advertising in healthcare essay

• Open access
• Published: 15 September 2020

Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients

• James K. Elrod 1 &
• John L. Fortenberry Jr. 1 , 2  

BMC Health Services Research volume  20 , Article number:  818 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Advertising—a marketing communications method involving the paid use of mass media to deliver messages to desired audiences—represents one of the most common and effective avenues for engaging current and prospective patients. Although late to proliferate in the health services industry due to tradition, the medium of communication is now firmly established and routinely deployed by health and medical organizations far and wide. Despite widespread use, healthcare providers must take opportunities, when and where possible, to stay abreast of the latest details concerning advertising and its associated applications, increasing the likelihood of successful audience engagements.

Maintaining an awareness of current developments in health services advertising can be facilitated by acquiring operational perspectives and practices from peer institutions. Most any healthcare provider can benefit from experiential views as they can shape and hone advertising approaches. Gaining such insights can be difficult, given competitive sensitivities, but occasionally healthcare institutions are compelled to share knowledge in published accounts, with this particular article following suit. Specifically, insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System’s extensive and historic use of advertising are shared, bolstering the experiential accounts available in the literature and supplying operational guidance for health and medical providers.

Conclusions

Advertising, if well devised and deployed, offers healthcare providers opportunities to dramatically improve their fortunes by successfully engaging current and prospective patients, hastening exchange and building vital market share. In pursuit of advertising excellence, health and medical establishments can bolster associated endeavors by tapping into the experiences of other healthcare providers, permitting insights which might potentially be incorporated into communicative pathways. This account sheds light on the advertising operations of a major health system, supplying food for thought for the advancement of advertising acumen.

Health and medical establishments provide arguably the most essential services offered in any given community. From quality-of-life enhancements to life-saving interventions, the services provided by healthcare organizations are without parallel, making these entities key community assets [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. But despite the skill of physicians, the magnitude of medical technologies, the compassion of nurses, or the benefit of any other associated investment, healthcare services—even those of exceptional quality—possess very little impact potential unless they are communicated effectively to current and potential patients [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].

In their quests to engage audiences, healthcare institutions generally turn to the marketing communications mix, a collection of pathways for directing messages to desired groups [ 7 , 12 , 13 ], with advertising being one of the most commonly utilized and successfully pursued avenues for doing so [ 4 , 7 , 12 ]. Advertising uses mass media (e.g., television, radio, newspaper, billboard) to deliver messages to current and prospective customer populations, with these communications being paid for by the advertising party [ 7 , 8 , 13 ]. Although late to proliferate in the health services industry due to tradition, this medium of communication is now firmly established and routinely deployed by health and medical organizations far and wide [ 4 , 6 , 14 , 15 ].

Advertising offers great potential for establishing effective dialogues with customers, but care must be taken to devise and deploy it effectively, something which requires a keen understanding of its characteristics and exceptional attention to detail on operational fronts. As such, healthcare providers must take opportunities, when and where possible, to stay abreast of the latest details concerning advertising and its associated applications and strategies, increasing the likelihood of successful audience engagement endeavors [ 8 , 9 , 15 ].

Maintaining an awareness of current developments in health services advertising can be facilitated by acquiring operational perspectives from peer institutions. Gaining such insights can be challenging, given competitive sensitivities, but occasionally healthcare establishments are compelled to share associated knowledge in published accounts, with this particular article following suit. Specifically, insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System’s extensive and historic use of advertising are shared, bolstering the experiential accounts available in the literature and supplying operational guidance for health and medical providers.

Definition and overview

To best understand advertising, it is helpful to first gain an awareness of its context and placement in the greater discipline of marketing. Formally defined, marketing is “a management process that involves the assessment of customer wants and needs, and the performance of all activities associated with the development, pricing, provision, and promotion of product solutions that satisfy those wants and needs” [ 7 ], p. 288. As presented in this definition, promotion is a prominent component of marketing, something further illustrated by its inclusion as one of the Ps in the classic expression known as the four Ps of marketing (i.e., Product, Price, Place, Promotion). The promotion aspect of marketing essentially entails any and all elements associated with engaging audiences, with the core pathways for engagement being depicted in a descriptive model known as the marketing communications (or promotions) mix [ 7 , 16 ].

Classically illustrated, the marketing communications mix contains five principal avenues of communication; namely, advertising (i.e., the paid use of mass media to deliver messages), personal selling (i.e., the use of sales agents to personally deliver messages), sales promotion (i.e., the use of incentives, such as contests and free giveaways, to encourage patronage), public relations (i.e., the use of publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to deliver messages), and direct marketing (i.e., the delivery of messages via mail, the Internet, and similar routes directly to consumers) [ 7 , 8 ]. Healthcare institutions evaluate each option and select one or more believed to be most capable of reaching target audiences, all for the purpose of enticing patronage or compelling some other form of meaningful exchange [ 7 , 13 ].

Of the avenues identified in the marketing communications mix, advertising is perhaps the best known and first method to come to mind when considering promotions opportunities. This should not come as a surprise as advertising—formally defined as “a promotional method involving the paid use of mass media to deliver messages” [ 7 ], p. 219—is the most public of communicative avenues. Television commercials promoting the latest offerings of an urgent care center, magazine advertisements communicating the grand opening of a medical clinic, billboard advertisements presenting the current wait time at a hospital’s emergency department, and other open conveyances appear prominently and frequently across scores of communities, making advertising a familiar and robust influence easily recognized by most anyone [ 15 , 16 ].

While advertising is now a mainstay of the health services industry, this was not always the case. Prior to the 1980s, advertising was viewed to be beneath the dignity of medical providers, with some also fearing its potential to impact referrals between and among caregivers, the time-honored method of patient acquisition. Further, the American Medical Association prohibited its members from engaging in advertising. During this era, the healthcare industry’s stance was quite unusual as other industries had been using advertising for decades, benefiting from its deployment. In the 1980s, however, resistance against health services advertising diminished, aided by the US Federal Trade Commission’s scrutiny of the American Medical Association’s ban on its members’ use of advertising, something which ultimately led to its relinquishment. Going forward, health services advertising began to flourish, and today, it thrives, having become a foundation of healthcare industry operations and an established component of the communications arsenal of most any health services organization [ 4 , 6 , 7 , 12 , 15 ].

Institutional background and deployment history

With origins dating back nearly a century, Willis-Knighton Health System has faced and continues to face all of the challenges associated with delivering healthcare services, one of which involves communicating effectively with customer groups. Based in Shreveport, Louisiana and situated in the heart of an area known as the Ark-La-Tex where the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas converge, Willis-Knighton Health System holds market leadership in its served region where it delivers comprehensive health and wellness services through multiple hospitals, numerous general and specialty medical clinics, an all-inclusive retirement community, and more. The prized position of market leadership did not occur overnight; it instead resulted from painstaking efforts on multiple fronts, with associated growth pursuits largely beginning in the 1970s as part of a comprehensive expansion initiative.

During this era, myriad growth-fueling innovations were pursued, including adoption of the hub-and-spoke model [ 17 , 18 ], establishing centers of excellence [ 19 ], expanding physical space via the practice of adaptive reuse [ 20 , 21 ], and more. Of these, one most integral to building patient volume was on the marketing communications front; namely, the early embracement of advertising as a means of engaging audiences [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Willis-Knighton Health System’s use of advertising happens to be one of the most enduring in the health services industry, as the establishment adopted the medium of communication nearly a decade prior to the industry’s broad acceptance of such in the 1980s [ 9 , 14 , 15 ]. Its adoption primarily was compelled by Willis-Knighton Health System’s desires to more effectively and reliably communicate its offerings to the public, something that the primary communications vehicle of the day, public relations, routinely fell short of achieving. As a result of this early experimentation, Willis-Knighton Health System gained advertising proficiencies which advanced its strategic and tactical communicative prowess. This afforded an enduring competitive advantage, which even today, years after advertising’s arguably universal acceptance in the health services industry, continues to amplify the institution’s marketing communications efforts [ 14 , 15 ].

Context within marketing communications

In engaging current and prospective patients, Willis-Knighton Health System makes use of the full range of the marketing communications mix. Of the components of the mix, advertising constitutes the institution’s most significant communications investment [ 15 ], and generally is the first component to be considered whenever promotions needs arise. Several examples of recent newspaper and billboard advertisements, these promoting Willis-Knighton Health System’s “Healthcare Heroes” campaign, are presented in Figs. 1 and 2 , and related television commercials are available at the following link: https://www.wkhs.com/video/commercials .

A newspaper advertisement promoting Willis-Knighton Health System’s “Healthcare Heroes” campaign

Billboard advertisements promoting Willis-Knighton Health System’s “Healthcare Heroes” campaign

Core advertising opportunities classically have been placed into three categories: print, electronic, and outdoor. Notable categories within print include newspaper and magazine advertising; within electronic, they include television, radio, and Internet advertising; and within outdoor, they include billboard, street furniture, and transit advertising. Although the particular communication routes differ in form and delivery, they each share the common bond of using mass media, permitting large (i.e., mass) audiences to be exposed to messages carried. This, of course, is a key requirement of advertising, with paid use of mass media being its most distinguishing feature, differentiating it from other components of the marketing communications mix [ 7 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].

For advertising’s part of the marketing communications mix, Willis-Knighton Health System relies on a particular combination of media. Recently, the institution has been concentrating the bulk of its advertising in print media (41% of advertising expenditures), with the majority of expenditures being directed toward newspaper advertising, followed by magazine advertising. Electronic media options consume 31% of advertising expenditures, with television being the predominant media expenditure in the category, followed by Internet advertising. Outdoor media, almost exclusively billboard advertising, consumes 28% of advertising expenditures, rounding out the allotment. The noted array of advertising media tapped for promoting the institution and its services was devised based on a combination of education and experience, yielding keen insights on media effectiveness.

Of course, the formulation of Willis-Knighton Health System’s media mix is not static. Instead, it changes as media, markets, and people change in an effort to ensure that communications are properly tailored to current conditions. While alterations of the institution’s media mix historically have been subtle, environmental circumstances occasionally require more comprehensive modifications. One such environmental change, occurring gradually in recent years and continuing to evolve, involves the proliferation of computer tablets and smartphones in society. This change has dramatically altered historic patterns of information consumption, bolstering demand for electronic content, typically at the expense of print content [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. This prompted Willis-Knighton Health System to begin increasing its investment in electronic advertising, most notably, Internet placements, while diminishing print advertising expenditures in concert with media trends noted in the marketplace.

Despite the clear trend toward electronic communications, the institution has proceeded cautiously in adjusting its media mix. As a comprehensive health services provider, Willis-Knighton Health System’s services appeal to virtually every segment of the population, with some groups having greater tendencies for innovation adoption than others. As such, media mix alterations have been gradual to ensure that those customer groups who are less receptive to electronic content are not neglected even as increasing numbers of people shift away from once dominant print media preferences. This particular scenario illustrates the need for healthcare providers to closely monitor environmental trends in the context of their customer populations, ensuring that findings are taken into account when formulating advertising budgets and making associated selections from among media options.

After decades of use, Willis-Knighton Health System has found advertising to be a highly capable avenue of communication, prompting its continued deployment as part of the institution’s overall strategy for audience engagement. Deployment justifications can be numerous, with these being dependent on the needs and desires of given healthcare organizations, but in Willis-Knighton Health System’s experience, three particular characteristics serve as primary motivations for the establishment’s use of advertising. These characteristics are as follows.

High performance

Advertising is an age-old communicative method, arguably dating back in primitive form to the earliest days of trade. Evolving continually, its modern day proliferation is undeniable, evidenced by simple exposure to and observation of most any commercial environment. Thanks to many decades of scholarly attention, the medium of communication has been studied extensively, with findings routinely confirming its ability to effectively engage audiences. Further, its extensive and continued use by business and industry provides additional validation of the effectiveness of advertising [ 9 , 14 , 22 , 23 , 29 ]. Willis-Knighton Health System’s own experiences, some of which have been published in the scholarly literature [ 9 , 15 , 16 , 30 ], support accounts attesting to the prowess of advertising to generate awareness and convey information effectively to current and prospective customers, giving advertising a firm place in the institution’s communications arsenal.

Significant control

Advertising, as a paid medium of communication, is largely under the control of the advertising entity, permitting the advertiser to determine creative treatment, timing and frequency of promotion, and other attributes of given advertisements. This stands in contrast to public relations efforts which rely on press releases being accepted for presentation by media outlets, something which offers no guarantees of circulation and, even if carried, intended stories may not be communicated as desired. Ultimately, advertising, courtesy of paid placements, provides assurances that messages will be delivered as intended to desired audiences on desired timetables [ 15 , 22 , 23 , 29 ]. As noted earlier, this particular attribute served as the primary impetus for Willis-Knighton Health System’s early embracement of advertising [ 14 , 15 ].

Exceptional variety

Advertising is available in a variety of formats—print, electronic, and outdoor, with multiple communicative avenues within these broad categories—allowing advertising entities to select routes deemed most capable of reaching sought audiences. This extensive variety also permits a wide range of creative treatments and information conveyance options, affording flexibility in message assembly and presentation, yielding practically infinite opportunities for developing advertisements specifically tailored to attract and impact desired groups [ 7 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 29 ].

Limitations

Despite its many attributes, contexts of use, applications, and the like, advertising carries a range of limitations which must be factored into any decision regarding its deployment. These limitations are as follows.

As advertising entails the paid use of mass media, obviously, costs are involved with its deployment. Such expenses can be significant, with costs generally rising as audience exposures increase. Generally, advertisements placed in larger markets are pricier than those placed in smaller markets, given audience size differences [ 8 , 22 , 23 , 29 ]. Even in particular markets, pricing variation typically exists when circulation differs between placements. A billboard advertisement situated on a roadway with a low traffic count, for example, will usually cost less than an equivalently-sized one located on a heavily-traveled route in a given city. But beyond the quantity of individuals exposed to a given advertisement (i.e., reach), advertising impact is also influenced by the number of times individuals are exposed to the associated advertisement (i.e., frequency), with this also acting to increase advertising expenditures [ 7 , 8 ]. Despite associated costs, advertising should be considered to be an investment and, with proper planning and implementation to ensure that prudent advertising decisions are made, generating a desired return on investment is entirely possible.

Engagement constraints

Advertising generally is considered to be one-way communication; the advertiser sends a message to audiences via a given channel of communication, but the audience cannot respond directly via that particular channel [ 7 , 8 , 12 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 29 ]. A television commercial or billboard advertisement, for example, can convey a promotional message, but message recipients cannot, in turn, use the given communications pathway to ask questions, indicate interest, or forward patronage decisions. (It should be noted that advertising is sometimes confused with direct marketing of which some forms do permit two-way communication, such as telemarketing, but these pathways do not meet the technical definition of advertising.) The unidirectional communication weakness of advertising, however, can be resolved by including response avenues, such as toll-free telephone numbers, website addresses, and other response mechanisms in given promotional messages. This, however, must remain at the forefront of the minds of those charged with assembling advertisements in order to maximize engagement opportunities.

