Swaay.Health Podcast

Healthcare marketers spend months producing beautiful patient stories. We secure the budget, navigate legal reviews, and finally publish the video. Then crickets… Are we missing something? Yes we are. There is a whole channel for these types of stories hardly anyone thinks about – but if you do, it’ll change the way you create your video stories. Swaay.Health sat down with Cameron Kit, Founder of YOYOS, to discuss a different approach to video storytelling. Kit challenges the standard corporate video playbook. She reveals how treating patient narratives like documentary films can dramatically extend their shelf life and deepen audience connection. What Stood Out From This Conversation Film festivals as a PR engine. Submitting patient documentaries to local film festivals creates ongoing visibility long after the initial launch. Marketers get the benefit of a live event without the headache of hosting it. Specificity beats generalization. It is tempting to make a patient story broad so more people can relate to it. However, hyper-specific details are what actually forge a connection and make the narrative memorable. Co-create instead of extracting. Marketers often approach interviews with a predetermined angle. Asking the patient what they want to highlight changes the focus and results in a far more authentic story. The Film Festival PR Engine for Healthcare Most marketing videos have a tragically short lifespan. They get a surge of traffic at launch and then quietly fade into the background of an organization’s YouTube channel. Kit suggests a completely different distribution model. By crafting a story about the disease and the patient rather than the product, organizations can submit these videos to film festivals. She noted that getting accepted into a festival months later creates new opportunities for social posts and PR. “The best part is you don’t have to run the event,” added Kit. “You’re not hosting a gala.” Using film festivals gives these videos a life beyond the launch and puts your brand in front of a captive audience with minimal logistical effort. Specificity Beats Generalization When trying to reach a wide audience, the instinct is to water down the details. Why? Because we assume that a story about someone dealing with a specific condition (ie: sickle cell or an autoimmune disease) will not resonate with a broad audience. So we opt for the safe route of generalizing the story and glossing over the details. Kit argues the exact opposite. Broad statements lack the emotional hooks that keep audiences engaged. “The weird thing is when you let go of that [broad appeal] and go hyper-specific, audiences end up finding ways to relate to the piece,” said Kit. “When you go specific to a person’s journey, your brain will find ways to relate.” Co-Create Stories With Patients According to Kit, Marketers typically walk into a video shoot with a completed storyboard. They know what messages need to be delivered and exactly what soundbites they want to capture. This rigid approach often stifles the real story. Kit recommends throwing out the script and building the narrative alongside the patient. “It’s really easy for me and for anyone in marketing to get stuck in the mindset of THIS is the  story needs to be told,” Kit admitted. She recalled a project where the client explicitly wanted a sad, tear-jerking video about sickle cell disease. Kit asked the patient what she wanted to focus on instead. “Black joy was the surprising answer,” Kit remembered. By letting the patient guide the theme, the final product was authentic, memorable, and highly successful. The Bottom Line For Healthcare Marketers Patient stories are powerful marketing assets – no matter if you are a provider, a medical device company, a payer, a life-sciences organization, or even a Health IT vendor. But creating an effective patient story requires more than good lighting and a solid script. It requires a willingness to let your patient partner guide the narrative and a commitment to preserving the specific details of their journey. Oh, and being open to entirely new avenues for distribution. Treating these projects as films rather than commercials ensures they resonate with audiences and maintain their value long after the initial upload. What Healthcare Marketers Are Asking How do you submit a healthcare video to a film festival? The process is straightforward and typically managed through platforms like FilmFreeway.  Marketers simply create a project page, upload the video, and pay a submission fee to relevant local or niche festivals. Writing a personalized letter explaining that the subject is local and will attend the screening can significantly increase the chances of acceptance. Does a film festival strategy work for promotional product videos? No. Film festivals are looking for narrative stories, not advertisements. The product or service must fade into the background while the patient and their journey take center stage. If the video feels like a commercial or explicitly pitches a service, it will be rejected by festival programmers. Why is specificity important in patient stories? Hyper-specific details create a stronger emotional anchor for the audience. While general statements are easy to ignore, distinct memories, sensory details, and exact quotes force our brains to engage. This level of detail helps viewers empathize with the patient’s struggle, making the story memorable and shareable. Learn more about YOYOS at https://www.yoyos.ai/

I’m always fascinated by many of the healthcare marketing nuances that exist in healthcare organizations. This is particularly true when it comes to the differences between small and large healthcare organizations. In many cases, the smaller organizations are just doing everything they can to survive. The larger organizations on the other hand are very brand conscious and go to great lengths to make sure that their marketing efforts match the brand that their patients and customers expect. This idea became really apparent to me when I sat down to chat with Mary Sadlier, President at (add)ventures. Sadlier has a fascinating background that spans working at a large advisory company, working at a community-based health system, and now at a healthcare marketing agency. This made for a fascinating conversation that spanned the full gamut of healthcare marketing with a specific deep dive into their virtual production studio. Starting off the discussion, I ask Sadlier to share some of the hurdles that big healthcare brands are facing since (add)ventures works with a lot of big healthcare players like CVS Health and Baxter for example. Sadlier shared with us some of the unique challenges that global healthcare companies face and her team and her help them navigate those challenges. One that stood out to me was what it takes to make culturally appropriate videos that worked in various nations and languages. Not an easy task, but one that must be done to market to patients effectively. One of the solutions that Sadlier shared was (add)ventures’ investment in creating a virtual production studio that they could adapt and change according to the needs of the brand they’re working to feature. She observed that by having a full production studio you can easily swap out elements in the studio to make them work better for different audiences as opposed to having to move your production to different locations. Plus, it was great to hear how the virtual production studio allows their clients to see a full preview of what the video will look like before they even start shooting. This is something you can’t really do if you are recording video on location somewhere. We also dove in with Sadlier on how she and her team balance the need to be efficient, but still maintain authenticity in these virtual productions. She shared that there are some things you can’t really do in a virtual production because they wouldn’t be authentic. For example, you may need to go and do video of the actual hospital or care center in a specific location in order to not lose the viewers’ trust. The industry is evolving quickly and it’s great to see organizations like (add)ventures making investments that help healthcare organizations be able to lower their costs to film high-quality video that’s authentic and impactful. Check out our full interview with Mary Sadlier to learn more about (add)ventures’ virtual production studio and how healthcare marketing leaders can work more efficiently and effectively. Learn more about (add)ventures: https://www.addventures.com/ (add)ventures is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

Mara Baer, a chronic pain advocate, published author, and founder of AgoHealth, recently sat down for an interview with Swaay.Health to discuss the critical nuances of communicating with individuals living with chronic pain. During the conversation, Baer shed light on the hidden realities of the condition and shared actionable strategies for healthcare marketers to improve messaging, visual imagery, and overall patient engagement. Core Insight: To build authentic trust with the one in five Americans living with chronic pain, healthcare marketers must: Abandon acute pain messaging (acute pain and chronic pain are NOT the same) Stop using generic stock imagery depicting people in pain Use better terminology: people living with chronic pain vs suffering from chronic pain Recognize patients as whole people and expert partners in their own care Changing Chronic Pain Language and Imagery A significant disconnect exists between how marketers depict pain and how patients experience it. Marketers often default to visual cliches such as an individual holding their back while in discomfort or a construction worker grimacing on the job. These images depict acute and sudden pain rather than chronic pain. Chronic pain is largely an invisible challenge, and individuals are constantly adapting and striving to maintain high functionality in their daily lives despite it. Baer emphasized the need for imagery that reflects this reality: “Showing imagery that shows people doing their best to function versus being put down by their condition, that can go a long way,” Furthermore, word choice is critical when addressing this demographic. Using terms like “living with chronic pain” instead of “chronic pain sufferer” honors the individual’s humanity and helps reduce stigma. “The idea that we talk about people as the person with the lived experience of chronic pain versus identifying them as their condition can go a long way for people to feel I’m a human being beyond my condition,” Baer explained. Co-Creating the Patient Narrative Baer strongly advocates that healthcare marketers create campaigns that move away from portraying patients as passive recipients on the sidelines and toward treating them as active, respected partners in their care journey. This requires abandoning unrealistic “before and after” cure narratives and instead acknowledging the complex, holistic impact of chronic pain, including its significant toll on mental health. Patients with chronic pain are four to five times more likely to experience anxiety and depression, requiring a deeply empathetic and honest communication approach. To get this right, healthcare marketers must involve individuals with lived experience directly in the design of campaigns to ensure the stories are accurate and resonant. As Baer stated, “When it’s done right, you will know because patients will feel recognized and rather than marketed to… you’ll see stronger engagement.” What Healthcare Marketers Are Asking Are our marketing assets perpetuating the stigma of chronic pain by using acute pain stereotypes? Marketing leaders must audit their visual and written assets to ensure they do not reduce individuals to their condition or rely on exaggerated depictions of suffering. Campaigns should be evaluated on whether they show realistic adaptations and individuals striving to function normally, rather than just the immediate physical manifestation of an acute injury. How can we incorporate empathy into our patient storytelling and service line campaigns? Moving forward, marketing and patient experience teams need to establish formal mechanisms for co-creating content with patients who have lived experiences. This involves soliciting direct feedback during the creative process to ensure narratives do not oversimplify the journey or falsely promise magical cures, but instead validate the deep emotional and relational impacts of chronic health challenges. Learn more about AgoHealth at https://www.agohealth.com/

