Listen to Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications, describe the history of our transformative partnership with Health Catalyst. Learn how a library of content served as the foundation for a public relations strategy that significantly increased the company’s brand awareness and established the start-up as an industry thought leader. Watch the 3-minute video here:
In my 12+ years working with CEOs of healthcare technology startups, I can count on a single hand the number of opening discussions that didn’t include this phrase: “We want to be in the New York Times.”
The expectation among tech entrepreneurs that the nation’s newspaper of record will jump at the chance to write about them is as common as it is unrealistic. This is especially true in healthcare IT, where only a handful of companies sell directly to consumers.
The Times coverage of healthcare IT seems to consist almost entirely of IBM Watson Health (it helps to be one of the world’s great brands) and the IT initiatives of large health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Conspicuously absent from their coverage is your average startup with a Series A round in the low 8-figures and two or three marquis clients who may or may not be willing to talk to the press.
The odds of such a company getting ink in the New York Times are slightly worse than the odds of being struck by lightning while speeding.
Lightning Strikes
And yet, sometimes, under the right circumstances and with the right preparation lightning does strike.
Case in point. Zipongo is a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup with about 50 employees, $10 million in funding, and one brilliant idea. Founder and CEO Jason Langheier, MD, MPH, helped launch the pediatric obesity clinic at Boston Medical Center. The weight loss program was a great success but Langheier wasn’t satisfied. Millions of overweight American kids could benefit from the program, he knew, and yet it just couldn’t scale within the hospital setting.
Determined to help reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic, Langheier built an application in his “spare” time while earning a medical degree from Duke in three years. And so Zipongo was born. The full story is slightly more complex but Langheier had hit upon an idea whose time had come. Zipongo helps self-insured employers and payers keep their employees and members healthy by making it easy for them to eat healthy.
Read All About It!
I could tell you how they do it but why bother when you can read a much more compelling description of Zipongo’s success with customers like Google and IBM in the Feb. 21, 2016 edition of the New York Times: Wellness App Aims to Improve Workplace Nutrition, by Times staff writer Stephanie Strom.
Wade in! You won’t be the first. Within one day of the story’s appearance in the national edition of the Times, Zipongo had received 40 hot inbound leads and Langheier’s inbox was overflowing with congratulatory notes from folks who’d crawled out of the woodwork to restart old business conversations.
How We Did It
There were at least three primary ingredients involved in Zipongo’s New York Times debut.
Admittedly, the stars aligned for this win. Very few small startups have a product as cool as Zipongo’s, and one that aligns with a major national news story like the ACA. Fewer still have an A-list customer like IBM whose brand commands mainstream media attention. But without the right preparation and execution, and lacking a keen understanding of what drives coverage, even Zipongo’s amazing story would have gone untold by the New York Times.
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), is pleased to announce that San Francisco-based Wanda has selected Amendola for public relations and content creation services.
“We had excellent results working with Jodi and the Amendola team while I was at CareInSync, making it an easy decision to select Amendola for Wanda’s PR and content creation needs,” said Steve Curd, CEO of Wanda. “The Amendola team’s healthcare and technology experience is deep and they’ve developed strong relationships with the media and analyst communities. I’m confident that Amendola is the right partner to help us advance our mission to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care, and the quality of life for people with chronic conditions.”
Wanda provides a digital health platform that connects the consumer and the clinical care team in a virtual network, intelligently collects critical vital and symptom information, and applies proven machine learning analytics to deliver ongoing risk analysis and decision support. Individuals are equipped to take better care of themselves and clinicians are able to more efficiently engage with those consumers when they need the most assistance maintaining a high quality of life at home.
“When Amendola is selected by a former customer, I view it as the ultimate compliment and a testament to the outstanding talent of our team,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola. “We are excited to work with Steve and the Wanda management team as they work to help caregivers deliver better health outcomes and overcome the financial and human costs of managing chronic disease.”
With the shift to value-based medicine, clinicians are demanding innovation that facilitates more informed care decisions. By leveraging machine-learning, advanced analytics and algorithms, and remote monitoring technology, Wanda provides caregivers with more rapid access to better decision-making information, as compared to conventional methods.
