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Why Thought Leadership Matters In Healthcare

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.

Blurred Lines: When My Work in Healthcare Became Personal, Again and Again

When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a pediatrician. And a writer. I had no idea as an idealistic young lady that there wasn’t really a career that combined the two disciplines.

And when I learned how long I had to go to school to be a pediatrician, I leaned in a little more on the writing.

It wasn’t until I had leaned way into writing and four years of Journalism school that I got my first job at a multi-hospital research health system. I learned quickly that I could combine my three passions—helping people, healthcare and writing. I was not the one performing the lifesaving transplants, but through my writing I got to share the stories of two sisters who shared a lifesaving kidney transplant and encourage others to be organ donors. It was a great fit. I thought of it as writing. I had learned in Journalism school how to write a lead, a body and a close. I never thought of what I did as storytelling.

Then, as if it couldn’t get any better, I got a job as a writer at a pediatric hospital. I met awe-inspiring families struggling through unimaginable heartache but taking me along and allowing me into their lives to tell their story and show how they battled adversity with strength, bravery and grace.

I got to see the loving way nurses and doctors approached children and their families. I got to see the way parents looked bravely at their children and told them it was going to be OK even when they weren’t sure. I was humbled and grateful for each and every family. I remember thinking that I was so glad to be able to tell their stories but could never imagine being in their shoes. I had found my place: healthcare and writing. But then something happened that changed my perspective completely.

The Tide Turned

About two years into my job, I had children. My son and daughter are 18 months apart in age. When my daughter was six months old, she began to have seizures. We spent weeks in the hospital trying to find the root cause—from a brain tumor to epilepsy—what we found was that she had a stroke at birth and had cerebral palsy. When my son was two, he was diagnosed with autism. What had been unimaginable to me about the lives of those parents had become my life. We spent many days and nights with doctors, nurses, therapists—my colleagues—and now my child’s caregiver. I was the one of the parents that I had been writing about.

Why It Matters

My children have been a consistent source of joy and inspiration to me. I know that doesn’t make me unique as a parent, but when they were young, we journeyed through a lot together in ways I never thought I would experience. All the times I wrote those patient stories, I never knew one day it would be me.

I’m happy to report they are both thriving, active teenagers now. What I learned is that in some way for all of us, healthcare is personal. Whether it’s an aging parent, your own health challenges, or a child, when we walk through our healthcare system as a patient or a caregiver of a patient, it changes us.

For me, it changed the way I write. It changed the way I tell the story of the latest innovation in EHRs. It changed the way I appreciate the passion and selfless care that every single position in the healthcare ecosystem puts into what they do.

I think it’s easy as PR and Marketing professionals to get robotic and apathetic in the way that we amplify a brand or write a blog. What we should remember is that at the end of that journey is a real person with a real story. And you never know when that might be you. Write with your heart. Bring your own story in the passion you have for what you do. It will never steer you wrong.

Luna Selects Amendola Communications for Healthcare PR and Marketing Services

Award-winning Healthcare IT PR agency and the leader in on-demand physical therapy delivery partner to amplify client successes and industry best practices

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Aug. 10, 2021 – Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and technology public relations and marketing firm, announced that Luna, the leader in on-demand physical therapy, has selected the firm to support brand amplification and recognition among key players in the healthcare industry.

Luna is the nation’s fastest growing on-demand physical therapy service bringing rehabilitation services directly to patients’ homes. Their mobile-first approach expands access for patients and increases adherence to post-operative therapy, lowering costs for providers and creating a new mode of employment for expert physical therapists.

“Legacy physical therapy models built solely on brick-and-mortar clinics are not working for patients,” said Luna Co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer Palak Shah. “The best evidence of this is the fact that 70 percent of patients never complete their treatment plan, and 63 percent expressing a preference for at-home physical therapy. Luna’s on-demand, in-home approach not only helps patients get healthy, but provides new levels of flexibility, independence, and income potential for therapists, and helps hospitals and clinics retain patients. We’re teaming with Amendola to get the word out about this pivotal development in healthcare. Amendola’s deep industry knowledge and media connections, virtually assures the visibility we need to continue our rapid growth and momentum.”