Potential for intrusiveness

If well planned and implemented, health services advertising can provide invaluable assistance to target audiences, advancing their awareness of medical offerings, educating them on healthy practices, and encouraging them in other positive manners [ 7 , 8 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. But occasionally healthcare establishments make poor advertising decisions, selecting highly disruptive avenues which have the potential to generate animosity among message recipients. Willis-Knighton Health System is particularly vigilant in ensuring that media selected, messages conveyed, and contexts delivered are as unobtrusive as possible so as to avoid generating ill will among audiences.

The institution’s extensive use of billboard advertisements illustrates this quite well. Billboards are highly effective, yet generally free of disruptive influences. Passersby can choose to consume the information or simply look away. Contrast this with some Internet advertisements which overtake web browsers, forcing viewers to wait until the message concludes or take action (e.g., clicking a button to close advertisements) to get back to their intended pursuit, generating negative feelings which can be attributed not only to the type of advertisement, but also the establishments featured in them. Willis-Knighton Health System has a long-standing tradition of making media selections which are respectful of audiences, factoring their tastes and preferences into each and every promotions decision, something advised for any healthcare establishment engaged in advertising.

Operational reflections

Operationally, advertising requires foundational assets similar to those required by most any intensive organizational undertaking. These resources include (1) top leadership support and commitment, (2) financial resources sufficient for funding endeavors, (3) competent personnel charged with effecting given initiatives, and (4) formal processes permitting effective planning, implementation, and evaluation of initiatives. As the viability of advertising endeavors largely depends on the availability and adequacy of foundational assets, healthcare establishments must take steps to secure them prior to engaging in advertising pursuits. Communicative needs can arise at any time, so health and medical providers, even those not currently engaged in advertising, should ensure that capable resource frameworks are developed and available on demand. With these resources in place, the stage is set to effect advertising proficiently, generating desired communications utility that fosters interest and attention on the part of target audiences, leading to all-important exchange, and potentially, long-term loyalty. Willis-Knighton Health System’s leadership, well known for pursuing innovations [ 31 ], initiated the establishment’s foray into advertising, with this ensuring the availability of foundational resources. Indeed, if top leadership support and commitment can be acquired, procurement of the remaining resources required for advertising success becomes entirely possible.

Beyond securing foundational resources and following the advisories presented elsewhere in this article, operationally Willis-Knighton Health System recommends the use of triangulation to ascertain advertising value. Advertising, of course, is a means to an end, with its goal being to generate some form of desired action on the part of target audiences. That said, the ultimate question emerging from a healthcare organization’s associated pursuits is whether its given advertisements actually delivered value (i.e., “Did our ads work?”). This might appear to be a problem-free inquiry, but determining advertising return on investment with any degree of certainty actually is quite difficult [ 32 , 33 ]. This is due to the fact that many externalities exist which influence patronage decisions.

Assume that an urgent care center decided to initiate a 1-month advertising campaign and, by the month’s conclusion, observed a 10% increase in patient volume. The advertising campaign might have been the source of the increase, but other environmental circumstances, too, could have played a role. Suppose the urgent care center’s top competitor happened to be located on a roadway that was being widened at the time, creating access difficulties for patients. Suppose a sporting venue near the center was hosting a major event, drawing populations from outside of the market, some of whom might have had urgent care needs and patronized the center simply due to its convenience. Suppose a highly-regarded physician had been hired by the center at the advertising campaign’s initiation and immediately began drawing his clientele, bolstering volume, accordingly. Such events and occurrences obviously hardship advertising performance assessments. Even direct inquiries forwarded to patients querying them on advertising impact can be unreliable due to mistakes, memory lapses, and other distortions leading to inaccuracies. Difficulties in ascertaining advertising effectiveness prompted Willis-Knighton Health System very early in its associated endeavors to adopt an approach best described as triangulation, whereby a number of metrics are studied, giving indications of advertising performance.

In the case of the urgent care center promoting its services, in order to assess advertising impact, the establishment might, for example, monitor telephone, email, and in-person inquiries, assessing volume and asking parties how they heard about the center. The same could be done for actual patient encounters. Further, mechanisms could be planted within advertisements which could help determine campaign effectiveness. For example, a particular telephone number could be featured in advertisements—one unique to the given campaign and unused for other purposes—giving reasonable assurances that those inquiring via that telephone number had been exposed to the advertising message. Similarly, audiences could be prompted by given advertisements to take a particular action revealing their exposure (e.g., “Be sure to mention this ad when you make your appointment!” or “Mention this ad when you visit to receive a free gift!”). Further insights could be achieved by conducting a community survey, assessing degree of awareness of the center, providing yet another indication of the power of the noted advertising campaign. Importantly, the center’s personnel, especially its leadership, must carefully monitor the environment in an effort to detect externalities which might impact metrics, warranting their consideration when evaluating advertising performance. These and similar mechanisms can shed significant light on advertising effectiveness, helping to ascertain value, justify expenditures, and bolster knowledge which can help improve future advertising campaigns.

Triangulation indeed affords Willis-Knighton Health System with valuable intelligence, permitting access to a range of indicators that aid in determining the return on investment generated by its advertising. This approach also carries another benefit that should not be overlooked. Beyond providing indicators of effectiveness at the conclusion of campaigns, triangulation, courtesy of active monitoring, can be used to assess advertising effectiveness in real-time, as campaigns progress. This is especially helpful for lengthy campaigns running over many months. If active advertising campaigns are found to be successfully delivering value, they can be continued. If not, the campaigns can be modified in an effort to elevate performance to desired levels. Active monitoring, coupled with expedient alterations, when and where warranted, can effectively diminish the prospects of realizing failed campaigns. Mastery of triangulation goes hand-in-hand with mastery of advertising.

Advertising, if well devised and deployed, offers healthcare providers opportunities to dramatically improve their fortunes by successfully engaging current and prospective patients, hastening exchange and building vital market share. As such, health and medical establishments must strive to develop proficiencies in using advertising, something especially important, given the competitive intensity which characterizes the health services industry. Beyond intensive study of advertising and experience gained through its deployment, healthcare providers can bolster their advertising skills and abilities by tapping into the experiences of other healthcare providers, permitting insights which might potentially be incorporated into communicative pathways. This particular account shed light on the advertising operations of Willis-Knighton Health System, supplying food for thought for the advancement of advertising acumen.

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Acknowledgments

A special note of thanks is extended to Marilyn Joiner, Darrell Rebouche, Mary Jane Ward, Nancy Wilburn, and the greater Willis-Knighton Health System family for their helpful assistance throughout the development and publication of this article.

About this supplement

This article has been published as part of BMC Health Services Research Volume 20 Supplement 1, 2020: Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System. The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/supplements/volume-20-supplement-1 .

Article processing charges were funded by Willis-Knighton Health System.

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The authors jointly developed the submitted manuscript, with each performing critical roles from early conceptualization through to the production of the full manuscript. The manuscript resulted from a collaborative effort. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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JKE is President and Chief Executive Officer of Shreveport, Louisiana-based Willis-Knighton Health System, the region’s largest provider of healthcare services. With over 55 years of service at the helm of the institution, JKE is America’s longest-tenured hospital administrator. A fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and honoree as a Louisiana Legend by Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, he holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Baylor University, a master’s degree in hospital administration from Washington University School of Medicine, and an honorary doctorate of science and humane letters from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. He is the author of Breadcrumbs to Cheesecake , a book which chronicles the history of Willis-Knighton Health System.

JLF Jr. is Chair of the James K. Elrod Department of Health Administration, James K. Elrod Professor of Health Administration, and Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at LSU Shreveport where he teaches a variety of courses in both health administration and marketing. He holds a BBA in marketing from the University of Mississippi; an MBA from Mississippi College; a PhD in public administration and public policy, with concentrations in health administration, human resource management, and organization theory, from Auburn University; and a PhD in business administration, with a major in marketing, from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He is the author of six books, including Health Care Marketing: Tools and Techniques , 3rd Edition, published by Jones and Bartlett Learning. JLF Jr. also serves as Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Planning at Willis-Knighton Health System.

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Elrod, J.K., Fortenberry, J.L. Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients. BMC Health Serv Res 20 (Suppl 1), 818 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05599-3

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Healthcare consumers have never been more empowered than they are today. The COVID-19 pandemic forced healthcare providers to adapt quickly to continue delivering patient care, including by pivoting to digital care. Seemingly overnight, telehealth went from an industry sidenote to the primary means of seeing noncritical patients. 1 For more, see Oleg Bestsennyy, Greg Gilbert, Alex Harris, and Jennifer Rost, “ Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-COVID-19 reality? ,” McKinsey, July 9, 2021. Healthcare consumers also saw global retailers, grocery store chains, and other disrupters demon­strate how convenient it can be to order your health products online for delivery or curbside pickup.

Consumers increasingly expect transparent, predictable, and mobile-friendly experiences, but most healthcare organizations have failed to keep up. Although healthcare providers have more options for how to spend limited marketing budgets, many have chosen to stick with the familiar traditional- and digital-marketing channels—such as billboards and ads on television, on the radio, and in magazines—and with a one-size-fits-all digital presence.

Today, health systems have the same aspirations as companies in any industry: to engender long-term relationships with their consumers. 2 For more on how leaders are thinking about brand loyalty, see Lidiya Chapple, Oren Eizenman, and Jamie Wilkie, “ Winning in loyalty ,” McKinsey, August 2, 2022. Consumer goods, retail, and e-commerce leaders set the original bar and continue to push it higher today. 3 For more, see “ E-commerce: At the center of profitable growth in consumer goods ,” McKinsey, July 5, 2022. A 2021 McKinsey survey of more than 3,000 US healthcare consumers found that satisfied patients are 28 percent less likely to switch providers. 4 McKinsey 2021 CX Provider Journey Pulse, a 15-minute patient experience survey conducted across 3,311 respondents in three US metro areas (Dallas–Fort Worth, Detroit, and Tampa Bay).

Healthcare providers that are ready to rethink their marketing approach to grow and maintain continuity of care—or work to gain back what’s been lost in recent years—have their work cut out for them. In this article, we describe three priorities for progress: align the C-suite, build capabilities methodically through carefully chosen use cases and quick wins, and measure what works. In our experience, healthcare providers that implemented changes focused on improving the consumer experience—including through marketing efforts—saw their revenue increase by up to 20 percent over five years, while costs to serve decreased by up to 30 percent.

Providers that can bring it all together can achieve lofty marketing ambitions. One regional healthcare provider that stood up an agile marketing team as part of its digital transformation prioritized increasing the share of new patients who schedule appointments digitally instead of over the phone or in person. The provider was able to build a backlog of more than 300 test ideas representing a wide variety of goals and priorities, from improving online scheduling to optimizing content on specific pages. The team prioritized half of those tests to launch in a period of only 12 months, yielding an impressive test success rate of about 50 percent. When successful tests were scaled, the healthcare provider tripled the number of new patients from digital channels, compared with before the transformation.

Align the C-suite

The chief marketing officer (CMO) is a well-established member of healthcare providers’ C-suite. However, the CMO requires active involve­ment from the leaders of other functions to deliver modern marketing efforts. These leaders include, most crucially, the chief technology officer (CTO) or chief digital officer (CDO), chief information officer (CIO), and chief financial officer (CFO).

Only when the C-suite is aligned on the importance of marketing to drive growth and continuity of care (and what it takes to do so) will the CMO have the permission and support required to effect change beyond their immediate influence. This moves the CMO role away from basic brand and communication activities that characterize marketing at most healthcare organizations today. These traditional- and digital-marketing activities depend on mass, undefined channels—such as television, newspapers, broadcast emails, and a generic website—that reach all consumers with the same messaging. This style of marketing also often fails to include a compelling call to action, such as “schedule your health visit today,” that encourages healthcare consumers to reach back out to the organization to make an appointment or speak to a specialist about their needs.

To make the leap to more sophisticated marketing capabilities, CMOs could start by defining priority use cases by both financial and nonfinancial returns on investment—from costs to improved health outcomes. The CMO could then work with the CTO or CDO to validate the technical feasibility, with the CIO to assess operational challenges and risks, and with the CFO to calculate the financial ROI. The true power of this cross-functional collaboration can be seen in organizations that, for example, have worked in concert to design and build a single source of truth for consumer data, which is critical to enabling use cases related to advanced marketing capabilities, such as personalization.

Many organizations outside of healthcare—and increasingly within healthcare—have adopted agile marketing to drive high-velocity testing across digital- and traditional-marketing channels. 5 For more, see David Edelman, Jason Heller, and Steven Spittaels, “ Agile marketing: A step-by-step guide ,” McKinsey, November 9, 2016. Speed to market requires quick handoffs, cross-functional collaboration, and enterprise-wide transparency. For example, a healthcare provider could focus on improving its new-patient appointment cancellation rate by A/B testing appointment reminders to determine what works best in terms of number of touchpoints, messaging, and cadence.

The test brief—a standard feature of agile marketing typically reviewed by leads from marketing, finance, and technology—can help align the CMO, CFO, and CTO and enable them to compile a more persuasive case for the CEO and other company leaders. A test brief is a document with codified creative, technical, and measurement details for an agile marketing test. It provides the organization with the details it needs to quantify the number of days (or sometimes hours) necessary to launch a test, as well as to estimate the effort required to design, create, build, and deploy it.

Build sophisticated capabilities by choosing use cases wisely

Today, most healthcare providers have critical capability gaps that stand in the way of mounting an end-to-end, personalized consumer journey:

• A disjointed consumer experience and lack of personalization . Multichannel consumer touchpoints can lead to fragmented, impersonal experiences because of the lack of integration between consumer data and omnichannel engagement platforms.
• Siloed systems . Silos result in a limited ability to track current and potential consumers across channels and devices, as well as no organization-wide access to consumer data tracking tools.
• A lack of consumer-centric data. A lack of data leads to channels without access to a real-time, 360-degree view of consumer care needs and to clinical data that is not augmented with nonclinical data.

The theme of these challenges is fragmented information. Marketers increasingly require hands-on, real-time access to technology. Next-level healthcare marketing is built on a robust, integrated technology stack—and reaching full maturity in marketing-technology capabilities is not a short-term undertaking. No marketing function operates with an unlimited budget, meaning the marketing team will need to prioritize use cases that can build the department’s muscle and momentum.

