Collaborate to Share Work and Celebrate Success
Public relations can be a lonely function, especially when we bear the weight of delivering earned media for healthcare provider clients in major markets. It requires high doses of adrenalin and drive, assuming your material is newsworthy on its own merit.
Recently at SPRYTE we’ve been enthusiastic about the opportunity to collaborate with other healthcare communicators because the physicians we support are themselves collaborating with innovative partners.
Our portfolio includes work for both independent doctors in private practice and non-profit hospitalists.
Relievus and NeuroFlow Advancing Management of Pain Patients
Dr. Young Lee, founding partner of Relievus, a multi-location pain management specialty medical practice, collaborated with local Philadelphia start up NeuroFlow to test a mobile software platform that patients check in with daily. NeuroFlow gives providers daily insight into patients’ mental health – a key indicator for care plan adherence.
In mHealthIntelligence, a mental health and telehealth online publication targeted to healthcare practitioners, Dr Lee said, “We used to document (a patient’s mental status), but we didn’t do anything about it. Now we’re paying attention to mental health and we’re realizing that pain is not just a physical issue. This is a physical and mental issue.”
Our clients at Relievus asked SPRYTE to work with NeuroFlow to help their experienced public relations consultant deliver earned media about their platform. NeuroFlow needed real life examples of doctors using NeuroFlow in the field and Dr. Lee was an early adopter and an enthusiastic partner to NeuroFlow.
As can be imagined, our biggest challenge was finding time in Dr. Lee’s schedule for media interviews. The opportunities had already been sourced by NeuroFlow and they were good ones. We just had to step in and deliver the doctor. So, in addition to the placement in mHealthIntelligence, Dr. Lee and Relievus’ use of NeuroFlow were also featured in the Camden Courier Post, the daily newspaper serving the practice’s flagship headquarters location in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Of course, doctors in private practice aren’t the only ones pursuing collaborations that positively impact patient care.
AirXpander® Revolutionizes Patients’ Preparation for Reconstructive Breast Surgery.
Our longtime clients at Holy Redeemer Heath System asked us to support Chief of Surgery Dr. William Scarlett and his use of an innovative approach to preparing a patient for reconstructive breast surgery, the use of a new medical device, AirXpander®
In this case, SPRYTE’s collaboration was directly with the manufacturer, AeroFlow The marketing team was delighted by the potential for consumer earned media and available and helpful every step of the way.
First, they confirmed Dr. Scarlett was the first and only physician using AirXpander® in the greater Philadelphia market. And we needed that confirmation to make the claim.
We were also supplied with great imagery and solid explanations of the product to expand what Dr. Scarlett shared with us.
But what Holy Redeemer delivered was key to the success of our consumer media outreach, a wonderful and satisfied patient spokesperson who was thrilled with Dr. Scarlett and her AirXpander experience.
Patient Miriam Dougherty’s willingness to be interviewed on camera with Dr. Scarlett was critical to SPRYTE’s delivery of a television feature segment on Philadelphia’s number one rated local network 6ABC.
So, in these two SPRYTE examples, public relations wasn’t so lonely. In the case of Relievus, we saw another communications pro work his magic but he needed Dr. Lee to deliver a solid story to both consumer and trade media. SPRYTE’s advocacy for Relievus and our expert coordination and facilitation skills led to two excellent earned media placements for both businesses.
With Holy Redeemer we secured the earned media opportunities and worked with the physician and patient spokespeople with the enthusiastic support of the device manufacturer.
Most collaborators will tell you that communication among partners is critical to success and we agree. Clearing up any blurred breakdowns of responsibility is job number one. When they work, collaborations are truly a beautiful thing. Pursuing client goals with other healthcare communicators and delivering results together is energizing and those earned media placements are a great way to stoke doctors’ continued interest in earned media, highlighting their successful approaches to patient care in the most credible way while building the brands of their healthcare provider organizations.