Amendola is implementing a full-service communication strategy for Luna that will amplify the company’s ongoing brand, growth, service updates, expertise and successes. Recently Luna officially introduced their turnkey solution, Rehab at Home™ and announced their expansion in the Greater Seattle and Dallas regions through key local provider partnerships.

“The physical therapy market was hungry for a better way to support patient rehabilitation, and Luna provides a high-quality, low-cost solution for them,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “Introducing this model to the wider rehabilitation space is an important step forward in continuing to meet growing value-based care requirements and offering more consumer-centric programs. We’re excited to partner with Luna on this endeavor.”

To learn more about how Luna is a new era of technology-enabled physical therapy, visit getluna.com.

About Luna

Luna is the leader in on-demand physical therapy, delivering outpatient physical therapy beyond the four walls of a clinic. For patients, Luna has reimagined the physical therapy experience, matching them with a therapist for in-person care at the time and location of their choosing and ongoing coaching through an easy-to-use app. For physical therapists, Luna enables them to manage their careers with flexibility and autonomy, using a platform that makes scheduling efficient, documentation easy, and billing automatic.

For leading health systems and orthopedic groups, Luna improves revenue for rehabilitation services by dramatically expanding access and reach, improving adherence, reducing costs, and standardizing quality. Luna is the fastest growing physical therapy provider, with more than 1,000 exceptional therapists providing services in 19 states across the country. For more information, please visit www.getluna.com.

About Amendola Communications

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.

Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

Look for the Human Connection to Health Tech

Most people working in communications are familiar with the idea that storytelling creates the most impactful and memorable messages. Feeling a human connection to a story is what makes it resonate with us, and what makes us care. Working in the healthcare communications field makes it easy to tell great stories because we’ve all had our own healthcare experiences. Healthcare is personal and we can relate to any number of situations because of that.

When pitching/covering/writing about health IT, it’s important to center around the human element. Amendola CEO Jodi Amendola has shared that the best PR is personal, and the human connection is what makes any story relatable. My colleague Margaret Kelly also recently wrote about her perspective on health IT as a patient. Connecting the features of health tech to end users (physicians and other care providers) and to the ultimate benefits to patients makes stories more powerful and demonstrates the value of technology.

In the health IT world, there’s so much innovation and so many new tools, programs and systems that can improve the healthcare system. But the most important stories in health IT are not about the technology but instead about the patients who ultimately benefit from the technology. Patients are the ultimate beneficiary of all the innovation happening in healthcare, from safety, to efficiency, to patient satisfaction and ultimately improved health outcomes.

If, like me, you’ve had a telemedicine appointment this year because of COVID-19, you’ve experienced health tech innovation firsthand. While telehealth was not initially conceived as a method for delivering health care to prevent viral spread during a pandemic, it’s an unexpected use case for an innovation that was originally thought of as a convenience. The rapid adoption of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has likely changed health care delivery, and telemedicine is likely here to stay in a bigger role moving forward.

I can look at my own career in PR and see real-world examples of how healthcare technology benefitted physicians and patients in unexpected ways. I live in the Kansas, which is right in the heart of “Tornado Alley.” No, I’ve never actually seen a tornado, but the sirens are a familiar part of spring and summer in the Midwest. Tornados are destructive and can be deadly – you may remember the horrific destruction of the EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri in 2011 which killed 161 people and badly damaged the local hospital.

Even though there were reports of X-ray films being blown 70 miles away, patient records were also digitized. When the hospital was closed due to the extensive damage, the community set up temporary facilities to care for patients and the clinicians were able to electronically access medical records for those patients. Prior to the widespread adoption of electronic health records, this would not have been possible.

