Market This

It is interesting what you learn when you do a little looking.  The following information came from a break out session Julie Whitman and I did at Annual conference in Denver entitled Manual Physical Therapy and Exercise for the Hip Region.

1.   Most current research efforts for the treatent of hip OA are focused on surgical interventions (EULAR lit search results); does the tag-line "You have Surgery, Drugs, or Us" ring a bell?

2.  While a majority of patients will try exercise, exercise intervention prescribed as a 1st line intervention for OA is prescribed infrequently in France (<15% of 3000 GPs prescribed exercise for a mock knee OA patient!) and Canada (only 1/3 of patients with OA had been advised by their physician to exercise)...I doubt this is different in the US.  And yes, the good old mainstay of bed rest was prescribed for up to 24% of these patients in one study, especially if their arthritis was severe.

3.  Despite the little work that has been done with regard to the effectiveness of therapeutic exercise and hip OA, the results and recommendations are positive (Cochrane DSR, MOVE consensus,and others), especially when combined with manual physical therapy ( Hoeksma et al.)

The same points about exercise effectiveness and underutilization are even more striking when the knee is considered.

It seems to me that with the swelling ranks of aging boomers, getting word out about what physical therapy has to offer them for OA and a number of other musculoskeletal conditions would do both them as well as our profession a lot of good. While we may be appalled at what physicians are prescribing for these folks, let's understand that most of them have very little training (and little interest in most cases) in physical therapy interventions.  Perhaps we should be appalled at how little we have done collectively as a profession to educate these folks.

The $M question for marketing is Who and How; the What is the evidence (not brownies, tickets, or cheap plastic pens) related to conditions we actually see regularly (like back, neck, knee, and shoulder pain) and can make a living treating (not blackberry thumb or poor posture).

Suggestions and a blue-print for action?

 

Rob

Comments

[Sean]

I recommend reading "Geurilla Marketing". It's a good start for anyone trying to develope a winning plan.

[Ande]

Sean - please tell me you're joking?

[sean]

Ande,
For the typical PT who knows very little about marketing, it's a very good introduction to how and why marketing efforts work.
I've read a few books on marketing, as well as attended courses. Guerrilla marketing gives an analysis of all forms of marketing through traditional media, legwork, and the internet. In addition, it outlines the process of formulating your company's marketing plan from start to finish.
While no book or course can possibly cover all bases for all businesses, it is a very valuable resource to have in the absence of marketing experience and practice.
The marketing courses out there aimed at PT's tend to be loaded with promises, but you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to complete their programs.
I assume you've read the book, so please tell us how to improve upon it. In addition, if you have a better book to recommend I'd love to check it out.

[Ande]

Sean, I completely agree with your comment that Geurilla Marketing is beneficial for "the typical PT who knows very little about marketing, it's a very good introduction to how and why marketing efforts work." For someone like me who has been at this for awhile (and I'm not claiming to be an expert), I just found it to have a very cookie cutter approach and sometimes lacks thinking outside the box. Sure there are tactics I've definitely used that are referenced in Geurilla Marketing and I'll likely use them again. However, I also believe a marketing plan is constantly evolving and you have to go with what's working at the time - for a company like ours, this changes every year, I hate to get stuck in a rut. I'm constantly looking for new and innovative ways to market our services.

A couple of other books I've found helpful and provide innovative thinking are Jim Collins "Good To Great" and Seth Godin's "The Big Moo".