The acquisition of Cardinal Digital Marketing by Power Digital Marketing was big news. Jeff Mason, CEO at Power Digital, graciously agreed to join me on camera to talk about healthcare and their recent acquisition. He shared why they made the leap into healthcare and how they plan to operate Cardinal moving forward. Core Insight: Healthcare marketing is hitting the exact same data-driven inflection point that retail did a decade ago, moving from fragmented, brand-led efforts to full-funnel performance and strict attribution. The Retail Inflection Point Comes to Healthcare Healthcare isn’t just another vertical to Power Digital. It is a necessity that grows regardless of how the economy performs – unlike other industries. Because healthcare is almost a $5 trillion business, Power Digital saw it as a massive, recession-proof market to move into. In addition, healthcare finally seemed open to new marketing techniques. “We believe healthcare is at the same inflection point that retail was about a decade ago,” shared Mason. “I would say the inflection point is the result of growing patient demand that has increased the need for marketing sophistication.” Pairing Cardinal’s Specialization with Power Digital’s Data Backbone According to Mason, as agencies grow, they tend to become generalized and lose the narrow focus that made them successful in the early days. Power Digital wanted to avoid that generalization trap. “The strategy of what Cardinal is doing is not going to change,” stated Mason. “They’re the best healthcare advertisers on the planet, in my opinion”. Cardinal brings the deep, nuanced expertise in healthcare, particularly with MSOs and provider groups. What Power Digital adds to the mix is the technology backbone for data analytics and full-funnel measurement. By combining forces, they can provide the attribution and measurement layer that is becoming table stakes in healthcare. What Healthcare Marketers Are Asking Are we ready to defend our healthcare marketing spend with retail-level attribution? The grace period for untracked brand spending in healthcare is closing. Executive leadership teams, much like their retail counterparts a decade ago, are now demanding to see patient acquisition costs and demonstrated lifetime value (LTV). Healthcare marketing leaders must evaluate if their current data infrastructure can trace a patient’s journey from an initial online search all the way to the exam room chair. If not, upgrading that data backbone needs to be the next major priority to justify future marketing investments. Does our agency truly understand the nuances of the patient journey? As large agency networks consolidate, many offer generalized digital marketing services that fail to grasp the complexities of the healthcare industry. CMOs should be critically assessing whether their partners have deep, demonstrated expertise in healthcare, or if they are simply applying a generic consumer playbook. Specialization is a requirement to build trust and navigate the complexities around retargeting, patient information, and HIPAA regulations. Learn more about Power Digital at https://powerdigitalmarketing.com/ Learn more Cardinal Digital Marketing at https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/

Healthcare marketers spend thousands of dollars producing videos, only to watch engagement metrics flatline. Why? Because the audience is likely watching while answering emails in another browser tab. Keeping audience attention means a whole new approach to visual storytelling. Swaay.Health sat down with Dustin Schultz, Executive Producer at Union Productions, to discuss the realities of modern video marketing. The conversation explored how aligning production styles with distribution channels and embracing the distractions of the modern buyer can keep audiences engaged. What Stood Out Match production to platform. Slicing a polished brand video into short clips does not guarantee social media success. Marketers must tailor the creative story and production quality to the specific channel. Use story loops to hold attention. B2B videos still need tension to keep audience attention. Presenting an unspoken question triggers human curiosity and keeps multitasking executives hooked until the end. Design for the “other tab” reality. Viewers are highly distracted, often listening while working in a different browser window. Creating content that anticipates this behavior helps pull their eyes back to the screen. Stop Slicing and Dicing Your Hero Video It seems very logical and practical to take a video you filmed and cut it into 30-second segments for social media. According to Schultz, this approach ignores the reality of how different platforms operate. “Making the right type of video for your channel is a critical best practice,” advised Schultz. “The production that is for an OTT or CTV placements needs a premium look which is not want someone wants to engaged with on TikTok.” In other words, painting with the same brush across all channels is a recipe for poor performance. Story Loops Are Your Secret Weapon In the B2B world, buyers usually know your product is the ultimate punchline of the video. However, that does not mean you can abandon narrative tension. “Tension creates dynamic,” said Schultz. “Even though you’re on the company’s website or social media channel, and you know the solution is their product, there should still be a little curiosity/tension as to whether they will solve the problem.” To create tension, Schultz recommends using story loops – think story-within-a-story. Each of these loops should have an element of tension or a nemesis/challenge to overcome. This tension keeps the audience interested and multiple loops in a single video addresses the short attention spans of modern viewers. Design for the Multitasking Viewer Speaking of modern viewers, today’s audience is likely listening to your video while digging through their inbox in a separate window. Instead of fighting this distracted reality, Schultz urges video creators to lean into it. To combat this Schultz suggests using verbal repetition or sudden audio cues to break through the noise: “Don’t be afraid to say ‘Hey, I’m over here on the other tab’ – that’s an interesting way to breakthrough and could help you draw someone back in.” Repeating a point also helps to engage distracted viewers. When we hear something a second time, our brains “perk up” when it senses something is important. The Bottom Line for Healthcare Marketers Creating an effective video requires more than a high definition camera and a script. It requires a deep understanding of where the video will live and how the audience will actually consume it. When marketers respect the platform and acknowledge the distractions of their viewers, they move from simply creating content and start telling stories that stick. What Healthcare Marketers Are Asking How do story loops improve B2B video engagement? Story loops introduce narrative tension by presenting an unspoken question or problem early in the video. Even when the audience knows the company’s product is the ultimate solution, this technique taps into human curiosity. Viewers naturally want to see exactly how the problem is resolved, which keeps them watching longer. Why do high production videos perform poorly on social media? Social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram prioritize authentic, raw content over highly polished corporate productions. Taking an expensive, documentary style brand film and slicing it into shorter clips usually feels out of place on these channels. Videos must match the specific visual expectations and user behavior of the platform where they are posted. How can videos capture attention when viewers are multitasking? Viewers frequently listen to videos while working in another browser tab. Marketers can pull attention back to the screen by using specific audio cues, distinct typography for muted environments, or sudden visual shifts. Acknowledging the distraction directly in the audio can also act as a breakthrough moment that reengages the audience. Learn more about Union Productions at https://www.theunionproductions.com/

Every healthcare organization says they want to change patient behavior, but flooding people with more texts and emails is not effective. Driving true engagement takes an understanding of behavioral economics. Karen Sussman Horgan, CEO and Co-founder of VAL Health, recently sat down with Swaay.Health to discuss how applying boutique behavioral science helps health systems and payers double screening rates by leaning into the irrational nature of human behavior. Core Insight: Healthcare consumers don’t need more facts; they need strategic nudges that overcome innate human inertia and present bias to inspire healthier choices. The Irrational Human Element Healthcare organizations often assume patients will act purely on logic, but simply providing clinical facts isn’t enough to overcome our natural biases. Instead of fighting human nature, VAL Health harnesses it to drive better outcomes. “Behavioral science recognizes that as a human, you’re irrational,” shared Horgan. “Healthcare systems are really good at just giving you facts, but it’s so easy to push that off to the future. It’s hard for people to anticipate the future. What we do instead, is bring the impact back to the present.” Small Nudges, Massive Outcomes “At Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, we achieved a 15% reduction in no-show,” said Horgan. “We did that by bringing in social proof. We told them, nine out of 10 people show up for their appointments.” That minor tweak to the language of the reminder yielded the significant increase in patients showing up on time for their appointments. What Healthcare Marketers Are Asking How can we integrate behavioral science into our existing AI and marketing automation tools? Marketing leaders should evaluate their current AI investments to ensure they are not simply increasing the frequency of generic communications. Instead of just sending more automated reminders, teams need to weave principles like social proof, loss aversion, and exclusivity into their AI-generated messaging. This approach ensures the technology actually nudges patients toward healthier decisions rather than just bombarding them with easily ignored facts. Are we measuring the right engagement metrics to identify where behavioral nudges are needed? If digital marketing campaigns and patient portals have hit a plateau in conversion rates, it is time to look beyond standard open and click-through metrics. Marketing and patient experience executives should audit their communication touchpoints to identify where patients are stalling due to friction or choice overload. By pinpointing these drop-off areas, teams can strategically deploy low-cost behavioral interventions, like simplifying choices or reframing the call to action, to reignite engagement without needing a massive budget increase. Learn more about VAL Health at https://valhealth.com/

Not only are patients and customers rapidly depending on artificial intelligence for answers to health questions; AI also underpins conventional web searches more and more. Many readers of this site are experiencing the shift for themselves, and it is confirmed by the observations of Jorge Fimbres, Digital Marketing Director at Envision Health. The immense consequences of this shift are explored in our recent interview by Fimbres along with, Tim J. Busche, Co-Founder, President, and CEO, and Kelley O. Smith, Chief Clinical Officer. They point out that each organization is responsible to ensure the information about them in AI and web searches is accurate. More than that, search results must be readable and relevant. No “marketing babble” or “mumbo jumbo” related to compliance, Smith says. A patient trying to understand what the doctor is saying or doing should get what they need: what to expect when they go in the hospital, for instance. What must an organization do to adapt to the new search expectations. Busche summarizes the approach as a “deep understanding” of what the organization is doing—no fluff. He recommends always consulting clinicians. Fimbres talks about understanding exactly what you do and why users should care. Understand your audiences, their pain points, and what topics they’re asking about; “real solutions,” he says, and “also support a deeper dive.” The path to better search results starts deciding on a strategy. Busche calls on organizations to set clear objectives and then find low-hanging fruit. Smith suggests starting where people are searching the most, and where the information is most important to them; perhaps the oncology or cardiology departments. Busche discussed how Envision Health used the techniques they propound in updating their own web site. They wanted to show clients the results they obtained, to prove they have a winning approach. How can you trust an agency that hasn’t proven it works for themselves? The update also had to update some big recent strategic shifts, including the addition of direct-to-consumer services to their B2B strategy. To share more of their experience and knowledge on this subject, Envision Health recently published an eBook sharing how you can “Turn AI into your website’s superpower.”  Be sure to download the free eBook to learn more. And the update is not “set it and forget it”—they plan to keep improving over time, and advise clients to do the same. Check out our video interview with Envision Health to learn more about optimizing for new AI search. Learn more about Envision Health: https://www.envisionhealth.com/ Envision is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

