Vertical Industry Media Perspective: Health care and Life Sciences
We can help clients introducing new devices, products or medicines…or medical associations seeking to raise awareness about a medical conditions, such as asthma or medical issues such as Radon gas…companies dealing with issues management or facing a crisis (see above for more information). Just as important, we understand the business of health care and life sciences companies, and use that knowledge to help our clients achieve business goals beyond product introductions…announcing VC funding, industry partnerships, and licensing agreements.

We may not be doctors, or have played ones on TV, but at Birnbach Communications, we understand the needs of medical/health and science reporters, and what it takes to successfully pitch health care and life science stories. In part, that's because we have seen an explosion of coverage opportunities for health and science news across print, broadcast and online media. According to a report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism that examined 6,000 stories from 1987 to 1997, the number of personal health and lifestyle stories doubled. Leading newsmagazines, Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report, all devote more space to health, including at least one issue per year devoted entirely to health. The same is true for network news. According to media analyst Andrew Tyndall (www.tyndallreport.com), among the differences between CBS "Evening News" in 1968 to those in 1998 is that time devoted to health and medicine increased by five times! In fact, ABC, CBS, and NBC spend an average of 20 minutes each week covering health and science issues on their weekday nightly newscasts. However, just as the time and space allocated for health news has increased, so too has the competition for coverage.

That's where our experience and knowledge can help our clients: our long time experience in working with health care and life sciences media and our knowledge based on monitoring the media. It is critical to understand the differences between the types of health care and science reporters. Newspapers typically have four types of beats: health policy; the local health care system; medical advances and personal health. Many papers, such as The New York Times (Jane E. Brody) and Washington Post (Abigail Trafford), have personal health columnists. In fact, most medical or personal health coverage is news-you-can use, also known as "service" journalism; tips and advice on how to live healthier, how to prevent accidents, how to detect illnesses, etc. Broadcast reporters need good footage to go with their stories; reporters at local news generally focus on awful mishaps or touching medical miracles. Reporters at consumer magazines look for interesting studies or advice about prevention, including diet.

Here's a list of the types of stories we've found medical reporters typically follow:

1. Health Policy, Regulations and Legislation: including President Bush's proposals for Medicare, stem cell research, patients' bill of rights, medical records privacy, etc.; Congress's reaction to those policies; and FDA, Medicare or other regulatory changes
2. Pharma, Biotech and Financial News: mergers; financial news for publicly held companies, investment opportunities; and new pharmaceutical pipeline
3. Health Providers & Insurance: impact of regulations on insurance companies, HMOs; ethics and practices; financial outlook; future of medical treatment
4. Research and Science: scientific discoveries and medical advances including research studies about foods, heart disease, and cancer and studies published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and New England Journal of Medicine, including advances in genetics; future of medical care
5. Medical Products and Technology: significant advances in medical care, protocols, and new devices, like the AbioCor total replacement heart
6. Safety-related: botched operations, medical accidents; problems at hospitals and HMOs; horrible malpractice cases or other scandals
7. Service-oriented: cancer screening, best US hospitals, doctors; the declining state of online medical portals
8. HIPAA-related: Electronic medical records and security/privacy issues

We can help clients introducing new devices, products or medicines…or medical associations seeking to raise awareness about a medical issue…companies dealing with issues management or facing a crisis (see below for more information).
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