The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
By Judy Habib, President and CEO, KHJ Brand Activation
Marketing (yawn)…who cares?
Okay, now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Judy Habib, President and CEO of KHJ Brand Activation. After two decades of helping people and organizations see and realize what’s possible for themselves and the world around them, I figure I’ve earned enough stripes to come out, if you will, about what really matters. And trust me, it’s not marketing.
Human resources service provider Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NSDQ:ADP) jumped into the healthcare information technology market with the acquisition of AdvancedMD.
Salt Lake City-based AdvancedMD is a 200-employee company that provides cloud-based practice management and electronic medical record products. Its services are currently used by about 4,100 practices, according to ADP.
Recently I heard an interview with Dr. Frank Veith, vascular surgeon, medical pioneer, author, lecturer and founder of the famed VEITHsymposium for Vascular & Endovascular Issues, Techniques and Horizons. “VEITH,” as it is fondly known, is an annual meeting of vascular and interventional specialists now in its fourth decade. I confess that my initial reaction years ago upon hearing of a surgeon who named a symposium after himself (acronym notwithstanding) was that he must have a pretty big ego. The interview I heard recently taught me otherwise, and I learned once again what I too often forget: Never assume.
First, a true confession: I have two kids … and absolutely no idea when their yearly check-ups are. Originally, they were the same months as their birthdays, January and November. Simple, right? Not so much, since you can’t schedule next year’s appointment at this year’s appointment.
"It doesn’t work that way," our pediatrician’s office told me. "Call us four months in advance." With no reminder, I forgot … until January rolled around. Before I knew it, the January appointment was in May. November moved to February. I forgot a few more times. You get the gist.
Last fall, Boston’s Museum of Science featured its newest K’Nex exhibit, "K’Nex: Building Thrill Rides." If you’ve never heard of it, K’Nex is a construction toy using rods and connectors. It’s similar to Lego, but with gears and other moving parts that make it possible to create elaborate gizmos such as giant Ferris wheels.
This month, two seemingly disparate events converged: the Archives of Surgery released a special report on suicidal thought rates among surgeons, and I began reading Better, the 2008 book by Atul Gawande, a general surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, bestselling author and writer for The New Yorker.
The Archives special report shared the disturbing news that surgeons have suicidal thoughts more than twice as often as the general population. Gawande’s book, which is subtitled A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, adds insight to why this might be so.
Every year, amid the usual blizzard of Christmas ads, I always remember the one for J&B Scotch. Created by the agency Grace & Rothschild more than two decades ago, it featured a nonsensical headline: "ingle ells, ingle ells." Copy at the bottom of the ad: "The Holidays aren’t the same without J&B."
Last week, one of my heroes, Paul Farmer, received an extraordinary distinction from Harvard University. Farmer, the Harvard physician-anthropologist whose medical-crusading work in Haiti, Peru and Russia was profiled by author Tracy Kidder in the 2003 bestseller “Mountains Beyond Mountains“, was appointed to a university professorship. Only 23 of Harvard’s 12,000 faculty members hold university professorships, the school’s highest professorial distinction.
Talk about innovation. I took my son, Danny, and his friend, David — both diehard car aficionados — to the New England Auto Show last weekend, and there they were: the Aston Martins, the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, the Maseratis … along with the usual complement of German, American, Swedish and Japanese brands. Top gear all the way.
Suddenly, they’re everywhere. On print ads. On direct mailers. On posters. I’m talking about those crazy-looking markers that resemble barcodes, only on steroids. They’re called QR codes (quick response codes), and they’re giving new life to a marketing medium once pronounced dead.
Created in Japan, where they’ve been popular for years (who knew?), QR codes enable you to make print-based marketing materials interactive. How does it work? Using a smartphone, you take a snapshot of the QR code, or tag, which has been encoded with specific information. You’re then linked to an online experience such as a Website where you can get more information, or a digital destination that goes way beyond the URL.
I gave presentations on both U.S. coasts this week, and if my experience is any indication, measuring marketing results is top of mind as this economically troubling year draws to a close.
