The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article about physicians’ increasing need to hire public relations and marketing professionals to "get the word out" about their practices. The interesting part, however, is that some of the physicians spotlighted are very hesitant to use traditional advertising, and from the sound of it, this feeling isn’t uncommon amongst physicians. Interesting.
From the article:
Until 1980, the American Medical Association reviewed physician ads
until the Federal Trade Commission told it to stop. Now the group
simply tells doctors to make sure the information they send out is
"truthful and accurate," said an AMA spokesman.A 1989 article in the Journal of Advertising said doctors felt ads
harmed the image of the profession. Even today, when they approach
agencies, often their first concern is that the campaign appear
professional."They don’t want to be perceived as 1-800-LAWYER," said Melissa Jacobs of Levy Jacobs.
Another instance:
Zachary Gerut, a plastic surgeon in Hewlett, N.Y., hired a publicist
to get the word out about a face-lift procedure he created using a
local anesthetic. He draws the line between a tasteful media campaign
and taking out an ad."My insides would shrivel if I ever saw my ad," he said, adding that
the idea was not to increase business. "I needed to publicize the
procedure as mine, that I developed, so that it wouldn’t be stolen."
I haven’t encountered any physicians working with PR or marketing firms, but as a member of a hospital’s in-house PR and marketing department, I have had the opportunity to work with individual physicians and practices on campaigns to increase the public’s awareness of said physicians and the services they offer. In an increasingly competitive field, physicians will have to seek positive coverage, and that usually means turning to a PR professional, especially if traditional advertising isn’t considered to be a viable option.
On a somewhat contradictory note, I have noticed that hospitals are frequently specifically advertising the services of individual physicians affiliated with the institution. Could that represent a changing of opinion among physicians on the topic of advertising?
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