Representatives of University of Utah Health hosted a panel discussion in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival that brought scientists and filmmakers together to discuss “why scientists and artists should work more closely together to broadly communicate advances in knowledge.”

Two acclaimed filmmakers were attracted to the event, as was the president of a foundation that provides grants to nonprofits working in health care and other fields. The collaboration that resulted has earned first place in the “Video” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

“One in a Million” is the tale of Tyler, a typical child until the age of six, when he began exhibiting symptoms of a problem that today leaves him speechless and confined to a wheelchair. The University of Utah Health’s team was able to identify a specific genetic disorder and begin treatment to improve Tyler’s quality of life.

The two filmmakers spent a week in Utah shooting the video; editing was complete in time for another Sundance panel discussion.

Clocking in at just under 10 minutes, the video has accumulated nearly 90,000 views on YouTube alone, though University of Utah Health has found other uses for the moving film, including playing it at the National Institutes of Health Rare Disease Day conference and at a salon party that brought in more than 20 potential new donors who had previously never heard of University of Utah Health.

Congratulations to Joe Borgenicht, Julie Kiefer, John Baker, Ed Clark and Lorenzo Botto, and from the full-service media agency Fictionless, Ross Kauffman, Jeremiah Zagar and Nicole Gallofsky.

The annual report from UC Davis’s Children’s Hospital is not a financial report crammed full of audited numbers—only one page at the back of the book is dedicated to numbers, in fact. Rather, the bulk is given over to detailing patient success stories and spotlighting the hospital’s family-centric approach to health care.

The combination of an effective approach and a visually appealing execution has earned the annual report first place in the “Print Publication” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

The annual report was developed to acknowledge and celebrate such milestones as accreditation of the Child Life and Create Arts Therapy Department by the Association of Child Life Professionals, the hospital’s recertification by the American College of Surgeons and preparation to move into a new surgery center.

To tell these stories, content was selected and designed to focus on patients, families and interaction with staff. The photos are big and bold—many full-page, accompanied by moving quotes.

The annual report’s secondary goal is equally impressive: When new physician referral liaisons meet with pediatric offices to educate them about the hospital in an effort to inspire them to refer patients to Children’s, the report serves as their leave-behind.

To convey the breadth of the hospital’s operations, the report is divided into sections including surgery, pulmonary and community outreach. Oh, and those numbers at the end? They’re expressed in an infographic, covering items like the number of specialties in which it is nationally ranked, number of beds, percentages of nurses holding degrees and the square mileage of the region it serves.

Congratulations to Jon Jeisel, Doreen Pichotti, Barbara Hennelly, Fernando Herrera and Jose Villegas.

Engaging your community is difficult if your audience is gripped with fear and doubt—which poses a problem for dentists.

One Ohio dentist set out to change that with an aural—rather than oral—technology: the podcast.

Dr. Kyle Bogan’s show, covering local events and dental care tips, is the winner of Ragan’s 2019 Health Care PR & Marketing Award for “Best Podcast.”

Incisively, Bogan widened the podcast’s focus to topics beyond the dentist’s office. The podcast team “hopes to make listeners feel more connected to the community, keep them updated on important dental-related news, and give them the knowledge and tools that they need to keep their smiles healthy.”

For example, in April’s episode, Bogan spoke about oral cancer but also touched on vaping, how to give yourself an oral cancer check, and local high school athletics. The podcast offers educational insight into a dentist’s view of the dangers of vaping and offers a platform to community leaders to share about their current initiatives.

Bogan and his office used an array of outlets to push their creation, including their webpage, iTunes and Stitcher. They also created an episode preview that could be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To boost their reach, they tagged interviewees and asked their organizations to share the preview.

For a show that targets a hyper-local audience, Bogan was pleased to have over 230 unique downloads—an average of 58 per episode. For a new project, Bogan’s team said they were very happy with the results, especially with the added engagement they saw among their Facebook audience.

Congrats to Dr. Bogan and his team on a well-deserved awards win.

Content marketing only works if your audience is aware that your content exists. At Children’s Health—the eight-largest pediatric health care system in the U.S.—communicators opted to drive awareness primarily through a twice-monthly email newsletter driven by practical and useful information parents need, including guidance and support. The results produced by this strategy have earned Children’s Health first place in the “Patient-Focused Content” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

An existing newsletter was overhauled, with the editors taking a data-driven approach to determining the content that would best provide timely news and information to parents. The team crafted a long list of objectives, then set about creating a process that included ongoing keyword research.

Reader data is analyzed in the analytic software tool Tableau, giving direction to the planning of future content. Each edition features 4-6 articles crafted just for the newsletter, each fitting a specific category. Behavioral health articles, for example, cover topics like depression, anxiety, bullying, autism and video game addiction. Other categories include common childhood illnesses, nutritional information and ideas, social issues (e.g., vaping, prom and co-sleeping) and safety concerns (including sunscreen, water safety, toy safety, etc.).

