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Mar 04 2014

Kate Schafer’s HIPAA programming guide for mhealth engineers

Most of us are familiar with HIPAA, the law that requires healthcare providers, insurance companies, health plans, etc., aka covered entities (CEs), to protect the privacy of patients’ health information. The law has been around since 1996.  But last year the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made sweeping changes to HIPAA.

Under the Final Omnibus Rule, a new set of provisions have been laid out that strengthen the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Enforcement rules for protecting patient health information. Some of the updated HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to business associates (BAs), the companies that provide services to CEs, which typically involves handling patient information.

Previously a BA was only required to sign an agreement assuring that it would safeguard patient health information on behalf of a CE.  But as of September 2013, both CEs and BAs became liable under the Omnibus Rule and are now subject to HIPAA audits which are about to ramp up.  And the definition of BA has expanded to include organizations that merely store or transmit patient data, even if they don’t touch it. CEs and BAs in violation of patient privacy rules could face stiff penalties.

Meet Kate Schafer, founder of Innovative Healthcare IT.  I met Kate at a recent Health 2.0 Silicon Valley Meetup.  A room full of developers looked at the latest batch of mobile health apps designed to help us lead healthier lives.  That’s the good news.  But if they’re getting their hands on patient information and not following HIPAA rules in the process they may be shut down before they say “click on our icon.”

That’s where Kate comes in.  She brings startups the trifecta of security technology, product development, and regulatory compliance with a focus on HIPAA, and advises them on building security and encryption layers into their platforms.  I asked Kate to tell me what she does and why healthcare startups should care.

Tell me about your work and the services you provide to startups?

I have a long and varied background in technology and product development, combined with regulatory compliance and a focus on HIPPA.  It’s that technical foundation that really resonates with potential clients and convinces them to work with me.  There are numerous audit firms that can do what I do – most coming from the financial industry – but they don’t really provide healthcare startup support. I offer a “let’s roll up our sleeves and get it done” service where I work together with each client to craft a compliance strategy that works for their staff and for their budget.  I can help healthcare startups get from prototype to industrial strength and scalable, and I make myself available for ad hoc questions any time a former client needs advice.

Companies come to me at various stages. A lot of my clients are just starting their first pilot.  The product may have been developed offshore and they’re trying to bring it in-house.  Or they may have just signed up a healthcare provider or a hospital for a pilot of the product, and their customer is asking for assurance of HIPAA compliance.

By law, healthcare providers must ensure that anyone who handles protected health information on their behalf (a business associate) complies with HIPAA before sharing any patient data with them, so non-compliance is a deal-breaker for these startups.  That’s when they call me.

 

What is the primary sector of healthcare that your startup clients are creating solutions for?

There’s a range, but most recently the startups I’m seeing have a focus on the communications between providers and patients, particularly pre-op and post-op or at some other transition of care.  For example, apps that focus on maintaining communications during recovery from surgery.  The patient will go home with information they can access from their smartphone or tablet.  These apps enable two-way communication, with metrics on rehab going back to the healthcare provider.  Secure telemedicine enables real time feedback.  Surveys and questionnaires provide feedback on the patient’s experience and can be fed into the product enhancement loop.

I’ve also got clients doing research and analytics on population health data and clients using mobile devices for healthcare decision-making.  Those apps often also need to be FDA compliant.  I also have clients from the VC community who are looking for an assessment of the security and/or compliance risk profile of a startup they’re considering investing in.

I don’t work with a lot of “quantified health” firms.  Often people assume that quantified self apps (where an individual chooses to store their protected health information on their smartphone, for example) need to be HIPAA compliant but that is not the case.  Healthcare providers must comply with HIPAA; individuals may do whatever they want with their personal health information.  For some of these applications the patient is collecting information they might give to their doctor.  But the doctors don’t always know what to do with it, may not trust it, or may not want it because they just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it.  This has created a new market for companies that can solve this problem with data aggregators and other solutions.

At what stage do healthcare startups typically bring you in for consulting?

