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Learn To Speak The Language Of Your Client’s (Many) Target Audiences

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Healthcare PR and marketing agency pros work with multiple clients at a time. That’s a lot of technologies, services, business strategies, marketing messages, workflows, timelines, and personalities to understand and manage.  

It’s easy for us to feel overwhelmed because healthcare technology clients by definition are working on cutting-edge technologies that can be challenging to comprehend, never mind explain to an audience. Conversing regularly with healthcare startup founders about the clinical-grade, model-informed, reverse-engineered algorithm they developed to transform healthcare as we know it – when they weren’t working their side gig as a highly regarded neurosurgeon – is a humbling experience. My encyclopedic knowledge of BoJack Horseman episodes barely measures up.

But here’s where things get even more complicated: Not only does each client have all that stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph, they also are trying to reach multiple audiences.

That matters, because to craft an effective message you need to both identify and understand the target audience. The first question I ask clients when we’re on a call with a subject matter expert to get information for a writing assignment – a byline, a press release, a white paper – is, “Who’s the target audience?” Even if I already know, I’ll ask anyway just to make sure we’re all on the same page and to get more details. Plus it’s a great icebreaker!

Know what each audience cares about

At the most basic level, every healthcare technology company has three distinct audiences: customers (both potential and existing), investors, and the media. Let’s start with the less complicated audiences: investors and the media.

Investors view healthcare technology as, well, an investment. So while they may thoroughly believe in the technology and what it will do for patients, providers, payers or some other stakeholder, their primary interest is whether their investment pays off. Investors want to hear about the market opportunity, growth strategy, financial and growth metrics, the expertise and experience of the management team, and how the company intends to become profitable.

A media audience is looking for an interesting story. That might be the background of your client’s founders, the scope of the challenge your client is trying to address, and how many lives the client’s product or service will change. Even media outlets that drill down into the details of healthcare technology, business, and policy want to cast the content they publish in human terms.

You can best understand what type of content specific media outlets are interested in publishing by actually reading what they publish. (Pro tip!) If your client is all about the revenue cycle, you’re not likely to draw interest from a website that covers medical devices.

Customers are more complicated because many healthcare companies may be trying to reach several subsets of customers. For example, one of Amendola’s clients I write for markets its platform to hospitals, health information exchanges, labs and clinics, and health plans. Each of those target audiences has its own priorities and needs. As a marketing/PR agency, it is our job to effectively address the specific pain points of each target audience.

Listen, research, and listen some more

So how can we best understand each of the client’s target audiences? One way is to talk with someone at the client who interacts regularly with customers and prospective customers.  

For example, if the target audience is customers and potential customers, I would want to hear from sales executives. They are the people who listen to customers describe their business goals and challenges, explain what problems they need to overcome, and articulate what they need (or don’t need) from the type of solution the client is selling. Once you can identify the problems a customer wants solved, you have the raw ingredients for crafting a targeted, compelling message using the customer’s language.

Unfortunately, sometimes it’s hard for a PR/marketing agency team to get time with a client’s sales exec because they’re busy selling (hopefully!). It’s much more common for agencies to work with the client’s technologists, who typically are among the founders. While their ability to explain the company’s technology within the context of various use cases is indispensable, it’s the sales team that understands challenges from the customer’s perspective. They have an outside-in perspective, rather than the inside-out view of many technologists.

A less direct way to learn about a target audience is through online research. That includes using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to find information. (Just make sure it’s not hallucinated info.) Learning the lay of the land within a client’s competitive sphere provides more perspective to help inform the content you create. Large consulting agencies such as McKinsey and Accenture have ambitious healthcare practices that offer comprehensive market analyses.

Developing customer personas also can help marketing/PR agencies hone their messages by providing a crystal-clear picture of a target audience. What are the backgrounds, values, preferences, and pain points of the chief technology officers targeted by your client? They undoubtedly would be different to those of the chief financial officer or chief medical officer. Interviews, surveys, and feedback can be used to refine those personas.

Conclusion

No healthcare client has a single target audience. All of them at some point will need to communicate the appropriate messages to investors, the media, and various customer groups. Marketing/PR professionals must be fluent in all these languages to ensure they are helping clients achieve their goals.

Kalderos Selects Amendola for Strategic PR Services 

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Award-winning healthcare PR agency partners with data infrastructure and analytics leader to amplify thought leadership and company achievements

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 4, 2023 – Amendola, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare technology and life sciences public relations and marketing firm, announced today that Kalderos, creator of the world’s first Drug Discount Management platform, has chosen the firm to amplify client successes, thought leadership, and industry best practices.

Amendola is implementing a comprehensive PR plan to demonstrate Kalderos’ industry-leading technology and services, new offerings, accomplishments, customer wins, and industry partnerships.