Readers have embraced the newsletter with 113,566 unique opens, a particularly impressive number given that the team had winnowed the email distribution list before relaunching the newsletter. In addition to other positive numbers, the team now hears from hospital doctors and service lines requesting their content be included in upcoming editions—always an indicator that you’re doing something right.

Congratulations to the team of Kay Kerman, Kristen Kimmel and Sam Seelbach.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center launched its “One Mission” patient newsletter as part of an effort to reach cancer patients better than it had with its outdated and costly print newsletter. Now “One Mission” has earned the top prize in the “Digital Publication” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

The strategy focused on repurposing content published on the center’s blog, which is updated three to five times each week, with a focus on patients’ interests. Once the blog was identified as a source of content for the monthly newsletter, the team adapted its Drupal content management system to ease the curation of the posts into the email newsletter template; the newsletter essentially builds itself.

The team cross-promoted the newsletter on its website and the blog. Built into the template is interactivity that wasn’t possible with a print newsletter, enabling dialogue and polling. Collaboration with nursing, patient education, supportive care, patient experience and other departments keeps the blog and newsletter populated with relevant content.

To craft each issue’s content, the team has built the newsletter into the regular biweekly meetings of the blog content team. A list of article topics is developed a month or two before the publication date, with articles slotted into the blog publication schedule. The newsletter also reports on topics that don’t make it onto the blog—such as a garage repair schedule. The newsletter also encourages advocacy, with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram links in each article.

The strategic approach the marketing and communications team took to developing the digital alternative propelled the publication’s reach from 250 views per month to more than 18,000 as of May 2019.

Congratulations to Heidi Findlay, Sue Banchich and the Roswell Park team of content contributors.

When you think of a content marketing program, you most likely think of ongoing brand-building efforts. Atrium Health created a content marketing program out of whole cloth to spread timely information as Hurricane Florence bore down on the Atlantic coast in September 2018. This information hub has earned first place in the “Content Marketing and Brand Journalism” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Knowing it would be called upon to deliver information to a number of internal and external audiences, the corporate communications team adopted a newsroom approach, creating a web page updated frequently with the latest information.

Content posted as the hurricane approached covered basic preparedness tips, such as how to prepare your home for a hurricane. It also linked to other resources, including emergency management websites, emergency room wait times and more.

This was no simple news channel, though; it was a work of genuine content management. For example, one story and accompanying video addressed how Atrium was able to medivac infants from one medical center to one away from the storm. Another piece explained how nurses flew via Atrium’s Medcenter Air service to provide relief for nurses working at the hospital most affected by the storm.

Over 30 days, the team produced more than 60 unique pieces of content.

We congratulate the team of Chris Berger, Katie McKiever, Kate Gaier, Margaret Gilmore, Teri Mitchell Porter, Seth Stratton, Claire Simmons, Jerrika Swartz, Marcey Stone, Katie Thomas, Jason Schneider, Abby Lumsden, Melanie Davis, Lauren Moskowitz, Elise Nielson, Jim Wallace, Jonathan Huffman, Hayley Lyons, Jennifer Stover, Amanda Lea, Jolie Shifflet, Carly Stephenson Wooten, Ashley Brown and Savannah Simons.

Before establishing Health Beat, its multiple-award-winning blog, Spectrum Health leaned heavily on traditional marketing channels to reach its audiences. A substantial research initiative that included a competitive analysis, internal and external surveys, focus groups and an in-depth content and communications asset audit led Spectrum’s communicators to understand that a content marketing component was necessary.

For taking this mandate and developing the gold standard of health care blogs, Spectrum Health’s Health Beat has won first place in the “Blog” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Health Beat was developed to empower readers to make informed decisions by telling compelling, positive stories about real people facing real challenges. The company has adopted a newsroom approach to creating and delivering the content, with a team that includes a managing editor, a multimedia manager, two photojournalists and a health care journalist; contributions also come from freelancers and marketing/communications staff members.

The most compelling items are shared through weekly, monthly and special-edition e-news articles to subscribers who are able to tailor their news feeds to suit their interests.

The blog’s contents reach 15 million people monthly; its social media audience has exceeded 100 million people averaging 700,000 site visits each month.

The time spent on stories sometimes reaches as much as 22 minutes. The content also finds its way into the press, while internally it is repurposed across multiple channels.

Congratulations to the team of Cheryl Welch, Jill Seidelman, Chris Clark, Sue Thoms and Taylor Ballek.