When the startup is ready to recruit beta testers and pilot sites that’s where I come in.  At that point if they haven’t already thought about security and HIPAA compliance, they are behind the 8-ball.  At that point I can provide a range of services from a simple assessment of compliance gaps to a full remediation project that gets the startup fully compliant.  I interview all the stakeholders and we talk about the big picture. I look at the technology stack, which refers to everything from the hardware up – all hardware and software components.

I look at all the security layers and identify where they could do better.  On top of the pure security aspect, HIPAA requires documented policies that describe how each HIPAA requirement has been met. Most startups are far from having the volume of documentation required to meet HIPAA compliance.

What are the biggest challenges or obstacles facing your startup clients?

They are resource constrained and tend to focus on product development and getting pilots lined up, rather than security.  They don’t have people on staff who understand compliance, so it gets handed off to somebody who’s already got a full plate.  Getting compliant is a big job, and staying compliant is a lot of ongoing work. Without dedicated resources and support from the top, it’s a real challenge.

How do you see the gap between your clients’ innovative technology and adoption by providers and payers (if they’re targeting insurance companies too)?

There are different challenges.  If you’re developing a product for use in hospitals it can be an uphill battle, particularly if the product needs to integrate with the hospital’s EHR.  Hospital IT teams are necessarily risk averse and often not up to date on cutting edge technologies.  They’re not entrepreneurial, so there can be a culture conflict.  But it’s not rocket science to integrate with an EHR.  I would say the challenges in working with hospitals are more bureaucratic than they are technical.

Working with clinics and smaller practices has its own challenges.  These folks have tight budgets and no cushion. If your product doesn’t save time – or worse, takes time – it will be a tough sell.  If implementation takes time away from providing care, it’s costing the practice money. Your product may improve care but if it makes a simple clinical step complicated and time-consuming it’s going to be a tough decision for them to adopt it.  It’s very hard to justify a product that may provide huge long-term benefits if it cuts into today’s bottom line.

Image:  Kate Schafer – provided by Kate Schafer

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical Device PR, Medical PR, Other, Uncategorized · Tagged: applications, BAs, CEs, compliance, health, healthcare, HIPAA, hospital, innovation, mobile, start up, startup

Feb 25 2014

New approach to low cost simulation, e-learning style: meet SIMTICS Founder John Windsor

Professor John Windsor chose to specialize in pancreatic surgery because he saw this vital and difficult-to-reach organ as “the last frontier of general surgery, with huge challenges and still much to learn.” This gives you an idea of Windsor’s curiosity and drive — two qualities that led him to found SIMTICS.

SIMTICS is an innovative e-learning company that uses online simulation technology to train students in medical procedures. Windsor, who is Professor of Surgery at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, knew that you can’t teach practical procedures in a classroom and in the hospital.  With the random presentation of patients it is not possible to plan systematic training.  What is more, patients are less happy to be trained on.  A new approach was needed and Windsor set out, with his colleagues, to develop a new way to train large numbers, even in remote areas, through low cost, high tech web-based simulation.

Windsor was inspired by the success of flight simulation for effectively training people in the high-risk aviation industry. In a similar way SIMTICS is using web technology to train for performing complex procedures while reducing risks to patients. Students can learn at their own pace from anywhere and are no longer as reliant on the availability of suitable patients and teachers.

Windsor joined me for an enlightening Q&A on his perspectives on education and innovation; how e-learning is revolutionizing medical training; and his motivations, concepts and experiences behind SIMTICS.

What has influenced your approach to medical procedure training?

An important influence was homeschooling our five children until they were teenagers which taught my wife and I a lot about learning. We learned about differential readiness and different learning styles. We learned about how periods, classes, assigned topics, and homework and didactics are barriers to learning. A child who is learning will keep running with something they are interested in.  They’ll be more spontaneous because they enjoy their learning.  To force a kid to take a step they’re not ready for will turn them off.  In homeschooling the learning is self-paced.  That allows a child to stay on task and keep mining that opportunity for as long as they like.  The success of homeschooling, which was a radical departure from traditional education, gave me courage to try something new with teaching in medical school.