Most healthcare rebrands grind to a halt in the boardroom, suffocated by subjective opinions and “one more tweak”. We’ve all been there. But when you stop guessing at what executives might like and start rooting your creative choices in hard research, buy-in becomes a by-product, not a battle. This is exactly what happened with Illumia’s recent rebrand. I sat down with Jenn Chellew, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Illumia, to talk about the high-stakes journey of merging Transact and CBORD into a single, bold identity. We dug into why successful rebranding is less about “vibes” and more about disciplined research and legal rigor. What This Conversation Revealed Subjective opinions stall progress. Grounding creative in client research secures instant executive buy-in. Trademark conflicts kill momentum. Embedding legal counsel early creates a safe guardrail for creative exploration. Endless iteration leads to decision paralysis. Anchoring to an immovable deadline forces execution over perfection. Research Ends the “One-More-Tweak” Cycle Getting an organization to agree on a new brand identity usually involves multiple rounds of painful iteration. However, when the creative is anchored in client interviews, market gap analysis, and competitive research, it stops subjective debates in their tracks. The Illumia team did their homework before bringing new brand options to their executive team. “After the merger, we recognized that neither Transact nor CBORD represented who we now were as a company,” Chellew explained. “We did research. We interviewed our clients. We consulted our client advisory board. We really made sure that we grounded our decision in research. We did one round of creative with our agency, came back, took it to the leadership team, and they were like ‘SOLD, we’re done.’” Don’t Fall in Love Before the Legal Check In a rebrand project, many marketing teams fall in love with a new name and build out an entire creative world around it, only to have their legal team pull the plug because of a trademark conflict. The team at Illumia avoided this trap by collaborating with counsel right at the start. “The legal portion of naming is particularly challenging,” Chellew shared. “We involved legal early on. We had all these great names and we showed them the logos too. We didn’t want to get anybody excited about it and then say, oh, sorry, we can’t use that logo or that color.” Anchor the Rebrand to a Milestone You Can’t Move Internal projects are famous for sliding schedules. Tying your brand launch to an immovable event, like your own user conference, sets a deadline in stone. A defined deadline doesn’t limit creativity; it focuses it. It forces teams to be resourceful, reduces second-guessing, and builds an environment of urgency that encourages action. “We intentionally launched here because our clients are here,” said Chellew. “I highly recommend putting milestones into your rebranding process, like an industry event. The timelines become pretty aggressive when you do this, but I highly recommend because it gets branding finalized.” The Reality of Rebranding in Healthcare The reality? A successful rebrand doesn’t have to drag on for months and months. By embedding legal counsel early, letting client data drive the creative, and committing to an immovable milestone, the Illumia marketing team completely bypassed the usual cycle of second-guessing. They aligned their stakeholders, did the hard work up front, and earned their “one-and-done” approval. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do you prevent subjective vetoes during a healthcare rebrand? The most effective way to prevent subjective vetoes is to ground all creative decisions in objective data rather than subjective preference. Before presenting logos or color palettes, conduct deep interviews with your client advisory board and perform a competitive market analysis. When you present the brand as a direct solution to client feedback rather than an artistic choice, stakeholders are far more likely to approve it in the first round. When should legal counsel get involved in a renaming project? Legal counsel should be involved before the creative phase begins. Marketers must vet shortlists of potential names and preliminary logo designs with their legal team to identify trademark or copyright conflicts early in the process. This prevents the costly mistake of rallying internal teams around a brand identity that cannot be legally secured. Why is it important to tie a brand launch to an industry event? Anchoring a rebrand to a major, immovable milestone—like an annual user conference or a major industry tradeshow—forces decisive action. It eliminates the “deadline drift” common in internal projects, drastically reduces the time spent on minor creative iterations, and creates a sense of urgency that forces teams to prioritize execution. Learn more about Illumia at https://illumiatech.com/

Healthcare conferences are a whirlwind of early mornings, long days, and late-night conversations—exhilarating, exhausting, and often incredibly valuable all at once. In our recent episode of the Swaay.Health Podcast, I sat down with Amy Oliver, Founder of Azul Heart and longtime Swaay community member, to talk about the real story behind conferences and spill a little industry tea: what actually works, the red flags to avoid, and the truths marketers whisper about after the show floor closes. Key highlights: ☕ Conferences aren’t a lead vending machine. Relationships first, pipeline later. 🎪 Big booths and swag don’t win events—great conversations do. 🎯 The companies that win events show up with intention. 🤝 The best connections often happen after the exhibit hall closes. 👀 The real ROI usually shows up months after the conference. 🔁 The magic isn’t the booth—it’s the follow-up. Curious about our full conversation (and all the conference tea🍵)? Check out the video below for the full discussion. | Truth 1: Conferences Don’t Generate Pipeline Overnight One of the biggest misconceptions about events is that they should instantly generate deals. Amy pointed out that conferences aren’t a “vending machine for warm leads.” In healthcare, where buying cycles are long and trust is critical, events are better understood as trust accelerators. They create opportunities to meet people face-to-face, continue conversations from previous events, and strengthen relationships that eventually lead to business. That means success isn’t about the number of badge scans. It’s about whether the right conversations happened and whether those relationships continue afterward. Truth 2: Intentionality Beats Booth Size Another common mistake we talked about was how companies make assume that a bigger booth or more swag will translate into better results. Instead, Amy emphasized the importance of intentional planning. The most successful teams go into events with clear goals: Who do we want to meet? How will we connect with them? What follow-up will happen after the event? Sometimes the best move isn’t sponsoring at all, it’s simply attending, scheduling meetings, and evaluating whether the audience aligns with your ideal customer profile. Truth 3: The Real Magic Happens After the Exhibit Hall While sessions and booths are important, the most meaningful conference moments often happen elsewhere. Think evening conversations after a long day on the show floor. Unexpected hallway run-ins. Deep conversations that move beyond small talk and into real challenges and ideas. Those moments are where trust forms and where the long-term relationships that drive healthcare marketing are built. At the end of the day, it’s about the people. For both of us, the biggest takeaway was simple: conferences matter because of the people. They bring together a community of professionals navigating similar challenges and trying to move healthcare forward. And sometimes, one meaningful conversation can be worth the entire trip. —-

Sometimes the need for a rebrand is obvious. Other times it builds slowly — years of small frustrations, confusing explanations, and branding limitations that start to drag on growth. This is one of those stories. And if you’re part of a small, scrappy healthcare organization, it’s worth paying attention to how this rebrand came together on a shoestring budget. Jen Horonjeff, founder of Real Patients, shared why her organization rebranded from Savvy Cooperative, and how her team executed the transition with minimal resources. Her experience offers a practical playbook for organizations facing the same crossroads. What This Conversation Revealed Clarity in healthcare branding often comes from subtraction, not creativity AI can accelerate brand execution, but human judgment still decides the outcome Resourcefulness beats budget when the strategy is grounded in purpose Why clarity forced the rebrand Horonjeff didn’t rebrand from Savvy Cooperative to Real Patients for novelty. It was the result of a growing gap between what the organization actually did and what the name communicated. “Our real core offering was getting patient insights directly from people with lived experience,” said Horonjeff.  “So we wanted to be a little bit more on-the-nose with [our brand] so you knew exactly what we did and who we are with just the name.” There was also a more practical reason: “People were constantly misspelling the name ‘Savvy’ all the time. Many thought there were two a’s.” Over time, those issues added up. The team found themselves repeatedly explaining their work instead of letting the brand do that job for them. In 2025, Horonjeff made the decision to change that. Once the new name launched, the difference was immediate. “Already we have people were stopping me and asking – tell me about this,” Horonjeff explained. “They see it and they want to know more about it, as opposed to Savvy Cooperative where they didn’t really know what it was. It’s important to us that we can entice new customers with just the name rather than having to have a big explainer that goes along with it.” AI laid the foundation. People finished the job. Horonjeff’s team leaned heavily on AI to prototype their visual identity and website. “There was a lot of iterating and yes, a lot of AI was used to make this possible,” said Horonjeff.  “Being able to iterate with a lot of back and forth was super helpful. It was also helpful to be able to looking at other websites and say to AI – I like this and I like that.” But automation wasn’t the whole story. “AI can take you 80%, maybe 90% of the way, but you still need that external help for that last mile,”  shared Horonjeff. “We still needed to have developers, designers, et cetera, to  get us across the line.” For Horonjeff, that final stretch mattered — especially when it came to security, stability, and execution details that couldn’t be left to automation alone. Big rebranding budgets are not mandatory Healthcare marketing teams often assume meaningful brand work requires large budgets, long timelines, or agency backing. Horonjeff’s experience suggests something simpler: clarity of purpose, combined with smart use of technology and people, matters far more than scale. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do we know when our brand clarity problem is serious enough to justify a rebrand? If teams are spending more time explaining what the organization does than advancing conversations, that’s usually the signal. When the brand creates friction in sales, recruitment, or patient engagement, it stops being cosmetic and becomes operational. Where does AI actually help in brand work — and where does it create risk? AI is proving useful for exploration, iteration, and early creative direction, especially for smaller teams. But execution, security, accessibility, and long-term maintainability still depend on human oversight, which is where most organizations underestimate the workload. Can smaller healthcare organizations realistically rebrand without agency support? Yes, but only when the reason for the change is clear and leadership is aligned on the outcome. Without that foundation, a lower-budget rebrand just recreates the same confusion under a new name, which costs more in the long run. Learn more about Real Patients at https://www.realpatients.com/