A highly personal article about domestic violence is bound to attract readers. The ambitions for this particular article went far beyond provoking a reaction in its audience. “Domestic violence’s painful legacy,” by Sally Crocker, passed the test, earning first place in the “Article” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

The article tells the tale of Dr. Emily Spence-Almaguer, a researcher from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), who learned that the sister of her future husband had been murdered in an act of domestic violence. The article covers both the trauma the family has suffered and the work Dr. Spence-Almaguer undertook, inspired by joining a family that had been through the experience.

In addition to telling the tale of Dr. Spence-Almaguer and her connection to domestic violence, and positioning all UNTHSC public health researchers as leaders in tackling critical public health problems, the communication team wanted to build support for the institution’s work in research and advocacy about a variety of community health issues. The article would show in an intimate way how UNTHSC researchers are working to address domestic violence while also shining a light on the work of the Public Health school.

Crocker conducted multiple interviews, including one conducted via instant messaging and email with a retired deputy district attorney who was involved with the family. It took five weeks to conduct interviews and perform background work, crank out rough drafts and produce a finished article.

The article was distributed in UNTHSC’s Solutions magazine, which is bundled with a local monthly lifestyles publication that is mailed to 58,000 households in select Tarrant County ZIP codes. It was also sent to 5,000 alumni and friends of the university. The online version also earned a healthy number of views and was shared via social media.

Congratulations to Sally Crocker and editor Kerry Gunnels.

Thought leadership campaigns almost always include bylined articles, op-eds and speaking engagements. Health care PR firm LavoieHealthScience (LHS) employed the speaking element of this formula on behalf of Chris Garabedian, CEO of biotech aggregator Xontogency, but with a twist that has earned LHS first place in the “Thought Leadership Campaign” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

With the goal of positioning Garabedian as a biotech industry leader reaching scientific entrepreneurs who could provide future opportunities to advance the company’s business objectives, LHS also wanted to ensure that the insights the CEO shared delivered real value while also showcasing his knowledge and experience in the biotech industry.

The use of an exclusive webinar series was the cornerstone of the campaign. The four-part series focused on idea creation, funding, development and exit strategies for entrepreneurs. The series was offered through the national publication Xconomy, which was looking to maximize its earlier success with another entrepreneur-focused webinar series.

LHS worked with Garabedian to identify panel participants who would deliver expertise on each session’s topic. Sessions addressed topics like starting, financing, building out and succeeding with a biotech startup. A thorough promotional campaign drew attention to the series.

The team also developed the concept for a panel featuring Garabedian and pitched it to the BIO International Conference, “Changing the Rules for Drug Development: Innovative R&D Models That Harness Innovation and Deliver Value.”

In total, the CEO has appeared at 11 industry and investor conferences. The team also secured media placements for Garabedian, which resulted in 16 unique pieces of coverage.

Congratulations to Donna LaVoie and Sharon Correia.

Diversity and inclusion are core values articulated by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, which for two years has celebrated their value with a social media campaign encouraging registered nurses and students to share a photo and an “I Am Me” statement with their colleagues.

The campaign was executed in 2018 with no paid social media advertising, but it was successful enough to earn the team a $2,000 budget for 2019. The results of that campaign have brought the association’s communication team first-place honors in the “Social Media Campaign” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

During the campaign, 55 members submitted photos and statements that were shared during Celebrate Diversity Month in April. To inspire members to contribute photos and statements, the team selected a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee to serve as the face of the campaign with a promotion on Facebook. The 2019 campaign also introduced a change from email submissions over the course of the month to an online form with a shortened time frame.

The posts that shared the 55 submissions reached more than 25,000 people and produced more than 6,500 reactions, 170 comments and 150 shares. The paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram helped account for an 80% increase in impressions over 2018, a 135% increase in engagement and a 23% increase in link clicks.

The top Facebook post of the campaign stood out as the second most-liked in the history of the association’s Facebook page. The team shared two posts each day across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Congratulations to Marlene McDowell, Julie Ciamerella, Zach Timm, Frank Barancyk and Matt Paul.

A patient’s battle against cancer takes a variety of tolls. One is the effect on the patient’s physical appearance, which can cause people to feel like they’re losing their sense of self. Walgreens identified an opportunity to provide an enhanced level of support to oncology patients beyond simply filling prescriptions. Its effort has earned Walgreens first place in the “PR or Media Relations” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Research revealed that 25% of patients with cancer are interested in getting advice and beauty tips related to cancer side effects management. The led the pharmacy chain to launch Feel More Like You, a pharmacy, health and beauty service available for free to assist cancer patients in managing the medical and physical changes associated with their treatments. With nearly 2 million newly diagnosed cancer cases every year, Walgreens positioned its campaign as a new resource to bridge the information gap for patients at the retail/pharmacy level.