“Drug discount programs are complex and multilayered, creating challenges for manufacturers seeking to reduce revenue leakage and bolster program integrity,” said Brent Dover, CEO of Kalderos. “Through our partnership with Amendola, we look forward to showcasing how Kalderos’ collaborative network enables drug manufacturers, covered entities and payers to remove obstacles to seamless communication for the good of patients. And there is no better agency to do this than Amendola. I have worked with Jodi Amendola and her team at three other companies over a 25-year span and their client service, industry knowledge and top-notch results are what keep me coming back.”

Welcoming Kalderos to the Amendola agency roster, Amendola CEO Jodi Amendola states, “It is an incredible honor to work with the Kalderos team to educate the industry on how Kalderos’ Drug Discount Management solutions enable manufacturers to verify duplicate discounts, mitigate revenue leakage, and provide true data transparency. The company, the platform, and the people are fantastic, and we look forward to sharing their story to help pharma manufacturers manage drug discounts and reduce noncompliance.”

Kalderos recently introduced Kalderos for Manufacturers, a new portal designed exclusively for drug manufacturers to ensure a simplified, more efficient way to process drug discount claims. The new purpose-built product suite will allow manufacturers to better leverage Kalderos’ one-of-a-kind multi-sided platform proven to improve efficiency across drug discount programs.

About Amendola

Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content, and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Kalderos    

Kalderos is a data infrastructure and analytics company that created the world’s first Drug Discount Management platform, simplifying drug discount program compliance for all stakeholders. The platform applies sophisticated data models and machine learning to identify and resolve noncompliance, with collaboration-oriented solutions built for both drug manufacturers and covered entities. Based in Chicago, Kalderos was founded in 2016 by a team dedicated to reducing inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, empowering everyone to focus on the health of people. More information can be found at www.kalderos.com.

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Media contact:

Marcia Rhodes

Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

Why Thought Leadership Matters In Healthcare

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To be successful in business, you have to come up with a viable idea, develop it, bring it to market, and sell it to customers. That may be an oversimplified version of the formula but the basic principles are there: craft a product or service and then spend most of your time selling it far and wide.

As with so many things in healthcare, this process is more complicated than usual. Caring for patients is always the top priority but then there are also so many different stakeholders and revenue streams that muddle how a company should explore expansion.

Ultimately, healthcare executives are the guiding force that can bring an organization to the next level by embodying the mission statement, promoting value to the market, and winning over skeptics.

But in an era where the playing field is so flat, where new markets emerge only to experience a sudden rush of competitive saturation, companies have to stand out. The most obvious answer to an executive might be to rely on standard business strategies to address these challenges.

However, I would argue that the best way to differentiate yourself as a company and secure necessary industry credibility is to operate above the fray.Optics matter, so leaders must recognize that opportunities to interface with the media and stakeholders as a vendor-neutral voice of reason are an effective, proven way to better serve the business.

Casting yourself as an industry authority or subject matter expert pays dividends down the line because outsiders can look at you and realize you have more to say than simply reciting the same sales pitch over and over.

In the years I spent as a healthcare reporter, some of my most valuable contacts in the industry were accomplished executives that could speak to specific events or general trends in a vendor-neutral way.

Neither me nor my audience needed to know about how their RCM company was the best at streamlining the financial experience for patients or how their virtual care service was going to be the Holy Grail of care access. Quality journalists aren’t there to hand out superlatives or write puff pieces about executives and the companies that they run; rehashing a press release isn’t why reporters do what they do.

However, soliciting the opinions of healthcare’s movers and shakers never goes out of style. For example, if there’s a significant policy announcement affecting payers and I can get an insurance executive on the phone to talk about ramifications without reminding me that they were the first to offer certain benefits to members, then that’s a source I can reliably turn to again down the line.

Subtlety, rather than outright salesmanship, is the best way to position your organization for maximum opportunity.

Getting your name in print, on industry panels, or invited to deliver keynotes should always be the goal because then you build a natural rapport with the audiences you’re most seeking to connect with. Everybody wants what they say to have merit and thought leadership is the ideal exercise to make that happen.

Perhaps most importantly to note, you and your company don’t have to be the star of the story; you just have to be in the story.

Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19, healthcare innovation has enjoyed prime media coverage, the likes of which hadn’t been seen before. Whether it was telehealth, remote patient monitoring, or vaccine research, there were thousands of stories printed about fast-moving developments in an industry that has historically been averse to change.

In each of the stories that ran on television, in print media, or on podcasts, there were ample opportunities for leaders to chime in about the future of healthcare. Many participated, but I implore those who didn’t to reconsider their approach to promoting their brand.

If there’s an outlet or reporter asking to associate your name with a trending story or a noteworthy event, even one that likely will not give you the sole spotlight, you’re better off accepting that invitation because now you’re linked to it.

