For U.S. citizens, Presidential elections can be a very exciting time. For healthcare communications professionals, they can also be exciting…but for very different reasons.

The healthcare industry is used to being in the spotlight. However, shifting media attention in 2012 will present unique challenges for successfully delivering messaging to the masses. What can we do to help ensure EHR, HIE and ACO initiatives remain front-of-mind during this Presidential election year?

There’s no way to guarantee your message will be heard by the right people at the right time. But, if you follow these tips, you’ll help increase your chances.

1. Pay attention to what the media is covering and how they are covering it. A journalist, who might have been solely focused on one beat last year, may be responsible for covering something all together different for the publication in 2012.
2. Try to become part of the discussion. Timely thought leadership articles, white papers and op-eds are great tools to help spread your message. Be sure these communications don’t come across as self promotional – you want to position your company as one who understands the issues and is providing a product or service that helps address those issues.
3. Utilize social media tools such as Twitter, YouTube and blogs. Traditional media outlets will be consumed with covering the hot issues and their editorial direction may change at any given notice. That’s where social media plays an important role. For example, use Twitter to help spread your message. Follow relevant people discussing healthcare issues, tweet daily, use hashtags for discussion topics (#ACOs, #HIE, #healthcarereform, etc)

What have you done in previous Presidential election years to help make sure your message is noticed? What actions do you plan to take this year? We’d love to hear them!

Join us for a free webinar on Tuesday, November 15 at 1 p.m. EST, with Ryan O’Connor and Tom Flatt of AMGA for a case study discussion on how you can tie your organization’s message into timely industry issues such as meaningful use, ACOs or ICD-10 and give it the unique spin it needs to get noticed in the crowded healthcare IT market. Click here for more details and to register for the event.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, Dodge Communications’ president and CEO is interviewed to discuss Dodge’s history over the past 10 years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Brad Dodge is president and CEO at Dodge Communications. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Question 1: When you started the company 10 years ago, where did you think Dodge would be on its 10^th anniversary?

Brad Dodge: It’s an interesting question because we didn’t really think about that back then. We were tied up in the day-to-day activities because we were starting a new business. There were so many variables, unknowns and challenges in getting started that we didn’t really think about what the future would hold. Instead, we had to think about what each day would hold. We were doing our own client management and writing our own brochures and things, so we didn’t really think that far ahead. Frankly, we didn’t know if it would be possible to grow the company strictly in the healthcare vertical, and it wasn’t until several years later that we said, “Wow, I guess this thing really can be all healthcare.” We started to get some successes and some long-term clients under our belt, and it became clear there was a real need for these services in the B2B healthcare space; it became obvious we’d be able to grow the business that way.

Question 2: How do you think Dodge has helped shape the healthcare industry over the past 10 years?

Brad Dodge: I think we’ve helped B2B vendors really understand how important it is to have clear messages. If you have clear messages and an integrated campaign that moves those messages forward, then that helps you drive awareness and grow your company. Because a lot of our clients have new technologies, they are way ahead of the markets they serve, and it’s not so easy just to say you’re out there in the market. If you’re selling cell phones, you can say you have the coolest new cell phone because it’s got better coverage. People understand that because they already know what a cell phone is and they’re already using one. They’ve probably tried different cell phones, and they understand the value of good coverage. They know whether or not they need that because those things are easy, but when you’re selling technology like our clients are, they are selling things that people don’t know. They can’t say cell phone because their market doesn’t know what a cell phone is.

A lot of times I use a car example: it’s easy for Volvo to sell a car that is safe because people already know what a car is. If they didn’t, then it would be a different kind of challenge of how to communicate that. Helping our technology clients say, “Back up and try to understand that the marketplace doesn’t even know your product exists or that they have a need for your product, never mind why yours is the best.”  You have to approach it from a different messaging perspective, and I think that’s one thing we’ve helped the vendors do.

One other thing is that we’ve really helped and stressed the importance of reinforcing messages through thought leadership. Through blogs, social media and the types of articles and white papers we develop for our clients, we really help them understand that when a prospect goes to a website and sees all kinds of content—relevant content—that’s approached from different angles but always advances the same message, that goes a really long way. I think vendors are finally starting to understand the work we do and that having a strong thought leadership position is a real strong requisite for what they are trying to do.

Question 3: What’s the best piece of advice you could give to a client who is trying to implement and integrated communications campaign?