In our experience, patient scheduling tends to be a priority growth lever for healthcare providers and systems. This makes sense considering that being able to easily schedule an appointment is a critical step in the consumer healthcare journey. Use cases that improve scheduling would thus rise to the top of the priority list and the budgeting conversation. For other providers, use cases could include better patient communication management to facilitate follow-up care.

Reliable collaboration between the marketing and technology teams is paramount to achieving seamless healthcare consumer journeys.

Given that these marketing touchpoints span the entire healthcare consumer experience, from learning about a provider to scheduling a visit and receiving care and follow-up care, reliable collab­oration between the marketing and technology teams is paramount to achieving seamless healthcare consumer journeys (exhibit). And to deliver it, an integrated technology stack (across both digital and traditional channels) is essential.

Measure what works

Marketers use the term “attribution” to describe the process of measuring the effects of marketing efforts and the rate at which they convert consumers to achieve desired consumer outcomes. Consumer outcomes are not the only measure of ROI; the ulti­mate goal is an improved patient experience and potentially improved health outcomes. But attri­bution can serve as a crucial indicator. A simple example would be analyzing the click-through rates of marketing emails to determine what messaging is most effective. Attribution analysis is a critical component of measuring the financial ROI of spending on digital marketing in healthcare—and most providers and systems today are early in the process of building out their marketing-attribution capabilities. As a result, the CFO and CMO are often misaligned on what works, which can greatly affect marketing’s budget allocation.

Common marketing-attribution methods and their application to healthcare

Three attribution tools in particular can help healthcare providers effectively mea­sure what works.

Marketing mix modeling. Regression analysis can help marketers understand the specific effects of every interaction with healthcare consumers. It uses his­torical data to estimate the effects of a particular marketing tactic—such as a radio ad or a personalized email—on patient appointment volume. This method can be used to measure tactics in both traditional marketing channels (such as TV and radio) and digital channels (such as paid search and paid social).

This method does have a few limitations, however, including limited measurement granularity, given that it mostly evaluates media effectiveness at a high level for annual or monthly budget allocation. How­ever, A/B testing can be instrumental in improving revenue forecasting with better estimations of revenue and ROI.

Anonymized data. Anonymized data processing can encrypt personal iden­tifying information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) to protect healthcare consumer information while still enabling marketers to send personalized messages, run longitudinal analyses, and port data securely across technology platforms. For example, digital healthcare platforms can encrypt the individual data fields in a healthcare consumer’s record while still sharing journey-specific marketing communications.

Encryption is vital to healthcare providers’ ability to communicate with healthcare con­sumers and their families based on their own treatment journey and needs. It also transforms the experience of consumers by enabling them to share their data privately and receive offline support outside of the clinical setting. There are limits, of course, to the personalization that is available, and it requires rigorous testing to be compliant with industry regu­lations. Encryption at scale is also a massive undertaking that requires a robust core data infrastructure and operations that enable speed, accuracy, and security. Few providers today encrypt PII as part of processing anonymized consu­mer data, and the few that are doing so are not currently using it to drive personalized consumer experiences.

A/B testing. The A/B (or incrementality) testing method is one of the most popular and well-known marketing tactics. By measuring the difference made by discrete details, such as the performance of an email when the audience is addressed as “healthcare professionals” versus “doctors,” A/B testing can offer marketers an abun­dance of information about consumer conversion and sales—and which conver­sions would not have happened without the marketing campaign.

The A/B testing methodology is widely adopted because its results are accurate and easy to understand, and they don’t require complex analytics capabilities. However, many healthcare providers don’t employ the methodology well or at all. Those that can do it well can see outsize bottom-line impact. One healthcare provider, for example, embarked on an end-to-end consumer transformation journey and deployed more than 100 agile digital A/B tests to optimize patient experience across its locations. In one such initiative, the team improved its conversion rate by 0.15 percentage points—or $2.4 million in scaled revenue impact—by personalizing and targeting communications to different healthcare consumer segments.

Successful attribution is founded on the cross-departmental collaboration modeled and facilitated by the C-suite. Specifically, attribution requires marketing and IT to partner closely to, for example, provide marketing the ability to connect how individual digital channels (such as paid media or the provider’s website) are driving new patient appointments booked via phone calls or online.

Industry regulations require that healthcare data be anonymized, but that does not preclude it from being measured. (For more on three of the most ubiquitous marketing-attribution methods that meet the industry’s criteria for healthcare consumer data, see sidebar, “Common marketing-attribution methods and their application to healthcare.”)

It’s not surprising that healthcare providers increas­ingly see marketing as a growth driver. Modern tech­nology, approaches, and collaborative structures can help CMOs pivot the perception and performance of the marketing function away from being a cost center and toward measurable bottom-line gains while improving the healthcare consumer experience.

Adam Broitman is a partner in McKinsey’s New York office, where Michelle Jimenez is a senior expert. Julie Lowrie is a partner in the Atlanta office.

The authors wish to thank Jessica Buchter, Jenny Cordina, and Eli Stein for their contributions to this article.

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How ‘Care at Home’ ecosystems can reshape the way health systems envision patient care

The role of personalization in the care journey: An example of patient engagement to reduce readmissions

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• Published: 27 June 2018

The effectiveness of public health advertisements to promote health: a randomized-controlled trial on 794,000 participants

• Elad Yom-Tov 1 ,
• Jinia Shembekar 2 ,
• Sarah Barclay 2 &
• Peter Muennig 3  

npj Digital Medicine volume  1 , Article number:  24 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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• Lifestyle modification

An Author Correction to this article was published on 16 August 2018

This article has been updated

As public health advertisements move online, it becomes possible to run inexpensive randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) thereof. Here we report the results of an online RCT to improve food choices and integrate exercise into daily activities of internet users. People searching for pre-specified terms were randomized to receive one of several professionally developed campaign advertisements or the “status quo” (ads that would otherwise have been served). For 1-month pre-intervention and post-intervention, their searches for health-promoting goods or services were recorded. Our results show that 48% of people who were exposed to the ads made future searches for weight loss information, compared with 32% of those in the control group—a 50% increase. The advertisements varied in efficacy. However, the effectiveness of the advertisements may be greatly improved by targeting individuals based on their lifestyle preferences and/or sociodemographic characteristics, which together explain 49% of the variation in response to the ads. These results demonstrate that online advertisements hold promise as a mechanism for changing population health behaviors. They also provide researchers powerful ways to measure and improve the effectiveness of online public health interventions. Finally, we show that corporations that use these sophisticated tools to promote unhealthy products can potentially be outbid and outmaneuvered.

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Introduction.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on traditional public health advertisements annually. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 In theory, public health advertising can save money and lives by encouraging behaviors that prevent disease before it happens. 8 While the objective of advertising investments (e.g., encouraging people to quit smoking) differs from those of private advertisers (encouraging people to purchase a good or service), the central idea is the same: to change behaviors.

Before online advertising, it was only possible to empirically test public health campaigns by randomizing small numbers of participants and to examine a few outcome measures. 1 , 2 This makes it difficult to test to whom different forms of advertisement are best targeted. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6

Humans vary greatly with respect to both their biology and their beliefs. Medical researchers use predictive analytics to mine databases of genetic information in order to target treatments to individuals who are more likely to respond to them. Similarly, private advertisers use predictive analytics to mine multiple sources of sociodemographic and behavioral data to better target individual consumers with the goal of changing their behavior. However, precision public health interventions have largely sat on the sidelines both due to the large sums of money required for targeted advertising and due to ethical concerns.

Ethical concerns arise for a number of reasons. First, participant data are collected without informed consent. 9 Second, many in public health feel uncomfortable with the idea of manipulating individual behaviors, preferring instead to work with anonymous means to attempt to change behavior more generically. 10 , 11 Such concerns have largely pre-empted the use of precision public health advertising, leaving only private firms to employ these tools.

In the private sector, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other internet-based companies provide online services for free in exchange for the information that drives precision advertising using “big data analytics”. Online ads targeted using data analytics can influence emotions and behaviors. 10 , 12 , 13

First, advertisers can make educated guesses or small-scale tests about who might respond most to a given advertisement based on common search terms by topic. Then, advertisement can be randomized to be shown to users of search engines that search for such terms. Randomization provides a “gold standard” test of efficacy. Randomization can also provide causal information on how different sub-groups (e.g., young women) respond to an advertisement relative to others. Information on the experimental responses of different “architypes” of individuals can then re-tested with newer, more effective advertisements. This incremental approach—targeting, refining, and testing—has the power to produce online ads that affect beliefs and behaviors.

Big data companies—such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft—conduct tens of thousands of randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) on their users every year. 14 These results are invariably kept inside these companies, but the general process for evaluating advertisement efficacy is likely similar across companies.

Search advertisements are typically presented as textual advertisements that appear on a search results page coupled with a click through link to the advertiser’s site. More advanced versions include images in addition to (or instead of) the text. While it is rare that users click on ads, online advertisements have been shown to increase sales both for online display ads and in brick-and-mortar stores. 15 Display and search ads are believed to produce similar impacts, and about 75% of this increase in traffic from the cited study was from those who never clicked through.

In this paper, we take the reader through this advertising process, and conduct, to our knowledge, the first fully randomized online public health communication’s campaign which tracks not only click response to ads, but also the searches made prior to and post advertisement display. Professionals from J. Walter Thompson (JWT), a leading advertising firm in New York City, developed a series of online ads aimed at improving exercise and eating behaviors among search engine users (“users”) who are overweight. We then experimentally tested these ads using a series of 10 RCTs, each for a different textual advertisement paired with unique click through content. Finally, we explored the impact of the ads on changing health behaviors as measured by future health-promotion searches.

Descriptive analysis

During the month of the RCT, the experiment ads were shown 265,279 times and clicked 1024 times. Of these displays, the ads were shown 3108 times to 2996 users who could be tracked in their queries before and after. Additionally, during the month of the RCT, a total of 505,693 non-exposed users made at least one query such as the ones which triggered a campaign ad in the treatment population.

The majority of users were between the ages of 35 and 64, and females were more likely to see the ads than males (Supplemental Fig. 1 ). Of those over the age of 65, males and female users were about equal in number. A total of 36 tracked users clicked on the ads.

The tracked users and users who were not tracked were both successfully randomly assigned (Table 1 ).

Click through rate

The click rate is congruent with the click rate in other advertising campaigns. 16 As shown in Supplemental Fig. 1 , females were more likely to use terms which triggered the campaign ads, but there was a trend toward males having a higher click through.

Exposure to textual ads and future target searches

A model predicting future target searches from prior interest in target searches and from exposure to campaign ads reaches an R 2 or 0.314 ( p  < 10 −10 ). As shown in Table 2 , prior interest in target searches increases the likelihood of future target searches by 52% (slope = 0.52, standard error [SE] = 0.001; <10 −10 ). However, exposure to campaign ads significantly increases the likelihood of future target searches by 15% (slope = 0.15, SE = 0.01; p  < 10 −10 ), especially in the absence of prior target searches. Stated differently, 48% of people who were exposed to the ads made future target searches, compared to 32% of the controls (a 50% increase). This difference is even greater when observing the population which did not have past target searches (30% vs. 15%).

Predictive analytics

We constructed a model to predict future target searches in the treatment population. Using only respondent characteristics (both behavioral and demographic) produced a model with an R 2 of 0.414. When only previous query topics were added, the R 2 was 0.410. When both were added, the R 2 was 0.491.

Cox hazards analyses

Table 3 shows the hazards ratios for the likelihood of future target searches for the sociodemographic and contextual characteristics of the ads. Recall that we correct p -values for the number of comparisons within each category. We discuss statistically significant results here. While the number of previous searches for keywords is associated with a very slight change in the HR for future keyword searches, the average person tends to make a large number of searches. None of the ads were particularly more effective than other ads in evoking a future keyword search. However, exposure to more than one ads increases the chance of a keyword search by 11% (HR = 1.11; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.20). Females were much less likely than males to perform a future search for keywords when exposed to an advertisement HR = 0.84 (95% CI = 0.76, 0.91).

We randomized Bing users to receive a professionally designed public health advertisement or to receive control (status quo) advertisements. We found that people who view online health promotion advertisements are much more likely to perform searches related to health promotion than those who were assigned “status quo” advertisements. The experimental effect sizes were large, with 48% of those with exposure to the text messages (and in some cases, the landing pages) more likely to perform future health-related searches while only 32% of the matched control group performed such searches.

At the population level, searching for specific health behaviors is associated with performing these behaviors in the physical world. 17 For example, the number of people searching for information about cannabis is highly correlated with the known number of users of cannabis, 18 the number of people searching for specific medicines corresponds to the number of prescriptions sold, 19 and the distribution of birth events, as inferred from search queries, is extremely well aligned with the distribution provided by the Centers for Disease Control. 20 We show that it is possible to alter the behavior of those with enough interest to conduct a search online, and show that it is possible to test such behavioral changes experimentally. With online advertisements, it is no longer necessary to stab in the dark with public health advertisement design. Nor is it necessary to guess who will respond to those advertisements. Rather, it is possible to systematically target users with advertisements to which they are most susceptible, thereby eliciting behavior change. Our identification strategies can, in theory, be used to continuously refine, randomize, and test the targeting algorithms on different user types. For instance, it is not only possible to target based on the users’ age, race, and location, but also on their characteristics as defined by their internet searches, shopping preferences, and even email content. The targeting algorithms can use the information to be “stepped up” until there is evidence that the user changes his or her behaviors.

Our study was susceptible to few limitations, including those typically inherent to RCTs. Perhaps the most important limitation is external validity since we ran the campaign on only one platform. Second, it is difficult to quantify the impact of the counterfactual advertisements that were shown to users. The counterfactual could be health promoting (e.g., gym memberships), neutral (e.g., vitamin supplements), or negative (e.g., unhealthy foods or products targeted toward high-risk groups). It is therefore possible that an ad with no efficacy could appear efficacious if the bulk of counterfactual advertisements discouraged future keyword searches.

Experimental offline advertisements have shown that it is possible to motivate health behavior change with traditional advertising modalities, such as associating behaviors with those of desirable social groups. 2 The only published RCT of online health promotion advertisements we are aware of demonstrated that it is different audiences respond very differently to a given advertisement. 16 For example, empowering advertisements were generally more effective at inducing future searches on smoking cessation than those that emphasized the negative health impacts of smoking. But this varied dramatically by the demographic characteristics of the viewers.

This also raises significant concerns for health departments and other agencies that could greatly benefit from access to the data underlying the health advertisements. Most large information technology firms provide services to users for free in exchange for access to user data. To best understand how to target users and change their behavior, it would be useful for them to have access to identified data that could be linked across multiple sources of big data. Like academic institutions, most public agencies require approvals that are difficult to obtain in part because institutional review boards have not adjusted to the nuances of big data research and partly because there is no clear opt in for users of online services. Clearly, cooperation between ethicists, big data companies, governmental bodies, and academia has great potential to advance population health. We show that it is not only technically possible to launch an online campaign that effectively improves health behaviors, but also that corporations that promote an unhealthy diet or a sedentary lifestyle can potentially be outbid or outmaneuvered.

