Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Raise Awareness Of Gov't Clinician Guides?

Posted by Anonymous on 11/4/2008 at 4:42 PM ET 1000 Points
A well-known and respected US Government agency has a program which distills the findings from high-quality research into short, comprehensive Summary Guides for clinicians. The guides provide reliable and practical data that can inform, but do not attempt to influence, physician therapy decisions. To date, nine guides have been produced, ranging in subject areas from comparing oral medications for adults with type 2 diabetes to off-Label use of atypical antipsychotic drugs. The guides are available, without charge, in print, pdf, html, and .mp3. Each is approximately four pages long.

Recently, clinicians involved in family/ general practice were asked if they are aware of these resources. They are not. When contacted by telephone and shown the guides over the Internet, they expressed approval of their content and design, and interest in receiving them.

The agency has a small (less than $150,000) marketing budget available to promote awareness of these materials.

How would you raise awareness of this government agency's comparative effectiveness summary guides for clinicians
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 11/4/2008 at 5:20 PM Author
    Thanks for your response, Phil.

    We could work with the state departments of health, the regulatory boards, and/or the state medical societies to get the lists pro bono or at a discount.

    Not sure if we could afford one direct mail piece to all clinicians, but we could target certain states with high levels of the conditions for we have information. Do you think the cost of one direct mail piece would justify the impact? I'm on the fence on this, and all ears (eyes) for opinions.

    Yep, the agency is in the catalog, and has their own information center as well. Those have generated fewer than 100 booklets ordered in a year. (Remember, these are free.)

    Again, thanks, and keep the ideas flowing. I appreciate the input.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/4/2008 at 6:33 PM Accepted
    Target medical schools and their students. It would seem that the formats/content would be quite useful, and students naturally interact with a large number of other physicians.
  • Posted by darcy.moen on 11/4/2008 at 8:45 PM Accepted
    I know doctors are busy, but they do appreciate information that will save them time, un-neccessary prescriptions, and provide better care for their patients.

    If you can source lists of the doctors, why not obtain the permission of these doctors to email them these reports, or fax copies who would rather have a faxed version. This way they can review the reports at their leisure.
  • Posted on 11/5/2008 at 7:41 AM Author
    Great idea, Jay. How do I get to medical schools? Deans? Directors? Faculty directly?
  • Posted on 11/5/2008 at 7:46 AM Author
    Thanks, Darcy!

    Appreciate your balanced perspective.

    Great idea about bringing the lists in-house through a permission request campaign.

    Keep the ideas coming!
  • Posted by Mikee on 11/5/2008 at 11:11 AM Accepted
    Have you made any in roads to organizations like the AMA. Perhaps you will be able to distribute information to them.

    Are these materials available on a website? What have you done to make sure that this is getting proper search engine recognition? In this day and age people start at the internet when looking for information. You have to make sure you can be found on the web.

    Mike
  • Posted on 11/6/2008 at 8:25 AM Author
    Thanks, Mikee, for your response. AMA has been uncommunicative, much to my disappointment. Other organizations, however, have been very helpful. We're putting together an advocates package with drop-in articles, email templates, buttons and banners, and ideas for co-op promotion.

    The program is #1 on Google, but buried in the specific therapy and disease keywords. Unfortunately, we don't have access to optimize the source code. (government agency). However, you are right, and we should at least put a memo on record as to what can be done to optimize the specific pages in question.
  • Posted by tADman on 11/6/2008 at 5:51 PM Accepted
    I have a great solution for directly reaching doctors and PA's relating to the particular subject matters across the US. It is something I have been working on with a friend that has the source to reach these folks. I'm open to share the idea directy as it could benefit both - but hesitate to publish it on this forum as it might pre-empt the program I am working on.

    Feel free to contact me (information on my profile page) and we can discuss. It is a direct link to doctors with the opportunity for direct distribution based on the subject matter or even general practicioners. your call who and how many to reach. It is not a scam, would have parameters applied for accountability and is measurable in the end.

    Best of luck and reach out to me if you want to discuss further.

    tad
  • Posted on 11/6/2008 at 6:40 PM Accepted
    Working with Docs, I would recommend doing a direct mail to their office managers. They serve as the gatekeeper and if you can somehow make them feel like they will save money and provide better services, they'll make sure the Docs see them (or better yet - they might go ahead and place the order and then make sure the Docs know they are available for their patients.)

    You might also consider using public health departments which I think are in every county. Maybe they can be your "in" to the Doc's offices.

    Good Luck!

    CVN
  • Posted on 11/7/2008 at 10:37 AM Author
    Thank you all for generously taking the time to give suggestions.

    I may repost this question in a different section next week, but I wanted to make sure the responders in this section know how much I appreciate their input and get the benefit of the point values offered.

    Regards,

    Win
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