With Thanksgiving right around the corner, gratitude is on all our minds. One thing the Aria team is thankful for this year is our newest Account Coordinator, Devyn Andrews, who joined the team in October. In order to get to know Devyn, I sat down with her to learn about her hobbies, passions, and her experience in the healthcare industry. Read on to learn more!

As a healthcare public relations agency, we at Aria Marketing are certainly no strangers to reactive pitching opportunities. When the Department of Health and Human Services releases a new draft plan, we are ready to pitch our clients’ expertise on how the rules might impact the industry. When a new data breach is reported, we know which reporters will want to hear from an expert on what went wrong and how other organizations can prevent such an incident. However, while politics and healthcare are deeply intertwined, it is not every day that we pitch a client to discuss a potential national security threat. The U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January, however, presented that opportunity.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an Instagram account must be worth a million, right? Using my favorite mobile app as a guide, I got to know more about Aria’s two newest team members: account executive Courtney Landi and account coordinator Kahler Buckley. Here’s what I learned:

When we re-launched Aria Marketing four years ago, the leadership team had a unique opportunity to rebuild the company and its culture. We looked back at the previous fifteen years and reflected on what was working and where there was opportunity for improvement. We kept some stuff, ditched some other stuff, and tried some new stuff. For this blog post, I wanted to share some of the initiatives we undertook that garnered the most and quickest positive responses from staff.

Facebook has been in hot water ever since the news broke that Cambridge Analytica, a political data consulting firm, harvested private data on over 50 million Facebook users without the users' permission. This is just one of many scandals that Facebook has had to weather recently, including recent criticism over the role it played in the 2016 election. With the #DeleteFacebook movement gaining momentum, and brands such as Tesla and Pep Boys removing their company pages from the platform, Facebook is facing a massive PR nightmare.

HIMSS, aka the Super Bowl of the healthcare IT world, has come and gone, and with it some very typical HIMSS moments—one’s that Scott Collins, our president, dubbed #ThatsSoHIMSS.  These are the things that, after 15+ years attending the conference, our team comes to expect, and actually even looks forward to each year.  So, instead of posting another traditional HIMSS round-up, we are taking a deep dive into those quintessential HIMSS moments. Read more below to find out the #ThatsSoHIMSS moments that captured our team’s attention this year:

As we gear up for the holiday season and the start of 2018, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the past year and everything we’re grateful for. That’s why we want to give thanks to 10 blogs, and the people behind them, that we think do a superb job drilling down into the complexities of healthcare IT, and highlighting how exciting, innovative, and inspiring this industry can be.

After our combined decades of experience in the business, we know a great healthcare blog when we see it. Here are our 10 favorites:

One of the best parts about working at a virtual healthcare IT PR agency is using creative means to build relationships with our colleagues and get to know them better outside of the day-to-day workflow. Recently, I connected with our newest Account Executive to learn what makes her tick and what is of interest. Read on for more about Janee.

During the month of October, things always get a little spookier — bare tree branches cast eerie shadows, nights are longer and more bone-chilling, and neighborhoods are full of haunting Halloween decorations. In the world of public relations, however, October isn’t the only time of year when horror stories abound. Over the past year, some companies experienced truly nightmarish PR blunders that they hardly escaped from alive. These are their stories…

Envisioning what the healthcare industry may hold for us in 2022 feels like a daunting task.  There are so many forces at work – mostly pandemic-related – that it can seem like a very uncertain future.  While there will be plenty of surprises, I’m sure, I think we have a lot of strong evidence for a few trends that are really taking hold which we can expect to continue in the new year. 

At Aria, we’ve worked with plenty of large, multi-national companies, but few can match the enormity of IBM. Since the launch of IBM Watson Health just over a year ago, Aria has played a role in introducing the company and its executives to eager journalists and key influencers in the healthcare industry.

I’m going to let you in on one of our secrets for success. As a smaller PR agency, we know we can’t do it all. So, we’ve partnered with some amazing companies to help expand our capabilities and add value for our clients. One such partner is Altos, a digital marketing agency whom we bring in for client projects such as website design. We think they’re the best in the biz, which is why I reached out to Altos Creative Director, Justin Martin, to see if he could share his top website design tips with our blog readers. Lucky for us, he obliged. So, take it away, Justin:

It has been more than a year since HHS proposed a set of rules to improve electronic healthcare data interoperability among payers, providers and patients. With the rules expected to roll out later this month, healthcare providers and payers will be required to implement open data-sharing technology to improve access to patient information. The rules require health plans to offer patients and clinicians access to their medical claims and health information, but providers will also be on the hook to increase patient access; as non-compliant physicians will be included in a public report that consumers could reference when selecting a provider. Here at Aria, these proposed rules have been a hot topic of conversation for a couple of our clients in particular.

COVID-19 has made healthcare policy the hot topic of the 2020 election. As healthcare public relations professionals, it’s always top of mind for us and our clients. We’ve got two very different candidates heading into the November election: President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D). Let’s take a look at how they match up on key issues:

For Public Relations professionals, each day brings new tasks and challenges. It can become pretty hectic, which is why Aria’s upper management team likes to sprinkle in fun activities whenever possible. Account Coordinators (ACs) and Account Executives (AEs) like me are tasked with a variety of projects daily, and though no day is the same, we thought it would be fun to share what a “typical” day at Aria Marketing might look like.

Fall is a wonderful time of year in Boston. Leaves are changing colors, apples are ripe for the picking, and this year, our beloved Red Sox are playing in the World Series. Likewise, the autumnal season brings exciting changes to Aria: this month we welcomed our newest Senior Account Executive, Cate Hannum! I sat down with Cate to get to know her better and talked everything from books and movies to travel and future goals. Here are ten things I learned about the newest addition to Team Aria:

Happy Thanksgiving! One tradition that has made its way into homes across the country is sitting down at the dinner table and answering the question, “what are you grateful for?”.  It’s common for this question to be met with silence as everyone tries to scramble for an answer. When life is full of busy workdays, nights of cooking, and weekends of errands, it’s easy to get lost in the monotony and forget about the things that truly matter. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that life can change in the blink of an eye. That’s why it’s important to slow down this holiday season, savor the moment, and treasure the people closest to you. Since we couldn’t be together in person this year, the Aria Marketing family sat down virtually to reflect on the past year and share what we’re grateful for.

Brittney Darner joined the Aria team as an account executive (this past July. In just a couple of months, we’ve gotten to know her a whole lot better and want to share some of her interests, hobbies and quirky characteristics – some of which may surprise you for a 22-year old PR newbie. Here’s our list of top ten fun facts about Brittney:

In honor of International Women’s Day we’re sharing our top three favorite commercials featuring women in 2019 thus far.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is: “better the balance, better the world.” Here at Aria Marketing we could not agree more. Working in healthcare-focused public relations and marketing, balance is something we are continually striving for; and while there is always room for improvement, we are proud to say more than 81% of Aria employees are women.

April was a busy month for Aria. Not only did Boston experience summer-like temperatures, but the Boston Marathon was a great success and some of our professional sports teams made it to the playoffs. Aria’s clients had some pretty big wins as well, here’s a recap of April highlights!