Brad Dodge: I think the key to that question is the word integrated, and we help our clients understand what communications is in today’s world order—the speed and diversity through which we receive information—is not consumed the same way it was when we started the business 10 years ago. There was barely an Internet, there definitely wasn’t social media and magazines were all the rage.  Today, there are so many venues to get information from, and we help people understand that they need to be engaged in all types of communication venues to get your message out. So, just pick one thing like doing a webinar—there are dozens of ways you can make your market and your followers and your audience and clients aware that’s coming up. The more types of communications vehicles you use to promote an event, the better results you’re going to get from your investment in PR and marketing.

Question 4: What are your goals for the next 10 years for Dodge?

Brad Dodge: I think we know now that the business is well-established—we have 30 employees now—and we understand what the opportunity is. We understand where we can get better, where our strengths are and how we can distinguish ourselves from competition. We have a plan that says there is going to be a great need for our types of services in the B2B healthcare industry for a long time. That’s because of all the visibility that healthcare has at the federal and global level. There will be a lot of need for what we’re doing.

The business model has been proven and now our challenge is to execute it.  We have a 10 year business plan in place that has us growing to a certain size, and we just want to continue to build on the success we have and continue to grow the way we’re growing now. We realize we are going to have to go into some adjunct markets such as a bigger expansion into medical devices or medical providers or general technology. We know there’s an opportunity for a lot of growth, and we need to approach it systematically with the best practices we have developed so far.

Question 5: What are some of the most memorable moments of Dodge’s history?

Brad Dodge: You know, I think it’s every time we have some sort of a milestone. Just having moved into this office space that we’re in now was a pretty momentous occasion. It caused us to reflect for the past years we were in the other office location and what it was like when we moved in there. It also helps us look forward as to what it will be once we settle into this space. That’s kind of one of the times that you look at it—every time you move your office.

It’s also interesting to look at the employee list from awhile ago. I’m so fortunate to have a really awesome group of people who work in the company because it’s not an easy business to be in. Healthcare and technology are pretty heady business, and for someone to thrive in an environment where they have to have an understanding in healthcare and technology and a domain expertise in integrated communications as well as the fortitude to manage multiple brands at the same time—which is the definition of an agency—really requires a different breed and a stellar person. That’s what we’ve built over the years—employees who have those skill sets. It’s really awesome to work with people who are so competent and capable, and I look back and say, “Wow, the days before we had this employee or the days before we had that employee,” are the momentous times. I think about having first started a relationship with those employees and now they are really part of the fabric of the organization.

There’s also been a lot of trips—the standard conferences like HIMSS, MGMA and AMGA—where we connect with hundreds of people we’ve worked with as clients, vendors, editors or ad reps. It’s so much fun to do an event like that and connect with all types of people. It’s one of the things I look forward to all of the time—going to events and seeing people I haven’t seen in over a year and seeing them face-to-face to have some good social time together and really reconnect.

I think there are a lot of momentous times that I remember at the agency, but they are usually celebrating the people or the milestones, and that’s what make it a momentous event.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications client is interviewed to discuss his experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

David Murphy, is vice president of product management and marketing at Health Access Solutions. Health Access Solutions has been a Dodge client for a year and a half. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Dodge: How has Dodge Communications helped with your integrated communications needs over the past year and a half?

Murphy: It’s obviously important to have a comprehensive communications footprint to get your market message heard above the noisy, congested marketplace. I’d say the Dodge team has really helped us to establish a consistent, concise messaging strategy, and just as important, a discipline to be consistent with our messaging across both our internal and all of our market-facing opportunities.

You know, one of the things I think Dodge has helped us do—I talked about crafting a message strategy, but it’s also about looping that effectively together across the full range of media outlets. Dodge has really helped us effectively do that through the website, traditional media—both print and online outlets, social media, the blogosphere, trade conferences, the speaker’s bureau presentation, marketing collateral material, all of that, so we end up with an appropriately tailored message for each forum. I think that’s one area where Dodge has really helped us.

Dodge: What are some of the major accomplishments you’ve been able to achieve through your partnership with Dodge, and how have these accomplishments impacted your overall business?