Amendola Communications will provide broad PR services, including media research, aggressive media relations, and securing top-tier awards and speaking opportunities. The agency will also be responsible for delivering a range of content demonstrating the thought leadership and expertise of Wanda’s
subject matter experts including bylined articles, blog posts, press releases, and other materials.
About Wanda
San Francisco-based Wanda is dedicated to advancing the effectiveness and efficiency of medicine by using machine learning in place of conventional technologies and by enabling clinicians to make more informed care decisions. Wanda recognizes that remote monitoring and algorithms cannot save lives or reduce hospitalizations unless the individual and their caregivers are promptly informed and highly engaged. Through the collaboration of data science and applied medical research, Wanda has proven that its inline analytics predict preventable events much better than conventional methods. Wanda serves as a diligent companion, providing encouragement and intelligent visual guidance that simplifies and improves lives, while simultaneously helping organizations reduce their care delivery costs. More information about Wanda can be found HERE.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation for times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Michelle Ronan Noteboom | 512.426.2870 | mnoteboom@ACmarketingPR.com
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized and award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), announced that it has been selected as the public relations agency of record for Zipongo, the digital health company that makes it easy to eat well.
Zipongo’s mission is to reduce chronic disease by positively impacting the one thing everyone does: eat. The San Francisco-based company provides highly personalized and medically relevant meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists tied to grocery loyalty cards, as well as a growing number of food-related innovations. Some of the nation’s largest employers and health plans use Zipongo to improve the health, satisfaction and productivity of employees and members by making it easy for them to eat healthy food at home, on the job and while eating out.
As part of Amendola’s comprehensive and aggressive public relations program for Zipongo, the agency has already delivered a New York Times article, “Wellness App Aims to Improve Workplace Nutrition,” in the Feb. 22 national edition of the newspaper and online. The Amendola team will provide Zipongo with ongoing strategic counsel on market developments and messaging to support media and analyst relations, as well as speaker and award initiatives.
“I’m delighted to have a public relations partner like Amendola, whose team has already demonstrated their ability to get us in front of the news,” said Scott Smith, Senior Vice President of Revenue for Zipongo. “Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you’re saying about yourself. We’ve already seen that the Amendola team can help foster critical relationships within healthcare and the benefits management industry, and position us as knowledgeable and trusted thought leaders.”
“Zipongo is one of the most exciting companies I’ve seen in a long time, with a unique means of addressing the single biggest influencer of population health what we eat,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “Until this week’s New York Times article, Zipongo was flying under the radar despite landing some of the nation’s best-known self-insured employers, health plans, and large provider organizations, who see the company as the answer to many of their wellness problems. Our deep knowledge of healthcare and technology media is helping to viralize the Zipongo story, which we believe with drive ever greater market success for the company.”
About Zipongo
Zipongo is a San Francisco-based digital health company that makes it easy to eat well. We work with employers, health plans and other wellness partners looking for an easy way to engage their members in healthy and sustainable eating habits that drive positive results. Zipongo’s proprietary MealRx personalization engine delivers individualized recommendations tied to convenient, real-time actions that enable healthy eating at home and at work, including healthy recipes, meal planning tools and discounts and incentives to healthy groceries. We provide a HIPAA-secure, easy-to-implement software-as-a-service platform that runs on web, mobile and tablet. Learn more at www.zipongo.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Todd Stein | 916-346-4213 | tstein@acmarketingpr.com
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), has redesigned its website to create an immediately meaningful experience for visitors. Along with information about Amendola’s services and capabilities, the new site showcases the agency’s broad portfolio of successful client campaigns, plus incisive, insider advice for healthcare and technology organizations seeking to effectively communicate their message.
Following website best practices, Amendola’s new site emphasizes visual impact over text-heavy content, and features distinctive graphics and a color palette of rich ambers and other desert hues in a nod to Amendola’s Arizona headquarters.
Thought leadership advice from PR and marketing veterans
Just in time for HIMSS, Amendola’s free guide “Hacking HIMSS: Your Guide to Conquering the Annual Conference & Exhibition” and free eBooklet “Can I Quote You On That? Becoming a Media Interview Rock Star” are both available for download at the new website. Additionally, the new site includes a weekly blog from Amendola’s team of public relations and marketing veterans on all topics related to delivering an effective message in the healthcare and healthcare technology arena.