Our RCT was conducted by Microsoft during April 2017 using the Bing Ads system. In this system, advertisers bid to place the ads when specific keywords are searched by users of the Bing search engine. Internet users of the Bing search engine who were logged into a Microsoft account and searching for pre-specified keywords were selected for this study. Eligible users were randomly exposed to JWT ads (treatment) or any other ads served up by the system (control). We then followed both the treatment and control users’ future search queries, and retrospectively examined past queries to build and interpret predictive models.

This study was approved by the Microsoft Institutional Review Board and was declared exempt by the Columbia University Institutional Review Board under the understanding that the Columbia University researchers would not have access to the data in any form other than the tabular results presented in this paper, and further that they would not seek funding for the study.

This trial was registered on February 2018 with ClinicalTrials.gov , registration number NCT03439553.

User selection

Those who are motivated to change their behaviors are more likely to do so. As a result, advertisers often attempt to target individuals with some motivation to change. In this study, we attempt to improve the viewer’s diets and increase their levels of physical activity. The goal of the user selection process was therefore to identify individuals who were motivated for behavioral change due to social stigma or disease, and then present an advertisement that suggests a behavioral change that is within reach given their lifestyle. We therefore selected users who used search terms associated with social stigma or diseases related to poor diet or low levels of exercise.

Randomization

The Bing Ads system is designed to randomize advertisements for experimental purposes. In this study, we selected users for inclusion if they (1) were using the Bing search engine; (2) logged into a Microsoft account; and (3) typed any of the following combination of terms:

(Weight, Overweight, Obesity, lose weight) AND (<none>, Hypertension, High cholesterol, High blood pressure, Exercise, Diabetes, bullying)

Hypercholesterolemia, Fat, BMI, Body fat, Big gut, Big and tall clothing, Easy exercises, Healthy diet, Easy workout, Plus size, Weight loss pill, Diet pill, Weight loss surgery, XXL

The vast majority of Bing search engine users who typed the above keywords ( n  = 283,716) were excluded based on a missing Microsoft account pre-randomization (the account is needed for user demographic data and analytics). Users who had a Microsoft account were further analyzed (Fig. 1 ). Among users with a Microsoft account, those with incomplete demographic data (age, gender, zip code) were also excluded, leaving 2996 treated participants and 505,693 control participants. The CONSORT diagram (Fig. 1 ) and the age and gender characteristics of the users (Table 1 ) show no threats to internal validity. There were no statistically significant differences in the demographic characteristics of the treatment and control users ( χ 2 test, p  > 0.05).

CONSORT 2010 flow diagram. CONSORT flow diagram template courtesy of http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/flow-diagram

In addition to the above four criteria for inclusion of users, campaign ads also had to competitively bid for an ad on the search results page. Keyword demand differs by advertisers, and so does the associated maximum bid for each keyword. To account for the differences in keyword demand and have a similar baseline for all keywords, we set the Bing Ads system to automatically adjust the bids for each of the campaign terms listed above to be high enough for our ads to be as competitive as control ads (i.e., those of other advertisers), but no more than US$1 per click.

User characterization

We extracted all queries made on Bing by treatment and control users in our trial, from 1 month before the first advertisement was shown through until 1 month after the last ad was shown.

For each query, we registered an anonymized user identifier, the time of the query, the US county from which the user made the query, and the text of the query. The query was further classified (using a proprietary classifier developed by Microsoft) into one or more of approximately 60 topical categories. These categories were encompassed broad topics, such as commerce, travel, and health.

Users exposed to ads were further characterized by their self-reported age, gender, and the county-level poverty as inferred from the county from which they made the query. 21

Advertisements

JWT developed both the textual ads initially displayed to treatment users, as well as the content on the landing page shown when the user clicks on a textual link. The advertisements were grounded in the Fogg Behavior Model. 22 , 23 In this model, three elements must come together at the same time: motivation to change, ability to change, and a trigger for change. The ads were designed to be “hot triggers,” 23 designed to prime highly motivated users with content that is easy and actionable in order to nudge a behavior change toward more positive health habits.

All treatment users that enter the keywords above are exposed to the textual ads. The associated landing pages contained information on how the subject might improve health behaviors through nutrition or exercise. However, the vast majority of users will only view the textual advertisements. The JWT text ads fall into three categories: (1) suggestive of healthy behavior change (“Laugh your calories off”, “Chores: the new workout”, “Your kids are an exercise”, “'Swalty’ snacks are best”); (2) related to nutrition or exercise, but not to behavior change (“Burn calories sitting”, “Lose weight watching TV”, “Pimp up your snack”); or (3) unrelated to both behavior change and nutrition or exercise (“Find a hairy partner”). Each textual ad was designed to motivate users to click on the ad. Both the textual and click through advertisements were explicitly designed to avoid stigmatizing obesity.

The landing page ads focused solely on nudging users toward changing their behaviors with suggestions for incorporating small amounts of exercise or easy dietary changes into day-to-day activities. These were accompanied by an animated image meant to reinforce the message of the advertisement (see the Supplemental Appendix). Users were also provided links to additional content developed by professional health organizations or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if they wanted more information.

Outcomes and predictor variables

Our primary outcome measure was the likelihood of a future search using a set of pre-specified keywords. These keywords were selected by identifying common weight-related search terms among Bing users. The terms fell into categories that suggest that the subject either (1) desires a deeper understanding of obesity (fat; nutrition; calories; body mass index; BMI; body weight; body mass) or (2) wishes to change their behavior (weight loss; weight watcher; weightwatcher; losing weight; and lose weight).

We were interested in exploring differences in outcome measures for treated and control users overall, by demographic characteristics, and by advertisement characteristics (content, placement, etc.). We were also interested in building predictive analytics that could identify which user types are most likely to respond to a given advertisement.

We used the following covariates to operationalize demographic and advertisement characteristics:

Past user behavior:

Number of past searches by the user

Number of past target searches by the user

Number of past ads shown to the user

User demographic:

Age group (categorized into six groups: 13–17, 18–24, 25–34, 35–49, 50–64, or 65+ years)

Gender (female or male)

Advertisement information:

Hour of the day ad shown (integer between 0 and 23 h)

Advertisement title (categorized into 10 groups)

Was the ad clicked? (yes/no)

Search page number on which the ad is displayed (integer between 1 and 100)

Search page position (indicator variable for whether the ad was placed on the top or the right-hand side of the search page)

Statistical analysis

Given the large sample size, we specified an effect size of greater than or equal to 10% to be meaningful.

We explored the likelihood of future target searches given user’ exposure to ads, controlling for past searches. We used ordinary least squares regression to model the association between variables:

where y is an indicator of future searches, and x the predictors of the model.

Because previous searches predict the probability of subsequent searches, we were also interested in the interaction term between the probability of a subsequent search given exposure to the treatment (the interaction between the coefficient of conducting a previous search and being in the treatment group).

We then developed a predictive model. In this model, each user was profiled prior to the ad campaign with respect to demographic characteristics and previous topical searches. With respect to topical searches, we explored whether the user had performed searches that relate to one of 60 pre-specified categories of interest. These included broader topics, such as shopping, travel, and health. By adding a term to the above equation that includes previous searches in each of these categories, it becomes possible to examine the influence of inclusion of the topic on the model’s predictive value, as measured by the model’s goodness-of-fit ( R 2 ).

These models included all 10 of the covariates listed above. These covariates are used for predictive purposes, and regression is conducted on a cohort that has already been randomized. This way, it becomes possible to make predictions based on treatment response when only treatment status introduces non-random variation.

Next, we used Cox proportionate hazards models and explored 32 predictors of future searches:

where HR is the hazard ratio, X the predictors of the model, and β their corresponding model coefficients.

The predictors fell into five broad characteristics of the user and their exposures: previous searches, exposure to our advertisements, advertisement placement characteristics, age, gender, and poverty. We used Bonferonni correction for the number of categorical variables within each of these broader categories. We examined the HR for future searches for various user and ad characteristics.

In a secondary analysis (see Supplementary Materials ), we used propensity score matching of users meeting inclusion characteristics, who were matched to unexposed users based on age, gender, and zip code, and analyzed using the above characteristics. This analysis allows for a low-noise, low sample size analysis in which it becomes possible to obtain very conservative assurances that there are statistically significant differences by treatment status, rather than relying on clinically meaningful effect sizes (as in the parent analysis).

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Microsoft, but restrictions apply to the availability of the data. Specifically, all aggregate advertising data are available from the authors on reasonable request. Individual-level search data are available from the authors on reasonable request and with permission of Microsoft.

Change history

16 august 2018.

In the original version of the published Article, there was an error in the caption to Table 1 which stated “None of the differences are statistically significant ( χ 2 , two-sided, p  > 0.05)”. This has been changed to “The 18–24 year old are over-represented in the all user treatment population, while the 50–64 year old are underrepresented in both tracked and all user population, p -values were <0.05 for age groups and gender.” This has been corrected in the HTML and PDF version of the Article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Nicholas Orsini, Zeynep Cingir, Javier Pinol, Yudi Rojas, Gustavo Tezza, Valerie O’Bert, Vaibhav Bhanot, and Pritika Mathur for their help in designing the ads.

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P.M. devised the study. S.J. and S.B. designed the ads and landing pages. All authors decided on the keywords. E.Y.T. ran the advertising campaign, collected the data, and analyzed it. All authors were involved in writing the paper. This work was carried out as part of the author’s salaried employment, with no specific funding.

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Yom-Tov, E., Shembekar, J., Barclay, S. et al. The effectiveness of public health advertisements to promote health: a randomized-controlled trial on 794,000 participants. npj Digital Med 1 , 24 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-018-0031-7

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Published : 27 June 2018

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Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients

Affiliations.

• 1 Willis-Knighton Health System, 2600 Greenwood Road, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA.
• 2 Willis-Knighton Health System, 2600 Greenwood Road, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA. [email protected].
• 3 LSU Shreveport, 1 University Place, Shreveport, LA, 71115, USA. [email protected].
• PMID: 32928190
• PMCID: PMC7491105
• DOI: 10.1186/s12913-020-05599-3

Background: Advertising-a marketing communications method involving the paid use of mass media to deliver messages to desired audiences-represents one of the most common and effective avenues for engaging current and prospective patients. Although late to proliferate in the health services industry due to tradition, the medium of communication is now firmly established and routinely deployed by health and medical organizations far and wide. Despite widespread use, healthcare providers must take opportunities, when and where possible, to stay abreast of the latest details concerning advertising and its associated applications, increasing the likelihood of successful audience engagements.

Discussion: Maintaining an awareness of current developments in health services advertising can be facilitated by acquiring operational perspectives and practices from peer institutions. Most any healthcare provider can benefit from experiential views as they can shape and hone advertising approaches. Gaining such insights can be difficult, given competitive sensitivities, but occasionally healthcare institutions are compelled to share knowledge in published accounts, with this particular article following suit. Specifically, insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System's extensive and historic use of advertising are shared, bolstering the experiential accounts available in the literature and supplying operational guidance for health and medical providers.

Conclusions: Advertising, if well devised and deployed, offers healthcare providers opportunities to dramatically improve their fortunes by successfully engaging current and prospective patients, hastening exchange and building vital market share. In pursuit of advertising excellence, health and medical establishments can bolster associated endeavors by tapping into the experiences of other healthcare providers, permitting insights which might potentially be incorporated into communicative pathways. This account sheds light on the advertising operations of a major health system, supplying food for thought for the advancement of advertising acumen.

Keywords: Advertising; Healthcare; Hospitals; Marketing communications; Promotion.

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• Marketing of Health Services*
• Mass Media*

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Call for Manuscripts: Marketing in the Health Care Sector

Special issue: journal of marketing.

By popular demand, the deadline has been extended to November 17, 2021.

Health care is vital to our interconnected world. As the world faces a pandemic of a magnitude not witnessed for over 100 years, we are reminded of its fundamental role. Consumers (patients) seek health, health care providers and institutions work to deliver care, insurance companies and governments monitor its costs, markets compete on it, policy regulates it, and society benefits from its successes or is challenged by its failings. Marketing as a discipline, however, has not lived up to its potential contributions to this important aspect of our lives.

Marketing in the health care sector has been an intellectually challenging field of study due to a complex ecosystem of consumers, physicians, providers, firms, and institutions. Moreover, health care is dynamic and fast changing owing to the advent of new technologies, evolving laws and regulations, and advances in science.

Growing access to health information and scientific research means customers no longer passively receive health care services. Consequently, the role of marketing also must shift. How marketing contributes to economic, social, and clinical health care outcomes is also changing, making it necessary to rethink how marketing strategies, tools, organization, and capabilities can be applied to understand and improve health care exchanges.

We believe it is time to bring marketing’s system-level and customer-centric view to this important topic. This  Journal of Marketing Special Issue on “Marketing in the Health Care Sector” is dedicated to promoting research on health care marketing with the goal of improving knowledge of this critical research domain.

Relevant Domains, Actors, and Institutions

Health care is a multifaceted domain. Specifically, health care involves consideration of preventive and curative products, services, and systems that are designed to promote well-being. We hope the Special Issue will sweep across the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of these products, services, markets, and ecosystems in areas as broad as physical health, mental health, and a range of alternative medicine therapies.

A wide array of actors and institutions are involved, including consumers, health care providers (e.g., general practitioners and specialists, nurse practitioners hospitals, clinics); local, state, federal, and international government agencies; health insurance providers; health care education providers (e.g., universities); and practitioner associations such as the American Medical Association, medical researchers, legal professionals, pharmaceutical companies, and providers of medical technologies.

Suggested Topics

Marketing in the health care sector can be studied from consumer, institutional agent, provider, competitor, market, policy, or societal perspectives. Consistent with JM ’s editorial mission, submitted papers should address a real-world marketing question or problem.

Seeking inspiration?