Another important input for me was being involved from the very beginning of the laparoscopic revolution. This was a game changer. For the first time we had digital images of entire procedures, but we also had a whole surgical workforce deficient in essential new skills for the new technique. My return to New Zealand in 1991 meant that I had the opportunity to develop and build a skills training and simulation center–the first in Australasia. But ultimately this too influenced me because of the increasing cost of providing skills and procedural training by short courses and refresher courses.  Without huge subsidies it is difficult to provide a sustainable training program through dedicated skills centers with expensive hardware-based virtual reality simulators and there is the problem of ‘tutor fatigue.’  Taking people out of the work force for training also reduces service output.

So I have a lot of experience in the development, delivery and assessment of short courses to teach clinical skills and procedures.  I learnt about how technology often drove courses, how courses needed to be repeated to address knowledge decay, how courses take people out of the work place and how expensive they are.  I also learnt through my international travel and teaching about education faddism.  Every self-respecting institution wanted their own multi-million dollar skills laboratory even before there was evidence for the reliability, validity and cost-benefits of simulation training. We still do not know if patients do better (the final and most important outcome variable) because of the new ways we teach.

 

How does the e-learning model fit with medical education?

Our education and frameworks are still last century.  The learning space, the learning journey is more complex than it used to be. With the Internet, we should be designing things that are simpler and much more efficient. I don’t think we’ve been radical enough in thinking how learning might be.

We are moving into the age of personalized medicine and I think this needs to be matched with personalized learning. There are some extremely exciting developments in education theory and practice, which are often overshadowed by educational technology. Further, the use of the web as a platform for the delivery of education in healthcare is in its infancy. As such e-learning has tended to be an add-on to existing frameworks and pedagogy, and has not been used to re-invent the learning paradigm.

The biggest challenge of e-learning is getting past the limited mindset and current approach (limited to words and images) to incorporate interaction, simulation, decision-making, assessment and feedback.   These are all possible. We should be supporting more personalized learning off-campus, so that teacher face-time can focus on higher-value activities, and in particular identify specific training needs through e-learning. That has been one of our goals at SIMTICS.

What motivated you to change the medical education delivery model?

The frustration of learning how to do clinical procedures and operations was apparent from the beginning of my training.  Learning is reliant on the random admission of cases. It might be months before one saw a second similar case to practice what she had learnt the first time around. Not ideal for reinforcing learning. Further it is difficult to integrate all the inputs, which come at different times from past experience, experts, books, videos, conferences.  To bring all learning media together on one learning platform was our goal.

So we started brainstorming about how procedural skills might be learnt in a cost-effective, individualized, durable, and accessible way that integrates and extends existing curricula and takes advantage of the internet and the cloud.  The need drove a vision.

How did these experiences all add up to the formation of SIMTICS?

There were three of us at the beginning: a frustrated South African surgeon who was compelled to re-sit his surgical exams in New Zealand, a pediatrician who was a computer and IT expert, and there was me as surgical educator. It was the surgeon who suggested that it would be nice to bring all the learning materials together in one place to facilitate learning.  It was the pediatrician who convinced us it could be done in an integrated and educationally sound way.  So we sketched out, on a napkin, the computer interface that brought the core media elements together.

The surgeon missed his exam, the pediatrician retired and I was left standing, but not before we made some real progress with the concept. We did enough to win a national award and were offered a two-year residency in the IceHouse business incubator. This gave us the opportunity to build a business around the idea.

Why is cognitive simulation the cornerstone of SIMTICS technology?

Cognitive simulation is a point of difference for us, as it emphasizes that much of procedural learning is a mental process. And that much learning can take place before actually doing the procedure. There is an excellent study which demonstrates that mental rehearsal is just as effective as repeated practical courses for maintaining procedural skills, which emphasizes the importance of the cognitive element of procedural learning.

