February 2003
Volume I, Issue 4

News

The HIMSS (Health Information Management System Society) meeting in San Diego February 9-13 was massive with more then 17,000 attendees and 650 exhibitors. The most conspicuous exhibitor was General Electric. A helicopter circled the convention center Monday morning towing a 100-foot long "GE" banner, while their CEO, Jeffrey Immelt made the keynote address inside.

I heard a number of attendees complain that the helicopter was "annoying" and GE's approach "ham-handed" (the logo was everywhere, on the tote bag, at the foodcourt, even at the airport). Maybe so, but it certainly got the point across: "We're GE, we're huge and we're here to stay."

What's the message for PR and marketing executives? As a consultant who primarily serves smaller companies, I believe the need to be creative, to be highly targeted, has never been greater. Let's face it, healthcare is one of the few sectors of the economy that will grow in 2003. Large companies like GE, Siemens and Microsoft are spending literally millions of dollars on advertising and promotion in this sector. This barrage of ads and messages creates a swirling confusion of claims and technical jargon.

Smaller companies, who can never compete dollar for dollar, need to think more startegically, act more nimbly to compete with these giants and to standout from the crowd.

Fortunately, media relations and industry news coverage remains one area where the playing field is more level. A smaller company with a good story still has plenty of opportunities for ink. A carefully crafted message, written for the publication's audience and delivered by a credible source, is the key to success.

Trends

I spoke with a number of editors at HIMSS. They continue to be primarily interested in three key areas: new products, industry trends and success stories.

Several editors complained to me about the poor quality of materials they receive. "I get a lot of news releases that are just marketing brochure copy with a headline slapped on," one said. "They are filled with grandiose claims and technical jargon that my readers will never understand."

Another editor told me he never answers his phone anymore, he lets all the calls go into voicemail and erases 95% of those. "I get calls from young account executives who leave long messages about products we have absolutely no interest in. They are obviously going down a long list and have never read the magazine."

This points up the need for targeting and developing custom pitches for each publication.

One basic way to individualize pitches is to identify upcoming editorial needs. Download the editorial calendar from the target publication. The focus issue for October might be "storage systems," or "wireless" or "clinical decision support." Once you identify your product category, email the editor about three months in advance of the issue date.

Should an editor respond to your pitch, you will need to quickly supply names of customers and successful installations.

Industry Insight

"Healthcare standards are wonderful. We have so many to choose from."
--Paul Vegoda, principal, The MalvernGroup, Malvern, PA, speaking at an HIMSS presentation on Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).

"One of the main reasons for proliferation of incompatible systems was a lack of standards and lack of strong IT governance in earlier years. Each department pushed for their own, 'best of breed' system and too often the CIO gave in."
--Frank Clark, Ph.D., CIO, Covenant Health, Knoxville, TN, at a HIMSS workshop on system integration.

Resources

HIMSS does a lot more than host an annual conference. It also provides a lot of useful information on its web site, much of it available to the general public. For example, the 14th Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Leadership Survey, sponsored by Superior Consultant Company, is available at www.himss.org or the HIMSS survey site.

The survey of 300 healthcare IT executives found that implementing technology to reduce medical errors and promote patient safety was the top IT priority. Survey respondents showed high interest in computer-based practitioner order entry (CPOE) and bar coded medication management. And 68 percent projected an increase in their IT budgets in the next 12 months.

Also available on the HIMSS site are more than a dozen white papers on topics such as HIPAA and Wireless security; a calendar of industry conferences; back issues of HIMSS Newsletters and the Journal of Health Information Management (JHIM). I like that name, JHIM, it sounds just like mine!

You are welcome to forward this publication to other public relations professionals for noncommercial use.

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