Nearly every doctor and manufacturer of medical devices believes they have a made-for-television story, and most are right.
But what’s made-for-television is not necessarily the doctor herself, or the breakthrough technology the company has developed. It is the patient who is anticipating an upcoming treatment.
It is often fairly easy to identify a patient who, after a successful medical procedure, is willing to talk about his experience on television. But what a TV news producer really wants is the ability to broadcast a live procedure.
TV viewers stop changing channels and pay attention to live procedures, or the drama building up to a treatment. As a result, TV producers will often push back on a story pitch about exciting medical technology and hold out for a prospective patient. To increase the likelihood of success, we prefer to have a compelling patient case in-hand as we’re pitching a technology story. Doing so lends validation and timeliness to the story that is difficult to reproduce. Interestingly, while live procedures are tailor made for television, we’ve found that print journalists prefer them as well. Seeing a procedure first-hand can lead to a more accurate and colorful explanation of complex technology, which can ultimately result in a more readable story.
This Fox News Story is a great example. A male patient suffering from varicose veins shows how varicose veins are not just a “woman’s problem,” and how treatment is not driven by vanity. The bulging veins are a symptom of a progressive disease that can significantly impact a person’s health and quality of life. In the video, Dr. Gina Louie of Advanced Vascular Solutions treats the patient with VenaCure EVLT technology, made by AngioDynamics.
But it’s the patient, Brian, who is the focus of the piece and it’s his story that animates it.