I know there’s a strong inclination to use any and every media appearance to preach the company’s gospel, but there’s an even stronger value in looking at the world from a 30,000-foot view. If you can step outside yourself and speak to topics that are not simply related to your company’s latest announcement, you will gain invaluable industry credibility and media contacts that will return to you without hesitation.

Thought leadership is not just a pie-in-the-sky buzzword for the most outgoing executives in healthcare, it’s a useful strategy to expand brand awareness that every leader and their communications teams should be pursuing if they haven’t done so already.

To Build Brand Loyalty And Be A Valued Partner, Join Your Customer’s Mission

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Are you talking at your customers, or are you speaking their language and partnering on their mission? This is a question that every marketer, communicator and sales team member should be asking regularly.

We all have some level of brand loyalty in our lives. For me, those brands are Nike, Honda, Jersey Mike’s, Apple, Aurora Health Care and The Wall Street Journal. My allegiance to those brands is based on quality, style, company mission, customer service, product consistency, availability and ethical business practices (there was a time when I liked Volkswagen – they ruined that).

But more importantly, those brands align with what I am striving to accomplish in my life as a father, husband, professional, coach, and member of society.

I’m sure you have a similar list of your own.                                                                                                                                      

The same is true in the B2B space and we frequently see this in the vendor space. A simple example is the technology brands that a company buys for its employees. One business is an Apple buyer, another HP, and yet another swears by Lenovo. And yet computers can largely all run the same software – it’s the set up and components inside the devices that slightly differ. Logically when the devices can all do the same thing, this would seem like an ideal scenario to purchase based on price or recent quality achievements–but the B2B brand loyalty remains.

So how do you establish this level of brand loyalty with B2B customers? How can you be “sticky” when your competition is providing a very similar product?

You need to be more than a vendor. You need to demonstrate that you are an ally on their mission.

Let’s consider a healthcare technology vendor – pick one, there are plenty. They’re solving for the difficult problems in healthcare, like access to mental health services, providing telehealth services, building an improved billing platform, managing opioid prescribing, simplifying decentralized clinical trials….and the list goes on. And this is what their team concentrates on every single day.

But you know what? These solutions are only a small piece of what healthcare providers are concentrating on. The industry has three or four vendor competitors solving for the same problem. And they all tout similar features, such as integrations with big EHR providers like Epic and Cerner. As much as the tech vendor is going to point to a certain feature or new rating, the healthcare provider would rather move on to bigger issues.  

And that’s where the opportunity lies: the customer’s bigger mission.

Newsflash – every healthcare provider has a similar objective and a mission statement along the lines of: ‘provide healthcare services that help individuals, families, and communities live longer and healthier lives.’

Now, if you want to be the healthcare provider’s long-term partner or ally, guess what they want you to help them accomplish? Hint: it’s not just integration with an EHR or tracking how many opioids have been prescribed.

If you want to be a provider’s valued partner, you must demonstrate how your solution will help them achieve their mission of saving lives and creating healthier populations.

If your solution is designed to solve for challenges in the mental health space, for example, an everyday vendor will demonstrate how their solution tracks a patient through their care and identifies patients at risk for pharmaceutical addiction.

But a valued partner is going to do those things, plus help track patients as they navigate multiple care providers and the justice system. The valued partner will demonstrate how their solution is improving care adoption for patients battling anxiety and depression. The ultimate outcome of a valued partner’s relationship will focus on improved community care statistics, decreasing arrest rates, and an overall healthier community.

As a health IT vendor seeking to align with a healthcare provider, communicating your story is critical and requires distinguishing yourself and your offering as a partner:

  1. Create a core narrative that explains how your brand is advancing overall industry mission priorities. Use this content internally and externally to drive your brand message. Refine and update this message on a quarterly basis.
  2. Leverage your core narrative to create thought leadership content. These new pieces of content can be leveraged in the press, distributed through your marketing nurture campaigns, posted as core blog content, drive your social media efforts, and sales teams can share this content widely with prospects and clients.
  3. Empower a leader as the owner of your vision for the industry mission. This person, or people, should be named as the author of your content. Further, leverage your PR agency to establish these leaders as a valued interview with industry reporters and then make them easily accessible to the press.
  4. Engage with your customers and tell their story as examples of how your efforts are advancing industry change and helping to accomplish their missions.
  5. Survey customers and prospects to better understand their priorities, and where they stand on efforts to move their business mission forward. Share survey data publicly to help the industry define next steps. Leverage this new business intelligence to engage with customers and prospects on how your products can help to achieve their mission.
  6. During regular meetings, ask clients where they stand on their mission priorities and how your solution can further help with those efforts. Provide insights on additional opportunities from your perspective. And then follow through.

Each of these key steps will redefine your brand and drive brand loyalty from your clients and your prospects. More importantly, this repeated process will allow you to demonstrate your commitment to being the company’s valued partner, time and time again. You will have aligned with their mission, demonstrated the success, and publicly committed to one another’s future success.

