Southwest Airlines works hard to differentiate itself from other airlines, using campaigns that establish a we’re-on-your-side approach to consumers that often seems absent with other carriers. From sporting analogies to faux courtroom scenes to the simple billboard message I see on my way to the airport, it’s a smart message that conjures up many positive images in three short words.

We don’t represent airlines. We work with B2B healthcare companies of all sizes that are developing exciting products and services to enable seismic changes in the way the healthcare system operates. And these companies face tough challenges in communicating their message to their audience. Why?

No billboards. B2B healthcare companies do a limited amount of advertising, so the chance of a potential buyer seeing a key message on the way to the airport is about zero. Advertising is expensive, and unless you can be assured you’re reaching your target market at an acceptable cost, it often doesn’t make sense. A better use of ad dollars is on websites, industry sponsorships, and targeted outreach. (more…)

The Dodge Communications team sent a team of 12 to HIMSS this year, and we enjoyed visiting with all our clients, with the media, and with the 60 year old chain smokers that occupied the slot machines at 6 am. Had they been there all night or did they ask for a wake-up call so they could get up early and beat the rush? That’s an amazing thing about Vegas. You see it all because you have to go through the casino to get anywhere. Period.

It was a bit tricky to navigate in and around the exhibit hall, for sure. Large crowds, small halls. The upstairs/downstairs phenomenon in the Sands Expo Center. Booths scattered everywhere. Slow connections. Unusually tight aisles. Not our favorite venue, but that’s water over the damn bridge. Is that how the metaphor goes?

So, our team worked extra hard to notice booth trends and rank our favorites. Here we go. (more…)

In the latest installment of our HIMSS12 blog series, David Peterson, vice president of product marketing, for Emdeon is interviewed. David is also the creative director and heads Emdeon’s market research function. To view earlier installments click here.

Dodge: What do you think will be the theme of conversations at HIMSS this year?

Peterson: I expect it will center on the exchange of information. It’s been a building theme for the last couple of years, ever since the healthcare reform, in particular the HITECH act. Certainly EHRs will remain a theme, but the whole notion around the meaningful use component and the need to exchange that information has really been driving the industry towards how you move information, how it is interoperable and how to operationalize it to drive positive outcomes.

Dodge: How is Emdeon approaching its overall strategy at HIMSS this year?

Peterson: We historically are thought of as the leading administrative and financial clearinghouse in the US, and we are, but today we couple that with our clinical solutions to form the single largest clinical, financial and administrative health information network in the nation. In 2011, we processed more than 6 billion health information exchanges. Our approach at HIMSS is to demonstrate the vast benefits of our network and how it can help deliver higher quality care and reduce costs, but more importantly to help educate the industry about how interoperability is already available – that it’s not necessary to “recreate the wheel”. Our goal at HIMSS is to provide an educational forum that helps attendees gain a better understanding of how to leverage existing interoperability that can unite healthcare communities to help improve business and clinical outcomes.

Dodge: What are you looking forward to most this year at HIMSS and what are you hoping to gain from attending? (more…)

In the latest installment of our HIMSS12 blog series, Gary Palgon of Liaison Technologies is interviewed. Gary serves as Liaison’s vice president of healthcare solutions. To view earlier installments click here.

Dodge: What do you think will be the theme of conversations this year at HIMSS?

Palgon: Three things:

• Cloud services and how they can help organizations
• Mobility and how it can facilitate better patient care
• Social networking, benefiting both the business and patient sides of healthcare

Dodge: How is Liaison approaching its overall strategy for HIMSS this year?

Palgon: Being the largest healthcare show of the year, beyond meeting with prospects, we see it as an opportunity to network with the journalists and analysts that are there. We also see an opportunity at the conference for brand awareness and business development with other companies that we do or should partner with that are attending.

Dodge: What are you looking forward to most at HIMSS?

Palgon: We are mostly looking forward to creating more brand awareness and the opportunity to meet the mass amount of people that are there. Liaison Healthcare Informatics is one of the best kept secrets in integration and data harmonization.

Dodge: Cloud’s a big topic of conversation right now and will likely continue to be during HIMSS. As an expert in this area, what types of conversations do you anticipate hearing during the conference and how do they play into other trends in healthcare like care coordination, ICD-10 or Meaningful Use?

Palgon: In 2009, people were beginning to learn what the cloud was. In 2010 people were looking at the cloud, seeing the use, and beginning to take advantage of it. In 2011, we saw hospitals and other entities actually run production systems and applications within the cloud.  Here in 2012 we have the recognition for services beyond the basic applications, and how the cloud can speed up and improve the efficiencies of health systems and hospitals as they look to meet their goals. For us, Liaison plays in the integration and data harmonization areas, and our customers benefit from these services being run in the cloud. As a result of that, hospitals and other entities throughout the healthcare ecosystem can connect to one another and make sense of the information much faster because of this.

Dodge: Where can we find Liaison Technologies at HIMSS?

Palgon: We will be at booth #2375.

In the latest installment of our HIMSS12 blog series, John Tempesco of ICA is interviewed. John serves as chief marketing officer, is an ACHE and Life Management Institute Fellow, and has 34 years of healthcare experience. To view earlier installments please click here.

Dodge: What do you expect will be the theme of conversations at this year’s HIMSS show?

Tempesco: I think there will be three key threads that will run through the conference. One will be about ACOs, their value proposition, and how they will affect all kinds of technology, especially interoperability. This thread will give a good value-based reason for exchanging information, creating interoperability solutions and lead toward the next thread, which is value reimbursement.

