Global Health Public Relations Blog
At least not Down Under. Today’s post comes to us from John Seng, Founder and CEO of GLOBALHealthPR US Partner and Chair, Spectrum.
Traveling down the south coast of Australia following our GLOBALHealthPR annual meeting several weeks ago, I stopped in at a NewsPower store in Bateman’s Bay to look for a souvenir or two for family members, plus to satisfy a little curiosity about what Aussies read today.
Today’s blog post comes to us from Dinesh Chindarkar, Co-Founder of our GLOBALHealthPR India partner, MediaMedic Communications.
It was a great experience to land in Sydney for the GLOBALHealthPR AGM amidst some of the great healthcare communicators from around the globe. Sitting in the conference room at Park Hyatt Sydney overlooking the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, it was the perfect setting to meet all the partners and discuss global trends in healthcare communication. I did notice that around the world there are newer challenges that the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are facing as far as effective communication is concerned. 
As the globe is getting economically stronger and flatter, health issues are dynamically changing. With increasing life spans, the global population is ageing, bringing with it new challenges for elderly care. The fast-increasing incidences of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer and other afflictions are taking a toll on public health and highlight a dire need for early diagnosis and care. [Read more...]
How appropriate that GLOBALHealthPR Australia partner VIVA! Communications chose Alexion’s David Kwasha to share his personal and Company views on rare diseases on World Rare Disease Day during our two-day annual general meeting in Sydney, Australia last week.
He challenged our group of leading, independent health-focused public relations firms to do more to advance the cause of rare diseases, and in particular, ultra-rare diseases.
In the U.S., a rare disease affects fewer than 200,000 persons, and an ultra-rare disease, fewer than 6,000.
David seemed happy to know that GLOBALHealthPR has already supported the location and identification of nearly 100 percent more children with Progeria, most definitely an ultra-rare disease in which children age rapidly. To date, about 110 children have been identified living with Progeria, an increase from 50 or so just five years ago. We titled our campaign “Find the other 150” because at the time, about 200 Progeria children were estimated worldwide. [Read more...]
Here in Sydney, we’ve just concluded our 2014 Annual General Meeting (AGM), the first to be hosted in Australia by our partners at VIVA! Communications. And, we could not be more excited about the outcomes! Early on, we got a heavy dose of local in-country updates from GLOBALHealthPR members, who reflected on accomplishments and challenges alike. Next, we used these responses to inform and refine our strategies moving forward. Our member agencies, from over a dozen countries, also shared the latest healthcare trends in their markets.
GLOBALHealthPR supporting the occasion with denim ribbons
Most importantly, today is World Rare Disease Day and because of this we spent the greater part of the morning discussing the cold hard fact that medical research innovations alone cannot help patients with rare medical conditions. Our keynote speaker, David Kwasha, Managing Director of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, delivered a powerful message and queried why patients should be denied access to treatments for rare diseases. “Why should any human be discriminated against access to life-saving therapy simply because their disease is ultra-rare? Considering the majority of ultra-rare diseases are often the most life-threatening diseases seen in medicine, and commonly affect infants, children and young adults, we need much greater collaboration between government, industry and the general public in this exciting era in which science is unlocking breakthroughs,” said Mr Kwasha. He challenged partners to devise effective communications-driven strategies to address the dilemma of reimbursement for treatments for ultra-rare disease.
Exactly four weeks from today, our health communications executives from over a dozen countries will gather in Sydney, Australia for the 14th annual GLOBALHealthPR Annual General Meeting (AGM). Chaired by Spectrum, GLOBALHealthPR is 
the largest privately-held organization dedicated exclusively to science and health communications worldwide. Our partners at VIVA! Communications will host the meeting, and we can’t wait to attend. [Read more...]
A post by GLOBALHealthPR Australia partner, VIVA!
With less than a month to go to the 2014 GLOBALHealthPR Annual General Meeting (AGM), we thought it might be wise to share some tips and trivia on our island home. [Read more...]