Health IT – A Patient’s Experience

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Amendola Communications specializes in healthcare, health IT, and life sciences PR and marketing. A benefit of my employment is that my day is filled with reading interesting innovations.

I research articles for social media, locate editorial calendars from trade publications, and proof press releases before I set them up on the wire. My knowledge in the field has grown substantially over the eight years I’ve been at Amendola Communications.

It’s only in the past two years or so, however, that I’ve been able to experience these healthcare innovations on a personal level. While most of our clients are B2B, meaning businesses selling to other businesses, I’m starting to see several of the products have real meaning in my personal life.

This is a great lesson for marketers. Because the more we can see them from the patient’s side, the better we’ll be able to focus on what’s important to both patients and physicians.

Here are some of the technologies I’m pleased to say are turning out to be everything we’ve said they are.

PMDP – prescription drug monitoring programs: These programs allow my clinicians – either primary care, in the ER or in an urgent care setting – to pull in all current prescriptions from not only the large chain drug store I use, but also a compounding pharmacy for one special prescription. I’m handed a printout of medications pulled from the PMDP and I simply verify.

Electronic prescribing: I can’t remember the last time I had to take a printed prescription to the pharmacy to be filled. Physicians can simply send my prescriptions or refills electronically and I’m sent a text message when they are ready to be picked up.

Mobile health applications: Like so many Americans, I suffer from migraines. My neurologist suggested a mobile app called Migraine Buddy. It allows me to track my migraines, symptoms, medications taken, possible triggers, sleeping patterns, and much more. There are reports that I can pull to give my neurologist necessary information about the number and severity of attacks. There are so many mobile health apps out there; it’s nice when your physician works with you to identify one that not only works for you but works for them as well.

Remote patient monitoring: Not long ago, my father was in the hospital and a cardiologist gave him a heart loop monitor. It is designed to monitor the heart’s function and report it back to the cardiologist via a wi-fi transmitter kept in the bedroom. Each night while my father slept, the day’s cardiac activities were sent to the doctor’s computer. In my father’s case, it was discovered that while he slept, his heart would stop beating several times a minute. He had a pacemaker installed which regulated his heartbeat.

Telemedicine: Especially in 2020, most patients probably got to experience at least one telemedicine visit with a doctor. I used it a few times before COVID-19 as it was convenient and free of charge with my health insurance. But during 2020 and so far into the start of 2021, almost all my care providers are opting for virtual care. Indeed, the industry has seen over 8,000% growth based on insurance claims. 

Patient portals: My primary physician’s group, including my neurologist, has a patient portal in which I can request an appointment, send a private message to any member of staff, or save medical documents. For me, it’s an easy way to communicate with my care givers. It’s like a secure email system and I get answers more quickly than playing phone tag.

There are even more innovations that will be coming soon. The Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued interoperability rules that will make it so hospitals and health systems, through updates from their electronic health records vendors, will allow patients to download their medical records onto their smartphones.

This was supposed to be in effect already, but physicians have enough stress handling the pandemic. So CMS is extending the deadline for the healthcare system to comply.

Reading about our clients’ innovations through bylined articles, press releases and social media is intriguing. However, it’s also exciting to be experiencing these advancements in the real world.

Diameter Health Engages Amendola For Strategic Public Relations, Social Media and Content Marketing Services

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Healthcare agency to increase awareness of scalable solutions for streamlined clinical data optimization

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 24, 2020 – Amendola Communications (Amendola), a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and health IT public relations and marketing firm, announced that Diameter Health has hired the agency to provide strategic PR, social media and content marketing services to drive thought leadership and visibility of its clinical data optimization technology for health plans, state and federal government, health information exchanges and throughout the healthcare ecosystem.

Amendola will promote Farmington, CT-based, Diameter Health through ongoing PR and content development programs, supported by Amendola’s top-tier industry and media relations team. Drawing on Amendola’s deep industry knowledge and diverse media relationships in healthcare, business and consumer media, the comprehensive program will promote the benefits of quality healthcare data that improves patient care, increases revenue, as well as reduces administrative burden.

“I’ve worked with Amendola at two previous companies and Jodi and the A-team deliver top notch results,” says Terry Boch, chief commercial officer at Diameter Health. “In the short time we’ve been working together, the program has already made an impact. Their depth of healthcare knowledge, marketing and public relations expertise and industry connections have been fundamental in communicating our solutions for clinical data optimization to clients and prospects.” 

“I am ecstatic to add Diameter Health to our growing family of companies that rely on Amendola to gain ongoing visibility in a dramatically shifting marketplace,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “Diameter Health, which normalizes and enriches clinical data to create real time value, improving both the quantity and quality of data, is leading the way with improved ROI, which is especially important during this economic environment. In addition to delivering industry leading technology to automate data optimization for clients with real successes and outcomes, the company is led by an experienced, proven management team. We look forward to the ongoing partnership and to building momentum to drive strategic growth.”

