Putting Theory Into Practice
I moved from my first agency job on Madison Ave to a start-up downtown. The change was not just geographic it was dramatic. The work was the same client and agency dance yet here when we came back it was less about executing the notes from the client. It was more about deconstructing the market, the audience, the brand, and the science. We did not think words and pictures it was goals, strategy, position, audience, and so much more.
I was going to be an AE. This was amazing. Or was it? There are so many moving parts here I’m not sure where to begin. The point was and is that what you see for ads and sales materials are not these random exercises but well measured considered works. And you add to that the need to target specific audiences with a message and strategy and tactic it became truly the rubic cube of pieces. But this was my start.
I was bored with selling and needed no wanted to do more. The funny thing is as much as I wanted to flee from sales in reality sales is what we all do all the time.
Job two in the medical industrial complex was more of the same but opened an entire new world of business and how to market and sell. I would say this was the basis for communications. The job provided insight into the pricing, bundling, and finding what products would sell what wouldn’t. It also exposed me to a different perspective in the hospital system namely the PA.
Sharing my history in healthcare to begin to identify how I got here today doing podcasts looking at new businesses and fighting the good fight. In some small way what I saw through this small lens of career and did over the past 35 year may give perspective to where we are today. It began in 1973 or so and I am a year out of college working as a bartender.
An original paper in JMIR (J Med Internet Res) “Evaluating the Process of Online Health Information Searching: A Qualitative Approach to Exploring Consumer Perspectives”
This important paper takes a deeper dive into consumers health and learning behavior when using the internet to search for healthcare information. The paper identifies qualitative data regarding search behavior and process and it reviews in great detail the quantitive data. And I would submit that this paper points path to improve physician and patient engagement. Additionally, whether you buy my conclusions/recommendations or not, this paper has all the key and important references. For me this is the data that drives new strategies and tactics that will increase and improve physician/patient engagement.
So let’s all say the word— lung cancer again slowly lung cancer…. what do you think? Be honest. Yup like the majority of people including physicians smoking was your first thought. And what do you think about smoking? Yes there is a large percent of the population who stigmatize people with lung cancer as smokers or former smokers. And this is an issue for funding, treatment, and care.
Lung Cancer Foundation Government Research
Lung Cancer Alliance 2012 Lung Cancer Facts
Where’s The Funding for Lung Cancer
Lungevity Government Spending on Lung Cancer
About Health: The Stigma of Lung Cancer
Finding a Voice Hacking the Narrative — We all have a voice. It’s that internal monologue we have with ourselves. Have you ever considered what that voice is and how it connects to raise above the din? How do I find my voice when I am working to find my way? Can our voice be a guide or a tool to drive a narrative and content?
Hospice The End and Beyond…yes there is life after hospice. I talk about living after a loved one dies and the role hospice and the hospice team plays in this life altering event when we are left behind. The final week to ten days in hospice was pretty much a blur. A mass of shifting images that still choke me. During that time I was trying to keep myself busy. Again trying to will my way though this with activities around hospice and donna. I filled the day the night going to hospice to be with donna. And start again the next day. And the next. Ground hog day from hell.
The overwhelming emotion when you first enter hospice is fear. Well not really fear just a blanket of sadness less about the place and more about how would this play out for how long and in what capacity. Perhaps though my eyes and reflection we identify a different emotion, one where we can find a safe place during this horrific sad time.