Murphy: I think the biggest has been the effectiveness Dodge has had in helping establish broad market visibility for us. As an early stage company in an emerging market, this is really important. They’ve developed extensive market exposure for us, and this is really no small task for a small, up-and-coming company like ours with a relatively limited marketing budget.  They seem to have far-reaching tentacles throughout the industry that they can pull at the right time, and that’s resulted in that well-timed interview that leads to the well-timed article that they ghost-wrote and pitched, which ends in a much appreciated inquiry from a prospective buyer. It’s all kind of one integrated stream.

Dodge: Where is integrated communications headed, and why do you think Dodge is positioned to succeed?

Murphy: My impression is, with what we’ve experienced so far with Dodge, is that they’re already well-positioned to succeed because what we’ve seen is really what I’d call their whole-market view coupled with a really effective team approach for developing and executing marketing communications plans. Plus, it’s really clear to us here that they are very client and market focused. I think from that perspective, they’re really well-positioned as a full service agency; that’s how we think of Dodge.

As for integrated communications, where it’s heading, I just expect things to get faster and evermore precise in terms of reaching a targeted market of prospective buyers with a differentiated message. You create a market event or something just happens, and you have to be ready to push the button for a cascading stream of relevant and highly-targeted communications quickly across many media streams. I think that’s the direction we’re going here with Dodge’s help.

Dodge: That’s all the questions we have for you. Is there anything else you might like to add, or a memory of working with Dodge that you’d like to share?

Murphy: They’ve been a consistent presence for us here. As a company and a team, we’ve really grown to rely on them to have our best interests at hand, and they’ve really helped us out in the market. We, both me and my team, find them to be highly professional and well-organized and on task.

Jerry Baker is CEO of Halfpenny Technologies, a leading provider of clinical data exchange solutions. Halfpenny has been a Dodge Communications client for two and a half years.

Dodge: Can you tell us briefly about Halfpenny Technologies’ history and the mission behind starting the company?

Baker: Our founder, Charles Halfpenny, was a pioneer in developing clinical applications for physicians – applications that were the predecessors of EHR systems. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he developed Dr. Chart, which is very similar to today’s EHRs. Charles sold that company in the late 1990s and founded Halfpenny Technologies in 2000. Because of his experience with Dr. Chart, he realized that the biggest challenge once a clinical application has been installed in an ambulatory environment is achieving connectivity with other clinical and financial systems. Because 80 percent of data reside outside of the walls of the physician’s office, a reliable and secure way to exchange data is crucial. The first generation of Halfpenny’s lab platform, ITF (Integration Technology Framework), was developed in 2001 to facilitate data exchange between physician EHR systems and laboratory information systems. Currently, some 400 EHR applications are vying for meaningful use, and seeking to achieve connectivity with laboratories and other entities such as health plans.

Dodge: Can you elaborate on your business model and the company’s plan for the next five years?

Baker: Halfpenny plans on evolving what is now a lab-focused hub into a more comprehensive diagnostics hub. This hub will include adjacent ancillary areas such as radiology, cardiology, discharge summaries and other familiar transactions that require middleware in order for data to be exchanged between disparate systems – in other words, to achieve interoperability. Our main focus is building on our foundation of facilitating lab transactions that cannot be readily exchanged without some kind of translation (or normalization of data) between systems.

Dodge: How has Dodge Communications helped you with your public relations needs over the last several years?

Baker: Dodge has helped us create brand awareness in a very professional, polished and credible way. This has allowed us to focus our efforts on building out our technology and services, and on the sales of our solutions. Dodge has handled the lion’s share of our marketing and public relations efforts, and has successfully increased the knowledge of our offerings and capabilities to key stakeholders within the healthcare industry. We could never have hoped to achieve the levels of exposure through published feature articles, case studies, media interviews and news releases without a partner like Dodge.

Dodge: Thanks, Jerry. What are some of the accomplishments you have been able to realize through your partnership with Dodge? How have these accomplishments impacted your overall business?

Baker: Dodge’s contribution has been tremendous. Our sales and business development momentum is a key indicator. During each of the past six month periods, we’ve set records for all of our key operating metrics. Our involvement with Dodge and the highly credible exposure we’ve received as a result has been a contributing factor. The Dodge staff consistently demonstrates professional and proficient writing ability, and is able to secure coverage for Halfpenny within top tier HIT and lab publications, which I believe is directly correlated with the increase in our business trajectory. In fact, our second quarter sales were 40 percent higher than they were during the previous quarter – quite a significant accomplishment.