Watch videos from a diverse group of leading scholars sharing their views on unanswered questions facing marketing in the health care sector.​

Leonard Berry • Punam Keller • Irina Kozlenkova • Cait Lamberton • John Lynch • Detelina Marinova • Vikas Mittal • Maura Scott • Steven Shugan • Jagdip Singh • Hari Sridhar • S Sriram • Richard Staelin

Additional examples of topics that might appear in the Special Issue are as follows (nonexhaustive):

• Frontline perspective . How do physicians, nurses, patient navigators, and their administrative counterparts approach the management of consumer preventive and compliance-focused health behavior and how can this be improved? What is the impact of training, incentives, and turnover in health care providers across different caregivers (e.g., doctors, nurses, medical assistants)? How do salespeople influence medical decision making for the betterment or detriment of health outcomes? How can marketing contribute to improving frontline satisfaction and performance? 
• Service perspective . How can clinicians be more effective interacting with multiple agents in the health care domain (e.g., patients, providers, insurance companies, government agencies)? How to design optimal health care environments? What new metrics can be implemented from new data streams to better assess and improve health care service quality? What is the role of standards of care in blueprinting service experiences?
• Access and distribution perspectives . Which health care factors determine a patient’s access and usage of health care services? What are the trade-offs in different health care delivery channels (e.g., hospitals, urgent care, telemedicine)? What is the role of marketing in increasing “at home” health care or other, more efficient distribution systems? How does access to healthcare influence health?
• Pricing perspective . How can health care pricing be more efficient? What are the trade-offs associated with different pricing strategies used? How should the consumer perspective inform health care pricing? How do consumer and provider decisions change regarding price-quality trade-offs in the presence of better information?
• Advertising perspective . How does direct-to-consumer medical advertising impact usage and medical outcomes? What are trade-offs and insights from international differences in medical advertising policies? 
• Customer relationship management . Who owns health care data? How can patient systems be improved and data managed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of care? How do we personalize health care outreach and compliance strategies to improve health care success? How do we use technology to create macro health changes while tailoring to individual differences?
• Competitive perspective . How does competition affect health care? What can be done to reduce opacity in pricing to increase price competition in health care? What is the role of infomediaries in providing price information? What market incentive systems would produce more societal welfare related to health?
• Health care innovations and technologies : (1) How can health care professionals use the new forms of data from AI, IoT, health chatbots, etc. to provide value to customers? (2) How can firms help customers learn about and adopt new technologies (e.g., wearable tracking devices, telemedicine) in health care? How can such technology be used to assist customers in treatment decisions? Widespread adoption of decision support tools or decision aids is still lagging in many health care organizations and markets. With its long history of diffusion research, how can marketing play a role in diffusing health care technologies to both consumers and to medical systems that continue to use legacy systems? How has COVID-19 helped these systems “learn fast” to offer new digital activities at scale and what organizational and market factors influenced adoption? (3) How does technology influence customer compliance in the medical domain? (4) How does artificial intelligence (AI) enable personalization of the marketing mix, product offerings, and recommendations in health care? (5) What public risks do new health care innovations carry and how should society manage those?
• Consumer decisions : (1) How can we better understand the evolving role of the customer throughout the health care journey? How can marketing influence health care to improve consumer decisions and compliance? What are the predictors of consumer self-disclosure of important medical information? (2) How do consumers and professionals co-create value in health care services? (3) What is the role of the family in consumer health care decision making? How do consumers make health care decisions for their dependents (e.g., children, elderly parents), including advanced directives for end-of-life decisions and aging consumers’ health care (e.g., hospital-in-the-home)? (4) What are the roles of customer communities in improving public health? What are the consequences when consumer communities advocate for actions that are counter to public health (e.g., anti-vaccination, anti-masks, anti-social distancing) and what can be done? (5) How do consumers decide on health care insurance and how do they use or misuse policies? How do consumer decisions change for different groups (e.g., age, rural, nondocumented, uninsured)?
• Organizational and ecosystem topics : (1) What role does the development of customer-centric organizational cultures, structures, metrics, and leaders have on the provision of health care products and services? How do these organizational factors affect the health of employees as well as customers? (2) How can we move beyond clinical care to build effective health ecosystems around consumers? What institutional and systems-level activities are currently left out of health care? (3) What organizational alternatives can be designed to improve consumer health care, including in-home care, emergency care alternatives, and telemedicine? (4) How do marketing alliances, acquisitions, and joint ventures influence care and prices? What is marketing’s role in increasing the effectiveness of public, private, and governmental health care alliances? (5) What are the trade-offs between marketing effectiveness on for-profit firms’ performance and patient outcomes? (6) Can marketing help improve the coordination and reduce fragmentation among health care providers and systems to improve health outcomes and reduce costs? Does centralized leadership improve patient quality and reduce costs? (7) How can we redesign all organizations to be “health promoting” for both employees and customers? What is the role of marketing in such organizational transformations? (8) How can marketing be more effectively integrated into health care intervention processes? What is the nature of this role and the scalable qualities of these processes? (9) How can a marketing perspective lead to the transformation of health care systems to ensure that the “human in the system”—that is patients and providers, including frontline workers—are treated equitably?
• Policy, regulatory, and societal topics : (1) Why does health care cost so much, especially in the United States? At 19% of GDP, what can marketing do to help convert the $3.6T spent into more effective and efficient care? Are marketing expenditures contributing to more expensive health care in privatized health systems (e.g., the United States) compared with public systems (e.g., UK, Sweden) or hybrid systems (e.g., Australia, The Netherlands)? Are consumers better or worse off in countries where drug advertising is allowed versus countries where it is not allowed? (2) What is the impact of health quality information disclosures related to doctors and hospitals on consumer choice and competition? What is the role of measuring and sharing health care metrics such as infection rates, patient satisfaction, and quality of care on different constituents’ behaviors? (3) What is the optimal approach to patient privacy? How should health care firms respond to policy initiatives to protect consumer data? How can marketing help navigate the trade-offs between patient privacy (e.g., HIPAA) and other outcomes? (4) How do regulations and insurance restrictions influence the use of alternative and nontraditional medical practices and what are the medical outcomes? How do international and interstate differences in health care regulation shape health care marketing activities and outcomes? (5) What is the impact of new direct-to-consumer health care laws?
• Other health topics : (1) What is the role of marketing in managing the COVID-19 pandemic and other health crises? (2) What health care challenges and solutions are unique to emerging markets? How can marketing contribute to their resolution or their scaling?

Types of Papers

This Special Issue seeks papers that examine contemporary issues in the health care business and highlight the relevance of marketing approaches, knowledge, and tools. We also encourage papers with a marketing focus that span boundaries with other disciplines such as public health, social and behavioral sciences, computer science, and economics. Purely conceptual papers are welcome as are papers using any methodological approach .

Finally, the Special Issue will not include articles focused on consumers’ decision making outside of the health care sector, even when those decisions have a direct impact on their health (e.g., consumers’ adoption of healthy food choices or lifestyles).

All papers submitted to the Special Issue will go through the regular JM review process, utilizing the existing editorial structure, including the four current Editors . However, specialized ad hoc AEs and reviewers may be added to papers on a case-by-case basis as needed. When submitting a paper to the Special Issue, type “Marketing in the Health Care Sector” in the field requesting this information. Submissions must be made between July 1, 2021 and November 17, 2021.

Given the unique nature of the Special Issue, the Editors welcome queries by authors regarding topic fit. Direct all inquiries to Editor in Chief Christine Moorman ( [email protected] ).

By continuing to use this site, you accept the use of cookies, pixels and other technology that allows us to understand our users better and offer you tailored content. You can learn more about our privacy policy here

History of Healthcare Advertising, Part 1

Advertising hospitals and healthcare services directly to the consumer is relatively new in the history of marketing. In 1977 the American Hospitals Association held its first marketing convention. Up until this point, marketing healthcare by any respected entity was not recorded. In my next few blog posts I’d like to take a look at the history of healthcare advertising prior to the 1970‘s; who was doing it, what was promoted and how they sold it.

Cure-all patent medicines

Advertisement for Daffy’s Elixir Salutis

One of the earliest documentations is for Anthony Daffy’s Elixir Salutis, “The Choise Drink of Health.” Today, one might categorize this product as a pharmaceutical, over the counter medication or herbal remedy, but back then these were known as Patent Medicines.

Daffy’s Elixir is reported to have originally been invented in 1647 by the rector Thomas Daffy in Leicester, England. According to records it doesn’t appear to be cheap stuff and it looks like those who could afford it, would stock up. Purported to cure anything that ails you, the ingredients in Daffy’s Elixer create nothing more than a laxative with a little brandy added in for good measure.

After Daffy’s death, the recipe was passed on to members of the family including Anthony Daffy, an apothecary who advertised the product all over London in the late 1600’s and in America at the beginning of the 18th century. Through hand-distributed pamphlets and notices in the newspaper, Daffy’s Elixir became a household name. It remained popular and continued to be marketed well into the 19th century.

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Health Care Analysis Essay

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Health care reform has been a big topic since the Clinton administration when First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, took it under her belt to devise a new system. Health care is the provision taken to preserve mental and physical health using prevention and treatment. Compared to other health care systems in the world, the United States is ranked 37th in terms of care, claims Michael Moore (2007). Ironically, our health care system spends more than any other nation on its patients, averaging nearly $8,000 per person (DiNitto, 2012). With soaring costs, it is no surprise that one in every seven Americans are uninsured (Kaiser, 2011). Even with these sorry figures, statistics show that 85% of Americans are satisfied with their health care

Marketing and Health Care Systems Essay

The central concept of marketing is the exchange of something of value between the provider and the purchaser. Determining what the consumer need, want and desire and delivering it better than the competitors is the goal of marketing (Longest, Rakich and Darr, 2000). Healthcare is becoming more business oriented and using marketing tactics to increase consumer use of the services and products the health care system offers. Ensuring marketing of the right products and services is successful the organization’s mission and marketing need to be in alignment. This alignment begins with the strategic planning process, which

Essay on Tangibility of Healthcare in Services Marketing

In contrast to tangible dominant offerings that can be felt, tasted, and seen, the healthcare services that are offered by the hospital can be categorized as intangible dominant. This intangible service is largely characterized by interactions with healthcare professionals, education on health conditions, and ultimately a better quality of health. Though the offering is primarily intangible, if the hospital is to be successful they should integrate a few tangible aspects to the offering. If the end goal of the service is to tend to the needs of the patient’s health through a primarily intangible offering, tangible elements such as medical equipment,

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Healthcare Advertising Essay

Healthcare advertising is highly required to have a successful healthcare facility or path lab because you are principally running a business. With all of the deviations around you that will demand your attention, it is tough to envision having the time to be seated and handle your online marketing for pathology lab as well. That being said, here are five advantages of outsourcing your healthcare advertising operations that you might not have thought of before: 1. Time: You are busy and way too involved with other matters during the day. Carving out time here and there for things such as a unperturbed lunch with clients, walking the halls of your lab, or even expending time with your family would be virtually impossible if you did all of your own publicity. By outsourcing your advertising, the advertising agencies like Nurturing Health can devote the time essential to make things get going in the correct direction. 2. Not wasting money: A deficiency of productivity does not equal saving money. Whether it is you or somebody in your team, permitting …show more content…

Getting you name out there: Top advertising agencies like ours know how to make businesses become successful. They know how to work with the community on the whole, comprehend the make-up of the community and what their requirements are and can then help bring it all together to generate a solid plan of action. 4. Putting a plan into action via social media marketing, branding and online reputation management : A distinct healthcare advertising agency can get the wheels in motion on a marketing plan instantaneously. Time is always of the essence in business, so this skill is vital. This quick work is advantageous for path labs as it does keep you and your crew on its toes. You need to be systematized because that organization translates into your outsourcing agency having everything it requires to do its job as meritoriously as possible through social media marketing, online reputation management and branding

H & G Clinic Essay

Another weakness is different payer requirements for certain procedures and treatment. There are various items that can prevent the clinic from obtaining revenue for its services such as not having a prior authorization, the payer deems the treatment wasn’t necessary or the payer implemented a new requirement for this treatment that was not met. These are constantly changing and it is difficult for healthcare organizations to keep up with these ever-changing policies. B3. Evaluate at least two opportunities of the organization HG Clinic is a multi-specialty clinic and continues to build on these specialties as they come out and as the healthcare industry grows and changes.

Unit 8 Health And Social Care Essay

Having read the GR, I would like to respond as follows: Page 4 Each member of the team is responsible for managing their timing on a daily basis to ensure all customer needs are attended to within the working hours. During every team meetings JA always state the importance of having all members of staff taking their lunch during the business stipulated hours of 12noon and 2pm. He has on numerous occasions stated that the full hour is taken and that each staff is to plan their work load so that it does not clash with this period.

Medicare Persuasive Essay

If you have Medicare, you might be looking for a way to supplement your coverage. You might already know that you have two main choices to look into -- either Medicare supplement insurance or a Medicare Advantage plan -- but you might not be sure which one you should choose. Although either type of coverage can help you get more out of your healthcare coverage, a lot of people who have Medicare coverage prefer a Medicare supplement plan. These are some of the reasons why you might prefer it as well.

Medicare Insurance Essay

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people over 65, people with certain disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease. It can be a complex and confusing process to choose the right Medicare insurance plan. Here are four of the common mistakes people make when choosing a Medicare insurance plan: Not researching all the available options Many people do not research all the available options when choosing a Medicare insurance plan. They may stick with the first plan they come across or the one their friends and family recommend.

Obama Care Persuasive Essay

Health care is very costly, but not having any is even more costly. The U.S. is always trying to make healthcare affordable. Affordable health care comes in package that tells you that the insurers will provide to pay for like the mint pay for majority of the medicine you need. Do to the unwanted Obamacare, Donald Trump is trying to create an improved form of Obamacare, but, it is hard because, Trump would rather just get rid of it and start new, but due to the laws that can not happen. The laws state that it can not be abolished, it can only be reformed.

Medicare Essay

When it comes to understanding Medicare, it can be a bit overwhelming. From understanding the different parts of the program to knowing when you’re eligible, there’s a lot to take in. It’s important to understand the basics of Medicare so you can make the most of it. Medicare is a health insurance program run by the federal government and it’s available to people who are 65 and older, as well as some people with disabilities, regardless of their income level.

Health Insurance Persuasive Essay

The cost of health insurance is quickly on the rise, and employers and employees alike are feeling the financial weight. A large portion of high medical claims are associated with obesity and lifestyle choices, some of which can be reduced by making healthy changes. Due to the rise in cost, many employers are rewarding employees for participating in health screenings that measure things such as body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, lifestyle choices such a tobacco or excessive alcohol use, exercise, mental health, and amount of sleep. Employees can impact the cost of their healthcare by learning about their health risks, making lifestyle changes, and becoming accountable for their own health. Upon completing

Healthcare Disparities Essay

Poverty-induced healthcare disparities continue to be a major issue in modern society. While the United States has made significant strides in expanding healthcare access in recent years, many low-income individuals still face barriers to quality healthcare. However, by improving healthcare access for those living in poverty, we can help alleviate healthcare disparities and improve overall health outcomes. In this essay, we will explore the benefits of improving healthcare access as a solution to poverty-induced healthcare disparities. Healthcare access is a significant factor in addressing poverty-induced healthcare disparities.