I was also working in health IT when a devastating tornado ripped through a medical center in Oklahoma in 2013. The roof was torn off and the medical center had to evacuate patients to other locations within the regional health system. Before EHRs, this situation would have left clinicians without access to the health records for the patients in their care. But thanks to the digitization of medical records and a regional health information organization (RHIO) for which my employer remotely hosted the records, patients could be transferred to other nearby facilities and physicians could access patients’ records for treatment.

This second example was actually a cover story in Modern Healthcare that highlighted how technology makes our healthcare system better and benefits communities and patients. It may have been an unintended use case for health information exchanges (HIEs) and remotely hosted records for disaster preparedness, but sometimes unforeseen events help to prove the efficiency and value of certain innovations.

Finding a meaningful way to communicate how innovations benefit people makes health IT messages more memorable. To make your health tech story resonant with audiences, always look for the human connection.

Amendola a Finalist for PR Daily’s 2021 Digital Marketing Campaign of Year AND Healthcare Marketing Campaign

Amplification, education & patient-centric storytelling helps Air Methods’ No Membership Required program take off

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—July 15, 2021 – Amendola Communications (Amendola) today announced it has been named a finalist in two different categories for PR Daily’s 2021 Digital Marketing & Social Media Awards, including the Grand Prize for Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year and the Healthcare Marketing Campaign category. The agency’s campaign, “Amendola Helps Air Methods’ No Membership Required Program Take Off,” included amplification, education and patient-centric storytelling to help fuel pending legislation and resolve an ongoing, industry challenge.

“To overcome the widely misunderstood reimbursement for air medical care, we implemented an integrated, hard-hitting education, amplification and patient-centric story-telling campaign,” explained Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola. “We brought together a range of approaches across owned and paid media to make sure the message resonated. It required an extraordinary amount of planning, creativity, energy and execution. I am proud of the quality of work and dedication of the A-team, as well as the high level of engagement and collaboration with Air Methods.”

THE INDUSTRY CHALLENGE

Health plans typically don’t cover emergency air transport services, leaving already traumatized families to face exorbitant bills. The industry’s solution was to sell “memberships.” But nearly every region is covered by only one organization, which led people to pay into a membership for years and still were billed as if they were transported by another company. As a result, the medical emergency transport industry – including Air Methods, a leading provider of air medical emergency services – received negative media publicity.

A CUSTOMIZED, INTEGRATED PROGRAM:  NO MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED (NMR)

Amendola launched the Air Methods campaign with four strategic goals:

  • Change public perception that emergency air transport companies take advantage of patients in times of distress through predatory billing practices
  • Shift public and media sentiment toward Air Methods specifically from negative to positive/neutral
  • Establish Air Methods as a leader in reforming the industry to serve patient needs in a fair and caring manner
  • Demonstrate Air Methods’ thought leadership with byline articles and media interviews focused on billing reform, industry best practices, clinical innovation, and more

Air Methods created an advocacy program to work with patients who were unable to pay their outstanding balances, ceased selling memberships (and refunded membership fees previously paid by Medicare patients) and began working with health plans to get their services covered.

Amendola launched a digital campaign called No Membership Required (NMR) to raise awareness at the national and community levels of Air Methods’ decision to stop selling memberships as well as its efforts to become in-network providers for the nation’s top health insurance companies. Amendola and Air Methods launched the NMR campaign in November 2019 with a series of digital ads, some of which included videos with testimonials from actual patients about the patient advocacy program. The patient stories helped take Air Methods from being perceived as a faceless corporate entity to a caring provider of necessary, lifesaving services.

This program included press releases on topics such as Air Methods refunding membership fees to Medicare patients and announcements of the company securing in-network agreements with various health plans. In addition, an ongoing stream of social media posts delivered positive, consistent and constructive messaging, helping promote the NMR program and its underlying principles.