Dodge: So, based on your experience, what advice would you give to other companies that are considering adding public relations to their communications strategy?

Baker: I would urge companies to embrace the concept of engaging in a partnership with a public relations and marketing firm like Dodge – even if they already have a reasonably developed internal marketing department. A dedicated PR firm has the contacts and know-how to enhance the efforts of an existing marketing or communications department, and make it much more effective. I think those are dollars well spent.

Dodge: Any additional comments that you’d like to add?

Baker: Only that I think Dodge has been a tremendous partner for Halfpenny. If you look at Dodge’s track record and the highly credible publications in which they’ve secured editorial placements for Halfpenny during the past several years – well, that speaks volumes.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications senior interactive developer and producer is interviewed to discuss his experience with Dodge in the recent months. To view earlier installments please click here.

Steve Rigby is the senior interactive developer and producer. He has been with Dodge Communications for four months. He says that the friendly environment at Dodge makes it a great place to work. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Dodge: Since you started working here, how has Dodge helped you develop as a professional web developer?

Rigby: Dodge has really helped me improve my skill sets in probably two major areas. For one, it’s really helped me expand my understanding of the web development process. While I understand the web development process really well, it’s really about understanding how to adapt to the process on-the- fly in order to provide improved customer service or the final quality of a product when delivering. It has really been a great learning experience for me.

In addition, I think the variety of work Dodge brings in helps keep me on my toes. I’m given new challenges and opportunities on a weekly basis that allow me to explore new techniques and keep up with the ever-changing environment that the industry presents.

Dodge: What role do you think design can have in the ever-changing healthcare technology space?

Rigby: I think design’s role has always been to problem-solve. Communicating complex messages is never an easy task, especially when we absorb information visually much differently than we absorb words that are spoken or that we read. The power of design is much stronger at communicating visually. When you put a design in front of someone with a strong message, you have a greater chance of capturing their attention than you would just having the message being spoken directly to them.

Dodge: If you could give advice to clients about picking designs for their integrated campaigns, what would it be?

Rigby: I think when it comes to picking designs, we need to ask ourselves: is this what I want or is this what my customers want? I think it’s in our nature to pick our personal taste. It’s even true for designers when we first enter the field of design, but through years of training and experience we come to learn it’s not really about us and what we do for design. It’s really about who we’re targeting with our design and the message. It’s not to say that we can’t put our own touches on design—that goes for the client or the designer—but it’s really what the target audience is interested in that we should be focused on. When it comes to picking colors or when it comes to picking the right font or the right layout, generally, designers will choose the best means to reach out to that audience based on the information we gathered from the communication brief and the client in the industry. That’s why it’s important to clearly define up-front who our audience is. Then, when we integrate the campaign, we have a better sense of reaching that market than we would picking things based on our own personal preference.

Dodge: What’s your favorite part about working at Dodge?

Rigby: I would have to say, my favorite part about working at Dodge is getting to work with the people who I work with everyday. Dodge has some of the most friendly and genuine people that I think I’ve really ever had the opportunity to work with, and that type of environment just makes it a fun environment to work in. It brings out the best in everybody, which I think brings up the quality of the work that we do.

Dodge: What’s one of the most memorable moments you’ve had at Dodge?

Rigby: I think the most memorable moment to me was when I first signed on and joined the company. We had just been awarded one of Atlanta’s best places to work in 2011, and it was a great feeling to know that the people who I work with, as I mentioned  earlier, are great to work with. When I heard this, it reaffirmed that I made the right choice to work with Dodge.  We all gathered in the conference room to celebrate the news—we popped some champagne and had strawberries dipped in chocolate, and everyone just had a good laugh. We got to toast to our continued success and keeping Dodge a great place to work.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications account director is interviewed to discuss her experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Chowning Johnson is an account director at Dodge Communications. She has been at Dodge for five years. Click on the picture below to listen to the interview or view the transcript below.

Dodge: How has Dodge helped you develop as a professional communicator?

Johnson: I came from an agency that focused on a variety of businesses from automotive to museums to government and a little bit of healthcare and pharma.  They had a wide range of clients for B2B and B2C situations, so coming to Dodge was quite a shift. I think going into the niche market that we’re in here has been absolutely invaluable. I’ve been able to develop an expertise through working with our clients and working with colleagues here. Being so ingrained in this industry is great. I can’t imagine having that type of experience at another agency, and I think it makes me as a communicator and our company truly unique at what we do, which makes us really valuable for our clients.