With automated, proven technology and a five-step data optimization process, Diameter Health improves both the quality and quantity of clinical data available to drive critical business and healthcare processes. Diameter Health provides a longitudinal patient record, packaged and ready for use in HEDIS reporting, risk adjustment, care management, and gaps in care solutions. With a highly scalable platform that aggregates clinical data from disparate systems, Diameter Health’s solutions deliver FHIR-ready standardized, interoperable data that is more accurate and complete.

About Amendola Communications

Amendola is an award-winning, full-service and insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates PR, social media, content and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing veterans understand the complex healthcare environment and provide strategic guidance and creative thinking to deliver proven ROI that boosts reputations and drives market share. Making an impact since 2003, with an unprecedented number of repeat clients, Amendola combines traditional, digital and new media to drive growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Diameter Health

Diameter Health is the standard for clinical data optimization, transforming raw patient information into the highest quantity and quality of interoperable data for healthcare organizations. Powered by automated, scalable, auditable technology and a team of industry experts, Diameter Health delivers actionable and enriched clinical data that enables real-time transactions, improved analytics, reduced cost, and better care outcomes. The Diameter Health platform enables organizations that depend on multi-source clinical data streams, such as health plans, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), healthcare IT, life insurers, and state and federal governments to realize greater value from their data. For more information, visit www.diameterhealth.com or contact us at info@diameterhealth.com.

Media Contact:

Marcia G. Rhodes, VP, Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

Amendola Promotes Marcia Rhodes to Vice President

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., September 11, 2019 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and health IT public relations and marketing agency, has promoted Marcia Rhodes to the position of Vice President, the agency announced today. The promotion is the latest in a steady progression of responsibility for Rhodes, who originally joined the agency in 2013 as Regional Managing Director before being promoted to National Managing Director. In each position, Rhodes held many integral roles in client relations, operations and human resources.

Marcia-Rhodes

As one of only two Vice Presidents in an agency that leans toward a flat hierarchy, Rhodes will continue to lead many of the agency’s client accounts, conduct media training and continue to build out the operational and human resources infrastructure that has made the agency a textbook example of the 21st century workplace flexible, nimble and tech-enabled, with strongly collaborative teams located throughout the country. Rhodes will also spearhead new recruitment programs to support the agency’s rapid expansion into digital marketing, analytics and event management.

“Marcia leads by example in everything she does, whether it’s working tirelessly to amplify our clients’ national and trade media coverage; onboarding new Amendola hires with her typical warmth and thoroughness; or making sure that our remote teams have the most up-to-date tools and processes they need for client success. Additionally, she is a highly respected mentor to numerous Amendola employees,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola.

She added, “Marcia has taken on the well-deserved role of Vice President with her usual commitment to excellence. I can’t overstate how much she has helped to shape Amendola’s ideal culture to become the agency it is today; one that is known for high-performance, harmony and intellectual curiosity.”

Rhodes is a recognized public relations and marketing communications leader who has honed her skills over more than two decades. She has served in PR executive leadership roles in companies that, in addition to six years at Amendola, include WorldatWork, Six Sigma Academy, and Accenture, where she worked for 11 years.

Not only is Rhodes skilled in securing broad media coverage and coveted awards and speaking slots for Amendola clients, her own insights have been featured in publications that include the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, San Jose Mercury News, Columbus Dispatch, The Houston Chronicle, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix Business Journal and several trade publications.

“This is such an exciting time for Amendola; our agency is growing as we continue to add the most innovative companies in healthcare to our client portfolio. It is a joy to recruit the best PR and marketing talent and set them up for success with what I believe is the most flexible, supportive and dynamic agency in the industry,” said Rhodes.

Amendola has a policy of promoting from within whenever possible. To nurture future leaders in the agency, employees are encouraged to regularly learn new skills and take on new responsibilities. Amendola also has a strong culture of mentoring and teamwork that further contributes to professional development. Each employee is assigned a “champion” or mentor, and teamwide collaboration is a feature of every client account.

Rhodes earned a M.A. in International Communications from the University of Washington and a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of the Philippines. She has been honored by the League of American Communications Professionals (for web site development and a client testimonial video) and by the International Association of Business Communicators (for newsletter writing).

Media Contact

Joy DiNaro
Amendola Communications
847.809.0406
jdinaro@acmarketingpr.com

PR Pros and Marketers: Take On Your Toughest Challenges with These Tips from Amendola

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Healthcare and Health IT full service agency Amendola Communications shares insights on preventing and mitigating a crisis, ending a publicity dry spell and proving that PR and marketing work

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 30, 2019 PR and marketing aren’t for the faint of heart. If we’re not trying to talk a reporter into writing about our company, we’re pleading with them not to write something that was spilled in an interview. One minute we’re confidently explaining how marketing will enable sales, only to find ourselves tongue-tied when asked exactly how to measure those efforts.