The healthcare technology market is oversaturated with automated content and digital noise, making it increasingly difficult for brands to establish genuine authority. PR professionals can help but only if they remember tried-and-true strategies like building relationships with trusted media and going to events to meet influencers in-person. Beth Friedman, Senior Partner and Molly Health Account Executive at FINN Partners sat down with Swaay.Health to discuss success factors for today’s healthcare PR professionals. They highlighted several what’s-old-is-new-again strategies that can cut through the overwhelming wave of AI generated content and outreach. What This Conversation Revealed In healthcare PR human connection means more than simulated familiarity that is inherent with automated blast outreach AI is increasing content volume while quietly raising the bar for credibility Visibility alone no longer signals authority. Proof now happens in public Operationalizing Human Connections Success in healthcare PR requires a long-term relationship strategy. Friedman notes that practitioners must understand the specific value of maintaining these connections over decades rather than quarters. This is particularly critical in a sector where the industry is small and reputations are built on consistency. To achieve this, according to Friedman, organizations should focus on: In-Person Credibility: Engaging directly with journalists and peers at conferences provides a proof point that AI-generated content cannot replicate. Mentor-Led Networking: Junior staff benefit from “buddying up” with veterans during media tours to inherit established trust and learn the nuances of the sector. Authoritative Earned Media: Securing placements with trusted media and influential sources acts as a strategic filter for buyers who rely on authoritative voices. Friedman shared how FINN Partners prioritizes in-person relationship building: “Twice a year, we do media tours. We go out and we have lunch, breakfast, coffee or dinner with editors and journalists. I always bring one of our new employees with me to build those relationships and from then on, they can build it in their own way.” Audience Matters “You as a brand need to remember who your audience is, what are you looking to tell them? What is your story?,” said Heath. “You can have all of these publications telling your story, but if they don’t reach the audience that you’re looking to tell your story to, it’s not going to matter.” Put another way, chasing vanity metrics like opens, clicks, views, and likes are meaningless if those metrics are not with an audience you are seeking. Furthermore, even the right audience consumes information differently; Friedman noted that while she prints articles to read on a plane, her colleagues may prefer video . To capture attention effectively, organizations must diversify their content modalities—ensuring the message lands whether the stakeholder is a reader or a viewer. In a healthcare IT market defined by long sales cycles, trust is the ultimate currency. While AI can scale outreach, it cannot replace the verified credibility earned through decades of relationship maintenance and in-person presence – two things that successful PR professionals understand. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do we prove PR value when leadership expects measurable ROI? PR impact in healthcare often shows up indirectly through deal velocity, analyst validation, and executive credibility rather than immediate lead attribution. Leaders are shifting from asking “Did it convert?” to “Did it move trust forward?” Are conferences still worth the investment in a digital-first marketing world? For many organizations, events now serve less as awareness plays and more as credibility checkpoints. Face-to-face interactions can shorten trust cycles with buyers, partners, and media in ways digital campaigns rarely replicate. How do we prioritize channels when there are more outlets than ever? The question is shifting from “Where can we place this?” to “Where does our audience actually look for authority?” Leaders are focusing on trusted voices, niche publications, and formats aligned with how their buyers prefer to consume information. Learn more about FINN Partners at https://www.finnpartners.com/

Is it fair that healthcare organizations prefer to do business with agencies and individuals exclusively focused on this industry? That depends on whether you have recently lost a healthcare opportunity. For Amsive, this moment became a catalyst for launching a specialized brand. Craig Blake, Agency Growth at Amsive, joined Swaay.Health to discuss the launch of Amsive Health and what it reveals about how healthcare organizations choose partners today. What This Conversation Revealed Specialization often ranks above prior success and logos when healthcare buyers evaluate vendors Marketing remains essential to growth yet is still treated like a discretionary cost Industry credibility determines who gets invited to compete The launch of Amsive Health did not start as a brand exercise. It started with a missed opportunity. “You lose a deal and they say to you – ‘you’re not healthcare enough’. Well that’s enough to make you go, it’s time,” Blake explained. “Healthcare likes to work with healthcare.” Healthcare organizations operate in a space shaped by regulation, risk, and public trust. It makes sense that they prefer partners who already understand the environment rather than those who need to learn it mid-engagement. Blake framed Amsive Health as a signal of commitment to the category rather than a structural separation from the parent organization. “You can dabble and grow it to a point, but if you’re looking to take that next level, you need to have an outward facing healthcare presence.” Going forward, that presence will be front and center at conferences and in market conversations. Healthcare marketing drives growth yet the expense is still questioned Given Amsive Health’s work across providers and plans, we asked Blake what pressure he sees most often from healthcare marketing teams. One stood out. Marketers are responsible for growth, yet they remain under constant pressure to justify their existence. “I think marketers in healthcare have the hardest job possible because it’s so critical to drive new patients and new members,” said Blake. “Marketing is also always first criticized as being unnecessary and an expense. That’s a tough place to live.” That tension is not new, but current cost pressures mean that more marketers are feeling it more acutely. Some teams are being pushed to cut staff, pause promising initiatives, and revert to rinse-and-repeat tactics judged solely on near-term financial return. Blake believes credibility with leadership should be a core strategy for healthcare marketers. Small wins, operational transparency, and consistent execution can help rebuild internal trust. Marketing Credibility come from focus Credibility comes from focus. Externally, a clear commitment to healthcare opens doors, and internally, a steady focus on results is what earns marketing the trust it needs to last. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do we prove our healthcare credibility? Healthcare buyers often filter partners based on perceived specialization, not just past performance. That means marketers and agencies need visible signals of focus, whether through positioning, partnerships, or consistent category presence, long before the RFP stage. What does “focus” actually look like in a crowded healthcare agency market? Focus is less about narrowing services and more about demonstrating understanding of healthcare’s operating environment. Leaders are prioritizing clarity in positioning, disciplined execution, and internal alignment so that credibility builds over time rather than needing to be re-earned with every initiative. How can marketing protect its budget when leadership is focused on cost reduction? Marketing teams are being asked to defend spend in organizations under financial strain. The leaders who retain influence are the ones tying initiatives to measurable growth, communicating progress frequently, and showing how marketing activity connects to operational outcomes. Learn more about Amsive Health at https://health.amsive.com/

If a health IT company is sending different messages in its materials (technical and marketing) or through its sales team, clients will have trouble trusting the company or even knowing whether its solution is relevant to them. If customers’ online research turns up a different focus from what the company is saying in sales and marketing, that too is a big problem. fuoco helps healthcare firms coordinate their messaging, content and data across departments and media channels and optimize them for AI search engines, an approach they call “Media Engine Optimization” or MEO. We recently sat down with fuoco’s founder and chief firestarter Kriste Goad to learn more about their unique perspective on extreme client collaboration, busting marketing silos, and how to help healthcare IT companies not get left behind. She points out that there are more sources of data and more online channels for messaging, than ever, so coordination becomes both more difficult and more critical. The AI searches conducted by potential clients complicate the scene even further—and like search engine optimization, “No one has it totally figured out yet.” In an environment where everybody is seeking information online, the old cliché “Content is king” takes on even greater force. Goad praises “brand journalism” where a company presents information about itself in more editorial, less salesy ways, helping customers see themselves in the stories being told and the impact being delivered. Too often, marketing efforts are siloed and even “a bit chaotic,” and some companies depend on canned advice from experts that doesn’t tie in with the company’s specific needs. fuoco offers help with individual marketing efforts and channels, but concentrates on strategies that include and inform the full marketing spectrum. Their clientele tend to be companies poised in the gap between start-ups and the major companies with big budgets. Goad discusses how to make the most of the budget you have. Check out our video interview with Kriste Goad from fuoco to learn more about creating a holistic approach to your healthcare B2B marketing. Learn more about fuoco: https://growwithfuoco.com/ fuoco is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

Healthcare marketers want clinicians and subject matter experts front and center. But when it’s time to involve them, calendars fill up and responsibility gets passed around. One organization stepped back, rethought how SME engagement actually works, and now has a waiting list of experts eager to contribute. This conversation brings together Alexandria Diaz, VP of Marketing at Ventra Health, and Marnie Hayutin, Founder & CEO of Writing.Health. They share how clear expectations, visible outcomes, and real collaboration turn SME participation from a struggle into a system. What This Conversation Revealed SME engagement breaks down when marketing treats their time as assumed instead of earned Collaboration works better when strategy and storytelling happen in the same room Experts participate more when they can see what their contribution becomes Clarity, Not Persistence Earns SME Participation For Diaz and Hayutin, SME engagement starts with expectations set early and made explicit. “I set expectations as far in advance as possible,” Diaz explained. “I let them know exactly how much time is required of them – from the interview to the review process or whatever else is needed. I don’t want surprises along the way.” Clear expectations are reinforced by Ventra Health’s internal culture. “Ventra Health has a culture of respect that is quite remarkable,” Hayutin noted. “If they sign on to do something, they work together to get it done.” That respect extends to marketing work as well. “Our people are always willing to share,” added Diaz. Joint Interviews Eliminate Rework and Second-Guessing Rather than treating interviews as a handoff or extraction exercise, Ventra brings marketing and writing into the same conversation from the start. “We do the interviews jointly,” Diaz said. “That helps a lot. We don’t do our own thing and then throw it over the fence to our writing partners. It’s a collaborative process. We’re in the calls together. We’re asking the questions together.” Hayutin sees the downstream impact immediately: “Doing it together means we cover the topic faster. It’s very efficient. There’s no rework. There are no additional questions that we should have asked.” Bringing everyone together, and coming prepared. respects the SME’s time and expertise. The interview becomes one-and-done. Less cleanup. Less rework. Credibility Continues to be Built After Content is Published At many organizations, SME effort disappears into a black box. Over time, that silence erodes willingness to participate again. Diaz was direct about what changes that dynamic: “Sometimes you have to show your value before people can appreciate it. If you give 30 minutes of time today, there will be this fantastic blog six weeks from now, and you’ll get all the praise for it.” “Promote the outcome so people understand it’s not just a blog,” Hayutin added. “Show how it fits into the overall plan and what they’re contributing to.” Closing that loop turns content from an abstract ask into a visible return. When Expertise Is Treated Like a Partnership On paper, this all sounds straightforward: be clear with expectations, collaborate early, and close the loop so experts can see what their time actually produced. In practice, very few healthcare marketing teams do all three consistently. Instead of treating expertise like a tradable asset, Diaz and Hayutin approach SMEs as true partners. Showing up together for interviews sends a simple but powerful signal: your time matters, and so does your perspective. That approach explains why, at Ventra Health, clinicians and subject matter experts aren’t being chased for content, they’re lining up to contribute. ——— What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do we get clinicians and SMEs to engage without constantly chasing them? Sustained engagement breaks down when participation feels open-ended or disconnected from outcomes. Clear expectations, visible results, and respectful use of time are key to engagement, not repeated reminders. What’s the most common mistake marketing teams make when working with internal experts? Many teams treat expertise as something they can tap on demand, rather than something that needs to be earned and maintained. When experts don’t see how their input is used, trust erodes and participation drops. Where does SME collaboration typically fall apart in healthcare organizations? Breakdowns often happen between interviews and publication, when context is lost or follow-up is inconsistent. That is “collaboration friction” and makes future participation less likely, even when the content itself performs well. Learn more about Ventra Health at https://ventrahealth.com/ Learn more about Writing.Health at https://www.writing.health/ Writing.Health is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

