Health Care, Life Sciences and Medical Devices
The Birnbach Communications health care team also has experience that spans pharmaceuticals, life sciences, medical devices, health technology informatics, reseach institutions, lab operators, medical associations, industry consultants and medical practices. We have experience with major health care topics, including diabetes, cardiovascular, vaccines, veins, gene therapy, infectious diseases, and women's health. Our media research on health care issues was cited in "Health Care and the Media: Overfed on Information, Starved for Understanding," an article about the media and the way it presents science information that was published in The Pfizer Journal.

We have been working to raise national and international awareness for the Joslin Diabetes Center, which is dedicated to finding a cure for diabetes and improving the lives of people with diabetes through its cutting edge basic and clinical research, patient care programs for children and adults, and through programs and publications that improve the care of diabetes worldwide.

• We helped announce the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate – Bahrain, Joslin's first international affiliate and the region's first medical center devoted entirely to the treatment of diabetes and related complications.

• We developed the strategy and executed the center's first-ever New York media tour with major media, including The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Parade. The tour was quickly followed up with another tour, meeting with The New York Times, CBS Evening News and The Wall Street Journal.

  The media tours were successful for not only introducing Joslin to the media but also in securing articles and scheduling on-site visits of the institution – two key goals of the project. Within three weeks of the media tours, the first print results appeared, a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal, a quote in a Time cover story and a quote in a Business Week commentary ("Let Them Eat Cake – If They Want To. The U.S. take on obesity: 'Personal responsibility,'" Feb. 23, 2004). In fact, since the initial tour, the Wall Street Journal, along with its sister organization, Dow Jones News Service, has written about or quoted Joslin experts more than a half dozen times – resulting in more coverage this year alone than at any time during the previous 10 years.

• We have supported a number of new studies published in peer-reviewed journals as well as Joslin's new dietary recommendations. We wrote an article for Dr. James Rosenzweig and Dr. Osama Hamdy that appeared on the Op-Ed page of the Boston Globe ("The Obesity and Diabetes Epidemic," Aug. 13, 2005) that communicated information about Joslin's recommendations while discussing public policy issues regarding government porgrams towards obesity and diabetes. The response to the article has been posititve both externally and internally – an important, if often overlooked reason to conduct PR. One Joslin doctor (who is unaffiliated with the communications function) wrote, "I would like to add my congratulations for presenting such an important subject in such a coherent way. The obesity epidemic is having an impact on the rate of diabetes and once again, Joslin is where people look for help and answers."

• We have raised awareness of programs aimed at minorities at risk for developing diabetes, includes Asian Americans (through multiple media tours and other special events), Latinos, African-Americans and Arab Americans.
  

In Nov. 2006, we helped launch Veraxa Health, the first for-profit spin-out of the Joslin Diabetes Center that markets the Joslin Vision Network (JVN), a proven technology and clinical service designed to prevent blindness and vision loss for people with diabetes. We developed the messaging, the press kit and launched the company in three weeks, generating coverage in the Dow Jones' VentureWire and other VC media. A story in Mass High Tech was picked up by more than 40 other publications including the Boston Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, and San Francisco Business Times.

For Diomed, a medical device manufacture that markets EVLT (Endovenous Laser Treatment), an innovative non-surgical procedure that uses laser technology to seal varicose veins safely and effectively, we developed the company's messaging and positioning, wrote its press kit, and worked with the company's medical practice customers and patients to secure media coverage that increased traffic to the EVLT.com website.

For medical practices, we have developed key messages and have written patient materials (including patient letters, information on procedures, etc.), and evaluated and drafted website content and brochures. We have turned c.v.'s into compelling bios for use by the media. And we have identified media opportunities that have increased local awareness of the practices.

Our health care team's experience includes providing strategic counsel to Abiomed's communications policy – setting out the ground rules and expectations – which pre-introduced Abiomed's AbioCor total replacement heart, resulting in positive coverage prior to the first implant. The first operation, which took place July 2, 2001, was featured on the front pages and editorial pages of newspapers around the world, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Associated Press and was the lead story on NBC Nightly News, ABC Evening News, CBS Evening News, and ran on CNBC and countless others. The team also coordinated Abiomed's efforts when Robert Tools, the first recipient of the AbioCor, went public in a press conference carried live on CNN and MSNBC on August 21, 2001, which resulted in front-page, above-the-fold photographs in just about every paper nationwide. The AbioCor was the subject of a Newsweek cover story in June, 2001, was cited as one of the best innovations of the year by Business Week in December, 2001, and was named "Invention of the Year" by Time Magazine in November, 2001.

For pharmaceutical clients, our team has launched new drugs and vaccines, including the first canine cardiology drug (based on the angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitor); and a diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DtaP) vaccine. For a global vitamin producer, we helped promote new research on folic acid and antioxidants to support its vitamins sold to major manufacturers. Ultimately, this work laid the groundwork for every subsequent new formulation of a major branded vitamin as well as providing the rationale for an entirely new product that contains various antioxidants only.

We have planned and executed issue-oriented programs for industry medical and dental associations. And we have raised awareness of medical conditions and issues, including diabetes; asthma, its causes and treatment, for inner-city populations; and Radon gas, an odorless cancer-causing gas.

We also have written and placed op-eds, bylined articles and letters to the editors about health care issues, including in the Boston Globe, Advance for Managers of Respiratory Care, and Advance for Health Information Professionals.