Fear not, PR and marketing pros: you can do this! Amendola, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and health IT public relations and marketing agency, offers one of the most informative blogs available for taking on our profession’s most persistent problems. Check out some of our top posts this summer that give insight on crisis management, getting more pitches accepted, and yes measuring all of our stellar results.

To receive more tips like these from more than a dozen of the agency’s experts,

subscribe to the blog today.

How to break a pitching losing streak

You don’t have to be a crack marketer to get that a product based on a market want is more likely to succeed than one that isn’t. On the public relations side, however, there’s a tendency to pitch stories we want a journalist to cover instead of the other way around. No wonder then our pitches go unanswered or directed to e-Siberia: the reporter’s junk inbox. So how do we devise pitches that uncannily match a journalist’s interests and beat? In this informative post, Amendola’s managing director shares his tips for pitches that do exactly that. Read the full post here.

Nix media interview nervousness

We’ve seen it happen time and again. Someone who seems perfectly at ease whenever we encounter them becomes a different person altogether in a media interview. Suddenly, their confidence is replaced with an uncontrollable urge to ramble on and on in a fruitless search of a point any point. Unfortunately, that’s one of your few spokespeople. What to do? Start by watching this very short video from one of Amendola’s media training gurus. Even applying just a few of her tips can make a quick difference. Check out the video post here.

Create a better crisis response plan

You’ve spent considerable time putting together a crisis management plan that, hopefully, covers all the bases. But something important feels like it’s missing something that could derail even the best laid plan if you can’t remember it. Here’s what it is: more of a focus on what to do before and after the crisis. One of the most important prior to a crisis having enough goodwill on hand to survive it. Read all of the essential components here.

Make sure your marketing and PR measures up

If you can’t measure it, it didn’t happen, according to a frequently repeated maxim in our profession. Trouble is, when you try to figure out how to measure your own campaigns, you often wonder if you’re doing it right. There seem to be so many different opinions out there on the topic, and so much confusing lexicon. Until this blog post from an Amendola expert on PR and marketing metrics. We should all keep this terrific list on hand that details the top metrics that prove the impact of marketing and PR. Access the full list here.

What’s in a blog? In the Amendola blog, quite a bit! We cover all aspects of public relations and marketing, tackling difficult subjects with tried and tested strategies. A go-to source for communications professionals, the blog publishes on a weekly basis and features subject matter experts in every aspect of publicizing and marketing healthcare and health IT companies.

Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes, Amendola Communications, 480.664.8412 ext. 15 / mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

HIT PR Veteran Jodi Amendola Named Finalist on PR News

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2019 Top Women in Healthcare Awards

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  July 9, 2019 Amendola Communications founder and CEO Jodi Amendola has been named a finalist for the PR News Top Women in Healthcare for 2019 award. The prestigious award recognizes the most innovative women in the healthcare public relations space. Amendola was singled out for her work leading and executing high-performing global communications campaigns for leaders in healthcare information technology, biotech and beyond.

Jodi Amendola

Other award finalists include executives from some of the nation’s best-known healthcare organizations, including Blue Cross NC, UnitedHealthcare, Optum, and Dignity Health.

Amendola is a recognized HIT PR veteran, who has won numerous industry awards, including PR News’ Top Women in PR for 2017, PRSourceCode’s “Top PR Pro” award (multiple years) and an elite Forty-Under-40 Business Leader by the Phoenix Business Journal.

Amendola and her team have created high-impact PR and marketing campaigns for an extensive client roster that has included Intel, McKesson, Allscripts, Health Catalyst, etc. Founded in 2004, Amendola Communications has been recognized by PRSourceCode as a “Best-of-the-Best” agency nationwide for several years, and the firm has been named a top Healthcare Agency in Ragan and PR Daily’s Ace Awards.

Amendola is an active member of the National Charity League and has served on numerous leadership boards, including AzHIMSS, the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, X2 Health Network, D.A.R.E. NJ and the Community Resource Council.

Most recently, Amendola was unanimously appointed to the board of the Help in Healing Home Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in Phoenix that offers low-cost lodging and care to patients recovering from major surgeries or awaiting transplants. Amendola Communications provides pro bono marketing and promotional PR support for the Foundation.

“I am so grateful for this honor and want to acknowledge my colleagues, clients, employees, associates and family who have supported me along the way,” said Jodi Amendola. “Being recognized by PR News is an honor that inspires me to give back. I am so proud of our agency’s mission to accelerate the market success of innovative health and healthcare technology companies, playing a vital role in improving the health of people everywhere.”

The Top Women in Healthcare Awards Luncheon will take place on July 16, 2019 at The Yale Club in New York City. The event will bring together female leaders from a wide range of healthcare organizations, all working to better the lives of patients and the broader community through their work.

