Running head: HEALTHCARE MARKETING IN IMAGES 1

Healthcare Marketing in Images

Paige Gray

Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning

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Healthcare Marketing in Images

Fear. Frustration. Long weight times. Not enough help. The uncertainty of American

healthcare raises strong emotional responses from patients, physicians, healthcare administrators

and healthcare vendors. With the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care

Act in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but more commonly referred to as

“Obamacare”, healthcare marketers have utilized highly emotional imagery to attempt to sell

their products by playing upon these emotional responses even when the images have no visual

reference or contact to their product. The image used by InsulinAlgorithm addresses patient’s

and healthcare administrator’s concern of access to care due to physician shortage and physician

burnout.

Image 1 - http://www.insulinalgorithms.com/doctor-shortage-means-vital-role-nurses-physician-

assistants/.
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Visual Marketing through Press Releases

InsulinAlgorithm’s marketing campaign to healthcare administrators and providers is an

example of misleading marketing by playing on the fear and emotions of the reader. The visual

headline, “Doctor Shortage Means Vital Role for Nurses, Physician Assistants” is the initial

misleading introduction into their marketing campaign evoking a feeling, especially for mid-

level providers, that nurses and physician assistants (PAs) will be recognized as significant

members - if not equal to a physician - of the healthcare team. The image that follows shows a

long line of patients, single file, down a hospital corridor while an elderly physician, holding a

clipboard in his left hand, looks forlorn at the number of patients still to be seen. A multi-

national range of patients of assorted ages (excluding children) in various states of health are

waiting to be seen. One elderly woman is visible in a wheel chair; one man is on crutches; and

two patients are in orthopedic support devices (sling and walking cast). The lone physician in

his late 50’s to mid-60’s wearing kaki pants, physician lab coat, and stethoscope around his neck,

appears to be assessing the line of waiting patients. No other providers or staff such as nurses,

medical assistants, or receptionists are available in the image to assist this overworked physician.

Instead of having the comfort to sit while waiting to be seen by the physician, patients are forced

to stand like children in school awaiting their turn.

Image Elements

Access to care and physician shortage.

By 2030, there will be an estimated physician shortage of 100,000 providers due to

Medicare not increasing the cap on training support for residents (Association of American

Medical Colleges, 2017). To fill this void nurse practitioners and physician assistants are

working to increase their scopes of practice to be better positioned to meet this shortage need.
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Anticipating this need, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) modified their Conditions

of Participation language for hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) to allow these mid-

levels to be members of the organized medical staff (CMS Manual System, 2014). These

changes have been met with mixed feelings by patients, physicians and healthcare

administrators.

Physician burnout element.

Physician burnout has been linked to issues with access to care, quality of care concerns,

and patient safety issues (Physician Burnout, 2017). With increased emotional stressors like

electronic health records (EHR), family pressures, time constraints, work conditions, lack of a

feeling of accomplishment and/or autonomy, and increased regulatory pressures, the number of

physicians reporting physician burnout has increased 39.8% between the years of 2013 to 2015

(Drummond, 2015). Unfortunately, the traits that make doctors great – perfectionist,

compulsiveness, workaholic, superhero, lone wolf – are the same traits that causing physician

burnout. Physician burnout has been attributed to significantly higher suicide rates for

physicians compared to the general population – 40% higher for male physicians compared to

male general population and 130% higher for female physicians compared to the female general

population (Schernhammer, 2005). InsulinAlgorithm’s image of a tired, lone-wolf physician

assessing his patient load in a limited day correctly embodies the image of physician burnout.

The missing element.

Strives to educate patients regarding mid-levels education and scope of service are

occurring, especially with nurse practitioners. However, patients with chronic medical

conditions, such as diabetes, continues to require medical management by physicians. With a

software product that can analyze a patient’s blood sugar data and present a dosage adjustment in
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“less time than it takes an endocrinologist to scroll through a patient’s meter readings”,

InsulinAlgorithms’s utilization of the photo in their online marketing press releases hits at the

heart of patients’ fears (access to quick and quality diabetes care), administrators’ fears (lack of

qualified physicians), and assuages physicians that their software product will be a timesaving

enhancement to their already busy practices. Unfortunately, InsulinAlgorithm fails to provide a

visual linkage of their product or even of an issue or acknowledgement to diabetes in their media

piece.

Conclusion

InsulinAlgorithm’s visual marketing press release was quite successful in capturing the

fears of patients, providers and health care administrators with their photograph. The concern of

waiting in line to be seen is unacceptable by many Americans who have watched the decline of

access to care. Physician burnout is clearly identifiable in the image of the downtrodden

physician assessing the patients still to be seen. Unfortunately, this visual argument for their

product is lacking direct link to their software system. Without reading the full article the reader

is unaware that the image has anything to do with diabetes management or even a software

program to improve diabetes management. Lastly, the title, Doctor Shortage Means Vital Role

for Nurses, Physician Assistants is misleading as the marketing information indicates the critical

task of insulin management is not dependent upon NPs and PAs but can be efficiently and more

competently done by InsulinAlgorithm’s software program.

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References

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2017, October 23). GME Funding: How to Fix the

Doctor Shortage. Retrieved October 6 2017, from AAMC News:

https://news.aamc.org/for-the-media/article/gme-funding-doctor-shortage/

CMS Manual System. (2014, September 26). Revisions to State Operations Manual (SOM),

Appendix A - Survey Protocol, Regulations and Interpretive Guidelines for Hospitals.

Washington, DC: DHHS & CMS Publication No. 100-07. Retrieved October 31, 2017,

from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services: https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-

Guidance/Guidance/Transmittals/downloads/R122SOMA.pdf

Dewa, C. S., Loong, D., Bonato, S., Thanh, N. X., & Jacobs, P. (2014, July 28). How does

burnout affect physician productivity? A systematic literature review. BMC Health

Services Research, 14(1), 325-335. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-325

Doctor Shortage Means Vital Role for Nurses, Physicians. (2016, June 20). Retrieved October 6,

2017, from InsulinAlgorithms: http://www.insulinalgorithms.com/doctor-shortage-

means-vital-role-nurses-physician-assistants/

Drummond, D. (2015, Sept-Oct). Physician Burnout: Its Origin, Symptoms, and Five Main

Causes. Family Practice Management, 22(5), 42-47.

Gudbranson, E., Glickman, A., & Emanuel, E. (2017, May 16). Reassessing the Data on Whether

a Physician Shortage Exists. JAMA, 317(19), 1945-1946. doi:0.1001/jama.2017.2609

Physician Burnout. (2017, July 22). Retrieved October 31, 2017, from AHRQ--Agency for

Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD:

https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/clinicians-providers/ahrq-works/burnout/index.html
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Schernhammer, E. (2005, June 16). Taking Their Own Lives — The High Rate of Physician

Suicide. N Engl J Med, 352(24), 2473-2476. doi:10.1056/NEJMp058014