Secondly, in addition to ACOs, there is a real focus on value-based reimbursement. Everyone wants to get out of piecework healthcare and start reimbursing healthcare based on results.

The last topic, since we are in an election year, will be about the politics of healthcare. There will be discussions about who will win the election, and what will happen to healthcare especially as it relates to healthcare IT. And, will there be a continued push for interoperability solutions, health information exchange, with the future of direct – all of those things that the current administration is pushing. (more…)

In the coming weeks, Dodge will be sharing a series of guest blog posts leading up to the HIMSS12 conference that will be taking place February 20-24, 2012 at the Venetian Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The blog series will allow a sampling of our clients to share their expectations for the show and comment on what 2012 holds for healthcare IT.

Dodge will be attending HIMSS12 and conducting interviews throughout the conference. We’re looking forward to sharing our experience with you.

Our first interview is with Kristen Heffernan who oversees the marketing of Henry Schein MicroMD Practice Management and EMR software. Heffernan joined the company three years ago.

Dodge: What do you think will be the theme of conversations at this year’s HIMSS conference?

Heffernan: I think the themes at this year’s conference will center on the hot topics in the industry – the things that still aren’t fully vetted out either by CMS and other healthcare regulatory organizations. We are still learning about healthcare information exchange and ACOs, specifically how they can best operate. One of the hottest topics I think will be about ACOs and interoperability between all of its parts, specifically health IT. As healthcare organizations take the first step of adoption towards EMR, healthcare analytics will be another big topic among attendees as they recognize the value of how to work with the wealth of accessible data that’s now being collected. And obviously, ICD-10 will also be a popular subject as we just made the leap into 5010, and now we’re focusing on how the industry will go about implementing ICD-10 and how it will impact the payers, the physicians, the clearinghouses and the hospitals. (more…)

We dress casually at our office. Seems to work pretty well, because our clients, prospects and partners don’t often visit in person. When they do, everyone seems to understand that it’s time step up the dress code. We don’t really have a corporate policy to that effect—it’s just understood.

And when we go on the road to visit clients we have a similar stepped-up dress code. For a prospect, the dress code goes up another notch. And at trade shows like HIMSS, MGMA, AMGA and AHIMA, we all dress pretty much to the nines.

This phenomenon got me thinking. Why do we do this? It’s because we want to put our best foot forward, make sure we’re not disqualified for an opportunity or looked down upon because we’re dressed sloppily or inappropriately. And we sure don’t want to be outdressed by our competition! It’s an easy measure, and is pretty much the norm. And I’m sure all of you do this as well. We want to look as sharp as we feel. We want everyone to associate our dress with the services we provide—buttoned up, sharp, smart, professional.

The truth is that in the post-internet world order, we’re making many different brand impressions other than the way we dress. Think about it. Do you ever visit a company’s Web site for the first time and think (translated to clothing) “wow, these guys have holes in their jeans and are wearing flip flops?” Or “wow, looks like these guys got their clothes at Walmart in the 90s.” Or “wow, I’d never wear something like that to an event like this.”

Ever gotten a Tweet from a company where you said “Did they really say that?” It might have put a little ding in your opinion of their brand.

Let’s try the same analogy for e-mails you’ve received as a first impression to a company. “This guy looks horrible. Why would he wear something like that to a classy event like this?” (more…)

Thanks to everyone who attended Tuesday’s webinar, “mBrace: How quickly are doctors adopting new technologies?” The webinar guest speaker, Pamela Moore of UBM Medica US presented recent data on how physicians are embracing mobile technology, social networks and the web in general, along with information on how well known medical media brands are using social networks to drive traffic and engage audiences.

Topics covered during the webinar included: the types of social media physicians embrace and what they tend to shy away from; how various specialties are addressing the shift to mobile and what they see as the impact of mobile technology on their practice going forward; the results vendors can expect to see through advertising and sponsorship opportunities; and what physicians top concerns and interests are as we move into 2012.

A recording of the webinar is available after registering here. We welcome your feedback, comments, and questions for Pamela or Dodge Communications.

Thanks to everyone who attended Tuesday’s webinar, “The new data reporting requirements – are you prepared? Aligning your I.T. strategy with accountable care objectives.” The webinar guest speakers, Mark Hagland of Healthcare Informatics and Tina Buop of Muir Medical Group IPA, gave a present and future look at the ramifications of the emerging environment for data reporting requirements under healthcare and meaningful use, and demonstrated the implications of the new environment for vendor strategy and communications.

Topics covered during the webinar included: the main elements around data reporting requirements to be aware of going forward; why vendors must broaden their focus to align with new healthcare reform-driven data reporting objectives; how the changes will require a new understanding of healthcare reform and what role media outlets will play in educating audiences about these changes; the strategic I.T. implications of the non-voluntary data mandates; and what is at stake for hospitals that aren’t moving forward on all fronts at the same time.

A recording of the webinar is available after registering here. We welcome your feedback, comments and questions for Mark, Tina or Dodge Communications. The next webinar in our fall series will be held on Tuesday, December 13 and the topic “mBrace: How quickly are doctors adopting new technologies?” will feature guest speaker Pamela Moore from UBM Medica US. Learn more about it and register here.

Join us for a free webinar on Tuesday, December 13 at 1 p.m. EST, with Pamela Moore of UBM Medica US for a discussion on how physicians are embracing mobile technology, social networks and the web in general. We will also examine how medical media brands are using social networks to drive traffic and engage audiences. Click here for more details and to register for the event.