A platform for agency’s client work
An experienced agency, Amendola has a long track record of success and a portfolio of referenceable client work to prove it. The new site includes a prestigious collection of Amendola’s PR, marketing and creative work for clients like Health Catalyst, The Joint, Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange, Bernouilli, Recondo and many others. A library of case studies outlining Amendola’s successful campaigns for public relations, marketing, content marketing, social media and strategic counseling initiatives is also on the new site.
“Every facet of Amendola’s redesigned website was created with the visitor in mind, from the eye-pleasing layout to easy access to samples of our work and a blog that answers the questions we most consistently hear from clients and the industry-at-large,” stated Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications.
Visit Amendola’s new website at www.acmarketingpr.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation for times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s A Team, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director | (480) 664-8412, ext. 15 |Amrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
In 2010, the PR Director of the health IT association I worked for asked me to shoot video of staff and members. I did a double-take. I was a managing editor. Magazine articles, case studies, blog posts, Newsletters, books if you needed prose, I was your guy.
But video? My “qualifications” included being a classic movie buff and serving as director of shaky, out-of-focus snippets of my kids taking their first steps.
However, there was no budget, no oversight, and no expectations of success, so I agreed to do it. I was given a cheap handle-held camera, a tripod with a bum leg, and best wishes in finding my own editing software. I figured I would muscle through a couple of videos before this nascent program was quietly smothered in the crib.
Six years, 230+ videos, and one association award later, I’m a video evangelist. Here’s why video could be one of the most versatile tools in your marketing/PR arsenal:
Video is a powerful tactic on its own. I can quickly shoot and edit testimonials, as well as impactful messages and perspectives from thought leaders. For example, I shot 20 minutes of video for an Amendola client, and was able to edit a half-dozen distinct videos for them to use over the course of months. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet, after Google. In addition, 70% of the top 100 search listings on Google are videos. More than 92% of B2B customers watch video online, and 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly, according to Forbes.
Video seamlessly integrates with other tactics. Video can make your other PR/marketing tactics press releases, social media, and media pitching stand out from the crowd. For example, video increases email open-rates by 96%.
Video is cheap, easy and fun. With a one-time $300 investment and a bit of experimentation, I had portable film studio and am able to create professional-looking video clips very quickly and on the fly.
Forget big budgets. With minimal investment and technical know-how you can create a robust, creative video program that will give the rest of your PR/Marketing tactics a much-needed shot in the arm.
Check out some of the client testimonial videos I’ve created, using footage captured at HIMSS.
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), is pleased to announce that Aprima Medical Software, Inc. has selected Amendola to provide public relations and content creation services.
“Since the advent of government regulations under Meaningful Use and the evolution into alternative payment models, Aprima has brought to market innovative software and excellence in customer implementation and support, complemented by an industry leading Revenue Cycle Management offering,” said Michael Nissenbaum, president and CEO of Aprima. “We needed a firm that has proven experience and connectivity to effectively communicate this great story. Amendola’s strong history and track record was the perfect choice.”
Carrollton, TX-based Aprima offers a fully integrated, single application, single database EHR/PM solution, as well as complete RCM services. Its no-template design is chief-complaint driven with an adaptive learning capability based on a user’s style and habits. Aprima performs all development, support and implementation from the U.S.
Amendola Communications will provide broad PR services, including media research, aggressive media relations, and securing top-tier awards and speaking opportunities. The agency will also be responsible for delivering a range of content demonstrating the thought leadership and expertise of Aprima’s subject matter experts including bylined articles, blog posts, press releases, and other materials.
“Aprima is one of the healthcare industry’s most-established and respected providers of IT solutions for medical practices,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola. “They have a reputation for consistently delivering innovative products and quality support, which has allowed them to build a large network of happy customers. We are excited by the opportunity to partner with the Aprima team to advance their PR goals and provide quality marketing content.”