Another thing I think that is important to note from a media relations perspective is that a lot of agencies maybe don’t do as much homework on the reporters as they should. I think one thing that has been ingrained in me here is knowing who we’re pitching, who their audience is and what they like to write about to make sure that the stories we’re offering are truly applicable and what they’re looking for. It’s really the life blood of what we do, so I think that’s another huge attribute of what Dodge has given to my professional career here. Those are really the two things that stick out the most.

From an integrated communications stand point, there are other agencies that solely focus on just the public relations side of things or just the marketing side of things. One thing I really love about what we do is we look at everything from a holistic approach. We have the public relations, the marketing and the social media. We look at everything from a strategic, high- level overview before we go into the tactical level which really ensures our clients are getting everything they need from a lead nurturing and a lead generation stand point.

Dodge: What role do you think Dodge has in shaping communications in the ever-changing healthcare industry?

Johnson: That’s a really good question—a tough question. You know, I think it goes back to a little bit about what I said about the first one.  Being in such a niche market, we have this great insight into the space we’re in, especially with the legislation incentives, the different payment models that are coming down, ACOs and patient-centered medical homes. The industry is changing rapidly right now, and it’s really amazing to watch and be a part of it through our clients, who are the ones out there talking to hospitals, IDMs, medical groups, payers, etc. We work closely with these organizations—whether it’s commentary on legislation or a bylined thought leadership article on these new models of care. I think through that, we’re helping them hone their voice in the industry and ensuring the messages they’re getting out there are striking a chord.

In addition to that, social media has obviously been a huge change in the industry in the past few years.  We have some clients that love it, and we have some clients that are terrified of it. We have others who are just dipping their toes in it. I think that’s one of the valuable things about what we do at Dodge. We look at both traditional tactics that are out there and also new things that we’re seeing.  We bring those to our clients to ensure they are reaching their maximum audience with multiple touch points—whether that’s a press release, something on Twitter or a blog.  I think that’s one way that we’ve really shifted our clients focus to make sure they’re really communicating with their target audiences.

Dodge: What do you think is the most important part of working with clients to make integrated communications campaigns?

Johnson: This also ties back to what I just mentioned about the way Dodge is shaping communications within the healthcare space. I think it’s really important—sometimes it’s easy on a day-to-day basis to get stuck on the tactics and not look at the overall picture. From an integrated communications standpoint at the outset of every project, whether it’s an initiative, an event—whatever it may be—it’s taking an overview and looking at everything from a strategic level.  It’s looking at what the objectives are that we want to accomplish and making sure we’re aligning the tactics to meet the strategies and objectives. I think every campaign requires something different, and I think we’re very comfortable with customizing everything that we’re doing per the clients’ needs. The real take-away there is looking at every different facet, whether that’s social media, marketing, PR and not just honing in on one specific channel in that area.

Dodge: What is your favorite part about working for Dodge?

Johnson: That’s a good one. You know, I think one of the things that most attracted me to the company when I came here originally was the people.  It’s a very dynamic group—everybody’s highly motivated, competitive, hard workers. I feel like then and even today I’m always learning something new from someone—whether that’s our CEO or one of our VPs or an account coordinator or an intern. I feel there’s a collective wealth of knowledge here, and if you just keep your ears out there, you’re learning something new every day. It’s a great group of people to work with, and it’s what keeps me passionate about my job. Also, our clients are awesome. We try to act as an extension of their organization, and through that we like to think of them as family. Whether it’s going to have a glass of wine or giving presents when they have a baby, it makes it a very family-oriented place both internally and externally, and that’s something I really love about it.

Dodge: What are some of the most memorable moments you’ve had here at Dodge?

Johnson: Well, some of these might fall a little flat, as they’re inside stories, but I’ll give it a go and see if it resonates. One thing that we do is we try to have events as a company where we go out together and have time to get out of the office, get out of work  and just have a little fun—something that I think is a key to success for any company. One of our favorite activities is this thing called WhirleyBall. If you haven’t heard of WhirleyBall, let me try and give you a brief description: think bumper cars, a basketball court, lacrosse sticks, a ball and a basketball goal with a center target. So basically, you zoom around in these cars, and you have two teams trying to make goals in a five minute period. Needless to say—I mentioned how competitive we can all be, which is one of our great strengths—it can also lead to a lot of bruises and battering, but it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. We get out there, have a couple of beers and have fun with our colleagues. It’s a really good time to get your frustrations out on the court and walk away saying you’ll never do it again and go back six months later.