Healthcare websites are not dying. They are just evolving from the job they have been doing for the past decade. The idea that websites are soon to be obsolete is more about click-bait rather than true marketing insight. For healthcare marketers, websites will continue to be an important anchor point for campaigns, for access, and for knowledge. It just may not be the ultimate destination for people seeking quick answers. Swaay.Health sat down with Ahava Leibtag, CEO of Aha Media Group to dive deeper on this topic and to discuss their Healthcare Marketing in 2026: Key Trends & Takeaways Report. Doomsayers are chasing attention, not outcomes Declaring websites “dead” is all about provoking a response. Leibtag was blunt about the narrative itself: “I think some of the thought leaders in the space are using that line to get attention, and I don’t particularly find that kind of language useful. I would prefer for people to say, websites are evolving and you need to pay attention.” That evolution is being driven the rapid rise of AI-powered search through platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Search is no longer delivering visitor volumes the way it once did, but that is no reason to give up on websites. There are still many important reasons healthcare still needs websites. According to Leibtag, providing accurate health information to the community, being a hub of personal health information, and the place to access care still matters. Websites are becoming trust infrastructure So where are healthcare websites headed if not the scrap heap? Leibtag provided a clear answer: “People are coming to [your website] to transact. You need to show them they can trust you.” That starts with providing as much information about your services and facilities as possible. “I recently had an experience with a family member where we had to stay in the hospital for five days,” Leibtag shared. “I wanted to understand what amenities the rooms had. There was no information on the hospital website. That made me apprehensive and anxious for my loved one. Detailed things like that help to build trust.” No more excuses for healthcare websites AI has not killed healthcare websites. It has just removed the excuses for the lack of usability, incomplete information, and poor user experiences. Websites can no longer hide behind volume or vague storytelling. In this age of AI, websites will now function as proof points for patients. The teams that understand this are quickly moving to evolve their sites to earn trust rather than clicks. What healthcare marketing leaders are asking If AI is answering questions before people click, what role should the website actually play now? The website is no longer a discovery engine. It is a validation and transaction layer where patients confirm trust, assess readiness, and decide whether to move forward. That makes accuracy, clarity, and usability operational requirements, not marketing preferences. How do we know if our website is building trust instead of just looking polished? Trust shows up in whether people can complete tasks without friction and anxiety. Appointment scheduling, clear service information, and practical details often matter more than visual design because they reduce uncertainty at the moment of decision. Where should marketing teams focus when traffic declines? Fewer visits mean each one carries more weight. Teams are shifting attention from volume metrics to experience quality, content completeness, and coordination with access and operations to ensure the site reflects how patients want their care delivered. Learn more about Aha Media Group at: https://ahamediagroup.com/ Learn more about Answers with Ahava & Friends at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRdP7v0zff8MOUxC5VWxCiRa-zdcwKk1M Download the Healthcare Marketing in 2026: Key Trends & Takeaways Report at https://hubs.ly/Q03-bJsS0

We let ChatGPT be the third host Brittany Quemby and I decided to try something new. We asked ChatGPT what it sees most often from healthcare marketers and then tried to guess the answers ourselves. Think of it as “AI says… and Swaay responds”. We asked four things: the most overused word, the city people plan events around, the conference they’re researching, and what they’re actually using ChatGPT for. Brittany and I had a friendly competition to see who was more in tune with ChatGPT. Overused words by healthcare marketers I expected “workflow”, “clinicians” or “burnout” – they’re everywhere in press pitches, booth copy, and websites. Alas, the most overused word turned out to be “innovative”. It’s a word that everyone loves to use to describe themselves, but as Brittany put it: “It’s a word that really says nothing and if everybody’s innovative, then nobody really is.” Healthcare Cities and conferences Both Brittany and I were hoping to see less popular cities appear on the list of places that healthcare marketers are searching for when planning their own events. Sadly it was major conference cities like: Las Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, and San Diego that topped ChatGPT’s list. While the answers were not surprising, we learned something important. We should’ve asked about planning their own events, separate from the big conferences already in those cities. ‘Planning events’ was just too broad. Something similar happened with our next question, all the usual large conferences showed up: HIMSS and HLTH, but also a few that are specific to healthcare marketing like HCIC, HMPS, and (surprise!) Swaay.Health LIVE. At first Brittany and I were proud, but after we filmed the video, we started to think that maybe it wasn’t a good thing we appeared on the list. Why? Because if people are turning to ChatGPT to learn more about our event then we have not done a good enough job educating our target audience about it. How healthcare marketers are using ChatGPT The answers to this question were as expected…except for one. Content creation, of course, was the top use-case. Event planning and marketing strategy were also popular, but it was personas that caught us by surprise. Using ChatGPT to help with developing and testing personas is an excellent use of the technology and it was very encouraging to see it as one of the top uses for the platform. I did not think it was something a lot of healthcare marketers were using it for. I was glad to be wrong. An important ChatGPT lesson The biggest takeaway from this fun exercise: prompts matters, but the follow-up thinking matters more.

Any marketer that has been at a startup knows the moment when the founder story that once opened doors and got people excited starts raising eyebrows. What felt authentic and scrappy during the startup phase begins to feel tired and a bit risky when scaling. The challenge is recognizing when founder-centric branding stops being a springboard and becomes an anchor. Swaay.Health sat down with Sue McCluskey, Partner, and Carey George, Founder and Creative Director, at Goods and Services Branding (G&S Branding) to talk about founder-led branding, founder stories, brand strategy, and what changes as healthcare organizations grow and scale. What This Conversation Revealed Founder-led branding ages faster than most companies plan for Strong stories without strategy create momentum—but not resilience AI is amplifying the need for visible, human credibility—not replacing it Founder Stories Build Momentum, Until They Create Risk McCluskey put founder stories and founder-centric branding in context: “It can be an amazing thing, especially if the founder is super charismatic or just embodies the uniqueness of a brand. Where it starts to get risky when it’s a larger organization with more at stake.” Here’s why. “When the company becomes publicly traded [or has become a recognized name in their field], if the founder makes a misstep, then there’s a cascading effect of trouble. Shareholders get upset. Board of directors freak out. The public can freak out.” There is a potential for antics of the founder which were once seen as rebellious or daring to now be seen as reckless or tired. This is amplified in healthcare where audiences are risk-averse and brand credibility is easily damaged by controversy. A Brand Story Without Strategy Eventually Collapses Under Its Own Weight George sees many startups, and some scaling companies, confuse brand stories with a brand strategy. “Most of the time companies come to us and lead with ‘we need a brand story’,” said George. “What we try to tell them is that a brand story is not a strategy. You need a strategy. The brand story is just part of that strategy. Just telling your brand story, just writing your founder’s story isn’t enough. It may win you a pitch competition, but that’s only going to take you so far.” In the beginning, a company’s origin story and the founder’s journey make for a compelling narrative. Tied up in that narrative are the foundational elements of the company. Everything is aligned and works together. When you are a young startup, these stories may be enough to help generate interest. However, as George points out these are just stories and not a cohesive strategy. As a company matures a cohesive brand strategy is one of the things that provide separation from young startups. Cohesive brands generate the trust signals that healthcare buyers react favorably to. AI is Making Human Credibility More Important Both McCluskey and George both caution against completely jettisoning all elements of founder-centric branding. Why? Because as AI usage in marketing increases, the value of human connection and credibility also increases “You can publish all the information you want,” explained George. “But you’re going to have to get out into the public. You’re going to have to go to forums, conferences, talk to the media, and be real people in front of the media saying real things. People want to see people live.” George’s ‘real things’ means more that just the origin story or founder opinions that served a startup company well. However it does not mean completely benching the founder from all public appearances. They can still be a face of the company (ie: not the only face), but they need to diversify their public comments to include meaningful comments on the industry and customers. Very soon, presence will be a key differentiator. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking How do we know when our founder-led brand is starting to create risk instead of trust? Leaders tend to feel it first through subtle signals: smaller pipelines, longer sales cycles, tougher questions from risk-averse buyers, or internal discomfort about off-script comments. What replaces the founder story as a brand matures without losing authenticity? As organizations scale, credibility moves away from who started the company to how consistently the company delivers for customers, partners, and clinicians. Mature brands earn trust through aligned leadership voices, customer proof points, and disciplined messaging—not a single origin narrative. How should healthcare brands balance human visibility as AI-generated content increases? Automation makes content easier to produce, but it also raises skepticism. Leaders are realizing that real-world presence through panels, media interviews, and conference presentations has become a critical trust signal that no amount of polished content or origin story can substitute. Learn more about G&S Branding at https://gsbranding.com/

Website dashboards are looking very different these days. Traffic is down. Once reliable buying signals are fading away. Why? One big reason is the the nature of search is changing and healthcare marketers need to adapt quickly. Alexis Pratsides, Global Head of Digital at FINN Partners, sat down with Swaay.Health to talk about the rapid evolution of search and what it means for healthcare marketers trying to protect trust, relevance, and demand in a world increasingly moving towards AI-driven discovery. What This Conversation Revealed The top of the funnel hasn’t collapsed, it relocated outside owned channels PR has quietly become a primary input to discoverability, not a supporting one Structure now determines visibility more than volume ever did Search Isn’t Sending Traffic Anymore. It’s Sending Decisions. “What we’re seeing is the top of the funnel is moving off of your website now, and it’s into the LLMs,” explained Pratsides. “All the research and all the activity that people undertake as they are starting out on a journey to do something, that is happening off your site.” The alarming consequence is that website traffic is dropping for healthcare vendors, precipitously in some cases. However, there is a silver lining. “Interestingly, the conversion rates are increasing now,” continued Pratsides. “That’s because the traffic that ends up on your website, having already done their research elsewhere, is ready to do something and are highly engaged.” Your dashboard looks worse at first glance, but if you tune your website for these visitors who are further down the funnel, then your revenue pipeline will be stronger in this new search environment. GEO Is Putting PR Back in the Spotlight “Generative Engine Optimization or GEO is bringing together the disciplines of SEO and Public Relations [PR],” said Pratsides. “You need to be thinking about how they interact and work together to then get visibility bumps within the AI algorithms.” According to Pratsides, coverage of your customer success stories, executive thought-leadership, and  company announcements, particularly if they are covered by trusted, publications with high authority in healthcare or the general public, can help boost your company and your content to LLMs. “The LLMs seem to be favoring the really big branded, authoritative places online,” said Pratsides. “These are the media outlets that our PR colleagues are working with every day.” LLMs reward clarity, not content sprawl “We’ve proven with some testing that the LLMs favor really well-structured pages,” revealed Pratsides. “They like bite-sized, digestible chunks of content. So, if you can have a subheading and then a small chunk of content, often that will just get almost entirely cited in the answer to people’s questions on those LLMs.” For marketers who want their organizations to be cited by LLMs, creating content that is shorter, more structured, and more consumable is a must. It is no longer about keywords, rather it is writing content that matches how people are asking questions of LLMs. Good Content + PR – What’s old is new again with GEO For veteran school healthcare marketers, Pratsides words should be comforting. In this new world of GEO, what matters most is well written content that takes into consideration what the audience is looking for. It also means that getting earned (and paid) media coverage has tremendous value once again. It’s hard not to chuckle because this is a classic marketing playbook, just modernized for LLMs. Put another way, what was valuable decades ago is just as valid today. Time to dust off that old playbook. *Editor’s note: Partsides shared a lot of fantastic insights and recommendations in the interview – too many to include in this written article. What Healthcare Marketing Leaders Are Asking If website traffic is declining, how should marketing teams judge performance without losing credibility internally? Leaders are being pushed to defend marketing impact while familiar volume metrics weaken. The focus is shifting toward conversion quality, pipeline influence, and downstream outcomes that better reflect how buyers now research and decide. How do PR and content teams need to change their working model as AI-driven search becomes more influential? PR is no longer a downstream amplifier. Earned media, executive visibility, and authoritative mentions are becoming primary inputs to discoverability, forcing tighter coordination between communications, digital, and content teams. What content changes actually improve visibility in AI-driven search without increasing workload? The biggest gains are coming from clearer structure, tighter sections, and content that mirrors how real questions are asked. Teams are finding that reorganizing existing material often matters more than producing net-new assets. Learn more about FINN Partners at https://www.finnpartners.com/ FINN Partners is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

