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by Dennis Hampton
Primary care physicians are a critical source for referrals of new patients with hearing loss. In a large study of hearing aid users (see AAA Marketing Survey in references), 63% listed their primary care physician as their most important source of information about hearing health care services (only 16% listed newspaper advertising as an important source). According to the Annual Dispenser Survey in the Hearing Review, 38% of new patients are from medical referrals.
Yet only about one in four people with significant hearing loss seek help for that loss. That’s why Kochkin said,"The first thing we need to do as a marketing initiative is to better educate a quarter-million doctors on hearing loss," and why the Better Hearing Institute has adopted physician marketing as its primary outreach program.
There are a number of marketing and educational activities that can be directed at primary care physicians, including in-services, workshops, office visits, and newsletters. Even the reporting of an audiologic referral can be viewed as a marketing and educational activity. Each of these activities can increase the physician’s awareness of the prevalence and importance of hearing loss, as well as the audiologist’s ability to meet the needs of the physician’s patients.
Our office has used a physician newsletter to reach physicians—and others in the professional community—on a regular basis since 1986. The newsletter provides visibility and credibility for our practice as it increases awareness of the seriousness of hearing loss and the benefits of audiologic treatment.
Do physicians read newsletters? Hase surveyed 150 physicians who received her physician newsletter and found that 73% of responding physicians "read the newsletter and wish to continue receiving it." In our office we regularly receive referrals from physicians with whom our only contact is our physician newsletter.
Nevertheless, a professional newsletter is only part of a coordinated approach to marketing to your professional community. (For a detailed discussion of other marketing activities, see Sanford and Kjelhaefer).
Creating an Effective Newsletter
A physician newsletter is very different from a patient (consumer) newsletter, which is written for the general reader. A physician newsletter should be written on a professional level and provide information that is helpful and relevant to the physician’s practice. It should be designed as a "quick read" that is educational—and interesting—rather than advertising for a product or practice.
• Style
There are many sources competing for the physician’s attention. The appearance of your newsletter should be designed to achieve a high level of "readability" both in the appearance and in the amount of material presented.
Our newsletter is printed in two-colors on a single (two-sided) heavyweight, 81/2" by 11" paper, with 11-point type. Graphics are used—sparingly—to improve attractiveness without sacrificing too much space. We believe this design attracts the reader while still providing enough space for substantive information.
• Substance
When writing for a professional audience, specific, documented information is vital. Most of our articles are based on the published literature, both medical and audiological, in order to maintain a high level of credibility. The articles address issues of hearing health care, not just hearing aids (although physicians have asked for more information about hearing aids as the popular media have reported on advances in technology). The articles are chosen from a "menu" of topics in the areas of medical aspects of hearing loss, consequences of hearing loss, audiologic evaluation and rehabilitation techniques, and hearing aids and hearing aid effectiveness.
For example, in our physician newsletter we have summarized research on smoking and hearing loss (Journal of the American Medical Association); hypertension and hearing loss (Journal of the American Academy of Audiology); unidentified hearing loss in women (Advance), the NCOA report on the consequences of untreated hearing loss (National Council on the Aging); hereditary hearing loss (American Journal of Audiology); efficacy of hearing aids (Journal of the American Medical Association); quality of life, hearing loss, and hearing aids (Annals of Internal Medicine); and the psychology of hearing loss (The ASHA Leader).
We also presented several "mini-tutorials" on sensorineural hearing loss, sudden hearing loss, tinnitus, noise, and early hearing detection and intervention. Several "advocacy" articles addressed the roles of the audiologist and the primary care physician in hearing health care. Every few years we write guidelines suggesting which patients should be referred for audiologic evaluation. Another article directed the reader to a Web site to experience simulated hearing loss. Finally, we also write about hearing aids, advances in hearing aid technology, fitting, and outcome measurements, and published research on the benefits of amplification.
• Message(s)
Each practice has its own philosophy or mission. We use our physician newsletter to provide information consistent with the following messages: hearing loss is serious; hearing loss deserves professional care; and hearing aids work.
Virtually every newsletter article reinforces these three principles. Through the presentation of published research, our goal is to document to the physician and other local professionals that hearing loss is common; it has serious consequences; and treatment (primarily through the use of hearing aids) is successful.
For example, we presented the findings of the National Council on the Aging, which surveyed more than 3,000 adults. The results indicated that patients with hearing loss who use hearing aids report significantly better relationships with their families, an improved social life and greater independence, than those who do not use hearing aids. Bridges and Bentler reported similar findings. It’s important for physicians to know these results.
Similarly, we reported the groundbreaking findings of Mulrow, et al., who studied 194 adults with hearing loss and found hearing aids to be "very successful treatments for reversing the (effects) caused by hearing impairment." Newman, et al., found "the degree of communication difficulty in persons with mild hearing loss cannot be predicted from the audiogram." Garstecki and Erber reported that "a significant proportion of older women have undiagnosed and untreated hearing loss" and stressed the need for routine hearing testing for older women.
Physicians need to know this information in order to provide good hearing health care information to their patients. As pointed out by Kochkin, we need to provide this information because these patients too often are not receiving the audiology services that would make a significant difference in their lives.
• Mail List
Your physician newsletter can be sent to other local professionals, not just physicians. These include pharmacists, dentists, speech-language pathologists, and other health care providers. Others who should be reminded that you are the local expert on hearing health care include the health editor of the local newspaper, the office of the aging, and the local library. The physician’s office staff members are also an important audience since often it is the front office personnel who arrange the actual referral.
Primary care physicians are the primary medical market, but pediatricians, cardiologists, and gerontology specialists are also important. (In today’s health care environment, the otolaryngologist is generally no longer an important source of referrals outside the otolaryngology office).
A physician mail list can be compiled from several sources, including:
- each physician who has referred a patient
- the elicited physician name for patients not referred by a physician
- physicians who participate in the same provider network as the audiologist
- published yellow page listings
- Phone Disk listings (under SIC code 801101)
We include a short letter with the first issue we mail to a local physician, and annually after that. When providing a first-time report to a physician, a newsletter can accompany the report. Ideally, the newsletter should be accompanied by personal contact (we have found our newsletter most effective as a reinforcer of a professional relationship, not a creator of one).
Physicians should also receive a copy of your patient newsletter. This serves three purposes: additional contact with the physician and staff; a demonstration of the "extra care" you are providing to the physician’s patients; another vehicle to educate about hearing loss.
• Cost
Cost includes both the time involved and the dollar cost to prepare, print, and mail the newsletter. It has been estimated that it takes 10 hours per page to write, edit, and proofread a newsletter. We founded Audiology HealthCare News ®, which is already prepared and customized with office name and return address, so there are no time costs except for the actual mailing.
Printing and postage costs are about $5 per physician per year. This cost is fully recovered if the physician refers one patient for an audiologic evaluation in the next 18 years! Hearing aid revenues, which of course are the major source of income for most audiology practices, are additional. With this kind of return on investment, the obvious question is, "Why doesn’t every audiology practice conduct physician marketing?"
Final Thoughts
The primary care physician is one of the most important sources of referrals of new patients for an audiology practice. A physician newsletter is an effective and economical way for the individual audiology practice to reach local physicians. This marketing effort can bring excellent returns both for the practice itself and for the profession of audiology.
Dennis Hampton has been in private practice since 1976. He is also founder and editor of Hearing HealthCareNews, a customized patient newsletter, and Audiology HealthCareNews, a physician newsletter. References for this article can be found at by clicking here. Contact him by phone at 800-342-1643 or by e-mail at nyaudio@aol.com.
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