Newly Formed Point-of-Care Communication Council
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Seven point-of-care health media and information firms have formed a new industry association called the Point-of-Care Communication Council.
Its goal is to be the definitive driver for patient and physician/healthcare provider engagement, with an overall desire to positively contribute to patient health and healthcare outcomes through point-of-care communications in doctor’s offices, pharmacies and hospitals.
The founding members of PoC3 are comprised of are comprised of: senior executives from AccentHealth (Dan Stone, CEO); Catalina Health (Renee Selman, president) HealthBridge (Clay Romweber, president), Health Media Network (Chris Culver, CEO), Health Monitor Network (Eric Jensen, CEO); PatientPoint (Tom McGuinness, CEO); and Time Inc.’s Targeted Media Health (John Kenyon, vice-president, managing director).
We couldn’t help noticing that Phil Cohen and neither his CARE Media Holdings Corp. nor his America’s Minority Health Network are members.
Cohen says, “Most of the membership is non-digital and even the three members that are digitally delivered have large print operations within their business. My medium is exclusively digital and is, for the most part, not advertiser supported.” Cohen says that he is meeting with some people in New York next week for more information and, “We’ll see. Hey, I may decide I should join – and they may not want me!”
“The Point of Care Communication Council is meant to be inclusive to everyone in the industry and we hope that every company in the space joins and takes advantage of the collective resources and services we will provide,” says Accent Health’s Stone, o-chair of the PoC3 organizing committee. “The seven founding member companies, which are among the largest players in the POC space, came together to kick the start the formation of the association—all with a similar vision, mission and set of objectives. Our first General Meeting will be held on June 12, and it is open to all interested participants. We anticipate generating great interest and hope to rapidly broaden our membership.”
“Critical health decisions are made at the point-of-care.” says Tom McGuinness, CEO of PatientPoint and co-chair of the PoC3 organizing committee. “As a result, effectively providing information to an engaged consumer will help promote favorable health outcomes and drive healthcare efficiencies. Point-of-care communication will become increasingly important as millions of new patients enter the health system under the Affordable Care Act coupled with the fact that people are living much longer today.”
Stone says, that point-of-care communications and the companies that provide these services have been around for a long time. “However,” he says,“point-of-care channels are underutilized and their unique effectiveness is not always understood. The industry will benefit greatly from a common platform to promote the benefits of point-of-care communication and help facilitate measurement standards.”
PoC3 was formed to:
- Help manufacturers, healthcare providers and healthcare systems reach patients at the point-of-care to drive patient engagement;
- Partner with manufacturers to help educate regulatory agencies as to the importance of appropriate point-of-care medical marketing/communication;
- Articulate and promote how point-of-care investments positively contribute to patient health outcomes and overall healthcare system efficiencies;
- Help manufacturers appropriately drive superior brand performance at the point-of-care;
- Enhance and set standards for industry measurement to facilitate efficient and expanded use of the point-of-care channel;
- Set guidelines for appropriate and ethical business conduct to support fair competition and overall industry growth.
Similar to other industry associations, PoC3 has three membership tiers: General Members are firms who provide health education, medical marketing and programs in doctor’s offices, pharmacies and hospitals. Associate Membersconsist of like firms under a certain revenue threshold. Affiliate Members are companies that provide services to the General and Associate Members including research organizations and advertising agencies.
The new association will meet on June 12 in New York City to discuss a number of initiatives including the formation of the following committees: Membership/Outreach, Regulatory/Public Policy, Measurement/Impact, and Industry Guidelines/Ethical Business Conduct.
Further membership information is available here.
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