Live events are not only back—they remain one of the most effective ways for healthcare marketers to build trust, credibility, and real human connection. In this interview, Wendy Porter, Founder of Wendy Porter Events, and Michelle Hogan, Executive Producer at OVC Productions, share practical insights on why conferences still matter despite tighter budgets, how thoughtful event design influences audience trust, and how AI is beginning to reshape event production and risk management for healthcare conferences in 2026.

Health care marketing still lags behind other industries, but that gap is starting to close as providers adopt more targeted, data-driven approaches. In this interview, Ty Allen, President of Patient Experience & Growth at RLDatix, explains how machine-learning–based “pinpointed marketing” helps hospitals and practices identify the right patients to reach, improve schedule utilization, and protect revenue in an era of margin compression. Allen also shares why these tactics are gaining traction across health systems—and how AI and web search are reshaping how patients choose where to seek care.

The healthcare search landscape is changing fast and AI is at the center of it. As a follow-up to our incredibly popular Search UnWebinar earlier this year, I sat down with Lacey Reichwald, Director of Marketing at Aha Media Group, to unpack some of the biggest questions we didn’t have time to address live. We explored what’s actually driving visibility, traffic, and trust in this new era of search. From AI-powered search results to the renewed importance of PR and brand consistency, the conversation offers practical guidance for healthcare marketers navigating growing complexity — without burning out or chasing every new trend. Here’s what stood out most: Visibility and Traffic Are Not the Same AI-driven search is increasing brand visibility through impressions on search results pages, but that doesn’t always lead to clicks. Structured content like FAQs supports visibility, while human-led thought leadership and real stories are what drive meaningful traffic. Authenticity Cuts Through the Noise With AI-generated content everywhere, authenticity has become a differentiator. Content rooted in real expertise, human insight, and lived experience performs better with both audiences and search engines. PR Is Regaining Strategic Value Third-party credibility is increasingly important as AI tools prioritize trusted sources. Earned media and reputable coverage now play a direct role in search visibility and authority. Brand Consistency Matters More Than Ever Audiences encounter brands across AI tools, search, social, and media, often simultaneously. A strong, consistent brand helps both people and algorithms recognize and trust your organization. Search Is a Behavior, Not a Channel People now “search” across Google, TikTok, YouTube, and AI tools, often without realizing it. Marketers should focus on showing up where their audience already looks, rather than trying to be everywhere. The Bottom Line AI hasn’t replaced strong marketing fundamentals. Tell real stories, build trust, and lead with expertise. The brands that win will focus on clarity, credibility, and connection, not shortcuts. Missed our live Search UnWebinar session? No worries, find the replay is here.

In this conversation, we unpack what happened when one health system partnered with a local influencer to talk openly about pelvic health and why that risk paid off. Brittney Strum, Marketing and Business Relations Manager at Olmsted Medical Center, shares the behind-the-scenes story of Pelvis Party, a collaborative podcast created with local influencer Becky Montpetit. Strum explains how alignment beat audience size, why vulnerability mattered more than polish, and how quiet experimentation led to real patient engagement and internal buy-in.

Account-based marketing (ABM) looks powerful on paper, yet many healthcare marketing teams walk away frustrated. The problem is not the execution, but the lack of strategic planning before getting started. In this conversation, Saul Marquez, CEO of Outcomes Rocket, breaks down why ABM delivers strong ROI in healthcare and why so many programs stall. The discussion covers missing strategy, common misconceptions about ABM tooling, and how AI is changing execution without changing the fundamentals. It is a candid look at what actually determines whether ABM creates momentum or noise.

In this conversation, Rob Janes, Head of Product at AdButler, breaks down why “creepy personalization” is quietly undermining healthcare marketing performance. From clinician networks to digital health platforms, he shares what actually improves engagement, how consent changes the equation, and why fewer ads often outperform more aggressive strategies.

Healthcare marketing leaders are operating in an environment that rarely slows down. Budgets tighten. Teams shrink. Regulations shift. Now on top of all that, AI has changed the game entirely, accelerating timelines while introducing new norms around trust, accuracy, and impact. In these uncertain times, we healthcare marketing needs resilient leaders. But what does resilience look like in 2026? We put that question to Swaay.Health Editor Brittany Quemby.

One of the newest and hottest health IT conferences is the ViVE conference organized by the HLTH and CHIME teams.  The conference brings together health IT leader from provider organizations in a collaborative and vibrant conference. Since this has become an important conference in the world of health IT, we wanted to sit down with the team at HLTH to learn more about the ViVE 2026 conference from a sponsor perspective.

Marketing often gets pulled in after the hard decisions are already made. But what if involving marketing earlier could actually make healthcare operations work better? In this conversation, Sean Fitzpatrick, Chief Marketing Officer at Smith & Jones, powered by Overit, unpacks why Marketing can be more integrated with healthcare operations. Marketing teams already manage systems, data, and touchpoints that operations rely on every day. Fitzpatrick explains where that value is hiding, why HR and finance are missing useful insights when they engage with Marketing too far downstream, and how Marketing can earn credibility long before a crisis hits.

For years, healthcare marketers were told that tracking less was the safest option. But what if the real risk has been flying blind while patients quietly fall out of the journey? In this conversation, Russell Reid, Chief Technology Officer at Alliance Innovations, breaks down how healthcare organizations are rethinking analytics in a post-OCR Bulletin world. He explains why data obfuscation created new problems, how precision matters more than volume, and what happens when marketers can finally see the full patient journey again. It’s a practical look at how privacy and clarity can coexist.

Plenty of marketers are experimenting with AI, though often in narrow ways. The more interesting work is happening in teams that let AI influence targeting, workflows, and decision-making. This discussion explores what those differences look like. Adam Turinas, CEO & Founder, and Mark Erwich, Principal & Chief Strategy Officer at Health Launchpad, join Swaay.Health to break down how AI is reshaping healthcare marketing. They share the use cases teams overlook, the quality gains that come from training AI on real customer insights, and why curiosity is becoming a core job skill. They also talk about the study they ran across 250+ health tech marketing leaders, what surprised them, and why the next three years will reshape every team structure in the industry.

Every marketer has faced this moment. You think you know how your customers see you, then a single insight forces you to rethink the foundation. That’s exactly what happened when PointClickCare rebuilt its brand around one word: help. In this interview, Gabriel Paine, VP Brand Marketing at PointClickCare, explains how customer feedback reshaped the company’s mission and why the team chose a warmer, more grounded visual identity. He shares how they pressure-tested their color palette, why actors didn’t make the cut, and what happened when the new brand went live for employees. It’s a candid look at what it takes to align a brand with the work customers believe you do best.

Most healthcare vendors think they lost the deal because another product edged them out. But the truth is quieter and far more uncomfortable: the relationship never had time to grow. If you’ve ever wondered why conversations stall or vanish, this one hits close to home. In this candid interview, Alan Shoebridge, AVP & Chief Communication Officer (National) at Providence, breaks down how large health systems actually decide who gets a meeting, who gets remembered, and who gets quietly ruled out. We talk about the 75 percent relationship factor, the long memory buyers have when vendors ghost, and why case studies carry more weight than any logo wall on LinkedIn. If you sell into healthcare marketing, patient experience, or communications, this conversation gives you a clear picture of what truly moves the needle.

If your marketing, communications, or patient experience team feels a mix of curiosity and unease around AI, you’re not imagining it. You’re watching emotional change management play out in real time. In this conversation, Caroline Devore, Executive Director of Growth and Innovation at Studio North, and Matt Wright, human factors and change-management expert, break down why AI readiness in healthcare has nothing to do with prompts or platforms. They explain why grief, fear, trust, and identity play such a big role in AI adoption, and why empathy may be the most important skill leaders bring to the table.

Healthcare social teams are finally speaking out: always-on monitoring isn’t sustainable and the rising tide of online negativity is affecting their performance. There are surprisingly simple solutions to these challenges when leaders stop expecting superhuman stamina from the people behind the feed. Robbie Schneider, Enterprise Social Media Manager and Blog Content Strategist at Franciscan Health, breaks down the mental load of working in digital spaces and why healthcare communicators need real boundaries, backup plans, and a healthier definition of “responsiveness.” She shares practical strategies from her book Social Media, Sanity & You, along with clear-eyed stories about burnout, community crises, and the reality of constant exposure to online conflict. You’ll hear the simple strategies that help social teams stay steady during heavy news cycles, manage rising negativity, and set expectations with leaders who still think everything online is a “crisis.”