Target Corporation Swot Analysis Paper

In order to determine the whether an outsourcing activities would have a positive or negative impact an evaluation of the activity should be undergone. This evaluation examines the required coordination, strategic control, and intellectual property characteristics of the activity (Chase & Jacobs, 2013, p.444). The required coordination aspect examines the difficulty to complete the activity with limited interaction due to geographical locations. Outsourcing an activity that would result in a large amount of back-and-forth exchange would not be wise to proceed (Chase & Jacobs, 2013, p.444).

Declaration Of Health Essay

The Declaration of Health There are 5 food groups. There are fruits, vegetables, dairy, proteins, and grains. In this 7 paragraph essay, you will learn about what nutrients they provide, misconceptions about the food group, and some recommendations that could help you eat and live better.

Kaiser Permanente Health Care Scholarship Essay

I should be considered for the Kaiser Permanente Health Care Scholarship because I have proved and accomplished more than what I thought I would be capable of in my education, I am passionate for the health industry, and I financially need to be to succeed. I will continue my education by pursuing my goal to become a Registered Nurse. I first considered Registered Nursing when I joined the Health Academy and realized how passionate I was to help others. Throughout my years in the Health Academy, my passion grew drastically. My summer of 2015 was dedicated to two internships; one being a Medical Assistant (200 hours) and another as a Physical Therapy Aide (80 hours).

Persuasive Essay On Health Care

Healthcare is something everyone needs and should be able to get, but right now that is not happening. In America there are millions of people who don’t have healthcare insurance. This is because some can’t afford the insurance plan. There are also millions more who have health insurance, but can’t afford using it. This means that they are paying for an insurance plan, but the deductibles are so high they can’t afford to go to the doctor.

Dermal Filler Marketing Strategy

Any digital agency will listen to their clients. A dermal fillers clinic should explain the kind of services they would like the audience to understand. Business people should ensure their strategies are unique in order to attract unique clients. People love service providers with unique adverts. Moving on, a digital marketing agency also analyzes the techniques used and gives recommendations on whether to use a strategy or not.

Essay On Health Care Cost

Health care cost has seen to increase gradually as years go by. This has been influenced by major factors such as political influence, emerging chronic diseases, new procedures that are coming up including the technologies being invented for treating illnesses, pricing of medicines and treatment is not regulated and when treating ailment their may arise repetition of tests or a patient gets over treated for a particular ailment. The cost of healthcare has increased due to chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes etc. The lifestyle people are living in this generation has led to the development of diseases that are expensive to treat or has led to there being over treatment in such for a cure of a particular ailment.

Columbia Hospital Marketing Strategy

Firstly, there is one campaign held in an effort to increase community awareness of the hospital’s broad spectrum of medical services and enhance the public’s perception of their excellent patient care. Columbia Hospital decided to create an integrated marketing campaign, a new tagline, new logo, compelling brand video, and promotional collateral

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Healthcare Marketing Essays (Examples)

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Health care marketing approach for.

edu). While this example just discusses one manner in which a given policy can empower a healthcare marketing strategy, social marketing is currently so engrained in our culture that its powers are truly widespread. Social marketing allows products and brands to have more flexible and sensitive pricing as their prices can be changed at any minutes and consumers alerted, given the instantaneous nature of social marketing. The same goes for service as well -- any changes or enhancements that are made to services can be alerted to the public immediately. Likewise, social marketing is a two-way process: it allows consumers to chat their thoughts, ideas and concerns to marketers, giving them immediate and constant feedback. Social marketing can impact large groups of people at once, as readily seen by campaigns used by the AHA or the FDA (Kotler et al., 2008). Social networking can also be a means of social marketing:….

Berkowitz, E. (2011). Essentials of Health Care Marketing. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett.

Brown, M. (1992). Healthcare Marketing Management. Gaithersburg: Apsen Publishers.

Hma, e. (n.d.). Stakeholders. Retrieved from Hma.eu:  http://www.hma.eu/fileadmin/dateien/HMA_joint/02-_HMA_Topics/02-HMA_Strategy_Paper/Index/Section_III_01_Stakeholders.pdf 

Kotler, P., Shalowitz, J., & Stevens, R. (2011). Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations: Building a Customer. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Healthcare Marketing

Healthcare Marketing The purpose of marketing is to identify the needs of consumers, determine the target markets as well as, applying products and services to serve these markets. Marketing also promotes such products and services within the market place (Pearson, 2003). The four Ps of marketing include; Product Products are goods and services that businesses provide for sale to their target market. Apart from physical product, there are some elements of products which are associated with products that customers may be attracted to such as the quality of the product, packages, brand name and many others. When a company such as a hospital developing a product, they consider various things such as the quality of the product, design, packaging and customer service. Place Marketers usually ensure that they put the right product at the right place within the right time. Place refers to the distribution channels the marketers use to get their products to….

Montana, P., & Charnov, B. ( 2004). Organizational Structures: Concepts And Formats. Management: A Streamlined Course for Students and Business People. (Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Business Review Series, 1993), pp. 155-169. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from  http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/405/Montana11.pdf 

Pearson, D. (2003). The 20 Ps of marketing: a complete guide to marketing strategy. New York: New.

Health Care Marketing, Sales Cycle Essential of Health Care Marketing, There is a continuous change in the healthcare industry hence the enormous laws and policies, fresh innovations and increased education on health consumers. The administrators should be in a position to shift their strategies with the aim of meeting the demand of the dynamic market. Sellers are in a position of choosing any approach in order to pursue the consumer market as well as business to business market. The most common method used in the segmentation process is to segment the market into two major groups. This is due to the different factors that influence the consumer to buy a certain commodities, some factors can also be used in segmenting customers. The most common methods are behavioral, demographic, geographic and psychological. Behavioral segmentation is based on the benefits that the customers may want in order for them to be satisfied and also how….

Eric N. Berkowitz, (2006). The Essentials of Health Care Marketing, 2nd ed. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved on June 24, 2014.  http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/ethnic.asp 

Juan Guillermo Tornoe, (2008) "Hispanic Marketing Basics: Segmentation of the Hispanic Market. Retrieved on June 24, 2014  http://learn.latpro.com/segmentation-of-the-hispanic-market/ .

Healthcare Strategy

Health Care A target market is defined as recognizable segments that make up the market, and the target market consists of the groups the organization wants to focus on (Swayne, Duncan & Ginter, 2008). There are a number of ways that a target market can be understood. The main breakdowns in health care are geography, demographics, payer and specialty (Gandolf, 2010). Geography is perhaps the simplest one. It reflects the service radius that the hospital wants to serve. In Emanuel's case, does it want to serve mainly Turlock, or does it consider its playing field to be broader. Is it competing for customers in the major towns in the area? In some respects, the other competitors in the market are defining for Emanuel what its geographic target market is, since they are winning customers away from Emanuel. Demographics reflects the ways of describing the people in your target market. The senior care home….

Dranove, D. & Satterwaite, M. (2000). The industrial organization of health care markets. Handbook of Health Economics. Vol. 1 (B) 1093-1139.

Gandolf, S. (2010).

How to define your target audience -- a critical health care marketing success factor. Health Care Success Strategies. Retrieved November 24, 2014 from  http://www.healthcaresuccess.com/blog/branding/define-target-audience.html 

McQueen, M. (2007). Health insurers target the individual market. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 24, 2014 from  http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB118765356072903507

Marketing and Branding a Healthcare-Related Product Marketing

Marketing and Branding a Healthcare-elated product Marketing and Branding Lipitor Target markets, branding, marketing strategy, execution and product positioning all directly contribute to the market share and profitability of a product. In the marketing and selling of healthcare related products, brands must communicate a viable and realistic solution t a patient's condition to be seen with credibility and trust (Angelmar, Angelmar, Kane, 2007). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the marketing strategies of Lipitor, a best-selling drug of Pfizer Corporation used for treating high cholesterol and its related heart disease effects. This drug generated $10.7B in the company's latest fiscal year according to their annual report and is also considered one of the top-selling drugs throughout the entire pharmaceutical industry. Beginning with an analysis of the Lipitor target market, and progressing through their branding strategies, analysis of product success and recommendations for future marketing strategies, this paper provides a framework….

Angelmar, R., Angelmar, S., & Kane, L.. (2007). Building strong condition brands. Journal of Medical Marketing: Special Issue New Paradigms in Life Sciences Marketing, 7(4), 341-351.

Iain Black. (2005). Pharmaceutical marketing strategy: Lessons from the medical literature. Journal of Medical Marketing, 5(2), 119-125,106.

Griffiths, S.. (2008). Pharmaceutical branding: 'To brand or not to brand'. Journal of Medical Marketing, 8(2), 113-118.

Krion, D., & Shockley, R.. (2011). How Pfizer Uses Tablet PCs and Click-Stream Data to Track Its Strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(1), 1.

Marketing in Healthcare Management Over

It was especially effective when evaluated for the specific demographic segmentation the organization was targeting. Young adult males were particularly inclined to watch the commercial, thanks to the buxom, bikini-clad beauty as the star. In addition, young adult females were more likely to relate to the star of commercial, more so than if they had cast a middle-aged housewife. Although these demographics were more likely to watch the commercial, such a small portion of the commercial was devoted to the actual message, it's difficult to determine the effectiveness on whether or not these viewers would take action, such as learning more about breast cancer or conducting monthly self breast exams, or other behaviors that would help with early detection of breast cancer, to ensure the likelihood of survival. egarding the seven Ps of marketing, the Save the Boobs campaign was more effective than originally anticipated regarding the place of the….

Aggarwal, V.B., & Gupta, V.S. 2001, Handbook of journalism and mass communication, Concept, New Delhi.

Anselmo, D. 2010, Marketing demystified a self-teaching guide,.McGraw-Hill, New York.

Assael, H. 2005, Consumer behavior and marketing action (3rd ed.), Kent Pub. Co., Boston.

Crane, F.G. 2001, Professional services marketing: strategy and tactics, Haworth Press, New York.

Healthcare and Marketing

Health Care Marketing Developing a pricing strategy for a clinic weight loss program Today there are very many people who are struggling with the issue of weight. So many people want a quick and easy solution of loosing weight. This has led to many companies coming up with several clinic weight loss programs. When introducing any new product or service into the market pricing can be quite a tricky issue. The prices charged can have a dramatic effect on ones sales and even the profits. There are several things that to be considered when developing a pricing strategy for a clinic weight loss program. The first thing is finding out what the market is saying. This is achieved through finding out what customers expect to pay for the program and if there are established market prices for the same service. The second thing to put into consideration are the competitors, the….

Health Care and Transparency Issues

Standardization and Priorities of Healthcare Organizations Introduction As Leotsakos et al. (2014) note, standardization of patient safety in healthcare organizations has not proceeded with a great deal of progress in recent years though monumental steps have been made to increase patient safety in the industry. For that reason the World Health Organization (2018) has made it a priority to address standardization by initiating the High 5s project “to facilitate the development, implementation and evaluation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) within to achieve measurable, significant and sustainable reductions in a number of challenging patient safety problems.” These developments are still needed and to improve safety, Gandalf and Merlino (n.d.) have discussed how transparency, healthcare reform, and critical issues such as market share play a role in the advancement of patient safety standardization in the industry. This paper will examine the points made by Gandalf and Merlino in their podcast “The State of Patient….

The 4Ps in Healthcare Marketing Concept

WEEK DISCUSSION POSTING 1Week 7 Discussion PostingAs Griffith and White (2019) indicate, to capture the breadth of the marketing concept, the 4Ps (i.e. product, place, price and promotion) could be used in various contexts. In seeking to implement the new Well-Baby Program, there are a number of queries that could be prompted by the 4 Ps. These have been highlighted below.a) Product1. What are some of the key issues or concerns that the new Well-Baby Program seeks to address?From an overall perspective, the Well-Baby Program seeks to improve the wellbeing of the entire community by first and foremost focusing on one specific demographic category. More specifically, the program seeks to optimize the health and wellbeing of young children by ensuring that all developmental milestones are met and that issues which could be a source of concern in the future are addressed.2. Are there programs that could be deemed similar to….

ReferencesGriffith, J.R. & White, K.R. (2019). The Well-Managed Healthcare Organization. American College of Health Care.

Health Care in the Wake on New

Health Care In the wake on new and very contentious health care reform, many firms have undergone extensive transformations. These transformations have been predicated on both cost control and quality management. In particular quality management has had a profound impact on the underlying business operations of many health care firms. For one, firms are now finding methods in which to enhance the overall patient experience while also mitigating potential loses due to negligent means. The focus on quality management has also made firms more efficient in regards to the overall delivery of service. In particular, my firm has done extensive work with reducing elderly accidents within the facility. This quality management initiative has not only reduced costs associated with accidents, but it also has enhanced the trust and patient experience of all stakeholders within the firm (Kelly, 2011). Identify the milestone you chose in the history of quality improvement in the first….

References:

1) Draper, Elaine, Joseph LaDou, and Dan J. Tennenhouse. 2011. "Occupational Health Nursing and the Quest for Professional Authority," New Solutions 21, 47 -- 81

2) Kohn, L.T., Corrigan, J.M., & Donaldson, M.S. (Eds). (2000). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

3) Kelly, D.L. (2011). Applying quality management in healthcare: A systems approach (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press

4) Lucia, Patricia R.; Otto, Tammy E.; Palmier, Patrick A. (2009). "Chapter 1

Health Care Staffing Agency

Health Staff the Allied health care staffing agency is a staffing agency that focuses on the niche of the nursing jobs within the healthcare industry in Chicago The Allied healthcare staffing agency works to recruit registered nurses belonging to all medical Specialties, Practical Nurses that are licensed also called LPNs, Nursing Assistants that are certified also called CNAs and Specialists from the allied health sciences. These professionals would be hired both from the area of the metro city as well as the suburbs and placed within the hospitals, the neighborhood medical centers, Adult care facilities, clinics, and rehabilitation centers. The mission of the Allied Healthcare Staffing Agency is to provide the best opportunities of employment both to its collaborators which are the local healthcare organizations as well as serving the entire nursing community to provide amply amount of job opportunities to choose from in a time when the turnover of medical professionals is….

Works Cited

Bureau, U.C. (2000). Census 2000 Demographic Profile Highlights:. chicago illinois, fact sheet .

commerce, U. d. (2010). bear facts, state illinois. bureau of economic analysis .

directory, a. h. (2010). free stats & national stats. Retrieved september 7, 2011, from american hospital directory: www.ahd.com

Lindberg, R.C. (1991). To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal. chicago: praeger publications.