The SIMTICS integrated cognitive simulator allows the student to read the steps of the procedure and understand the basis for it, to watch an expert perform it, to interact with the anatomy relevant to the procedure, and then to do the procedure, with visual clues.  The latter guided learning can be turned off and the procedure repeated as an assessment.  This can all take place before the procedure is done in a patient.  The procedure might be putting in a urinary catheter or a chest drain, performing a lumbar puncture or suturing a wound.  And the learning experience can ensure that the right thing is done at the right time and in the right way to ensure a safe and efficient outcome for the patient.  The learner gains confidence with competence.

The simulation component is special because of its simplicity.  Rather than breaking the bank with a fully interactive state of the art gaming technology, we realized that this is not required for learning.  When a complex procedure is deconstructed and the steps taught in sequence, it is possible to capture these sequences.  The can be used as ‘pre-rendered’ sequences which play out when the right decision is made, or not if the decision making is wrong.

SIMTICS was the result of identifying an urgent need and creating an innovative solution.  What does it take to become an innovative thinker?  Is it within everyone’s grasp?

Innovation starts with an idea, and is usually fueled by a need.  Being aware of needs and being skeptical about common solutions is important.  The reality is that truly original ideas are rare, like the splitting of the atom to release nuclear energy.  Most innovations come from new applications of existing ideas, a sort of cross pollination.  An example of this is the innovation of putting a light weight power generator in a soccer ball so that kids playing football in the dusty village square can provide electricity for lighting or the water pump for the family. The power generator technology is not new, but the application is innovative.  I think we have done this at SIMTICS by bringing together ideas in education and technology and applying this within a new e-learning paradigm of cognitive simulation.

Images: John Windsor, SIMTICS

 

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical PR, Uncategorized · Tagged: cognitive, e-learning, education, innovation, medical, patient, procedure, simulation

Jan 22 2014

Healthcare PR Advice from Editor Donald Tepper

Donald Tepper is editor of PT in Motion, a publication for members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). PT in Motion covers relevant legislation and association news, and “discussion of professional issues and ideas in physical therapy practice.” G2Comm works with a wide range of healthcare providers so I talked to Tepper to get his take on working with PR professionals.

Tepper provides some sage advice for PR folks who want to impress editors by delivering useful and valuable stories.

Know Your Story Inside and Out

Tepper has encountered PR pros who know virtually nothing about their own products or company beyond the press release. “If I’m interested in pursuing a story, I find it frustrating to ask basic questions and the PR person knows absolutely nothing,” says Tepper. “They can’t clarify anything in the press release or speak to anything beyond what’s in it.”

“A lot of PR people think their main function is to pitch.  Trouble is they don’t know what to do next. They don’t know how to tailor a pitch to a particular news outlet.” It helps if PR reps have some honest curiosity and interest about what they’re pitching. Don’t just do a robo call.”

Know My Story Too

Tepper once worked in PR. “When I was on the PR end, reporters would call to ask questions; they knew the subject and the publication and I knew theirs. He doesn’t expect PR people to be experts on his publication but knowing Tepper’s story means knowing what’s relevant to his readers.  “I may get a pitch about a chiropractor who offers a product or service but—because the focus is on the chiropractor—it’s not relevant to my physical therapy readers.  But if the product helps PTs do their job, I’m interested. Tell me why it’s relevant.”

Know What Makes a Story Valuable

“Why should our readers care?” questions Tepper. “If [PR pros] can answer that, I love it. The size and exposure of your company is not important; the topic and angle you’re pitching is.  Pitch me an interesting topic that readers haven’t read before; nuggets of useful advice.

Value for PTs means information that helps them operate their businesses better.  For example, “we would write about what questions you should ask when evaluating EMR [electronic medical records] systems.  Or concept pieces such as ‘What is Crowdsourcing?’ Both have relevance for PTs.”

If you’re pitching a product, the same value criteria apply. “One inventor developed a new cane – Swiss army knife of canes — that found its way into a larger article on inventors. We wrote about how the inventor came up with the idea, then how the product was developed and commercialized. That type of article goes over well.”

