I remember the first time I saw a billboard announcing a well-known malpractice lawyer’s immediate and enduring availability. I experienced a rush of realization that I had just witnessed a confirmation of the prevailing opinion of the field of medicine about the practice of law-not repeatable in a publication of this quality. Yet here we are 20 years later with a Bulletin cover article on marketing. What has happened in the intervening years to change my opinion-and that of many in medicine-that marketing is not only ethical but essential?
Several factors have changed the need for communication about our specialty to our customers including but not limited to patients and referring physicians. First and foremost is patient expectation. Our patients are no longer passive consumers of healthcare. Their appetite for medical knowledge about their illness is voracious. They often treat their quest for medical care as a mission where decisions about whom will render their care is a matter of comparing outcomes, reputations and location.
Competition is another factor changing perceptions about the medical market place. Neurosurgery as a specialty vies with orthopedics for spine and peripheral nerve surgery, vascular surgery and interventional radiology for carotid surgery, otolaryngology for skull base and anesthesia for pain management. Neurosurgery is dwarfed by many of these competing specialties. How is a primary care physician to appreciate the distinctive knowledge neurosurgeons possess, such as the fact that our specialty trains for five years or more for spine surgery, not just a one-year fellowship as do others called “spine surgeons”? How do patients understand that neurosurgeons are more than brain surgeons? How do we influence the media? How do we educate medical students about the breadth of our specialty?
A Dignified Educational Tool
It is my personal perspective that marketing, applied as a dignified educational tool, is the obvious solution to a broad spectrum of misunderstandings and ignorance about our specialty. We don’t want a strident, over-the-top approach but a subtle, respectful strategy that informs and educates.
We have all participated in some forms of marketing. Providing good service to referring physicians and high quality care to patients always has been a strategy for maintaining and increasing market share. I give you two examples from my own practice: First, I telephone the referring physician from the operating room immediately after completing surgery. Many tell me they have never been called by a surgeon before and appreciate the information.
Second, several years ago my colleagues and I wrote a text about primary care and the neurosciences (A Guide to the Primary Care of Neurological Disorders, published by the AANS) that I present to referring primary care physicians and to others in my area. This has both served to educate referring physicians and showcase the talents of neurosurgeons in providing care. All of us likely have similar strategies that work in our local market.
Telling Neurosurgery’s Story: A Marketing Tradition
Whether or not neurosurgeons like the idea of marketing, they benefit from it. The AANS has offered a diverse array of programs and services that target the public, the media, referring physicians, managed care organizations, medical specialties and legislators with marketing messages. The Getting SMART package is an easy-to-use public education and practice-building tool. The Find a Neurosurgeon component of NEUROSURGERY:// ON-CALL® places the names of neurosurgeons a key stroke away from Internet users. Reprints of the Neurosurgery Today insert that ran in USA Today function like an eight-page ad, albeit one that conveys messages with honest narrative rather than flashy images that appeal to emotions.
Marketing professionals know a well-grounded marketing campaign involves research, strategy and fiine-tuned target audiences. The goal is not so much persuasion as it is education. The method is not to trumpet guarantees but to place in front of the desired audience the facts needed to make a choice.
I still react strongly when I see a billboard touting a malpractice lawyer. Some forms of marketing prey on people’s fears, worries and troubles. But the abuse of marketing by some does not diminish the value, power and propriety of a low-key marketing initiative. With the aid of AANS and its marketing tools, neurosurgery can tell its story and reach the people who need to hear our message.
A. John Popp, MD, is Editor of the AANS Bulletin, Chair of the Washington Committee, and Henry and Sally Schaffer Chair of Surgery at Albany Medical College.