Another fun thing, Jerold, who is our controller here, had a vendetta at our old office building. There wasn’t a left turn light for crossing multiple lanes of traffic. He worked tirelessly for years with numerous government agencies to get a turn light in there. So, after sometime—I think it was my first or second year at Dodge—he finally succeeded, and they said they were going to put a traffic light in. We got this big traffic light cake and of course there was black icing on it. Needless to say, that stains your teeth and your mouth and everything, but that was quite a triumph for Jerold. It was a fun, feel-good thing, and it made our lives a little bit safer which is a good thing.

On a serious note, we just moved to a new office building, and it’s really amazing to see ten years later—I’ve only been there half of that time—to see how far the company has come. Moving into this new office space really signifies everything that everyone has put into growing this business and working with our clients and ensuring we continue to succeed. I think that’s a good tenth anniversary note that we’ve been able to move into this new space that better fits our needs. It really is representative of who we are and who we strive to be as a brand at Dodge.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications senior account manager is interviewed to discuss her experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Kat McDavitt is senior account manager at Dodge Communications. She has been at Dodge for a year and a half and says that having a great group of supportive colleagues is one of her favorite parts of her job. Click on the picture below to listen to the interview or view the transcript below.

Dodge: How has Dodge helped you develop as a professional communicator?

McDavitt: I think it’s helped me most by being able to work on a team. In my previous position I was the sole PR practitioner at a corporate firm, and there was no one to bounce ideas off of. There was no one to get a second opinion from, so it’s been really great to have a group of really supportive colleagues who go out of their way to give you good advice.

Dodge: What role do you think Dodge has in the ever-changing healthcare technology industry?

McDavitt: I think Dodge has a great opportunity to cut through a lot of the noise that is out there right now, especially with healthcare reform and a lot of changing rules and deadlines. There’s a lot of uncertainty and chaos, so I think we have a great opportunity to tell the story of the companies who might not have the biggest, baddest budgets, but the companies that might have really great benefits to offer and really great solutions.

Dodge: What do you think is the most important part of working with clients to create integrated communications campaigns?

McDavitt: I think the most important things to consider when putting together an integrated marketing campaign is to set really clear expectations upfront and to define clear objectives. I think if you skip ahead to the fun stuff and skip the foundation, I think you may be disappointed in the end. It’s very important to take time at the beginning of a campaign and set everything up right.

Dodge: What’s your favorite part about working for Dodge?

McDavitt: My favorite part about working at Dodge is probably my first answer—that you get to work with a fun team and a fun group of people. I’ve made a lot of good friends here and a lot of good professional relationships as well.

Dodge: What are some of the memorable moments you’ve had here at Dodge?

McDavitt: On a professional level, I think one of the best experiences I’ve had so far is getting to go the HIMSS conference this past year. It was great to go to one of the biggest industry events we have here. To have the chance to see our clients in a different environment and face-to-face makes it a very interesting place to be. On a personal level, I really loved the Dodge WhirleyBall competition last year. That was a lot of fun!

Dodge Communications will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Oct. 11, 2011. To help celebrate the anniversary and share our successes, we’ve interviewed some employees, clients and respected members of the media to discuss their experiences with Dodge over the years. Each Tuesday, for ten weeks, we’ll post one of the interviews for you to listen to or watch. We’re looking forward to sharing our celebration of 10 years of service with you!

Our first interview is with Mark Hagland. Mark is editor-in-chief at Healthcare Informatics.  He says that working with Dodge has been delightful because Dodge Communications is one agency that “gets it.” Click on the picture below to listen to the interview or view the transcript below.

Mark Hagland has served as editor-in-chief at Healthcare Informatics since January 2010. Prior to this, he was a contributing editor at the publication for 12 years.

Dodge: How has the healthcare IT publishing industry evolved over the past decade in terms of developing new content?

Hagland: Well, I think it has evolved in a number of different ways on a number of different levels. On a really basic level there are more publications now, and they are producing more content. There is just more volume-wise. I believe that the industry has matured and that the level of coverage is deeper and broader than it used to be. There are so many complex topics, and the fact that there are a number of competitor publications that I think will inevitably lead to improvements in quality of coverage.  I would say both the quantity and quality of coverage have grown in the last several years.