About Aprima
Aprima provides innovative electronic health record, practice management and revenue cycle management solutions for medical practices. The Aprima EHR/PM is an integrated system built on a single database. Aprima uses a fast, flexible design that adapts automatically to a physician’s workflow and sets the benchmark for ease-of-use, speed and flexibility. Aprima is one of the few companies with an 18-year track record of success, including Certification for Meaningful Use Stage 2. Thousands of Aprima users are benefiting from improved quality of care, improved patient satisfaction, improved quality of life and an improved bottom line. Based in Carrollton, TX, Aprima performs all development, support and implementation from the U.S. To learn more about how Aprima can help your practice, please visit www.aprima.com, call us at 866-960-6890, option 7, or email us at info@aprima.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation for times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s A Team, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Michelle Ronan Noteboom |512.426.2870 |mnoteboom@ACmarketingPR.com
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized and award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing communications firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), has added two health information exchanges to its client roster. Amendola recently developed and implemented a new website for the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange (GNOHIE), an organization dedicated to improving care and reducing costs by facilitating the secure exchange of patient data. In addition, Amendola signed a PR agreement with the California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX), an independent, nonprofit organization that is developing a statewide health information exchange (HIE) with clinical data from healthcare providers and health insurers combined into a single longitudinal patient record.
“This is the fourth opportunity I had to select and work with the team at Amendola. Their focus and knowledge in the healthcare vertical has exceeded my needs at each company I’ve worked,” said Doug Hart, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Cal INDEX. “That’s why I was eager to work with them again. I know they will succeed in differentiating our combination of clinical and claims data to provide a more comprehensive patient view.”
“We are very pleased with our new website and its ability to effectively communicate our mission,” stated Clayton Williams, executive director of The Partnership for Achieving Total Health (PATH), the supporting organization that manages the services and operations of the GNOHIE. “From the beginning, Amendola understood the need for creating a highly efficient and user-friendly site that would continue to meet our needs in the future. We couldn’t have chosen a more knowledgeable partner to work with and are very pleased with the outcome.”
“It is a pleasure to team with organizations like Cal INDEX and the GNOHIE that are working hard to improve the health of their communities,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “We are immensely proud that our experience and strategic guidance can be leveraged by organizations focused on addressing interoperability challenges to enable better outcomes.”
Amendola designs and develops websites and other capabilities for HIEs of all sizes such as the statewide Arizona Health-e Connection where Amendola led full-scale branding, PR and integrated consumer marketing campaigns that included website development, messaging, targeted advertising, media relations, marketing collateral, leveraging social media, e-mail outreach and videos. According to Tom Reavis, director of marketing and communications, “Amendola Communications generated 10 million impressions for our consumer campaign in just over one month and exceeded all our expectations for educating and persuading consumers to take advantage of the benefits of enabling their health information to be shared in a secure environment. Plus their overall knowledge of the healthcare delivery system and health information technology (HIT) were a significant bonus.”
Amendola also developed a community-wide education and awareness campaign to convince consumers to “opt in” to sharing their health information through the San Diego Health Connect HIE. Amendola accomplished this by developing and designing a new website, logo and other elements of a comprehensive brand identity while simultaneously enhancing their social media presence. Executive Director Dan Chavez stated that “Amendola Communications” efforts greatly accelerated awareness about and participation in the organization’s information sharing that is helping to improve the quality and cost of their local healthcare system.”
About the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange
As a not-for-profit organization, the sole purpose of the GNOHIE is to advance the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim for the New Orleans community. Focused on improving the patient experience, improving the health of populations, and reducing the cost of healthcare, the GNOHIE was developed as part of the Crescent City Beacon Community and is currently managed by The Partnership for Achieving Total Health, a 509(a)(3) supporting organization of the statewide nonprofit organization Louisiana Public Health Institute.
About Cal INDEX
California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX) is an independent, nonprofit organization that is developing a statewide, next-generation health information exchange (HIE). This unique comprehensive collection of electronic patient records includes clinical data from healthcare providers and health insurers combined into a single longitudinal patient record (LPR). Cal INDEX provides the underlying data and technology platform to provide real-time access. The goal of Cal INDEX is to improve quality of care by providing clinicians with a unified statewide source of integrated patient information, improve efficiencies and coordination of care and reduce the cost of healthcare. Cal INDEX was founded through seed funding from Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. For more information, visit www.calindex.org.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director Amendola Communications 480-664-8412, ext. 15 mrhodes@ACmarketingPR.com
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