Here are a few more photos from launch events that took place at hospitals across eastern North Carolina - all part of Vidant Health. For more details, see my two posts from yesterday.

Photo from Vidant Beaufort Hospital's Employee Celebration

Photo from Vidant Beaufort Hospital's Employee Celebration…

Today is a huge day for my client, Vidant Health. We have launch activities taking place across eastern North Carolina - a region the size of the state of Maryland. Our goal is to fully engage the 11,000 people who make up this health system. In this post I'll share photos of the new brand rollout in various executions, from bus signage to building signage to digital signage. My goal is to share with you the scope of this undertaking. Enjoy! (More to come as I acquire more digital images…

Today is the birthday of a new health system brand: Vidant Health. If you think about the scope of this health system in eastern North Carolina prior to the launch of its new brand, it had 10 hospitals over a footprint the size of the state of Maryland, a number of primary care physicians offices around the region, a collection of hospitalists, two join ventures with area hospitals, two wellness centers, home health and hospice services and an ambulatory surgery center. All of these had…

It has been fascinating to me, as a former student of American Government and political science instructor, to witness the rise of social media within our society. For some time now I’ve wanted to write a blog post about how the Founding Fathers would have viewed this dramatic change in the way people communicate. An understanding of American politics and…

Earlier this week I had a dental appointment (broken tooth). This was my first time visiting this particular practice; my previous dentist retired. Let me set this up by telling you that I have a serious dental phobia! Yes, I work in healthcare everyday and have done so for 20 years, but I have never gotten over the anxiety caused by just thinking about a…

Yesterday I received the brochure and agenda for the 2012 Healthcare Marketing Summit. The Summit is being held in Orlando, Florida at the Ritz-Carlton, April 29 - May 1. Judy Neiman and her team at the Forum for Healthcare Strategists have done a great job assembling a remarkable line-up of speakers for this year's event. I'm really looking forward to…

Recently I've written blog posts about med students writing poetry, p…

I managed to fly in to Albany, NY, last night, after delays in Raleigh-Durham and Washington National due to stormy winter weather in the Northeast. It actually seemed balmy when I arrived by way of rental car (4 wheel drive) in Bennington, Vermont. There was snow on the ground and in the air, but it wasn't sticking to the roads. Today is packed with meetings at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center so I was relieved to arrive in Bennington unscathed.

Of course, now the challenge is…

This is the time of year when a number of deadlines for healthcare marketing awards loom large. Here's a list of a few of the healthcare marketing awards competitions with impending deadlines:

• Aster Awards (11th annual) - Early submission deadline, February 29, 2012. Late deadline, March 16, 2012. Go to www.AsterAwards.com; for more information. This is one of the national healthcare…

Lexington Medical Center (West Columbia, SC) has been working to bring advanced, comprehensive cardiovascular services to the communities it serves for more than 10 years. In June 2010, I wrote a blog post titled "…

I regularly display hospital print ads on my blog. I found these particular ads in airline magazines. As you might expect, the ads vary in quality. I present them to you in the spirit of sharing and welcome your comments relative to the perceived quality of the various executions. One caveat: I scanned these ads so the quality has been diminished. Enjoy!…

At the end of each year I take stock of what I've achieved over that last 12-months. For me, it is the business equivalent of taking time to smell the roses. I don't want to let a year go by without celebrating the victories and assessing the missed opportunities. Each of us spends too much time at our professional life to approach it in anything less than a thoughtful and reflective manner. If you don't do this for yourself (and your business), I highly recommend that you give a shot. That…

Earlier this week I wrote a post about the breast-feeding flash mobs that assemble at Target stores around the country in protest of the retailer's alleged mistreatment of women who breast-feed openly in its stores. As an update to that post, I have included a video (see below) that documents the intriguing event through photos.

It goes without saying that the nurse-in garnered a great deal of attention. What we don't know is if it will have any impact of Target and its treatment of…

On December 28, 2011, HealthLeaders Media published a story written by Marianne Aiello about The Brattleboro Retreat and the resurgence of its brand after a failed attempt at re-branding via a name change. The Retreat, a mental health and addiction treatment center in Brattleboro, Vermont (a town I once called home!), has a history that dates back to 1834. That is…

After writing more than 200 posts this year, here is the list (with links) of my most read/viewed blog posts of 2011. It is an interesting mix of stories. I can't wait to see what 2012 brings us.

This blog post definitely falls under the category of "Who Knew." According to a report I read on Time.com, women in at least 35 states across America are staging breast-feeding "nurse-ins" at Target stores today at 10am to protest the mistreatment of a nursing mom in its Webster, Texas, store. The protests are also in response to a broader perception that Target is generally inhospitable to women who choose to nurse pubicly in its stores. You can read the details of the alleged mistreatment…

Guest Post by Katie Matlack, Medical Market Analyst, Software Advice

An interesting article over at Software Advice discusses ways doctors can use social media to enhance the practice of medicine. You may have heard about the September survey from QuantiaMD and the Care Continuum Alliance, which…

This holiday season, as my family traveled to Pensacola, Florida to spend a couple days with my parents, I had a revelation about the role electronic devices have come to play in our lives. There were three of us in Santa's Sleigh (US Airways Jet) flying to Pensacola: My wife, daughter and myself. And what did our collection of electronic devices look like:

• 3 Laptop Computers (1 MacBook Pro and 2 Dell Laptops)
• 4 Cell Phones (3 smartphones, 1 not very smart…

Many changes that will occur in healthcare will find their origins in our medical schools. That's why articles like the one written by Pauline Chen, M.D. capture my imagination and inspire hope for the future of healthcare. Dr. Chen's New York Times article, "The Doctor as Poet," tells the story of a poetry contest held by Yale University School of Medicine and…

Here are a few things that healthcare marketers and communicators can learn from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer:

1. Sometimes you just aren't appreciated until there's a crisis. It might take a winter storm for your leadership to recognize your value and the value of the communication tools you've built. Are you prepared for your version…