Dodge: In your opinion, how can agencies best serve the current needs of your editorial staff and readers?

Hagland: The simple answer is: know us. We reach a very specific audience, and we have a very specific editorial concept and mission.  Our core audience at Healthcare Informatics is CIOs—chief information officers—of hospitals, health systems and medical groups along with, I would also say now becoming co-equal, are CMIOs—chief medical informatics officers—and all the people who report to and work with those titles. This includes clinician leaders such as CMOs, CNOs—chief medical and nursing officers—certainly all members of the c-suite, and of course all the members of the IT team in a patient care organization. It’s about understanding what they would like to read about and of course what we’re trying to provide. We’re very, very focused on individuals with those titles talking to each other and also learning from experts such as government experts, policy experts, industry experts and so on, in terms of finding out what’s going on and learning their perspective. It’s very much a peer-to-peer magazine. If those in PR and media relations can understand that, that’s very important. We’re very focused away from vendor prospective and toward provider and industry expert perspective.

Dodge: How do you anticipate that the agency-publishing relationship may change in the next decade?

Hagland: I think there will be some continuity, but I also think there will be some changes. One of the things happening, as you know, is that the publishing world is changing. Our magazine is changing and evolving forward in self-concept.  Like many publications until recently, we saw ourselves as a print magazine that happened to have a website. We’re really rapidly evolving away from that and toward thinking of ourselves as a multi-platform publication with multi-platforms—several platforms—and that includes the website and print magazine.

I think one of the ways in which the interaction might change is the understanding that there are many opportunities for coverage and interaction with our publication, and many of them are going to be online. I think that will change, and I also think given that there are so many important policy-related things to change right now, that’s changing too. Because of the HITECH Act and healthcare reform—federal legislative healthcare reform—policy has become a very important component of what we’re doing. The other thing that’s happening content-wise  is that more and more is focused on clinical informatics, not that the other types informatics don’t matter anymore, but the emphasis right now is on implementation of core and advanced clinical information systems that will lead to clinical transformation and move the healthcare system forward. Understanding those changes in transit development will be very important for PR and media relations and others who work with us.

Dodge: What have you enjoyed about working with the Dodge team over the years?

Hagland: It’s been delightful working with the people at Dodge. As I’ve told your senior executives, working with Dodge Communications is one agency that really gets it. I love the fact that when representatives of Dodge pitch me or my team on story ideas, they know what they’re talking about. They’ve researched the subject; they understand what our needs are; they understand who our audience is; they understand what our production and processing needs are in terms of time frame and deadlines; they understand the industry. It’s a pleasure for me to get a good pitch that helps me from a PR or media relations person. It’s of course less than a pleasure when I get a pitch from someone who doesn’t seem to understand what our publication is, but I’ve never had an experience with anyone from Dodge not understanding what our publication is or what our needs are. So, it’s delightful to interact with Dodge people.

Dodge: That’s all the questions we have. Is there anything else you like to share or add? Do you have a good memory of working with Dodge?

Hagland: I’ll just add one thing. Brad Dodge and I did a webinar together several months ago that I thought was wonderful and mutually beneficial. We’re always looking for opportunities to interact with stakeholders, and certainly PR agencies are stakeholders in our world that bring mutual benefit. I look forward to similar and other opportunities in the future. I wish Dodge Communications and everyone at Dodge great congratulations on your anniversary, and I hope things are wonderful and prosperous for you going forward.

Kathleen Plath, VP of marketing at Specialists On Call, recently met with us to discuss her company’s recent rebranding initiative. In a sea of telemedicine vendors that provide the technology, but not the specialists behind it, Kathleen’s company has been on a mission to be heard above the chatter.

Dodge: Tell us a bit about SOC’s history and the mission behind starting the company.

