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January 1999
Volume 63 |
Number 1
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| 28 Million People
Learn More About Anesthesiologist's Role |
Safety concerns about the kinds of foods patients might eat before
surgery and how soon before surgery they can eat or drink were
among the topics that garnered considerable news coverage during
the 1998 Annual Meeting last October in Orlando, Florida.
At least 28 million newspaper readers, radio listeners and television
viewers learned about at least one of the more than 1,400 scientific
presentations, refresher courses or scientific exhibits that were
presented at the meeting last October in Orlando. News organizations
that contacted ASA for information or interviews included the
Associated Press, Reuters and United Press International newswire
services, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle and Reader's
Digest magazines, Orlando Sentinel, USA Today and
the Chicago Sun-Times newspapers.
Five weeks before the start of the Annual Meeting, media kits
containing news releases related to the meeting and its presentations
[Table 1] were sent to more than 800 media outlets. Those media
outlets included daily and weekly newspapers, radio and television
stations, nationally distributed consumer magazines and trade
press outlets. In addition, ASA used several electronic sources
to distribute media alerts and specific news releases, including
Web-based services that reach an additional 700 medical and science
writers.
More than 625 science, health and other journalists accessed
annual meeting news releases through Newswise, a Web-based news
release distribution service. Subscribers to the service were
notified, via e-mail, about a select group of news releases that
were posted to Newswise by ASA. Journalists subscribing to the
service and who requested ASA's news releases represented such
media outlets as Consumer Reports on Health, Cosmopolitan,
Longevity, Good Housekeeping and Redbook magazines.
Reporters can either access news releases from the Newswise Web
site (www.newswise.com)
or have them e-mailed. According to Newswise, in additon to the
625 reporters who accessed ASA's news releases through its Web
site another 80 requested ASA news releases be sent to them via
e-mail.
This year, for the first time, Annual Meeting publicity plans
were also incorporated on the Society's Web site. Members of the
press were able to download a complete or partial media kit from
the ASA Web site, including draft copies of two practice guidelines
that were being considered for adoption by the ASA House of Delegates.
Based on data provided to ASA by media monitoring services,
more than 200 newspaper articles, television and radio news reports
and magazine articles were written that were specifically generated
from ASA's Annual Meeting.
The process of selecting which scientific papers, refresher
courses or panel presentations are summarized for the Annual Meeting
media kit begins at least four months before the Annual Meeting.
For the 1998 Annual Meeting, all 1,428 accepted scientific abstracts
were reviewed during a meeting chaired by John R. Moyers, M.D.,
Chair, 1998 Section on Annual Meeting. Also attending this meeting
were Thomas W. Feeley, M.D., Vice-Chair and 1999 Annual Meeting
Chair, along with ASA communications staff and a Chicago-based
science/medical writer.
It Often Starts With the Local Press
In addition to the distribution of the media kit nationwide,
ASA staff members personally visited as many news outlets in the
host city as possible to foster interest in annual meeting topics
and to explain to the media why anesthesiology-related topics
are so important to the local community.
At least one-fourth of the annual meeting media coverage concerned
research conducted by Jonathan R. Moss, M.D., University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois, about how certain foods can affect the duration
of anesthetic agents (A-1008, p. 380*). Media
visits to the Orlando Sentinel resulted in four stories
being published in the newspaper about ASA Annual Meeting presentations.
When the Orlando Sentinel ran a story on the panel presentation
given by Jeffrey L. Apfelbaum, M.D., also from the University
of Chicago, on ambulatory surgery and newer, shorter-acting anesthetic
agents, its newspaper group in Georgia, Ohio and Illinois also
published the story. The story was then picked up by the Chicago
Sun-Times newspaper. On that same day, a Chicago radio
station and television station did news reports on Dr. Apfelbaum's
topic. In all, more than 3.2 million people either read, watched
or heard something about Dr. Apfelbaum's annual meeting presentation
(Panel on Differences and Challenges in Ambulatory Anesthesia
by Practice Site, p. 147).
Interest Breeds More Interest
Similarly, when the Associated Press bureau in Orlando ran a
story on the approval of ASA's Practice Guidelines for Preoperative
Fasting by the ASA House of Delegates, the story began to appear
in newspapers across the country. It has now been read by more
than 2.6 million newspaper readers coast to coast.
Television viewers in Orlando and throughout Florida also saw
part of the Annual Meeting on their local news. The Florida News
Service, which supplies news reports to television stations in
the state, sent a news crew to the Annual Meeting at the Orlando/Orange
County Convention Center to do a story on two scientific and educational
exhibits using virtual reality as a teaching tool. One scientific
exhibit showed a method of teaching regional anesthesia administration
using virtual reality and tactile feedback (Wiley CW, Hartov A,
p. 544). The other, titled "The Virtual Larynx," incorporated
virtual technology and computer-generated animation as a teaching
tool for physiology and performing intubations (Glassenberg R,
Glassenberg S, p. 545).
As with Annual Meetings in previous years, ASA also prearranges
to have a series of radio news reports recorded, produced and
distributed to radio networks and stations nationwide. Media kit
participants and ASA officers are offered the opportunity to be
interviewed for the radio reports. The radio reports were produced
and distributed by a Midwestern news broadcast service and have
been heard by at least 11.2 million radio listeners.
As of press time, requests for additional interviews and information
related to the Annual Meeting continue to be received by the ASA
Communications Department.
| Table 1
News releases distributed in the 1998 ASA Annual
Meeting media kit included:
"Heading Home Minutes After Surgery" (Apfelbaum
JL, p. 147*)
"From Snails to Fiberoptics, New Treatments Offer
Hope to Patients in Extreme Pain" (Deer TR, Staats
PS, pp. 58, 119)
"The Time for Future Doctors to Enter Anesthesiology
Is Now" (Ellison N, p.494)
"Anesthesiologists Redefine Their Specialty as Health
Care Undergoes Radical Changes" (Feeley TW, p.62)
"Study Finds Striking Gender Differences in Cost
of Health Surgery" (Fontes ML, p. 279)
"'Smart' Intensive Care Unit Boosts Efficiency,
Lowers Cost" (Hanson CW III, p. 448)
"Keeping Children Calm Before Surgery: What Works
Best" (Kain ZN, p. 532)
"Research Uncovers First Known Link Between Diet
and Anesthesia" (Moss JR, p. 380)
"Surgically Implanted Device Shows Promise for Cancer
Patients With Severe Pain" (Rauck RL, p. 502)
"Regional Anesthesia Reduces Postsurgical Complications
and Improves Recovery in Older Adults" (Roy RC, p.
77)
"Widespread Psychiatric Drug Use Points to Need
to Explore Interactions With Anesthesia" (Scher CS,
p. 266)
"Blood Transfusion Requirements Far Greater for
Women Than Men" (Shevde K, p. 509)
"Technique to Relieve Low Back Pain Bridges Acupuncture
and Western Medicine" (White PF, p. 264)
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