Month: January 2010

TheraSphere Liver Cancer Treatment Is New Focus for D&D

Posted on by Greg Dennis

Dowling & Dennis has just added a new client, MDS Nordion, a Canadian company based in Ottawa and maker of the TheraSphere treatment for liver cancer (www.therasphere.com).

TheraSphere is a valuable palliative therapy for patients who have primary liver cancer (originating in the liver) that is inoperable. TheraSphere is a recognized, scientifically documented, minimally invasive therapy performed by interventional radiologists. It’s typically done on an outpatient basis.

For many patients with this serious disease, Therasphere can extend life and improve their quality of life. More than 70 US centers offer the treatment, which is covered by Medicare and many insurance companies.

MDS Nordion products and services are used on a daily basis by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, medical-device manufacturers, hospitals, clinics and research laboratories.

PR Spending Rises, Even in Recession

Posted on by Greg Dennis

The respected Economist magazine reports that even in this horrible recession, corporate spending on public relations is on the rise.

“According to data from Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a private-equity firm, spending on public relations in America grew by more than 4% in 2008 and nearly 3% in 2009 to $3.7 billion,” the magazine writes. “That is remarkable when compared with other forms of marketing. Spending on advertising contracted by nearly 3% in 2008 and by 8% in the past year. PR’s position looks even rosier when word-of-mouth marketing, which includes services that PR firms often manage, such as outreach to bloggers, is included. Spending on such
things increased by more than 10% in 2009.”

Why the rise?

Part of the answer is that PR is so cost-effective, at a time when
everyone is carefully counting dollars. In healthcare, ad dollars have been shrinking because advertising is very costly and far less credible than media coverage and other awareness-building achievements generated by good PR. Moreover, the increasing need for businesses to be involved in social media — where PR shines in delivering the message — also drives investments.

eMix Radiology Sharing Service Debuts

Posted on by Greg Dennis

eMix, a groundbreaking new technology for sharing radiology images and reports, has made its debut in Montana health facilities. A number of other health systems are also lined up to use eMix (“electronic medical information exchange”).

For “Healthcare IT” magazine’s coverage of this exciting new service, see http://tinyurl.com/yfo4of7.

The first three institutions to use eMix were Great Falls Clinic,
Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and St. Luke Community Healthcare. The service was created by DR Systems, a client of Dowling & Dennis PR.

eMix solves a problem that has vexed medical imaging: how to securely share radiology data between proprietary PACS and other IT systems that don’t “talk to each other.” The solution: eMix uses “cloud computing” to make data sharing as easy as sending and receiving email.

The three Montana facilities are involved in a grassroots organization called Image Movement of Montana (IMOM), which formed to address the difficulty of sharing radiology images and reports. IMOM approached numerous vendors for possible solutions. DR System’s eMix was by far the most attractive option because it was simple, affordable, and required no new hardware or software.

For more information, visit http://www.emix.com.