Know What Journalist’s Look For

Journalists are always looking for credible and knowledgeable sources. Make your pitch attractive by providing a source “who is willing to be quoted and talks beyond yes and no answers.”

“We prefer to talk to clinical people at smaller companies. More productive interviews have been with clinicians who’ve founded and grown their own practices. They have both a business and clinical perspective.”

Highlighting contrarian points of view is also important to journalistic integrity. Tepper uses multiple methods to identify diverse sources, including social media platforms.  “We’ve had articles where we’ll do basic online research and turn up great sources that way. We also have an editorial advisory group…[and] rely on APTA staff specialists.” If your sources understand the POV you bring to a larger story, you can make it easier for journalists to integrate their voices into their articles.

Know How to Write

Don’t let weak writing stand in the way of your story. “Many of the news releases and announcements I receive are not well written,” says Tepper. “If it’s poorly written or has grammatical errors, it reflects poorly on the message of the release.  I recognize that releases are written to please the client, but it would be nice if PR people attempted to inform the client that if changes were made to the release it would make it far more effective.”

Good grammar is the minimum. To really stand out, you need strong, compelling language as well. “Too many releases use ‘PR language’ with terms such as revolutionary, extraordinary, and cutting-edge.” Cliches make readers tune out. Grab editors’ attention with clear, fresh language that explains the specific value of your story.

Think Before You Pitch

Tepper’s bottom line: “PR professionals need to understand that PR is more than pitching stories.”  Before blasting editors, know the details, context, value, and interest of your story.

Image provided by Donald Tepper

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical PR, Pitching Stories, Public Relations, Social Media, Uncategorized · Tagged: article, healthcare, media, physical therapy, PR, press, press release, PT, social media

Jan 13 2014

How to Pitch a Healthcare Influencer: Q&A with Forbes Columnist &Tech Innovator Robert Szczerba

“Rocket Science meets Brain Surgery” is the attention-grabbing personal slogan of Healthcare innovator Robert J. Szczerba. And he can back it up: Szczerba started out in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where he performed research with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He then spent more than 15 years at Lockheed Martin as a Chief Engineer and later Corporate Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences.

Today, Szczerba is out to revolutionize Healthcare through advanced technologies. He left Lockheed in 2013 to form X Tech Ventures, a company built on William Gibson’s famous quote: “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”  For Szczerba, this quote captures “a simple message: that the answers to some of our most complex problems may not be light years away but may simply require a more informed look at the present.”

Why did Szczerba turn his focus from aerospace to healthcare? “My interest in healthcare arose about 6 years ago when my son was diagnosed with autism,” he explains. “That experience gave me insights into the deficiencies of the healthcare industry and also motivated me to find ways to improve it.”

At X Tech Ventures, Szczerba oversees incubation and acceleration of technologies for diverse companies. He also writes a column at Forbes exploring the “intersection of technology, innovation, and healthcare.” I did a Q&A with Szczerba to learn how healthcare PR pros can connect and collaborate with industry thought leaders and innovators.

Do you see the Forbes column as a media trend, where industry executives–not journalists or editorial columnists–are viewed as thought leaders?

“I’d compare the media trend today of using industry executives as columnists with a similar situation in sports broadcasting from several years ago. In that case there was a lot of controversy when a professional player went directly from the field to the broadcast booth. The feeling from traditional broadcasters was that the player ‘didn’t pay his dues’ as they had. But the athletes became color commentators and were paired with traditional broadcasters to produce a higher quality product. I’m not a traditional journalist: I provide “color commentary” on the technology and healthcare space. I’m an opinion writer.”

What strikes you as good subject matter for a column?

“The subject matter that I’m most interested in revolves around looking at problems from different or unique perspectives…Can we take a common technology in one domain and apply it to another? Like the intersection of the aerospace and healthcare industries. Flight simulation is common in aviation to train pilots in very complex and stressful situations. You can test complicated scenarios on a simulator in a low-risk, low-cost environment.