Media contact:

Marcia Rhodes, Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

480.664.8412 ext. 15

HIMSS19 Educational Session Recommendations from Amendola, Healthcare IT’s Top PR/Marketing Agency

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Clients’ technologies to shine brightly at largest health IT event of the year

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Feb. 6, 2019 Innovative technologies from Amendola health IT clients will be highlighted in a number of key educational sessions presented by the clients’ end users at HIMSS19, which takes place Feb. 11,15, 2019, in Orlando.

“This year marks Amendola’s 15th anniversary and the 15th consecutive year that our agency will have a presence at HIMSS,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of the award-winning healthcare and health IT marketing and public relations agency. “It’s been amazing to see how much the conference has grown in the nearly 20 years I’ve been attending and gratifying to see the tangible results that healthcare organizations are realizing from our clients’ technologies, which will be highlighted in these presentations.”

The speakers, who in a few of the sessions are joined by the technology vendors as co-presenters, will explain how they have overcome some of the biggest healthcare challenges of today by leveraging solutions from Amendola clients, including Alliance for Better Health, Arcadia.io, Ayasdi, Bernoulli, Health Catalyst, Medicomp Systems, Recondo Technology, SAP, SCIO Health Analytics, VisitPay, Vivify Health and Vocera.

Accountable Care Organizations

Predictive Analytics for Data-Driven Care Management Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization (BIDCO), a leading, value-based accountable care organization participating in five risk-based contracts, will discuss how to leverage predictive analytics to identify patients most likely to benefit from care coordination. Details: Presented by Sarika Aggarwal, MD, MHCM, Chief Medical Officer of BIDCO, and Bill Gillis, MS, Chief Information Officer; 2:30,3:30 pm Wed. Feb. 13, Room W208C. Highlights technology from Arcadia.io.

Building a Quality-Driven Narrow SNF Network CareMount ACO, a physician-owned multispecialty medical group participating as a Medicare Next Generation ACO in the Hudson Valley, will explain how it leveraged a population health platform to aggregate data needed to develop a narrow Preferred Provider Network of skilled nursing facilities, home health and other ancillary providers. Details: Presented by Peter Kelly, MBA, Executive Director of CareMount ACO, and Richard Morel, MD, MMM, FCAP, Deputy Chief Medical Officer; 11:30 am,12:30 pm Wed. Feb. 13, Room W315A. Highlights technology from Arcadia.io.

AI and Machine Learning

Cloud Analytics: A Fast Lane to Enable Real-World Evidence Mercy, one of the largest Catholic health systems in the country, is powering data-driven healthcare with artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics to benchmark best practices across its 44 acute care and specialty hospitals. As a result, Mercy is uncovering cost savings, improving patient outcomes, and creating new revenue streams to monetize data. Details: Presented by Curtis Dudley, VP of Performance Solutions, Mercy; 9:45,10:15 am Mon. Feb. 11, Rosen Centre Executive Ballroom I. Highlights technology from SAP.

Driving Physician Engagement and Patient Outcomes with Artificial Intelligence Vituity, a multispecialty partnership of physicians, improved population health and enhanced patient experience by developing AI-driven real-time clinical decision support tools. Details: Presented by Dipti Patel-Misra, PhD, MBA, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Vituity, and Joshua H. Tamayo-Sarver, MD, PhD, FACEP, BCCI, CPHIMS, Vice President, Informatics; 10 11 am Thurs. Feb. 14, Room W207C. Highlights technology from Health Catalyst.

How AI Enabled a Community Hospital to Tackle Clinical Variation and Reduce Length-of-Stay Flagler Hospital saved an average of $1,350 per case, reduced the average length of stay by two days, and decreased readmissions by seven times eliminating nearly $850,000 in costs by tapping into powerful, unsupervised AI technology. Details: Presented by Michael Sanders, FAAFP, MD, CMIO, Flagler Hospital; 11:40 am 12 pm Mon. Feb. 11, Rosen Centre Junior Ballroom F. Part of the HIMSS19 Machine Learning & AI for Healthcare pre-conference symposium. Highlights technology from Ayasdi.

Machine Learning to Predict Risk and Enhance Efficiency A regional health system in New York applied machine learning to multiple data sources to create a risk model that identifies high- and low-risk patients to reduce 30-day readmissions. Details: Presented by Simer Sodhi, Director of Data Management and Analytics, Westchester Medical Center; 10:45 11:05 am Mon. Feb. 11, Rosen Centre Junior Ballroom F. Part of the HIMSS19 Machine Learning & AI for Healthcare pre-conference symposium. Highlights technology from Health Catalyst.