IMPRESSIVE CAMPAIGN RESULTS

The NMR digital campaign earned more than 21 million video plays, nearly 25 million impressions, and more than 21 million post engagements. Most important, however, was the effect the campaign had on consumer sentiment toward Air Methods. Throughout 2019, Air Methods averaged 26.5 negative media articles/mentions per quarter. In Q1 of 2020, that number dropped to just 5, a reduction of roughly 80%. Additionally, Air Methods has established itself as a clear leader and visionary organization within its industry.

The “Ragan and PR Daily Award programs celebrate the most successful campaigns, initiatives and teams in the communication, public relations and marketing industries.” The winners of this year’s awards are expected to be announced in late July.

About Amendola   
Amendola is an award-winning, national public relations, marketing communications, digital and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation four 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 https://www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.  

Media Contact:    
Marcia G. Rhodes, Amendola Communications, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com   

So You Want To Be On A Podcast?

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of healthcare podcasts available to listeners in 2021. There even are podcast networks devoted exclusively to healthcare topics. For healthcare professionals, these podcasts can provide valuable information. They also offer a platform for healthcare pros to get their messages across as podcast guests.

But how do you get on a healthcare podcast as a guest? In some cases, you may be asked. Daily and even weekly podcasts that use an interview format are always recruiting guests. It’s an endless process. Further, they are constantly looking for episode ideas. So while waiting around to be invited as a guest may pay off, you should consider pitching a topic for which you are an expert to podcasts you want to be on. Even if they say no initially, that will get you on their radar screens.

A great thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. A bad thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. And while the terrible podcasts tend to flame out quickly, there are ongoing healthcare podcasts that struggle to retain an audience through most of an episode, often because (I’m just being honest here) they’re boring.

The point is you shouldn’t jump at a guest opportunity simply because one was offered. If a podcast sounds amateurish or induces sleep, appearing as a guest will do you little good. Then there’s subject matter. If you, an oncology expert, are asked to be a guest on a podcast about the revenue cycle, you should politely decline (and the podcast should find a new producer). Make sure the podcast is a good fit relative to subject matter and overall vibe.

An easy way to determine subject matter fit is to read descriptions of past episodes. Can you imagine the audience you want to reach being interested in those topics? In terms of a show’s vibe, can you picture yourself having a stimulating conversation with the host or hosts? If the answer to both is “yes,” go ahead and book it.

Whether you’ve been recruited or successfully pitched yourself for a healthcare podcast, now that you’re going to be a healthcare podcast guest, you have to prepare. If you haven’t listened to any episodes of the podcast for which you’re booked, now’s the time. Does the host seem informed and prepared? Does conversation flow freely or are there painful silences? Understanding the dynamics of the podcast enables you to 1) visualize your own performance, and 2) develop strategies and ideas for the episode.

Once you’ve listened to a couple of episodes, all you’ve got to do now is show up and knock it out the park. Just kidding! “Winging it” frequently ends poorly, even if you are a legitimate expert or thought leader.

It is imperative that you and the podcast host/producer communicate clearly about the episode’s topic and beyond the tentative title. A good podcast team will send you a preshow form to fill out that helps align participants regarding the episode’s content. However, do not wait to be contacted. If you don’t hear from anybody within a week of the recording date, send the host/producer a list of questions you can be asked or an outline of points you want to cover. Make sure they acknowledge receiving it.

In addition to boredom, nothing chases away a podcast audience faster than bad audio. Though some podcasts will send guests a microphone prior to their appearance, I’d recommend buying your own mic and headphones – especially if you think you’ll regularly be guesting on podcasts. You don’t have to spend more than $100 on each. (Here are good guides for mics and headphones. USB mics plug into a computer and are vastly superior to laptop mics, which make you sound like you’re trapped in a box.)

When the big day arrives, you’ll be sent a link by the podcast host/producer to Zoom or another videoconferencing platform such as Riverside.fm, SquadCast, or Zencastr. Click on that link and you’ll likely be dropped into a “green room” where you can check your video and audio. (Many podcasts will use video for the recording, even if the episodes are released only in audio.)