No doubt that the Spectrum team is having an amazing, enriching time in Brazil. We’ve been indulging in the local cuisine, exploring the diverse city and playfully dodging the obstacles that rainy weather brings to São Paulo. It is day two of official AGM business, and we’ve been having some really productive conversations about the Network and our vision for the future. [Read more...]
After a bumpy, stop-and-go cab ride from the airport and getting lost in what I’ve come to realize is one of the largest, sprawling cities (more than 8.5 times the area of Washington, D.C.), we arrived safe and sound at our hotel in the Pinheiros district of São Paulo.
Next week, GLOBALHealthPR partners from around the world will gather in São Paulo, Brazil for our 2012 Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM serves as an opportunity for partners from the network to gather in person to discuss business and marketing plans for the coming year. We’ve been hard at work preparing and coordinating with our GLOBALHealthPR team members at Tino – Projetos em Comunicação in Brazil – it’s hard to believe the meeting is just a week away! [Read more...]
April 2nd – 3rd, GLOBALHealth PR agency heads, including Spectrum’s CEO and Chair of GLOBALHealthPR John Seng, met for the annual face-to-face planning meeting. Here is John’s take on the trip.
I visited Italy with my colleague Rosalba Cano for the 8th Annual General Meeting of our GLOBALHealthPR partners, and hardly two days after the meeting ended in Venice, the earthquake struck the town of L’Aquila, which is much closer to Rome. (Martin Slater, the president of our Italy partner firm Noesis, suggested the Italian Red Cross among reliable relief organizations for readers interested in supporting assistance efforts.)
From Japan to the US to Latin America and throughout Europe, our partners connected to discuss our individual company performances for 2008, our prospects for 2009 and beyond, and to take a closer look at the different pharmaceutical approval and marketing regulatory environments for each of the 10 markets covered by GLOBALHealthPR worldwide.
For readers who don’t know, GLOBALHealthPR is the largest health-focused network of independent public relations firms that collaborate on an international basis. Spectrum Washington is the network’s headquarters.
I co-founded the organization in 2001, incorporated in the UK, and have served as chair for three years. A native of Mexico, Rosalba works closely and expertly with our team in Washington to coordinate all network services and marketing aspects.
In Venice, we were particularly excited to welcome two new partners, – PR Partners of Mexico and Tino – Projetos em Comunicação of Brazil. These two agencies join what I truly believe are best-in-class firms specializing in health care from Argentina, Spain, France, UK, Germany, Japan, and of course, Italy and the U.S.
Inspired by the winding canals of Venice, we adopted “Navigating the Challenges, Delivering the Opportunities” as our theme, which in reality spoke more to how the GLOBALHealthPR partners plan to compete successfully on behalf of clients and our own businesses in the face of the full-blow worldwide recession. Happily, each firm gave realistic yet positive overviews of the challenges in each market, and nevertheless, cautiously optimistic forecasts for pharmaceutical marketing communications needs.
A common trend across all international markets was the need for continued education about major disease states, and the opportunity to help global scale health industry and patient advocacy organizations develop overarching strategies as well as offer practical, in-market media knowhow that our competitors claim but really don’t deliver. (We know because many of our agency principals, including yours truly, have worked for the big-name PR firms.) This communications savvy applies increasingly in the digital media zone.
We also reviewed the new GLOBALHealthPR web site, as well as the all-new, second edition of The Global Guide to Pharma Marketing Codes, an easy-to-use reference to help international product management teams avoid costly and embarrassing Rx marketing communications faux pas.
We closed with a commitment to work more closely together in networking with clients in common such as Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Lilly, and reaching out to prospective clients to communicate what we know we can offer in terms of superior value due to our independent nature and commitment to health care. Hence, our tagline “A Better Way.” Watch this space on a regular basis, and I’ll keep you updated.
Finally, again our sympathies, prayers and sentiments go out to our friends in Italy as their fellow countrymen begin rebuild their lives and worlds amid too much sorrow this past week.