Inpatient Monitoring

A Business and Clinical Case for Continuous Surveillance Virtua Memorial Hospital leveraged continuous capnography monitoring in a medical-surgical unit to detect adverse clinical events while also mitigating artifacts related to patient movement, suspect measurements and other medical device-generated alarm signals. Details: Presented by Leah Baron, MD, former Chief of the Department of Anesthesiology at Virtua Memorial Hospital, and John Zaleski, PhD, CPHIMS, CAP, Chief Analytics Officer, Bernoulli; 10 11 am Thurs. Feb. 14, Room W206A. Highlights technology from Bernoulli.

Improving Sepsis Care with Data Analytics Allina Health developed and implemented a comprehensive, data-driven approach for early identification and reduced variation in sepsis care. Details: Presented by Mischa Adams, MSN, RN, CCRN, Clinical Standard Coordinator, Allina Health, and Sarah Jenson, MS, Analytics Director, Health Catalyst/Allina Health; 1 2 pm Thurs. Feb. 14, Room W206A. Highlights technology from Health Catalyst.

Patient Experience

Restore Human Connections with Collaboration and Technology The University of Chicago Medicine designed effective approaches to improve the human experience, collaborating with clinical and information and technology leaders to drive positive human connections and transformative change in healthcare. Details: Presented by Sue Murphy, RN, Chief Experience Officer, University of Chicago Medicine, and Diane M. Rogers, CPXP, ACC President, Contagious Change, LLC; 11:30 am 12:30 pm Wed. Feb. 13, Room W204A. Highlights technology from Vocera.

Population Health and Chronic Condition Management

Enhancing Patient Care with Physician-Driven Documentation Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s ongoing clinical documentation improvement initiative enables efficient, structured documentation, but also allows the organization to harness patient data to create real-time clinical dashboards for more effective care for patients with chronic disease. Details: Presented by Vinay Vaidya, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and Michael Shishov, MD, Division Chief of Pediatric Rheumatology; 1:30 2:30 pm Tues. Feb. 12, Room W311A. Highlights technology from Medicomp Systems.

Cracking the Code to Better Quality and Financial Outcomes Rush Health describes how it used advanced analytics to improve the way it manages risk, resulting in improved patient care and enhanced revenue. Details: Presented by James Grana, PhD, Chief Analytics Officer, Rush Health, and Bala Hota, MD, Chief Analytics Officer, Rush University Medical Center; 1:30 2:30 pm Tues. Feb. 12, Room W206A. Highlights technology from SCIO Health Analytics.

Remote Monitoring Shows Significant Pop Health Benefits University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Ontario Telemedicine Network utilized remote patient monitoring to improve patient engagement and outcomes for chronic disease management. Details: Presented by Andrew Watson, Vice President, Clinical Information Technology Transformation, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Laurie Poole, Vice President, Clinical Innovation, Ontario Telemedicine Network; 10:30 11:30 am Tues. Feb. 12, Room W315B. Highlights technology from Vivify Health.

Patient-Centered Referral Workflow Automation Steward Health Care Network automated referral workflows improve efficiency, care coordination and patient satisfaction. Details: Presented by Heather Trafton, PA-C, MBA, Senior Vice President of National MSO Operations, Steward Health Care Network, and Kristin Ottariano, MS, Director of Medicaid Operation; 2:30 3:30 pm Thurs. Feb. 14, Room W206A. Highlights technology from Arcadia.io.

Doing Well by Doing Good: Finding the ROI Social Care Programs This invitation-only roundtable focuses on the outcomes and ROI of treating social needs. The session will focus on identifying disconnects in the current system, and the opportunities for innovations in technology and collaboration to play an important role in the solutions. Details: 3 4 pm Tues. Feb. 12, Hyatt Regency, Room Hyatt Rock Springs II. Highlights key thought leaders from Alliance for Better Health.

Revenue Cycle Management

How Web Bots Freed $20 Million from a Billing Bottleneck Avera Health improved cash flow by $20 million dollars in its first year, while reducing aged A/R accounts by almost half, after automating claim status follow-up with healthcare insurance companies using AI technology. Details: Mary Wickersham, MHA, Vice President, Central Business Office Services, Avera Health, and Ryan Ayres, Vice President, Product Management, Recondo Technology; 4:15 5:15 pm Tues. Feb. 12, Room W308A. Highlights technology from Recondo Technology.

The Patient Behind the Bill: Creating a More Satisfying Financial Journey St. Luke’s Health System in Boise fundamentally re-imagined the patient financial journey, creating a personalized experience that offers patients transparency, choice and control over billing obligations while turning bad debt into consistent payments. Details: Presented by Michael Rawdan, Senior Director, Revenue Cycle & Patient Experience, St. Luke’s Health System; 11:00 11:35 am Mon. Feb. 11, Rosen Centre Grand Ballroom D. Part of the HIMSS19 pre-conference Revenue Cycle Solutions Summit. Highlights technology from VisitPay.

Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes
Amendola

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
Ph: 480.664.8412 ext. 15