How Top Health Systems Win at Physician Engagement
Strategic communications, whether they’re annual or “always on,” can strengthen relationships with this particularly hard-to-reach audience.
By Katie Bridges
Compelling stories about research breakthroughs, clinical innovation and physician achievements often serve multiple audiences, from patients and donors to academic peers, but they also help build important credibility within the medical community. By consistently showcasing expertise, collaboration and investment in research, healthcare institutions can build and strengthen their relationships with referring physicians.
These examples demonstrate how leading health systems use communications to reinforce their reputations long before a referral is made.
Specialty-Focused Content
Physicians are laser-focused on their particular areas of care. That’s why savvy systems reach providers with information tailored specifically to them: research and clinical care breakthroughs in their exact specialties.
- The CancerAnswers@Simmons section of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s website, as well as its biannual publication, regularly features physician perspectives and patient success stories specific to oncology. (See case study.)
- Mayo Clinic produces regular publications and newsletters dedicated to a whole host of specialties, such as its Obstetrics and Gynecology Physician Update, highlighting cross-disciplinary research and care initiatives involving physicians from multiple specialties.
Annual Reports
Clinical excellence becomes more compelling when physicians can connect it to the people behind the work. Because they’re intended for broader audiences, annual reports often introduce clinicians and researchers through thoughtful storytelling that can help outside physicians become familiar with the specialists they may one day collaborate with or refer patients to. These publications can also tell a more holistic story of an institution and its efforts.
- The Jane Coffin Childs Fund Impact Report spotlights up-and-coming researchers and how they’re driving scientific discovery forward.
- University of Kansas Cancer Center’s annual Beyond the Bench report reinforces the institution’s (and its researchers’) commitment to improving health and addressing cancer disparities throughout its largely rural catchment area.
Online Content
This type of “always on” content gives your system owned content that can be leveraged for email and social distribution, not to mention it’s also crucial for SEO and GEO. It can be an effective avenue to promote continuing education resources, annual symposiums and the like, as well.
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Discoveries in Medicine content hub combines clinical research, healthcare innovation and stories about medical practice to reinforce its leadership in academic medicine. (See case study.)
- NYU Langone Health’s Physician Focus uses specialty content, continuing education opportunities and referral resources to engage physicians across the country and reinforce its reputation as one of the nation’s best and safest hospitals. (See case study.)
Improve Your Physician Outreach
In today’s evolving healthcare landscape, connecting with physicians requires a fresh approach. We can help you create an engagement strategy that resonates with this audience.
Katie has almost a decade of editorial experience, spending most of those years as an editor at regional magazines. A Georgetown University grad, she helps guide digital and print content programs from concept to completion for C/A clients such as Vanderbilt Health, Niagara Falls USA and Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation. She has written for Garden & Gun, Washingtonian and Arkansas Life, among others.
The mother of two young girls, Katie can most often be found on a hiking trail with her family (Sedona’s a favorite). She’s a Southerner through and through, and the only member of the C/A team who uses the word “y’all” with abandon.