scientific testing in people to determine both safety and efficacy. This first small 10-patient trial however is an important first step.

 What is curious and thought provoking about this news is its timing. The public debate over embryonic stem cells has been raging for many years now.  Embryonic stem cells, as their name suggests, are derived from embryos. Specifically from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro and then donated for research purposes, with the informed consent of the donors.  The debate became a political ‘hot button’ issue when in 2001, the former Bush administration precluded public funding of additional stem cell research beyond 31 specific stem cell lines—ironically of which the Geron cell line was one. The Geron cell line was developed without public funding using instead the private capital markets. The public funding issue was largely perceived as a political gesture toward conservative supporters of President Bush as well as an extension of former President Bush’s own religious beliefs. To which of course, he is certainly entitled as are we all.

 During the course of applying to the FDA for clearance of this trial, Geron submitted a 21,000 page Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA, believed to be the largest and most thoroughly documented science that the FDA has reviewed in its history.  The company says that the application detailed more than 24 separate animal studies of its product that established both safety and efficacy in animals.  A lot of this scientific data had appeared in peer-reviewed publications over the years of development, including a study published seven years ago that showed efficacy in rats. As the FDA laboriously poured over the data during the years of the Bush Administration’s tenure, more people suffered from acute paralysis and investors bounced Geron’s stock up and down.

 Then on January 21st, only ONE day after the Obama Administration took office, the FDA, suddenly and without warning, announced clearance of the Geron trial. While much of the news reporting on the clearance focused specifically on the scientific importance of the trial, a few intrepid reporters openly speculated that the change in the White House had immediate impact on FDA policy.   This is a topic worthy of discussion. Was the timing simply a coincidence? Or did the Bush administration tacitly impose its own political and/or ethical views on the FDA?  The job of the FDA is difficult. It must ensure that the safety of the public is held paramount and at the same time carefully guide new products and technologies through a process that allows new therapies to get to the marketplace after appropriate review.  To add a layer of “politicization” to this process does not serve the public or the government. The science of medicine is after all transparent to personal belief or religious conviction—and politics.

Posted by Lloyd Benson on February 5, 2009 at 11:57 AM
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