So, what would happen if you built a ‘flight simulator’ for a hospital to train people on new procedures in the ICU or ER? Why should a nurse have to read a 200 page manual to learn how to use a new medical device when they could practice using the same device modeled on their smart phone?”

What do you find frustrating with PR people who contact you?

“I really don’t like ‘attack pieces.’  People often pitch me stories that attack another person, product, or concept. I have no issue with writing a critical piece about another person’s idea, as long as I have an alternative approach to put forward.

Destruction is easy; but creation is difficult. When people pitch ideas that criticize products or concepts I always ask what their approach is and why it’s better. Unfortunately, more often than not they rarely have a good answer.”

What do you find helpful?

“I appreciate it when someone sends me comments or suggested topic ideas, but not as part of a formal pitch. For example, sometimes people send me comments on my recent articles suggesting another article for me to look at that takes a different point of view.

I also appreciate it when PR people have done their homework on what I write about and are able to give a quick 30-second summary of why this topic might be of interest to my readers.”

Who or what is your ideal source?

“I don’t think my ideal source falls into any one particular category. I tend to reach out to people who are passionate about their topic. Someone who wants to change the world and is cocky enough to think they can. These are the people I want to talk with.

Who says that the greatest ideas need to come from the chief of surgery from a major hospital as opposed to a charge nurse in a rural clinic?  The best ideas don’t always come from where you’d expect them.”

How do smaller companies grab your attention?

“For my columns, I don’t differentiate between large and small companies; I only differentiate between large and small ideas.”

 

Image provided by Robert Szczerba:

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical Device PR, Medical PR, Pitching Stories, Public Relations, Uncategorized · Tagged: aerospace, autism, Forbes, healthcare, innovation, Lockheed, pitch, PR, technologies

Nov 20 2013

Pitch the Extra Mile: PR Dos and Don’ts from Life Science Leader magazine chief editor Rob Wright

Rob Wright is Chief Editor of Life Science Leader, where he also pens a blog for healthcare and pharmaceutical industry execs. Life Science Leader is targeted to key players in the life sciences industry, delivering informative content on current events, technology, policy and regulations, and best practices for the field.

Though Wright’s day (and inbox) is full to the brim, he is remarkably available to people, including skilled PR pros. “I am striving to engage, network and learn with and from people, and you never know when that learning might occur,” he explains. “My biggest frustration is I can never get caught up on all the ideas I have for articles. So, I appreciate a PR person who can help me do this, without wasting my time.”

Wright offered me a few do’s and don’ts for life sciences PR pros who want to be the helpful type.

DON’T Recycle a Pitch

“First thing, PR people should understand that they are a valuable resource,” says Wright. “But when I can tell it’s a pitch that’s been recycled, such as my name appearing in a different size or color font, or they call the magazine by the wrong name, that is when they lose credibility.”

“I make very effective use of the delete key,” he warns, “especially if it’s been pitched 50 other places.  Do yourself a favor and get to know Life Science Leader’s audience, then “pitch something specific that is a fit.”

DO Follow Guidelines

Wright takes time to “provide some direction, as well as a submission guide, so [PR people] have the best chance of getting their articles published.” Understandably, he says it’s “frustrating when I receive an article where…it is obvious the direction was flat out ignored.  If I say, ‘don’t include references’ and they put them in there, or I give them a word count and they run over by 500 words, they aren’t setting themselves up for success.”

It’s not that hard to get it right with LSL. “Our focus is not on reviewing technology. It’s more about what spurred the company to create the technology or implement the strategy; how it was done, and what the company would have done differently. Our goal is to provide best business practice editorials with actionable information for our readers.”

DON’T be Long Winded

“Your pitch should be elegant,” instructs Wright. Elegant means concise–even more concise than you think. “Cover it in 2 sentences. Better yet, give me 3 or 4 bullets up front. If I need more information I will ask.”

“Telling me about how terrible a disease is and including a bunch of metrics on morbidity and mortality, and then how company ‘X’ has the revolutionary solution is typical and not required in a pitch. I want you to get to the point about why I should care about company ‘X’ or executive ‘Y’.”