Health Care in Marketing

Healthcare in Marketing (Lasik) Lasik's Methods in Other Health Care Organizations Customer profiling is a vastly unexplored marketing method in the health industry. While it has been used to target very specific markets, such as potential consumers of elective surgery, other markets have been largely neglected (arber 2001). The reasons for this are many, but mostly they include difficulties with medical data gathering, and legal issues regarding potential customer profiling. Despite the above-mentioned difficulties, there are several organizations that can and do benefit from customer profiling. One such entity is the pharmaceutical industry (Winterhalter 2002). Here the customer being profiled is normally the health care professional, rather than the patient. y gathering geo-demographic data as well as customer loyalty information from a group of health professionals, pharmaceutical companies can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their marketing practices. This will further benefit not only the professionals, but also the healthcare consumer, in that pharmaceutical….

Bibliography

Barber, F.A., R.K. Thomas, M. Huang. "Developing a profile of LASIK surgery customers." Marketing Health Services, Iss. 2, Vol 21. Chicago: Summer 2001.

Business Wire. "New Customer Wins Position Lawson as Dominant Enterprise E-business Solution Provider to Healthcare Industry." New Orleans, 2001.

Winterhalter, K. "Customer profiling in the healthcare industry." Weber Shandwick, 2002.  http://www.browna2.fsnet.co.uk/PMLive/doctor_who_frame.htm

Marketing in Health Care

Marketing in Healthcare Catholic Healthcare West Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving parts of Arizona, Nevada and the majority of California. With 42 hospitals it is the largest Catholic hospital system in this part of the United States. The organization focuses its services upon the poor, who cannot afford private hospital services. Regardless, the aim is also to provide high-quality healthcare to those in need. The target market is thus the poor in the western areas of the United States. Taking into account the size of Catholic Healthcare West, it should not be a problem to implement new services without a loss of either mission or customers. New services should however be implemented with the proper care to ensure that the focus remains as originally intended. The service management strategy of CHW has always been collaborative. y collaborating with other groups who share the vision and commitment to the poor….

Allen, G. "New Product Development." 1999

Catholic Healthcare West. 2003.  http://www.chwhealth.com/ 

Rice, T., B. Biles, E.R. Brown, F. Diderichsen & H. Kuehn. "Reconsidering the role of competition in health care markets." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Durham, Oct 2000

Marketing in Health Care Problems Faced by the Stroke Center Some of the problems faced by the Stroke Center are caused by lack of information and knowledge acquired by stroke patients and their families in the course of heart attacks, and the financial capability of the Stroke Center to build up more teams that can specialize in the administration of heart attack patients. The foremost problem of the Stroke Center is the limited knowledge of heart attack victims and their families in managing a heart attack event, especially knowledge on TPA and the immediate medical attention required by victims to be administered with TPA. Such lack of knowledge results to the victim missing the chances of overcoming the battle against the consequences of a stroke such as disability. It also results to a very low percentage rate of heart attack victims who get TPA treatment. Another problem the Stroke Center faces regarding lack of….

Borfitz, Deborah. Stroke Centers: Hospitals Seek Payoff with Quicker Care, Shorter Stays Resources Secondary to Education, Coordination, and a Can-Do Attitude.

Marketing for Stroke Centers.

Social Marketing and Franchising for Essential Health Care.

Naco.Nic.In. 13 June 2003. http://www.naco.nic.in/nacp/public.pdf

Health Care -- Strategic Planning and Marketing

Health Care -- Strategic Planning and Marketing Strategic planning and marketing often wed customer-oriented issues with broader issues of public health, morality and survival in a highly competitive market. Consequently, a key issue set forth by the American Hospital Association and an issue of strategic planning/marketing are often two sides of the same coin. This work addresses the customer-oriented issues of Diversity and Emergency Planning that are mirrored in two key issues advanced by the AHA. These two issues are articulated in the first part of this work and answered in the second part of this work. Customer-Oriented Strategic Plan Diversity American society is increasingly ethnically diverse due to immigration, relocation, birth rates and other factors. Consequently, a 250-bed community hospital must hone its sensitivity to resulting changes in community health needs. n addition, there is a high level of competition among hospitals that requires sensitive, targeted marketing to attract diverse groups. A very….

Issues or Opportunities

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities

As the American Hospital Association states, "Addressing disparities is no longer just about morality, ethics and social justice: It is essential for performance excellence and improved community health" (American Hospital Association, 2012). A multi-faceted approach to discerning, accommodating and marketing for diversity would certainly include the thoughtful collection and examination of diversity data to define target ethnic markets and specific steps tailored to those markets, as described in Noonan's and Savolaine's article. Studying obstetrical discharge data for ethnicity and outright asking physicians for specific information about the ethnicity of their patients is a sensible approach to determining the community's ethnic composition. In addition, the hospital zip code's CNI data for "five factors long known to contribute to health need - income, culture/language, education, housing status, and insurance coverage" (Anonymous, 2011) should be defined and collected. After that data is collected, it should be studied to define the community's major ethnic target groups. After determining the target groups, the hospital's services should be marketed directly

Business - Advertising

edu). While this example just discusses one manner in which a given policy can empower a healthcare marketing strategy, social marketing is currently so engrained in our culture that…

Healthcare Marketing The purpose of marketing is to identify the needs of consumers, determine the target markets as well as, applying products and services to serve these markets. Marketing…

Health Care Marketing, Sales Cycle Essential of Health Care Marketing, There is a continuous change in the healthcare industry hence the enormous laws and policies, fresh innovations and increased education…

Health Care A target market is defined as recognizable segments that make up the market, and the target market consists of the groups the organization wants to focus on (Swayne,…

Marketing and Branding a Healthcare-elated product Marketing and Branding Lipitor Target markets, branding, marketing strategy, execution and product positioning all directly contribute to the market share and profitability of a product.…

It was especially effective when evaluated for the specific demographic segmentation the organization was targeting. Young adult males were particularly inclined to watch the commercial, thanks to the…

Health Care Marketing Developing a pricing strategy for a clinic weight loss program Today there are very many people who are struggling with the issue of weight. So many people…

Standardization and Priorities of Healthcare Organizations Introduction As Leotsakos et al. (2014) note, standardization of patient safety in healthcare organizations has not proceeded with a great deal of progress in recent…

WEEK DISCUSSION POSTING 1Week 7 Discussion PostingAs Griffith and White (2019) indicate, to capture the breadth of the marketing concept, the 4Ps (i.e. product, place, price and promotion) could…

Health Care In the wake on new and very contentious health care reform, many firms have undergone extensive transformations. These transformations have been predicated on both cost control and quality…

Marketing Plan

Health Staff the Allied health care staffing agency is a staffing agency that focuses on the niche of the nursing jobs within the healthcare industry in Chicago The Allied healthcare staffing…

Healthcare in Marketing (Lasik) Lasik's Methods in Other Health Care Organizations Customer profiling is a vastly unexplored marketing method in the health industry. While it has been used to target very…

Marketing in Healthcare Catholic Healthcare West Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving parts of Arizona, Nevada and the majority of California. With 42 hospitals it is the…

Marketing in Health Care Problems Faced by the Stroke Center Some of the problems faced by the Stroke Center are caused by lack of information and knowledge acquired by stroke patients…

Health Care -- Strategic Planning and Marketing Strategic planning and marketing often wed customer-oriented issues with broader issues of public health, morality and survival in a highly competitive market. Consequently,…

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5 of the most effective creative ads in the health & pharma sector

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It’s an ever-growing category with huge potential for advertisers. Here, we outline the companies that are creating bold work and explain what makes their campaigns stand out.

From Essity’s Tena and Bodyform products pushing boundaries to Colgate’s purpose-driven work, we’re deep-diving into why these ads have resonated and how other brands can get inspired by their approach.

Essity: ‘Periodsomnia’ by AMV BBDO

Essity-owned Libresse and its creative ad agency AMV BBDO have been disrupting this category for the past decade . Beforehand, the period care category was a very different place, full of airbrushed, hairless bodies and a weird blue liquid that was meant to represent menstrual blood.

With their now iconic campaigns, such as ‘Bloodnormal,’ ‘Viva la Vulva’ and ‘Periodsomnia,’ however, this partnership has been shifting the narrative with its lack of sugarcoating.

Sales of feminine hygiene products are up 17% in the past year – having recruited new shoppers (up 6%), thanks in particular to strong sales of wipes and washes.

Essity: ‘Keep Control’ by AMV BBDO

Another spot from this stellar partnership and this time it’s for Tena. What this ad does brilliantly is convert a message around an extremely sensitive topic but with humor. This approach takes guts from the client as it is a very fine line to get comedy in ads right, especially within the health category.

The serious message comes across, the brand is noted, but viewers also leave with a smile on their faces.

According to Kantar’s in-depth analysis, in the UK alone sales of men’s incontinence products have grown significantly ahead of the market average (up 22% versus 13% overall).

Colgate ‘Smile Stories’ by WPP

This campaign by WPP showcases Colgate’s almost 30-year impact in South Africa and is a testament to the brand’s commitment to oral health and education. By aiding 23 million schoolchildren over the years, Colgate has not only promoted the importance of regularly brushing teeth but has also effectively communicated its brand purpose.

Nurofen: ‘Leave the Pain to Us’ by McCann London

This clever TV ad for Nurofen by McCann London uses color to amplify the brand. Kantar’s global knowledge manager, Polly Wyn Jones, says: “By leveraging the recognizable tones of yellow, orange and red from the brand’s logo, the assets are dramatically woven into the spot and become part of the story.”

Set against a white backdrop, the use of color makes the ad distinctive and memorable and reinforces every part of the brand from start to finish.

“In Britain, sales of kids’ pain relief have seen a 3% decline year-on-year due to comparison with an exceptionally strong performance in 2022 when sales grew 34%,” explains Matthew Maxwell, business unit director at Kantar’s Worldpanel Health and Beauty. “Winter illnesses drive a significant proportion of sales each year, so it’s important for brands to be visible during this time, but lower levels of illness this year resulted in lower demand for the category and the brands within it.”

Panadol: ‘Delivery Man’ by Grey Group Singapore

Throughout this spot, the branding is front and center and portrays what the product is used for. With each message that appears on the screen, the viewer’s eyes are always drawn back to the Panadol logo.

“There’s a great use of audio throughout the ad,” adds Wyn Jones. “With each ping of a message being received, the audience can empathize with the protagonist.”

View the winners and emerging trends from Kantar’s annual Creative Effectiveness Awards.

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Call for Papers | Community Engagement and Population Health From Practice to Evaluation

May 2, 2024

Announcement posted 4/11/24

Preventing Chronic Disease  (PCD) welcomes submissions for its upcoming collection,  “Community Engagement and Population Health From Practice to Evaluation.”  The burden of chronic disease continues to exact a tremendous impact on populations around the world. Health is shaped by many factors — psychological, physical, environmental, social, and economic — that cannot be improved by one or a few individuals, groups, and organizations. The complexity of what shapes health makes it important to establish and maintain community and the community’s engagement to increase supportive opportunities to improve health. Several terms and concepts over the years, such as community mobilization, community-based participatory research, and social engagement, have been used to describe the importance of different aspects of community engagement. Regardless of the terminology or concept, working collaboratively with communities to address factors affecting health is central to ameliorating persistent health challenges.

For this collection, PCD encourages submissions that reflect on how and where engagement has successfully occurred, including the populations engaged and geographical locations, types of partners involved, community engagement strategies used, and advances in measuring community engagement. PCD encourages the submission of manuscripts covering diverse topics using various article types. Please refer to the  Types of Articles  page on the journal’s website for specifications for each article type. PCD is seeking submissions on topics including but not limited to the following:

• Defining communities — what to do when community definitions and available data (eg, geography, race/ethnicity) do not align or are missing
• Editorials or essays on the evolution of community engagement: why it matters, theoretical underpinning, and application in diverse settings
• Community engagement in data, analytics, and machine learning for chronic disease prevention and control
• Factors that support and undermine effectiveness and impact of community health workers, champions, change agents, brokers, and/or navigators in community settings
• Community engagement and artificial intelligence — benefits and risks
• Social network analysis as an important tool for understanding communities, their structures, and strengths
• The role of going to and listening to communities
• Innovative examples of how groups have engaged communities to design, implement, and evaluate public health interventions
• Community and/or patient engagement to address health inequities
• Building and sustaining community trust and engagement
• System barriers and system solutions to community engagement
• Systematic reviews exploring the use and effectiveness of community engagement in public health interventions
• Methods and models of community engagement
• Tools and instruments to measure community engagement
• Measuring and evaluating community engagement efforts
• Long-term models and strategies that help sustain community engagement beyond funded project periods

Submission Guidelines Corresponding authors are required to  submit an inquiry  to the journal to determine suitability in advance of submitting a manuscript. PCD asks that only the corresponding author submit an inquiry to the journal for review. The corresponding author is the person who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the submission, peer-review, and publication process if the manuscript is accepted. The corresponding author’s inquiry should include the following information:

• Article title
• Name of the corresponding author
• Author name(s), degree(s), title(s), and affiliation(s)
• PCD article type (visit  https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/for_authors/types_of_articles.htm )
• Has the article ever been submitted elsewhere for consideration? If yes, please indicate the name of the journal, the date of that journal’s final decision, and an explanation of the decision
• Indicate that the inquiry is related to this Call for Papers
• Abstract (300 words or less)

The deadline to submit an inquiry is April 26, 2024.  Submit your inquiry to the Editor in Chief at [email protected] for consideration. PCD will provide feedback to the corresponding author about the journal’s interest in the proposed manuscript and guidance on what information is needed. The deadline to receive your final manuscript is September 16, 2024.  If your inquiry is approved, your final manuscript will undergo internal review and external peer review. Manuscripts accepted for publication will be published on a rolling basis. Articles will be assembled into a PDF collection accessible on the PCD website after all accepted papers have been published. Cover letters to the Editor in Chief are required and must state that the submission is for consideration in the PCD collection, “Community Engagement and Population Health From Practice to Evaluation.”

About the Journal PCD is a peer-reviewed public health journal published by CDC and authored by experts worldwide. PCD was established in 2004 by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion with a mission to promote dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers worldwide on the integration and application of research findings and practical experience to improve population health. PCD has a current Impact Factor of 5.5 (2022) and is ranked 21 st of 180 journals in  Journal Citation Reports  (JCR). For more information about the journal, please visit  https://www.cdc.gov/pcd .

The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors’ affiliated institutions.

Exit Notification / Disclaimer Policy

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
• Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
• You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
• CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.

How AI is helping South Florida’s Black and Latino residents manage their health

In 2001, Severence MacLaughlin was immersed in his work as a doctoral student researching computational biology. Many of his days were spent recording data using a mainframe computer that took up an entire room. One question continued to bug him.