And the show has begun! If you and the host are well-prepared, all you’ve got to do now is be your engaging, insightful self. Focus on the conversation and not the fact that you’re doing a “show.” This will help you be more relaxed and in the moment, as you naturally would be in a conversation that wasn’t being recorded.

You also need to be yourself plus. Amp it up a bit, go to 11, show some passion for your topic. You can’t get your message across if listeners are drifting away. Remember, to a large extent a podcast is a performance. Avoid monotone and project personality and humanity. That will make listeners remember you and get you booked on more podcasts.

Here are a few other quick tips:

  • If you’re asked an open-ended question, try to keep your answers relatively concise. Don’t ramble or excessively repeat yourself.
  • Use the host’s name in conversation. Write it down beforehand or make sure to note it on your computer screen.
  • Prepare a summary to use at the end of the episode that ties together your main ideas and messages.
  • Don’t talk too fast and don’t be afraid to pause for a second or two before answering. The podcast folks can cut out excessive dead air.
  • If you stumble over an answer, just say, “Let me try that again.” Then pause and give it another shot. They’ll cut out the false start.
  • Prior to the show, prepare stories that are relevant to the topic and that you know well. That way you can whip them out at the right moment. Listeners (and podcast hosts) love stories.
  • Silence any devices that could make distracting noises during the recording.

When the show is wrapping up, make sure to thank the host (by name) and listeners (and to include any calls to action.)

Once the episode is published, promote it. Podcasts love a good guest, but they love a ratings hit even more. If you or your organization has a large email list or social media following, let everyone know about your appearance on the podcast (and include a link).

The right healthcare podcasts can help promote your organization or establish yourself as a thought leader. To fully leverage these opportunities, you need to be prepared, be yourself, and be willing to promote the episode when it’s released. Do those things consistently and healthcare podcasts will be fighting to book you.

Top 5 Blog Posts of 2020: The More Things Change…

COVID-19 left no industry unscathed in 2020 (well, except maybe Wall Street). One of the hardest-hit industries was healthcare, which is Amendola’s specialty. Throughout the year, we posted blogs with helpful advice about adjusting to the massive changes occurring in the economy and how to steer your organization when so much was uncertain.

Well, judging from the most-read blog posts from the year, it seemed our readers were more interested in writing tips than survival tips. This unexpected outcome, we hope, is a positive indicator that most of you coped well with working from home, virtual meetings and travel restrictions in 2020, and were simply trying to sharpen your written communication skills with the additional time on your hands.

So, without further ado, the following are the top 5 most read Amendola blog posts of 2020 in descending order.

5. The New Normal in Public Relations and Marketing

Our only post written in 2020 to crack the top 5 describes how various brands have responded to the pandemic and how there is likely no returning to a 2019 version of normal. As the post points out, while the world may have changed, the vision and mission of your organization should remain the same. Maintaining the status quo, however, is not an option and neither is giving up. Communicating strategically, i.e., not ignoring the seismic disruption caused by COVID-19, is essential and can help your company weather (and even grow) during this catastrophic time.

4. Simple Language and Communication Success

As a professional writer for more than 20 years, I can attest to how difficult it is to write with simplicity, especially about complex topics like healthcare and IT. As this post from 2017 reminds us: simplicity is often better. Keeping sentences short, avoiding jargon and using an active voice are important tips to remember for everything we write and across all forms of writing. It is no wonder that this post was among our most-read posts again.

3. The Importance of Feedback in PR From Media, to Writing to Client Relationships

Feedback, when appropriately delivered, makes us better at whatever we do, as this post written in 2018 reminds us. Feedback takes on an added dimension in PR because we need it from clients and colleagues, but also editors and other members of the media where we have deep professional relationships. Seeking feedback can certainly provoke anxiety in all of us, but, as the post assures us, it can motivate, improve performance and keep us focused on the right targets.

