Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations
Ventures in Veins
Hands-On Training: One Tech’s Experience
Ventures in Veins
Experts offer advice on how to successfully launch and market a vein ablation service
By Dana Hinesly
According to the MayoClinic.com, more than 60% of all Americans suffer from varicose veins.1 The disease tends to become more prevalent with age and generally impacts more women than men. Many interventional radiologists see these numbers as an irresistible market of potential patients and are adding image-guided laser treatments to their list of available services.
“The marketing battles people have in referrals to other specialties—whether it’s for CT scans or MRI—they don’t really exist with [vein ablation], at least not yet,” says Richard A. Baum, MD, FSIR, chief of the division of angiography and interventional radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and director of interventional radiology and associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass. “The market may eventually become saturated, but right now, there are vastly more patients than there are people to treat this disease.”
Even with an abundance of prospective clients, simply starting a new business or making a capital investment on a new service does not guarantee success. Here, leaders in the field offer advice on how to build a thriving vein ablation service.
Find a Focus
From Botox injections to laser hair removal, an aging society focused on staying young—or at least looking it—has generated an entire industry of cosmetic medical procedures. Vein ablation, in contrast, is medically necessary for the treatment of venous insufficiencies and symptomatic varicose veins.
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| Vein ablation currently has more patients than physicians to treat them. |
Before any marketing efforts are made, a facility should determine exactly how and if that message is being sent to the community. “We’ve worked really hard to create the position that the services we offer are medical in nature, and by doing so, we really differentiate ourselves between cosmetic and medical,” explains Brian Neff, president of Medical Marketing Resource, Provo, Utah, which is a marketing partner with Intermountain Vein Center. “If you don’t make that distinction, you lose the power of the message, and our message is pretty significant: Your legs hurt, and we can fix it.”
Identifying your services solely as medically focused translates to increased referrals to organizations offering cosmetic options. Depending on the business plan, this may not prove beneficial.
“We treat those who experience painful symptoms from varicose veins, as well as those who are asymptomatic but wish to achieve cosmetic improvement. If a center doesn’t handle both, it is necessary to have good referring physicians to whom you can send people for those procedures,” says Keith M. Sterling, MD, director of cardiovascular and interventional radiology at the Association of Alexandria Radiologists PC (AAR), Alexandria, Va, which specifically tailors the messages in its marketing collateral to speak to the different segments of the patient population. “But in the increasingly competitive environment we are all in, [those same physicians] might learn how to perform the same procedure as you, and you stand the chance of losing the business to someone who is offering a complete service line.”
Be Good
Offering vein ablation treatment typically requires additional training, both to advise technologists on techniques for performing the ultrasound examinations and to ensure that the interventional radiologists understand the full scope of diagnosis and treatment.
“Being good at treating venous insufficiency and varicose veins is not as simple as putting a catheter into a vein using ultrasound to guide you to where you turn it on,” Sterling explains. “To offer a complete service, there is a lot to learn about venous insufficiency. Understanding the anatomy, pathophysiology, and the range of treatment options is critical to succeeding.”
Having the required skills translates to better procedures, resulting in the world’s best marketing: positive word-of-mouth.
“We’ve actually had patients refer their own doctors to us,” Baum says. “A patient would hear about us and come in for treatment and then tell their primary care physician, who also has varicose veins.”
Getting the word out about the new service is one thing; handling the influx of business is another. It is vital that clinicians offering this service do not begin marketing efforts until adequate staff is in place to handle every patient that comes to the facility.
“In many cases, these are patients who have been living with the disease and have been putting off treatment for many years,” Baum notes. “If you cancel a patient appointment, move the appointment, or make them wait a few weeks to see you—they are not going to show up.”
Do What Works
Once the decision has been made regarding the scope of services and the target audience, putting together a comprehensive marketing plan is the next step. The foundation of the strategy should be structured around a competitive analysis of the marketplace. Exactly which media outlets are most profitable vary by location, but they can be determined through a combination of research and trial and error.
“In our market, it’s most effective when we are using newspaper and radio, although it’s a little bit of a moving target, because now we are seeing other players coming into the field,” Neff says. “Because of that, one of the most important things to do is to track where the calls are coming from.”
Sterling agrees, adding, “I think not evaluating the return on your investment is a mistake. You have to determine if a particular venue has increased awareness and referrals for your practice. A lot of people take a shotgun approach, advertising in multiple publications or radio spots, which can be very expensive. We have found it is best to concentrate our money on things that have been proven to be successful.”
This can sometimes lead to surprising results. The Intermountain Vein Center has discovered that marketing to the local patient base generated additional responses from area physicians.
“When we have a media campaign going, it boosts our number of physician referrals at the same time,” Neff shares. “People go to the doctor and say they heard about us on the radio, or they’ll show the doctor our ad to find out what he thinks. Often, the doctor will send the patient to us as a result.”