The longer the pitch, the less likely he is to even skim, figuring “a long pitch was put together to be emailed to as many publications as possible and probably not a fit for the magazine anyway.”

DO Plan Ahead

“We frequently see PR professionals who will…contact me about a planned topic and offer a source,” says Wright. That would be a good idea, “except often, they are calling way too late. An article that appears in say, the August issue, may have had the interview conducted in June, so it can be finalized for layout the first week of July.”

Make that mistake once, and Wright will politely correct you. Make it twice, and your emails will end up in the trash. “One PR company sends me a monthly email referencing our ed cal, offering up a source when it is way too late,” he shares. “I don’t even bother to open their emails anymore.”

DON’T Just Self-Promote

Wright puts it plainly: “Press releases that promote the company’s newest offering (i.e., they moved a button so the product is new and improved) are not valuable to me.”

Other press releases that Wright can use share “quarterly results and the potential impact on the company’s stock,” or news of “the company winning an award by an independent organization” or “signing a deal with a major pharma.” (That is, as long as you can mention the pharmaceutical company’s name.) Ultimately, “press releases that have the most value have metrics, actionable types of information, and are not self-serving.”

DO Be a Connector

Wright is quick to affirm that “good PR people are really fun to work with.” What makes a PR person “good?” Useful connections, for starters. “One PR person introduced me to executives within their company at a trade show. I was able to get into deep discussions which can often lead to interesting articles. When I get in these discussions, it’s because the PR person was so good at giving me enough time to help me do this.”

A good PR person says, “‘I want you to meet so and so.’ Then they’ll come back in 15 minutes and introduce me to someone else. So they are helping me network.” And they “don’t hover and remind their client/executive what they should talk about.”

DON’T Send an Inappropriate Source

To pitch a great source, you have to thoroughly understand LSL’s audience and mission. “PR people who pitch to me that I should interview the CEO of a vendor or potential advertiser for a…feature story have obviously failed to understand our audience,” says Wright. However, “a vendor who can bring a pharma or biotech executive, or another type of key opinion leader to the table” can wind up in “a successful departmental article.”

The ideal source depends on the article type. “When I interview a CEO we’re looking at something very high level like the importance of innovation for the U.S. economy.” On the other hand, “for a particular strategy to supercharge the company’s [research and development] innovation engine, I want to talk to the VP of R&D who actually implemented and executed upon the CEO’s vision.”

Smaller companies can gain an edge by pitching an irresistible source. “I want a leader who is willing to be provocative and mix things up,” explains Wright. “I’m interested in people who are shaping the industry.”

DO Get on the Phone

One of the most surprising facts about Wright is that he likes to answer his phone. “I have been amazed what can happen,” he says, “as I have been delighted to have a reader call with a suggestion for an article, or a top industry consultant call me with an idea, or an entrepreneur share their story — unsolicited.”

He also uses the phone to vet and connect with new social media contacts. “This can be very time consuming but can pay huge dividends,” he reasons. “Someone tweeted me about connecting on LinkedIn. We scheduled a phone call. This person then connected me to an executive, who connected me to a best-selling author, who contributed an article, who connected me to a communication consulting expert who has consulted very high level folks including Hillary Clinton.”

Help Wright Help You

A good PR person makes everyone’s job easier. Their “pitch is concise and on target…they follow through when they say they will,” and, “if something falls through the cracks, they let me know.”

In summary, Wright says “a good PR person (1) knows our audience, (2) follows through, and (3) helps me beyond what is in it for them.” Whether it’s paying close attention to guidelines; planning ahead with his editorial calendar; sharing valuable metrics and information; helping him make industry connections; or getting on the phone; that extra step can be worth miles of PR success at Life Sciences Leader.

Photo: Life Science Leader

 

 

 

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical PR, Other, Pitching Stories, Public Relations, Uncategorized · Tagged: article, biotechnology, editor, executive, life sciences, pitch, PR, Public Relations

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