2. Health Care or Healthcare? Here’s the Answer You Won’t Find in an AP Stylebook

As a journalism major in college, the Associated Press Stylebook becomes your bible. Since Amendola has so many former journalists on our team (including yours truly) many of the manual’s terminology, abbreviation, punctuation and other rules are hardwired into our brains and fingers. (I still often write the word “percent” even though the AP ruled in 2019 that the “%” symbol is now preferred.) Publications and organizations often have their own style rules for content that differ from the AP, which is what this blog post from 2019 is about. At Amendola, for example, we write healthcare as one word, although the AP uses two. Curious readers (and writers) clearly wanted to learn more about the secrets of this vaunted manual, which is why it was in the top 5 most read for the second year in a row.

  1. Going in AP Style

Sheltered-in-place during the pandemic, many of us turned to self-improvement activities – exercise, healthy cooking, reading more books, learning a new professional skill — and were seeking online content and classes to help guide those activities. That is my highly non-scientific explanation for why four out of the five most-read blog posts from 2020 were about personal development, mostly improving your writing chops. Yet this blog post from 2018 was also the most read post of that year, as well as 2019, which makes me wonder if readers are on a self-improvement kick or they just don’t want to shell out $27 for an online subscription to the stylebook. Either way, this post is filled with helpful nuggets for writing a press release, blog post or any type of content.

Whether it is writing tips, strategic branding guidance, media relations best practices or any of the other many PR and marketing topics we cover, we hope that you’ll continue to visit our blog throughout 2021. Who knows… maybe we’ll even write about AP style again.

Health Care or Healthcare? Here’s the Answer You Won’t Find in an AP Stylebook

Marketing, advertising and PR professionals know that words matter. And many companies are tweaking their internal and external communications to better reflect their mission and values. That might mean talking about those who work for you as “team members” to better reflect a belief that all employees contribute to the success of an organization.

Similarly, many companies are shifting how they talk about their customers, using terms like “partners” instead. The message is that they’re committed to help companies succeed with support and advisory services, rather than just delivering a product in a box and walking away.

In the healthcare industry, we’re seeing a shift in how providers are talking about patients, too. They’re also rethinking how they talk about the services they deliver and the conditions they treat. And anyone who is marketing to or communicating with providers should understand why the following three word choices matter.

1. Healthcare versus health care

The difference between these two terms is about more than house style or personal preference. The term healthcare–one word–refers to an industry and the system of providers within it. But health care–two words–is about improving health and caring for people, especially when it comes to treating populations. The current trend toward population health is about making communities healthier by supporting preventive care and wellness. The goal is to provide health care–in order to keep people out of the healthcare system.

2. Patients versus people

Speaking of keeping people out of the healthcare system, marketers should use caution when using the word patient. Many healthcare organizations–especially those that are focused on population health and accountable and value-based care models–are rethinking this common noun. In fact, some healthcare organizations have asked their staff to avoid using it whenever possible and use phrases like “the woman in room 401” or “the people we care for at our hospital.” Of course, it’s not always possible. It wouldn’t make sense to use the phrase “people outcomes” instead of “patient outcomes,” for example. But when you’re communicating with healthcare leaders who are passionate about their mission, keep in mind that they do, indeed, view their patients as people first.

3. Disease states versus conditions

Another trend showing up in the language of health services is to avoid conflating patients with their conditions. You don’t say a person “is cancer.” So why would you say a person “is diabetic?” Just as people are much more than patients, they’re also more than their disease state. And no one wants to be defined by what makes their lives most difficult. These days, the preferred phrase is “a person with diabetes.”

These may seem like small distinctions to you. And, yes, the differences are sometimes subtle. But it’s still worth taking into consideration. Because the use of these words speaks to the value and mission of provider organizations, physicians, nurses–and others across non-clinical departments, too–who have dedicated their lives and their careers to caring for people. A small effort to speak their language is not only a sign of respect for that passion, but also demonstrates you are well-versed in the current thinking about health care.
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Because, after all, words matter.