“As I was coding the data, I wondered why businesses didn’t use data to make business decisions,” he said.

MacLaughlin, 45, is the founder of DeLorean Artificial Intelligence, a Palm Beach-based healthcare company that uses data from patients’ medical records to predict possible health outcomes before they escalate.

Founded in 2019, DeLorean works directly with doctors and healthcare companies and is currently used at 450 dialysis centers across the country. MacLaughlin believes DeLorean’s technology is 95% to 99% accurate at predicting infection and hospitalization rates.

The technology also examines where there are healthcare deserts so that companies can increase their number of practitioners to better serve communities — just one way AI is increasingly being used in healthcare to assist patients from marginalized backgrounds.

Weston-based doctor Yasser Rodriguez’s adoption of AI into his own treatment strategy started when he read a survey about the use of wearable devices in Black communities. Like MacLaughlin, Rodriguez, 40, agrees that access to healthcare is an issue for Latinos and Black Americans. Using AI via wearable technology can be a solution, he believes. Heart signal tests like electrocardiograms (EKG) that were previously only available via a hospital visit can now be pulled up on an Apple Watch .

“I have 80-something-year-old patients coming into the clinic with their Apple Watches and showing me their EKGs,” Rodriguez said. “Elderly patients are all about it. It’s really important as a provider to teach patients about it.”

Fort Lauderdale social worker Nicole Smith, 53, came to understand the value of app technology after she had a stress-related cardiac arrest in November while visiting her father in the emergency room. The incident left her in a coma for three and a half days.

To better monitor her health, Smith had a defibrillator implanted, and the Abbott ICD app now allows her to track her heart’s rhythms via her Galaxy smartphone.

Initially, she was skeptical about having a defibrillator, but she eventually came to see the device’s tracking potential as an advantage in being able to recognize a similar health issue if it happens again.

READ MORE: Virtual reality, facial recognition. How AI is reshaping healthcare in South Florida

Rodriguez said he considers the addition of AI through wearable tech a game changer, especially for Hispanics and Black Americans for whom socioeconomic barriers have historically made it difficult to access healthcare.

And the development of wearable technology in the last five years has impressed Rodriguez. Many wearables have long detected heart rate and pulse through sensors that use green light to measure things like blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately, for patients with darker skin pigments the green wavelength was not as precise , he said.

“It was known for years, and when COVID started in 2020, Apple changed up and designed a stronger sensor that compensates for that,” he said. “Fitbit also changed the intensity of the green wavelength.”

Nevertheless, wearable technology can be expensive for patients. To circumvent those costs, Rodriguez said devices like remote blood pressure monitors and medical-grade patches can be prescribed to patients, allowing them to transmit health data remotely to clinics. Other devices synchronize via Bluetooth with pacemakers and defibrillators, like the one Smith uses after her cardiac arrest.

As Smith adjusts to a new healthcare routine, she believes in the importance of other Black Americans getting regular checkups and seeing a doctor. Culturally, she’s noticed a stigma around Black people seeking healthcare that she hopes will change.

“If we’re not dying, we’re not going to the doctor,” she said. “We always have a home remedy or tend to gloss over stuff. Find a doctor you feel comfortable with. If you have a doctor not listening to you, find another one.”

Michael Butler

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Virtual reality, facial recognition. How AI is reshaping healthcare in South Florida

Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry Essay

The focus on a marketing strategy is important for any company which specializes in providing definite products or services because marketing is the key process not only to promote different products and services but also to contribute to the effective company’s performance and competition within the industry.

In spite of the fact that the main principles of marketing are appropriate to be used in different spheres, it is impossible to state that marketing in relation to the food production has no differences regarding health care marketing.

The view that the processes of marketing hotels or foods are the same regarding the processes typical for the health care marketing is rather naïve because there are many significant differences characteristic for marketing strategies used in various industries.

The differences which can be determined in relation to food production marketing and health care marketing are affected by the challenges of the health care industry. Marketing strategies operated in different industries depend not only on the characteristics of this or that industry but also on the specific demands of the customers or the company’s target audience (Berkowitz, 2010).

That is why, all the associated features and characteristics should be taken into account in order to state about differences in marketing processes. From this point, it is naively to apply the general principles of marketing to the health care industry without references to the specific features of the spheres and companies’ activities because health care marketing is the unique filed which requires the distinctive approach.

Nevertheless, health care marketing is similar to marketing other products or services in relation to relying on the basic marketing principles. Thus, marketers in the health care industry also develop their plans basing on the correlation of such parameters as product, price, promotion, and place (Berkowitz, 2010). Moreover, the process of working out a marketing plan depends on the dynamic development of the industry without references to its particular features.

Health care marketing strategies as strategies used in any other industry can be discussed as oriented to effective competition within the industry, successful use of different advertisements, attracting customers, and improving the brand recognition and reputation. Moreover, many organizations in the health care industry as well as in any other sphere can be described as market-oriented because of the focus on the effective promotion and increased sales.

However, health care marketing is also characterized by a lot of differences while comparing its approaches, techniques, and key points with the principles significant for developing the marketing strategies within the other industries. To begin with, the target market is important for the health care industry without referring to the specific groups of consumers.

Secondly, while referring to customers of the health care industry, it is important to pay attention to the changes in the populations and their demographics as well as to the people’s changing demands and interests in the health care products and services. Health challenges typical for different groups of population are various, and marketers working within the health care industry should respond to different categories of the population and their needs separately (Berkowitz, 2010).

The challenges of the health care industry influence the specifics of the used marketing strategies, thus, any changes in the government health care policies such as revisions of the drug prescription policies or new insurance laws can affect the changes in the marketing environment.

Thus, although health care marketing is based on the general marketing principles, there are many differences in the approaches which should be taken into consideration by marketers.

Berkowitz, E. (2010). Essentials of health care marketing . USA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, January 30). Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry. https://ivypanda.com/essays/healthcare-marketing-2/

"Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry." IvyPanda , 30 Jan. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/healthcare-marketing-2/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry'. 30 January.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry." January 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/healthcare-marketing-2/.

1. IvyPanda . "Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry." January 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/healthcare-marketing-2/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Healthcare Marketing: The Effective Company’s Performance and Competition Within the Industry." January 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/healthcare-marketing-2/.

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1 in 5 milk samples from grocery stores test positive for bird flu. Why the FDA says it’s still safe to drink

Experts explain the limits of qpcr testing and how to protect yourself from the h5n1 virus.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk taken from grocery store shelves had tested positive for bird flu , also known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or H5N1 . On Thursday, the agency announced that one in five milk samples nationwide showed genetic traces of the virus. Milk samples from areas with infected herds were more likely to test positive.

The FDA used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing to check the milk.

Although the findings are concerning, it doesn’t necessarily mean the milk contains a live virus that could cause an infection, explained Nam Tran , a professor and senior director of clinical pathology at UC Davis Health.

“With qPCR tests, the genetic material, not necessarily the whole active or infectious virus, is what is detected. In the case of food, the genetic material, the RNA found in the grocery store milk samples, may not be the infectious H5N1 virus, but fragments from it,” Tran said.

Beate Crossley , a professor of clinical diagnostic virology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine , agreed. “The PCR tests target the genetic material of a virus. The finding of genetic material does not give any information about the viability status of the virus,” Crossley said. “Or put another way, PCR can detect dead and live viruses.”

We have been working closely with the Division of Infectious Diseases on H5N1 preparations since before the COVID-19 pandemic. If there are any suspected cases of bird flu in humans, UC Davis Health has the tests ready." — Nam Tran, senior director of clinical pathology

Pasteurization kills pathogens

Based on currently available information, the FDA says commercial milk is safe.

Commercially available milk is pasteurized, a process that kills harmful bacteria and viruses by heating milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time. The FDA noted the viral particles detected by highly sensitive qPCR tests were likely to have been remnants of viruses killed during the pasteurization process.

“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the agency said.

To determine if any active, infectious virus remain in the milk samples, the FDA will perform egg inoculation tests, considered the gold standard for determining viability.

“With these tests, they inject the sample into the egg to see if the virus replicates or not,” Tran said.

While this provides the most sensitive results, it takes longer to complete than other methods.

“Virus isolation propagates viruses, and needs a live virus particle to start with,” Crossley said. “A virus isolation positive result of a sample would indicate a live, infectious virus is present in the sample.”

The FDA said the results from multiple studies will be available in the next few days to weeks.

Spread to dairy cattle detected in March

Bird flu is very contagious and often fatal in bird populations. It was first detected in dairy cattle in the U.S. in March. To date, 33 outbreaks of bird flu have been confirmed in dairy cattle in eight states. Since the outbreak, the FDA has been evaluating milk from affected animals, the processing system and grocery store shelves.

On Wednesday, the USDA ordered mandatory bird flu testing for any cattle transferred between states. No bird flu has been detected in California’s estimated 1.7 million dairy cows .

Two human cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the risk to the general public to be low.

Dean Blumberg is the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health . “Bird flu rarely spreads person-to-person. It is more commonly spread from animal to human,” Blumberg said. “There has been no evidence of sustained human-to-human spread, although there is always a chance the virus may evolve to transmit among humans more easily.”

Some groups of people with job-related or recreational exposures to birds or other infected animals are at greater risk of infection. They should take appropriate precautions to protect against bird flu.

Regarding the safety of milk, Blumberg notes the primary risk would be from raw milk. “Pasteurization results in a greater than 99.9999% reduction in infectious virus in contaminated milk, likely eliminating transmission, but there may be a risk of transmission if unpasteurized milk from an infected animal is ingested.”

According to the CDC, symptoms of bird flu in humans range from mild, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye), and flu-like upper respiratory symptoms, to severe, such as high fever and pneumonia requiring hospitalization. A full list of bird flu symptoms in humans is available here .

Humans infected with bird flu can be effectively treated with the antiviral oseltamivir (Tamiflu) according to Blumberg.

Although the jump into cattle is recent, bird flu has been on Tran’s radar for years. The first human cases were reported in China in 2020.

“We have been working closely with the Division of Infectious Diseases on H5N1 preparations since before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tran said. “If there are any suspected cases of bird flu in humans, UC Davis Health has the tests ready.”

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Reproductive rights in America

What abortion politics has to do with new rights for pregnant workers.

Selena Simmons-Duffin

Employers are required to make accommodations for pregnant women and new moms like time off for doctor's appointments. Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images hide caption

Employers are required to make accommodations for pregnant women and new moms like time off for doctor's appointments.

This week, attorneys general from 17 Republican-led states sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over something they say is an "abortion accommodation mandate."

Here are four things to know about the latest battle in the war over abortion between Republican-led states and the Biden administration.

1. The law in question is about protections for pregnant workers.

First, a little background: In 2015, a survey found that nearly 1 in 4 women went back to work just two weeks after giving birth.

It took about ten years for a bill protecting pregnant workers to get through Congress, and in 2022, not long after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed with bipartisan support. The law requires employers with at least 15 employees to accommodate workers who are pregnant with things like extra bathroom breaks, time off for prenatal appointments, a chair for sitting during a shift. It also says employers have to accommodate workers after they give birth.

Even though lawmakers from both parties think pregnancy protections are a good thing, abortion politics have overshadowed the news of those new rights. It all comes down to one line in the law and the word "abortion" in the regulation.

The law says employers should make "reasonable accommodations" for pregnant workers during and after "pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions." The new rule EEOC put out to implement the law includes abortion in a lengthy list of "related medical conditions," along with everything from ectopic pregnancy to anxiety to varicose veins.

2. Abortion entered the chat and about 100,000 people chimed in on the regulations.

Political and religious groups that oppose abortion rights took notice of the inclusion of "abortion" in the list of related medical conditions, as did the lead Republican co-sponsor of the law , Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Some 54,000 people commented on the proposed rule objecting to the inclusion of abortion, according to the EEOC's analysis in the final rule, while 40,000 people commented in support of abortion's inclusion. (The agency noted that most of these were nearly identical "form comments" driven by advocacy groups).

In the end, "abortion" remained on the list. In its analysis, the agency explained that abortion's inclusion is consistent with longstanding interpretation of civil rights laws and courts' rulings. In the final rule, the EEOC says the law "does not require any employee to have – or not to have – an abortion, does not require taxpayers to pay for any abortions, and does not compel health care providers to provide any abortions." The rule also notes that unpaid time off for appointments is the most likely accommodation that would be sought by workers having abortions.

3. The lawsuit + the politics of the lawsuit

Within days of the rule being published in the Federal Register , a coalition of 17 Republican-led states filed suit. "The implications of mandating abortion accommodations are immense: covered employers would be required to support and devote resources, including by providing extra leave time, to assist employees' decision to terminate fetal life," the lawsuit reads .

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in federal court in Eastern Arkansas. The plaintiffs ask the court to put a hold on the effective date of the final rule pending judicial review, and to temporarily block the enforcement of – and ultimately vacate – the rule's "abortion-accommodation mandate."

Arkansas and Tennessee are the two states leading the lawsuit. In a statement , Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said: "This is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to force through administrative fiat what it cannot get passed through Congress."

Griffin said the rule is a "radical interpretation" of the new pregnancy protection law that would leave employers subject to federal lawsuits if they don't give employees time off for abortions, even if abortions are illegal in those states. "The PWFA was meant to protect pregnancies, not end them," he said.

Women's advocates see the politics of the lawsuit as well. "It's no coincidence that this organized, partisan effort is occurring in states that have some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country," Jocelyn Frye of the National Partnership for Women & Families wrote in a statement . "Any attempt to dismantle these protections will have serious consequences for women's health, working families, and the ability for women to thrive in the workplace."

Greer Donley is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who submitted a comment on the proposed regulation defending the inclusion of abortion. She points out that this is the latest in a string of legal challenges from anti-abortion groups fighting the Biden administration's efforts to protect abortion using federal agencies.

"You can really see this in a suite of [abortion] lawsuits – including the two that were heard in the Supreme Court this term, one involving the FDA's regulation of mifepristone and one involving the Biden administration's interpretation of EMTALA ," she observes, and guesses a legal challenge will also come in response to the newly announced privacy protections for patients who've had abortions. "You have a Supreme Court that is overwhelmingly anti-abortion and overwhelmingly anti-administrative state – those two things in tandem are not a good thing for the Biden administration."

4. In the meantime, pregnant workers have new rights.

At the moment, until a judge says otherwise, the new protections for pregnant workers are already in effect. The EEOC has a guide for pregnant workers about their new rights under the law and how to file charges against their employers. It's also holding trainings for human resource professionals on how to comply with the law.

Complaints have already started to roll in. In a statement to NPR, EEOC spokesperson Victor Chen wrote that in the first three months that the law was in effect, the agency received nearly 200 charges alleging a violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which works out to nearly two a day.

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