Clinicians uncomfortable or unfamiliar with identifying exactly where their business fits into the community can hire a consultant who specializes in medical marketing. A savvy professional should put together a targeted approach to getting patients in the door.
Get Interactive
Knowledge is power—and for patients who may be unsure of whether vein ablation is right for them, nothing beats face-to-face time with a medical professional.
“It is important to remember that your best mechanism is your nurse practitioner or the physician,” Neff says. “A lot of people are still leery about having this done, but if you can get them in front of a clinician, it’s a done deal.”
One of the most convenient methods of making this happen is hosting free lectures on the topic of varicose veins and today’s treatment options. “I talk about the disease process and about prior treatments and why current treatments are so much better than what was available before, followed by a very active question-and-answer period,” Baum says. “During that time, I usually discuss how patients can come during their lunch hour, that there is no preoperative preparation, and that postop recovery is minimal.”
If possible, allow attendees to set up consultation appointments during the meeting and be sure to distribute brochures. All marketing and educational materials should be branded with the name and logo of the facility where treatments will take place.
“Once you create your brand, the referring physician should see that brand. It should never be a medical manufacturer’s brochure with the doctor’s sticker on the back,” Neff says, referring to the free promotional material often furnished by vendors. “Free brochures may seem like a good idea, but they do not build the brand of the doctor.”
A consistent look and feel also should appear on the company’s Web site. Even if it is a static site offering basic information, an online presence can play a vital role in reaching patients.
“The Internet is an increasingly important tool in driving referrals,” Sterling says. “People are constantly online; one of the top searches is people seeking medical information. And it’s critical to recognize that.”
Get Paid
Being busy is a good thing; getting paid is even better. “I would say that most people do these procedures in an outpatient office environment, because of the reimbursement [amount],” Sterling says. “If the procedure is performed in a hospital, that facility gets the technical component, and the physician gets the professional component—which is a lot less than if it can be billed as a global fee, which includes both.”
Having a hospital affiliation has its perks, though. In addition to generally getting better contract rates, radiologists with hospital privileges often can take advantage of the organization’s established brand and make use of existing marketing channels to promote the service.
“The nice thing about being in a place like Brigham is that we have tremendous brand appeal,” Baum shares. “That was very, very useful for us in branding our vein center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital; it immediately established us.”
Regardless of where the procedures will take place, clinicians should know that a commitment to ongoing marketing efforts is an absolute must.
“There’s an expectation that throwing a big welcome party that lasts for 2 days is going to drive business, or that if they build the site, people will just show up,” Neff says. “That doesn’t happen. There are a lot of lasers and venous radiofrequency machines still in the box or in the back room because a facility didn’t stick with it.”
Dana Hinesly is a contributing writer for Axis Imaging News. For more information, contact .
Reference
- MayoClinic.com. Skin: varicose veins: Introduction. © 1998–2007. Available at: www.mayoclinic.com. Accessed January 15, 2007.
Hands-On Training: One Tech’s Experience |
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Today’s medical-imaging technology does not come with a detailed owner’s manual—and if it did, that manual would be the length of an encyclopedia. So, what better way to train a radiologic technologist than through hands-on, individualized learning? That’s the theory behind the Toshiba Education Center, built by Toshiba America Medical Systems, Tustin, Calif. The $6-million, 4,840-square-foot addition to the Toshiba Training Center offers state-of-the-art learning labs equipped with the company’s latest CT, MR, and vascular technology. Toshiba Medical’s technologist training is executed in three phases, with the first phase taking the form of an intensive 4-day workshop conducted at the Training Center; the second two phases occur at the technologist’s facility. This applications training is included in the price of the technology and represents a major deviation from the training offered by other vendors, according to William Ledbetter, a CT technologist at San Francisco Advanced Medical Imaging. “We were all placed on these model scanners,” Ledbetter explains. “Students had their own screen in front of them to use. In other training centers, they don’t have that—they just have one scanner that everyone uses. The model scanners do everything but expose radiation, so it’s like you have a real scanner in front of you. You also have an actual scanner in the facility, across the hall, so you can go in and scan phantoms.” Ledbetter cites the instructors’ attentiveness and dynamism as two important factors contributing to his positive experience at the Education Center. “You’re in a dark room all day looking at CT scans,” he laughs. “It would be really easy for that to get boring, but the instructors are incredible.” Toshiba Medical highlighted the Education Center at RSNA 2006, where the company also announced the launch of its e-Learning program for both physician and technologist continuing education. Customers can register for training and also will have access to an extensive catalog of courses for which Continuing Education (CE) and Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits can be issued. The e-Learning site is available to all health care professionals, including those not currently using Toshiba Medical technology, at www.toshibalearningcenter.com. —C. Vasko |