The earned media effort centered on patient testimonials (with minimal media training to accentuate authenticity) that were also used in print and TV content. These testimonials were paired with a corporate narrative from the female heads of Walgreens’ pharmacy and beauty divisions.

The campaign also took advantage of partnerships with organizations like Look Good Feel Better, a cancer support program focused on the appearance and beauty needs of cancer patients. In addition, the campaign focused on the uniqueness of the offering, because no similar service exists at Walgreens’ competitors.

The campaign achieved 62 earned media placements in the likes of USA Today and Forbes.com, and nearly 500 million impressions. It also created strong social media uptake.

Congratulations to the Walgreens communications team and its agency, BCW.

Things weren’t looking good for the future of maternity in the market served by Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), where competitors have been shutting their doors and projections show a decline in the number of women of childbearing age. In partnership with Princeton Health and Penn Medicine in 2018, PMC set out to create a campaign to market its Center for Maternal and Newborn Care. The marketing campaign that resulted has won first place in the “Marketing Campaign” category of Ragan’s 2019 Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Weekly meetings commenced between Princeton Health marketing and community education staff, an advertising agency and a media agency to review the maternity brand structure, key messages, goals and objectives. They also reviewed previous focus group results and analyzed the competitive landscape, demographic and geographic data, and media consumption.

After testing a variety of images and messages, the team landed on a theme that captured new parents’ feelings about their new babies: “Life is Full of Wonder.” The tactics employed included elevator wraps inside PMC, a banner on the organization’s website, maternity topics published in a local weekly newspaper chain, posters at community events and in doctors’ offices, a livestreamed video, 60-second radio spots, bus wraps, email blasts and ongoing Facebook and Twitter content.

The team supported digital content with paid search tactics that included a call to action to reach out to PNC to find a physician or midwife, and encouraged people to take a tour of PMC’s maternity unit.

The campaign paid off, with more than 3,000 physician searches (a more than 17% increase over the previous year), nearly 1,000 physician profile views and much-improved attendance at community women’s programs.

Congratulations to the Princeton Health marketing and community wellness staff.

Christiana Care Health System, the largest private employer in Delaware with more than 11,000 employees in more than 70 locations in four states, makes flu vaccinations available to employees in October, but it wanted to dramatically increase the number of employees taking advantage of the program. Its success has earned Christiana Care first place in the “Internal Communications Campaign” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

The systemwide planning committee and external affairs department submitted names for a program, and #HitMeWithYourFluShot emerged as the winner. The communications team recruited employees from nearly every Christiana location to serve as models during a one-day photo shoot; the images were featured in a number of internal media channels. Employees were encouraged to share “flu shot selfies” with the campaign hashtag.

In an unusual move for an internal campaign, the team invited the local daily newspaper to cover the event in one hospital as a Facebook Live event. At another, a top-40 FM station broadcast live from the event. Even NBC National News online covered the campaign, and three of the top four Philadelphia metro area TV stations broadcast positive stories.

Ultimately, 7,868 employees, volunteers, and other staff members got vaccinated in a 17-hour window, representing half of the program’s goal of 92% of staff. By January 2019, nearly 94% had been vaccinated. Meanwhile, media coverage reached a potential audience of 24 million; Facebook Live and other media added considerably to the total.

Congratulations to Hiran Ratnayake, Karen Halesky, Matt McCoy and Shane Hoffman.

The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando occurred during the 2018 annual meeting of the American Medical Association, leading the AMA’s House of Delegates to pass an emergency policy declaring gun violence in America a “public health crisis.” The resulting campaign has earned the top prize in the “Crisis or Issues Management Campaign” category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Dozens of physicians addressed the issue during the conference, talking about the impact of gun violence on communities, mental health practitioners and ER doctors. Recognizing that the usual cycle following a mass shooting had to change, the AMA opted to take a leading role in communicating with reporters, activists and the majority of Americans who want sensible solutions to the problem.

The communications team decided its primary challenge was shifting the conversation from the 2^nd Amendment to the impact of gun violence of public health. The comprehensive approach the team settled on included plans to publish an op-ed after the next inevitable major shooting of the year, development of key messaging, amplification of moments where administration voices opened the door to resuming gun violence research, establishing a partnership of a group of physicians ready to fund research themselves, coalescing support among physicians and enabling physicians to tackle the issue individually.

The effort was launched in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting, followed by widespread distribution of an editorial board memo that resulted in increased media coverage. News media also picked up on a section of the AMA president’s speech during which he called on doctors to take the lead on the issue.

Early results have been encouraging, with more than 1,000 media placements and 3,000 news clips mentioning the AMA in the wake of the Parkland shooting.

Congratulations to the AMA communications team.