Most healthcare brands still treat social media like a billboard. But as Brittany Quemby explains, that’s a fast track to being ignored. Social isn’t about form fills or impressions. It’s about credibility earned through authentic voices and consistent engagement. Quemby is VP of Operations at Swaay.Health. She breaks down what healthcare marketers get wrong about social, why YouTube is the most underused platform in the industry, and how “playing it a little unsafe” can actually strengthen your brand.

In this episode, Adam Otey, VP of Growth at Huge and Swaay.Health’s 2023 Community Member of the Year sits down to discuss relational intelligence (RQ), lessons in serendipity, the future of healthcare marketing, and why community-driven connection leads to lasting impact.

When I sat down with Swaay.Health’s 2025 Patient Advocate of the Year, Erica Olenski, I knew her story would move me, but I didn’t expect how deeply it would stay with me. Erica’s journey as both a patient, a mother, and a caregiver to her son, August, who was diagnosed with brain cancer as an infant and passed away recently, is one of extraordinary courage. She has faced her own autoimmune challenges, cared for a medically complex child, and somehow turned those experiences into advocacy that pushes our healthcare system to see people more fully — as patients, parents, caregivers, and humans. Hearing Erica share her experiences in her own words is even more powerful. Tune into our conversation below to witness her courage, compassion, and advocacy firsthand. Key Takeaways: 💜 Healing Goes Beyond the Clinical: True healing goes beyond medicine, it encompasses emotional and spiritual restoration. 🎨 Processing Trauma Through Art: Erica’s nonprofit, August’s Artists, brings art, color, and comfort to pediatric patients while helping families process trauma through creativity. 🫶 We Need to Care for the Caregivers: Erica calls for healthcare systems to recognize and support caregivers as essential participants in healing. “Optimism isn’t being blind to reality, it’s a choice to look for the best possible outcome, even in pain,” Erica spoke passionately during our conversation about optimism not as denial, but as a deliberate act of hope. During long hospital stays, she and her family found ways to celebrate life in small but meaningful ways, decorating August’s and others hospital doors, throwing birthday parties, and creating tiny moments of joy in impossible circumstances.  Out of those experiences, came August’s Artists, the nonprofit she founded to bring art supplies and creative healing to pediatric patients. Her mission is simple yet profound: to help families see their experiences not as sterile medical events, but as stories worthy of honor, remembrance, and beauty. “Healing isn’t just clinical, it’s emotional, spiritual, and human.” As someone whose family has faced life-altering medical events, I hung onto every word Erica shared about the toll caregiving takes: emotionally, physically, and spiritually as well as the need to go beyond healing from a purely clinical standpoint. Caregivers often fade into the background, but Erica’s perspective reminded me that they are a vital part of the healing ecosystem. Her call for more family-centered, trauma-informed care resonated deeply. Because if a patient heals, but their caregiver is broken, we haven’t succeeded. “Healthcare is the most human experience we have. It’s how we’re born, how we die, and everything in between.” What resonated most in our conversation was Erica’s belief that storytelling itself is healing. She talked about how even the smallest stories, the ones that seem insignificant can validate others, inspire empathy, and change systems. It’s why she continues to share hers. And she’s right: healthcare innovation can’t start with technology; it has to start with humanity as healthcare is the most human experience we have. Erica’s optimism, courage, and compassion remind us that in every clinical encounter, every late-night hospital hallway, and every act of caregiving, there’s a chance to bring more humanity into healthcare. Her story is one of strength and loss, but also of love, resilience, and the art of healing. Learn more about the Swaay.Health Awards and how to nomination for yourself, a colleague, or a friend who deserves the spotlight here. —

How do you convince your CFO that a brand refresh isn’t an expense, but a growth strategy? Jeff Alter did it by flipping the conversation and grounding the creative in data, inclusion, and a little something he calls brand restlessness. In this episode, Jeff Alter, CEO of Sound Physicians, shares how he led a national brand refresh that united 400 locations and thousands of clinicians. He explains how his team turned internal hesitation into alignment, reframed budgets as investments, and used research to keep emotion in check. Healthcare marketers will walk away with new ways to earn buy-in from finance and leadership without losing the creative spark that makes brand work matter.

It’s a challenging market right now. Every healthcare organization’s budget is getting squeezed by lower reimbursement and cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Add to that, higher staffing costs, higher supply costs, and much more. Because of that, many healthcare IT budgets are getting cut as sales slow down. Of course, this has resulted in cuts to healthcare marketing budgets. What does that mean for you as a healthcare marketing and PR leader? That’s the question I asked Jodi Amendola, President of Amendola Communications, a Supreme Group company, and Dalton Patterson, Director of Health Tech at Supreme Optimization, a Supreme Group company. We start off diving into the challenges facing us in health tech marketing today and how uncertainty can create opportunity. For example, with lower industry spend, smart investments now can make your marketing dollars go further than they would during a more active, competitive time. We also explore how marketers can drive impact with limited budgets in a volatile market and what healthcare marketing leaders should prioritize right now. We also delve into the value of health tech specific conferences and events. This is particularly pertinent as the HLTH USA conference is just around the corner. Listen to the interview to learn more about how to maximize your ROI at events like HLTH USA and other conferences. Check out our discussion. Needless to say, there’s still a lot of opportunity to make an impression and get your company noticed even during challenging markets. Learn more about Amendola Communications: https://acmarketingpr.com/ Learn more about Supreme Optimization: https://www.supremeopti.com/ Supreme Group is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

Burnout. Job cuts. Career pivots. Every healthcare marketer knows the stress of wondering what’s next—and what it means when the familiar anchors of your role slip away. In this podcast, Chris Pace, Vice President of Healthcare Industry at SearchStax, shares how he moved from the provider side at Banner Health into a vendor role. He talks candidly about burnout, career identity, and why your value isn’t tied to a title. From using AI to weigh career decisions to finding unexpected strength in community, Chris offers lessons for anyone navigating a career change.

Still using the same cookie-cutter pitch for every hospital? That’s exactly why you’re getting ignored—and here’s what wins attention instead. In this interview, David Tytell, Director of Marketing and Communications at MIT Health, shares blunt advice for healthcare marketers and sales teams. He explains why one-size-fits-all messaging fails, how drip campaigns can backfire, and why thoughtful content wins more respect than aggressive selling. For vendors trying to reach hospitals, clinics, or payers in a tight budget environment, his insights hit close to home.

With so many healthcare IT conferences, it’s hard to know how to get the most value from each. Value depends on the answer to key questions like: Who is attending?  What opportunities to sponsors/exhibitors have to connect with buyers?  What can be done to stand out at the event? To get some answers ahead of the upcoming HLTH USA conference, we spoke to the team at HLTH to get an overview of what to expect at HLTH 2025. While that was a good overview of HLTH, we wanted to dive deeper into the sponsor side of the conference. We were therefore excited to interview Martina Boyce, Managing Director, Client Development and Ava Chong, Managing Director of Brand & Strategy at Goodwin along with Troy Goodwin, Account Director at HLTH. Goodwin (the company) has made a big investment in the HLTH conference and we wanted to learn their reasons why and explore the value they have realized from their sponsorship. Boyce shared how they have taken advantage of a variety of sponsorship options at HLTH. In fact, she highlights how she loves that HLTH collaborates with her and the Goodwin team to provide bespoke sponsorship that is customized to their needs. For example, this year Goodwin will be sponsoring the Starbucks at the entrance to the conference. Troy commented that this is what he and the team like to do with all of their clients. They want to make sure that conference sponsors are able to achieve their marketing and branding goals at the conference – even if that means creating something unique to that sponsor. Chong also shared with us how their HLTH sponsorship is supporting Goodwin’s brand positioning. She spoke about how it’s been great for the marketing and client development team to work together to get the most out of the conference. Boyce also shared details of some of the HLTH speaking sessions that her colleagues at Goodwin are going to do at the conference. Check out the interview with HLTH and Goodwin hear one company’s experience sponsoring the conference. Learn more about HLTH: https://hlth.com/ Learn more about Goodwin: https://www.goodwinlaw.com/ HLTH is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene

This week on the Swaay.Health Podcast, I had the honor of sitting down with my friends Amy Oliver and Carol Flagg, this year’s Community Members of the Year at the 2025 Swaay.Health Awards. I loved hearing about their journeys into the Swaay Community and why this space has become so meaningful. Not just for them, but for so many of us. From meerkats to hummingbirds to koalas, we even debated which mascot best represents the spirit of Swaay—a mix of curiosity, energy, and heart. What would you choose as the Swaay.Health mascot? Key Highlights Community is the heartbeat of Swaay. Both winners emphasized that true value comes from giving, connecting, and showing up authentically. Vulnerability fuels connection. Sharing failures, being open, and supporting each other makes this community stronger. Relationships come first. Building trust before you “need” it creates opportunities, friendships, and long-term professional growth. Their paths into the Swaay Community may have looked different, but both found lasting connection and value along the way. For Carol, her connection stretches back to the very first Swaay.Health LIVE conference, (called the HITMC conference at that time)  when sessions were small, sponsors shared tables, and conversations flowed freely. “It was clear right from the get-go that even from the first year, the value of the conference was there and there was no place to go but up,” she recalled. Amy, on the other hand, connected with the community post-COVID, describing how quickly it became a lifeline. “I just feel like I had no idea what I was getting into, but in the best way possible.” After reminiscing about their journeys into this community, the conversation turned to what it felt like to be honored as Community Members of the Year. When asked what the award meant to them personally, both Amy and Carol shared heartfelt reflections that spoke to the true essence of community. Amy shared, “It’s proof that consistent engagement in the community is seen and recognized. That’s not why I do it, but it’s such a lovely surprise.” For Carol, the recognition underscored her philosophy of giving without expectation: “I don’t ever see it as, ‘What am I going to get out of this?’ It’s about giving back. And if I give back, things come full circle. That’s the karma of life.” As the conversation wrapped, both offered advice for newcomers and those eager to make an impact in healthcare marketing. Carol encouraged attendees to “be a meerkat”—curious, social, and unafraid to jump in. Amy stressed the importance of building genuine connections before you need them: “The best opportunities come from people who already know and trust you.” Together, their stories are a reminder that what makes the Swaay Community special isn’t just the events or the content, it’s the people. It’s that time again, nominations for the 2026 Swaay.Health Awards are officially open! Check out this year’s categories and put forward a nomination for yourself, a colleague, or a friend who deserves the spotlight.

