Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 - (Page 28)

ultimately save them money down the road. Advertising. Mass advertising to the general public is one way to raise awareness of the benefits of cardiac CTA technology and your facility, but it is a potentially expensive and difficult to measure endeavor. “We’ve done some advertising to raise general public awareness,” says Chunn of Cardiac Associates. “But it’s very difficult to measure the results. However, marketing efforts with physicians are usually very effective, because once a primary-care group attaches itself to us, we continue to get referrals.” New Mexico Heart Institute decided not to advertise on TV due to the expense involved in contrast to the benefits of marketing directly to primary-care physicians, where you get more bang for your buck, says Brendan Cavanaugh, MD Events. Holding seminars, lunches and dinners for local primary-care physicians is one of the most effective tools for communicating with what is probably your most important market for cardiac CTA. Primary-care physicians and other practitioners, including physician’s assistants and nurses, hold the keys to the referrals you need to keep your cardiac CT procedure volume increasing. William Muhr, MD, a radiologist with South Jersey Radiology Associates in Voorhees, N.J., believes that educational seminars have been an important part of this 41-physician group’s success in promoting its cardiac CT practice. “We do the educational seminars and also have a marketing person on staff who targets some of the larger primary-care practices in our area to get information and visits,” he says. South Jersey Radiology Associates has a Siemens Medical Solutions Definition Dual Source 64-slice scanner, and is the only facility in the area with this advanced technology, which gives the practice a considerable edge over other groups with more traditional 64-slice scanners, Muhr believes. “You can see the beating heart with better resolution, so you get a much higher quality scan,” he says, noting that the practice touts their superior technology in seminars and interactions with primary-care physicians. Cavanaugh of New Mexico Heart Institute has given seminars at lunches and dinners designed to not only inform primary-care physicians about the overall benefits of cardiac CT, but also about other uses of the technology, such as peripheral vascular disease. Cardiology Associates of Mobile emphasizes their physicians’ experience and education in their seminars as well as the benefits of CTA and calcium scoring. Continued marketing to local primary-care physicians has lead to growth in the group’s cardiac CTA practice, with volume growing 53 percent in the third year, Chunn says. guerilla marketing For cardiac CTA, guerilla marketing tactics include not only encouraging primary-care physicians and providers to schedule their own CTA scan, but also focusing on the strengths of the technology with patients. Physician and provider scans. Like State of the Heart Cardiology, South Jersey Radiology Associates also brings in local physicians to get their own CTA scans as a way to demonstrate the power of the technology first-hand. When primary-care doctors express curiosity about the technology, Muhr and his colleagues invite the doctors to schedule a scan of themselves at a time convenient for them. “It’s been a relief for some of these doctors who weren’t sure if they had problems to find out that they have a normal scan and don’t have to worry,” Muhr says. The power of the technology then sells itself once the primarycare doctors have seen the clarity of the images and how it helps patients with disease that is otherwise difficult to diagnose, says Osborne of State of the Heart Cardiology. “This is still a novel technology to many primary-care doctors, so it is very important to bring them into our office to show them exactly what its capabilities are,” he says. Patient show-and-tells. Another important component of their guerilla marketing tactics for State of the Heart Cardiology is to maximize the opportunity to educate and inform patients about their heart health at the time of their scans. To that end, the practice has a conference room complete with a Philips 52-inch LCD screen to meet with patients following their scans. This meeting is the last step of a point-of-care cardiology practice delivery model that State of the Heart Cardiology uses. A typical patient is scheduled for a two-hour appointment, complete with all lab work, the cardiac CTA scan and a 45-minute meeting with a cardiologist. “We turn the meeting into a show for the patient and any rela- 2 Cardiovascular Business January/february 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 Contents The Ticker: Quality Pays in Several Ways Cover Story: The Proof: Why Evidence-based Medicine Improves Cardiac Care Clinical Study Digest: Co-payments and Cath Labs Cardiac PET/CT Fills in Gaps Left by SPECT Tapping into IT to Improve the Office-Based Practice SPECT–Proving Its Value Cardiac Images in the EMR: Just a Click Away The Top 20 Ways to Market Your Cardiac CTA Practice The Big Picture: Medical Displays for Cardiac Images Statins Work But Pharmacoeconomic Caveats Abound Driving Data Protection: Opting for Storage On- or Offsite News & Views Calendar Reader’s Resource

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

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