How we helped a meditech company secure new business

THE BRIEF

PatientSource is a revolutionary electronic patient record (EPR) system designed to make doctor’s work easier and patients’ lives safer by digitally logging their records and treatments. The SBPR team was tasked with raising the profile of PatientSource among medical decision makers to help secure funding for the EPR system and encourage private, international and NHS hospitals to adopt the system.

THE CHALLENGE

For SBPR the challenge was two-fold. Firstly, PatientSource did not yet have a UK deployment meaning it was not as relevant for the British press and secondly, in a highly competitive market of meditech companies, how would we make PatientSource stand out?

THE SOLUTION

The SBPR team turned the challenge into the solution by making the remote and distant location where PatientSource was first installed our story and giving it a human angle. To do this we focused on the island of St Helena, a small British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. The island’s geographical constraints and lack of resources meant its small population was suffering with high rates of preventable chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. When the island’s Health Director wrote an open letter appealing for solutions, PatientSource was the first to step up to the challenge.

We interviewed the operations team who travelled to St Helena as well as doctors and nurses on the island to produce first-hand accounts of its healthcare and position PatientSource as the company restoring health in one of the world’s most isolated territories. The story was picked up by The Daily Telegraph, MSN, Digital Health to name a few.

Aside from highlighting what PatientSource did, we also set out to raise the profile of the company founder, Dr Michael Brooks, among the medical community. As an A&E doctor Dr Brooks was well positioned to talk about the problems PatientSource would solve and its many benefits. Dr Brooks’ inspiration for starting the company was a result of seeing a patient’s life destroyed due to lost paper records, something PatientSource combats with its digital filing system. We pitched Mike and his inspirational story to health journalists across broadcast and print. This activity secured an exclusive in The Daily Mail and Mail online, followed by multiple pieces of trade coverage and a podcast on the meditech show Near Futurist.

To ensure PatientSource was regularly in the consumer and medical trade press, we avidly followed the news for suitable comment opportunities and updated journalists on PatientSource’s latest hospital installations.

THE OUTCOME

Through this strategy the SBPR team was able to secure a range of press coverage in key titles read by PatientSource’s target audience including The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, MSN, Med Tech Innovation, Health Investor and many more.

Positioning the brand in publications such as The Daily Telegraph gave PatientSource the credibility it needed to help them grow and secure new contracts in the UK such as the Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability.

In total we reached more than 5.5 million people with the features we secured and if the same space was bought in advertising this would have cost over £120,000!

what the client said…

‘From the very first meeting with the SBPR team I knew they were the right agency for us, the whole team took an interest in the PatientSource account not just our nominated (superstar) lead Alex and the senior team but the whole office. 

Through our regular weekly calls and comprehensive  email updates I always knew what was at hand, and the ever increasing running tally of exposure In the success table kept smiles a plenty back at PatientSource HQ, no mean feat with grumpy clinicians. 

The Daily Telegraph article was our most prized marketing asset which I used as a lever to take an embryonic toe hold in the market to a proper foot - the gravitas and association of a decent publication helped people see past us being an SME and without a shadow of doubt enabled us to win more business. 

Very happy to recommend SBPR to anyone looking to win.’ 

Lee Francis - International Sales and Marketing Director