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PatientPoint and the Everyday Health Group have created an exclusive partnership to provide consumer and professional content in POC spaces across the country. The partnership “aims to create a more interactive, engaging and immersive point-of-care content experience – replacing fear and anxiety with community, curiosity and confidence,” stated the news announcement.

The release continued, explaining that “EverydayHealth.com consumer health and wellness content to be featured on PatientPoint digital waiting room screens and interactive exam room screens will include engaging, fun and ‘snackable' healthcare news, interactive quizzes/polls/assessments, infographics and tips. Breaking medical news from MedPage Today will be featured on digital PatientPoint screens in the physician back office.”

Mike Collette, Founder and CEO of PatientPoint, along with Dan Stone, President of the Everyday Health Group, proudly expressed their commitment to serve patient populations and healthcare professionals by leveraging technology and engaging, informative content. Both companies continue being among those leading our industry, as providers of health information and news, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CheckedUp announced yesterday the launch of their new advanced telemedicine platform for specialty care. CheckedUp Virtual Visits was created by physicians to ensure that its development meets the needs and engages patients and physicians at the point of care, especially as this space and our world become increasingly digital-centric.

“From early on, our leadership team viewed the COVID-19 crisis as an unprecedented challenge requiring an innovative response,” said Mark Goethals, Vice President of Marketing, CheckedUp [via the news release]. “Our efforts are focused on a new, post-COVID healthcare delivery landscape, delivering the service and functionality of a virtual examination room to patients and enabling providers to deliver superior virtual patient care. CheckedUp Virtual Visits allows physicians to meet their patients when and where they are, while providing innovative tools for providers and patients during their digital consultation. We are also happy to extend that accessibility to our partners in the life sciences, so that they can be a part of tomorrow’s healthcare conversations.”

Dan Schwartz, the company's Senior Vice President, Sponsorship Sales added, “Current telemedicine systems, while serving an important role today, offer very little by way of additional in-office technologies, making exceptional care possible. We expect to change that.” Evolving beyond the traditional telehealth system, the new released noted that their HIPAA-compliant innovation “simplifies scheduling and operations, allows patients to see the dedicated specialist they know and trust, and brings the same easy to use technologies physicians use in the physical exam room, into the virtual realm.” Notes and information from each consult made by the physicians will be tracked to help further streamline the administrative side of such virtual treatment.

It was announced yesterday that Matt McNally, CEO of Outcome Health, has been named to the Board of Directors of the Ad Council. McNally joins “a prestigious group of senior marketing and media executives who provide expertise, insights and financial support to ensure the Ad Council’s social good communication campaigns are effective and impactful,” stated the non-profit organization's news release.

“For Outcome Health this relationship with the Ad Council as an opportunity for new partnerships in areas like content creation, access to new expert content and distribution through our Point of Care network and other new channels,” explains Matt McNally, CEO, Outcome Health. “I have always admired what the Ad Council has done during times of health crisis, from Polio to HIV/AIDS and most recently COVID-19. Our company is looking forward to collaborating with the Ad Council board and its members to advance social change, particularly during this time of unprecedented public health crisis and economic uncertainty.”

According to an industry press announcement, “Outcome Health is the only healthcare platform working with the Ad Council to launch and distribute ‘Out There for Us,' a campaign that thanks all essential workers for their dedication, resilience and courage amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. By distributing the campaign at Point of Care, Outcome Health is giving doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, allied healthcare workers, pharmacy and support staff on the frontlines a better chance to see these special acknowledgements.” The Ad Council announced the “Out There for Us” campaign this past Monday (April 27th). As an extension of their current and on-going COVID-19 efforts, this campaign will feature “Good Job”, a new song from fifteen-time Grammy winner and musician Alicia Keys. In addition to the POC distribution via Outcome Health, the campaign will also utilize social media, video assets, and digital OOH ads. These will be “strategically placed on route to hospitals, highway road signs and outside grocery stores in cities facing heavy surges of the virus. … a take over within New York City’s Times Square and one of the largest OOH billboards in America, located at the junction of I-10 and 100 in Los Angeles.” The media has been donated from the Ad Council's partners and the creative agency, R/GA developed the work pro bono.

This is the latest work from Outcome Health. The point of care company has been partnering with “nonprofit organizations, health advocacy groups, industry content creators, and its own original content created with information from the CDC and federal and state Departments of Health” to provide accurate and timely information to patients and healthcare professionals. Some of their work has also focused on vulnerable or at-risk populations, including children or domestic abuse sufferers.

Point of care has always been a critical stage for reaching consumers and patients in their healthcare journey – and now, that has amplified since the emergence of COVID-19. As Mark Boidman, Head of Media & Tech Services at PJ Solomon told Karen Newmark, Executive Director of the Point of Care Communication Council (PoC3) in a recent interview, “there is no better place than the POC setting because it’s an authoritative setting, it’s a trustworthy setting, and it’s a setting where consumers are going to look for information and trust it and listen to it.”

When addressing media buys and inventory at large, Boidman acknowledged that some advertisers have paused, postponed, or cancelled their inventory purchases. But he expressed “the hope is that this is a short-term pause and that things will come back quickly once we come around to the other side of this virus.” He also predicts, when patients resume more normal doctor visits, that point of care will see an increase in traffic as people “realize that health is everything.”

PoC3 issued a message earlier this month to its members and our community at large, recommending four key “important considerations” to DTC marketers: “1. Know that this public health crisis is temporary. … 2. Look at the specifics for your brand and business to guide you in decision making. … 3. ROI and efficiency matter. … 4. Consider appropriate strategic evolutions or shifts within your POC plan.” The association group reminds us that each situation is “unique and will change over time through the course of the pandemic.” Being nimble and accommodating will help best serve patients, healthcare providers, and our industry.

POC3 will also be releasing a COVID-19 study as it relates to the point of care space in the coming weeks. This survey of executives from top POC marketing companies will reveal how such businesses are adapting in a post-COVID-19 world as well as what they are doing to support the healthcare and pharma community during this crisis.