Fall conference season is back, with user groups, big industry gatherings, and RSNA rounding out the calendar. We’re sharing the events we’re most excited about and the must-have items we carry in our conference survival kits. For healthcare marketers, fall conferences are both a marathon and a reunion. The sessions inspire, the exhibit halls overflow with interesting companies, and the after-hours events are where connections happen that can’t happen anywhere else. The real question: which conferences deserve your time and what should you bring with you to survive them? Brittany and Colin talk about it.

For years, patient engagement was the first thing to go when budgets got tight. New data from KLAS Research shows the script has changed. Leaders are starting to see digital front door and other patient engagement technologies directly impact financial performance. Spencer Snyder, Senior Healthcare Consultant and Research Director at KLAS Research, recently shared findings from their Patient Engagement 2025 report. After speaking with leaders at more than 70 healthcare organizations, KLAS uncovered interesting insights into the priority of this area, the nature of vendor relationships, and even how patients themselves are being included in tech decisions.

What does it really take to get the attention of a healthcare provider? Why do deals take so long? Who gets involved in the purchasing decision? Swaay.Health busts long-standing myths in this interview. Pam Landis, Senior Vice President of Digital Engagement at Hackensack Meridian Health, spoke candidly about what it really takes to get new projects moving in a large health system. She also pulled back the curtain on gaining buy-in, budgeting, alignment to organizational goals, and why flashy logo slides don’t impress decision makers.

The FTC crackdown on tracking pixels shook healthcare marketing—and the ripple effects are still being felt years later. Many providers hit pause on personalization, fearing compliance risks. But what if there was a way to balance patient privacy with effective marketing? In this interview, Ours Privacy Co-founder Adam Putterman explains how their platform makes HIPAA-safe performance marketing possible, why some organizations are still getting it wrong, and how the next wave of tools can restore both trust and targeting power for healthcare marketers.

When it comes to shaking up the healthcare marketing and PR landscape, few names resonate quite like Mike Mosquito—technologist, storyteller, and host of The Buzz podcast. He recently joined me to talk about his recent win as Healthcare Marketing & PR Trailblazer of the Year at the 2025 Swaay.Health Awards. On the show, I talked with Mike about his journey in the space, what it means to lead with candor, and how authenticity is reshaping the future of healthcare conversations. From his early days building patient portals at McKesson to today’s role as a superconnector and media voice, Mike has never been afraid to turn the industry narrative on its head. Key Highlights: The importance of challenging traditional norms and moving beyond “safe” conversations. Why authenticity and vulnerability are essential to building trust in healthcare marketing today. How building platforms like The Buzz and The Recap has created space for authentic industry dialogue. A forward-looking perspective on the role of AI, community, and human connection in shaping the future of healthcare. For Mike, being recognized as a trailblazer isn’t about polished campaigns, it’s about building platforms that elevate real voices and real solutions. “I don’t consider myself a traditional marketer,” he shared. “I see myself as a superconnector, someone that builds platforms that enable candid voices and help others shine.” That drive to champion authenticity has fueled not only The Buzz Podcast but also his ongoing projects like The Recap, both of which challenge the industry to move past safe conversations and showcase what’s really happening inside healthcare systems and within the healthcare industry. The heart of Mike’s philosophy is a call to retire sterile, over-polished messaging in favor of what he calls earned vulnerability. “Sterile messaging falls on deaf ears now,” he explained. “When you show real outcomes, real failures, and the lessons learned—that’s what builds trust.” His approach has resonated with audiences across the country, propelling his podcasts to many different stages and sparking new communities around open, unfiltered conversations. Whether tackling burnout, AI, or the human side of digital transformation, Mike insists on keeping the dialogue raw and deeply human. Our conversation led to looking ahead at the healthcare landscape. We chatted about AI and human-centered innovation as key forces reshaping care, when balanced with transparency and equity. He’s particularly energized by solutions that close access gaps in mental health, while cautioning against narratives that position AI as a human replacement. As he told me, “Humans are always going to be in the play. The future of healthcare depends on us building inclusive, transparent, and equitable solutions.” With his candid style and commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices, Mike Mosquito is proving that trailblazing in healthcare marketing isn’t about chasing buzzwords, it’s about creating communities where truth, innovation, and humanity meet. Check out all of the 2025 Swaay.Health Award winners, and keep an eye out for this year’s nominations—you won’t want to miss them!

AI saves time and sparks ideas. But for many marketers, that relief comes with guilt. In a candid conversation, Brittany Quemby shared how she’s navigating that uneasy balance between efficiency and authenticity. Brittany Quemby, VP of Marketing at Swaay.Health, spoke openly about how AI fits into her daily workflow. On one hand, she uses AI to battle writer’s block. On the other, it leaves her feeling guilty about taking a “shortcut”. This tension mirrors what many healthcare marketers wrestle with today.

Fresh off her win as the 2025 Swaay.Health Marketing Rising Star, Shelby Auer, Senior Account Manager at Hedy & Hopp, joins me to share her journey. We talk about the Hedy & Hopp philosophy she embodies—‘pivoting with positivity’ and why trust and collaboration matter even more than metrics. Tune in to hear how Shelby is shaping the future of healthcare marketing with equal parts heart and strategy. Key Takeaways: Authenticity and vulnerability are powerful leadership tools that strengthen both client and team relationships. Pivoting with positivity helps teams adapt to change while maintaining morale and focus. Deep research and fresh perspective can uncover hidden opportunities that drive impactful results. Falling in Love with Agency-Life When Shelby Auer first set out in her career, healthcare marketing wasn’t on her radar. With a background in journalism and public relations, she thought she might build a path in the nonprofit world. But an internship at a small agency opened her eyes to the thrill of juggling diverse projects, building relationships, and finding creative solutions. “I fell in love with the juggling of different priorities, different projects, getting to know so many different types of people and what makes them tick,” she recalls. That spark eventually led her to Hedy & Hopp, a full-service healthcare-focused agency whose mission and values aligned with her personal desire for purposeful work. Pivoting is Like Breathing Ask Shelby what she loves most about her work, and she won’t bring up KPIs or campaign metrics—it’s the people. “I just really enjoy getting to know people and what makes them tick,” she says. “That’s where the magic happens.” As a Senior Account Manager, she’s become known for the way she builds trust by truly understanding her clients. Not just their goals, but what drives them—paired with her collaborative style that keeps teams moving forward in an industry where change is constant. Shelby also embodies Hedy & Hopp’s commitment to “kind over nice” and lives by a philosophy the team at Hedy & Hopp call pivoting with positivity. “In healthcare marketing, we pivot as much as we breathe,” she laughs. “You can pivot and grumble, or you can pivot and look for the silver lining. I try to set the tone so our clients and team see the bright spots, even when things are hard.” Part of what drew Shelby to Hedy & Hopp in the first place was the agency’s strong cultural foundation. The company doesn’t just talk about its core values, it holds team members accountable to living them every day. Employees are encouraged to reflect on how they embody values like collaboration, curiosity, and authenticity in their work. For Shelby, this ethos has been transformative. “It’s not just about hitting goals—it’s about who we are as professionals and people. That’s what makes this work so fulfilling,” she shares. Focusing on Results Shelby’s recognition as the Marketing Rising Star at the 2025 Swaay.Health Awards stems from her ability to blend strategy with creativity in ways that deliver real impact. She’s earned a reputation for diving deep into research, uncovering overlooked opportunities, and bringing a fresh perspective to every challenge. Whether reworking campaigns to meet state-specific advertising rules or identifying untapped service lines through audience insights, Shelby consistently turns complexity into results. It’s this mix of detail-oriented rigor and innovative thinking that has built trust with clients and admiration among peers, qualities that made her stand out as this year’s Rising Star. Continuous Personal Growth Looking ahead, Shelby is eager to lean more into mentorship, paying forward the guidance she’s received. Outside of work, she’s taking on a personal challenge, training for her first 10K in her new home of Chicago. It’s a goal that, much like her professional journey, blends ambition with optimism. “I like putting myself in situations I wouldn’t normally,” she laughs. Whether crossing a finish line or leading a client project through a major pivot, Shelby brings the same blend of positivity, authenticity, and purpose that have made her a true rising star in healthcare marketing. Check out all of the 2025 Swaay.Health Award winners, and keep an eye out for this year’s nominations—you won’t want to miss them!

One of the most interesting people in healthcare marketing is Jamie Gier. One thing that makes her particularly interesting is that she’s been a marketing leader at larger companies like GE Healthcare and Microsoft and most recently at a startup company, DexCare. She’s now transitioning to the next stage of her career where she’s doing fractional healthcare CMO work and deciding where she wants to have an impact next. At this year’s Swaay.Health Awards, her and her team won the healthcare marketing awards for Ad of the Year for their campaign “26 Days by DexCare.” If you haven’t seen it already, go and check it out. It’s a humorous take on the reality that patients take 26 days on average to see a primary care doctor. The campaign jokes about all the things you could do in 26 days including learning to salsa dance, try parkour, or even master unicycling. To learn more about what went into this campaign, we chatted with Gier about how she felt when she won the award, the details of how they came up with this campaign, and how they were able to execute it at a smaller company. She discusses the challenges of using humor in marketing while also making sure that a serious subject isn’t being treated lightly. Plus, how she leveraged her team to come up with such a creative campaign. While we had Gier, we also asked her about some of the differences she’d experienced doing healthcare marketing at larger and smaller companies. She notes how each have unique challenges. We also ask her to share what she believes are the keys to leading marketing efforts in the current healthcare marketing environment which is full of uncertainty. Plus, we learn what she considers the most underrated marketing tool, effort, or approach that not enough people are leveraging. Finally, we ask her how a healthcare marketing leader should be approaching AI. Check out our interview with Jamie Gier to glean important insights into how to lead a healthcare marketing team at large and smaller companies and other insights on healthcare marketing leadership. Learn more about DexCare: https://dexcare.com/