Plath: Specialists On Call, Inc., or “SOC”, is the fastest growing and leading provider of clinical telemedicine services to hospitals in the U.S. We are accredited by the Joint Commission and led by a physician with 20 years of successful business experience. Since our founding in 2007, we’ve offered the services of experienced, emergency neurologists to hospitals through a 24/7/365 on-call service with a 15-minute response time. In fact, to date we have more than 45 board certified, fellowship trained, neurologists—half of them drawn from our university partnerships and half from private practice. These individuals provide emergency consultations to hospital emergency departments, inpatient units and ICU’s via our telemedicine infrastructure, which includes a collection of industry standard videoconferencing, EHR and PACS systems woven into a single cost-effective solution that is coordinated by our centralized call center and clinical staff. This past February we expanded and began providing on-demand psychiatry consultations in addition to our neurology on-call service.

Dodge: Can you elaborate on your business model and how this works and the company’s plan for the next five years?

Plath: We pioneered a successful business model for providing superior neurology physician on-call coverage to hospitals in which those hospitals pay SOC in exchange for coverage and consultations, but they receive and retain all patient and insurance billings. This enables SOC to offer good compensation to our neurologists for their work and, in exchange for that, we demand a professional level of efficiency and customer service from our physicians that is unmatched in telemedicine and rarely found even in bedside consultations. SOC’s business model allows hospitals to initiate the use of our service without any capital investment and then derive a significant positive financial impact, many times in less than 90 days, and from that point onwards derive a growing positive return. Our service is a unique and attractive approach to solving the problem of finding specialists willing to take calls and the responsibilities that come along with that.

As a result, SOC has experienced extreme, rapid growth—starting with six pilot participants in one state, we now have more than 115 hospital clients and contracts for more than 25 hospitals in 17 states. Our physicians are providing more than 1,100 consultations per month, more than any bricks and mortar medical center or telemedicine program in the country. Our plan for the coming years is to continue to expand nationwide, and include clinical telemedicine offerings in other service lines, such as orthopedics.

Dodge: You recently rebranded the entire company from your logo and messaging to collateral and the website. Can you tell us about that process and why you decided to make it a priority?

Plath: Since inception, we had maintained a somewhat “under the radar” approach to give us the time needed to build up a base of business throughout the country. By 2010 we were ready to build a comprehensive marketing and public relations program, which included everything from developing a new website, collateral, and sales presentations and tools to creating a tradeshow and conference strategy, communications approach, and media plan. Initially we had decided to maintain the current logo and branding since it had not been tested in the marketplace, however, it became clear as we moved further into the process of developing the website and collateral that an entire re-branding was necessary.  

Dodge: As part of the rebranding, you also undertook direct marketing initiatives and social media. Can you discuss the importance of looking at all efforts comprehensively and the impact this has had internally as well as externally with customers and prospects?

Plath: We knew that when we got in front of hospitals our close rate was very high—the problem was that not enough hospitals knew about our service. It became very important for us to create awareness of our services in the marketplace. We therefore chose to utilize both traditional as well as online marketing initiatives. Additionally, since we were building an entirely new, comprehensive website, we wanted to realize its fullest potential by driving traffic to the site. Social media, including twitter, LinkedIn and a blog, provides a way for us to drive traffic to our new website and also helps to position SOC as a thought leader in the industry.

Dodge: To others considering a rebranding, what key takeaways would you share?

Plath: In considering a rebranding, it is important to include all of the internal stakeholders very early on in the process, and more importantly, to define what the process will look like. Since rebranding is not to be taken lightly, define what you hope to achieve by the rebranding effort and get agreement on your goals and objectives from all stakeholders. 

Dodge: Many of our clients are either using social media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), or seriously considering it. Can you tell us about SOC’s approach to social media, the benefits of using it, and why you decided to make it a focus? How do you see social media playing a bigger role in your communications with clients and prospects?

Plath: More and more people are getting their information through online sources such as Twitter feeds, blogs, etc., including hospital administrators and clinicians. In fact, many hospitals now have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, so it became important that we include social media as a key component of our communications strategy. In terms of efforts to generate interest from the media, gone are the days when sending a press release to the editor will get you noticed. Many healthcare writers and media in general are getting their news and ideas on what to report on from Twitter in particular. Understanding the complexity and daily demands of using social media as a marketing tool is one thing I was keenly aware of and therefore enlisted Dodge’s services to help us get off the ground with our social media efforts.

Dodge: Any parting comments?

Plath: Rolling out the new brand, materials, website, etc. to our colleagues and to existing customers and prospects was so rewarding. People were excited and proud to show off our new personality. Moreover, we were thrilled to learn we won numerous industry accolades and awards for the corporate identity as well as the website…it was hard work, but our efforts have truly paid off.