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2022 Medigy HITMC Awards

The annual HITMC Awards celebrate the creative excellence, breakthrough concepts, flawless execution, and outstanding leadership in healthcare marketing, PR and communications.

Over the years, the Awards have honored industry-leading work from individuals, health IT companies, healthcare providers, agencies, non-profit organizations and associations.

Agency Awards

Association/Non-profit

Health IT Awards

Individual Awards

Provider Awards

The 2022 Awards are sponsored again by our friends at Medigy. Visit their website to learn more about their new free content aggregation capabilities designed specifically for healthcare marketers.

Ad of the Year
This award is given to the most creative, eye-catching, informative Health IT or Healthcare ad of 2020 (printed or digital). Nominations should include ad results (ie: clicks, impressions or other KPIs). TV Commercials and other videos are not eligible for this award, there is a separate award for Video of the Year.

Winner: MGMA
MGMA launched their new “DataDiscovery” solution using a series of eye-catching ads that featured recognizable city landmarks with a fun “data thread” graphic that was superimposed on the image. The product was launched by MGMA in a very short timeframe.

Agency of the Year
This award honors outstanding achievement by Marketing, PR and/or Communication agencies that has demonstrated industry leadership, produced outstanding results for clients, grown their business/portfolio and contributed back to the healthcare marketing community in the past year.

Winner: Clarity Quest Marketing
Clarity Quest Marketing was very active over the past year. They launched an Academy that helps to mentor new marketing executives to get them started on the right foot. They generated $15M in pipeline in just 3 months for one client and 1,700 leads for another. They even managed to get one client front-page business coverage in the NT Times. But the biggest testament to their work…every single one of their clients sings their praises.

Best Use of Media Relations
The Best Use of Media Relations Award recognizes the effective and creative use of media relations to execute or support a public relations campaign. Nominations should include a detailed outline of the media aspects of the PR campaign as well as relevant assets sent to media outlets, earned media stories that resulted, and relevant success metrics.

Winner: American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (Association/Non-Profit)
From the Washington Post to WebMD to U.S.News, AADSM changed public perception of how to treat sleep apnea. In the past, the only option most people were aware of was a bulky CPAP machine that requires a mask and electricity. AADSM wrote long-form articles and bylines. They provided several subject matter experts to key media. They built credibility with studies in trade publications, then stacked on their success to get their message in national pubs. Their multiple media hits over the course of the year helped change public opinion.

Winner: DrFirst (Health IT)
DrFirst had built a strong reputation in the trade press but had yet to regularly break into mainstream press. To address that, the PR team worked to position Chief Medical Officer Dr. Colin Banas as its lead clinical voice, placing him on local and regional TV news stations and securing other interviews about how telehealth was helping patients and healthcare providers during the pandemic.

Winner: Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System (Provider)
SVMHS leveraged relationships with reporters/editors to bring national media attention to the organization (2 Nurses: Her Mom Battled 1918 Pandemic, She Fights This One). The team undertook the complex task of negotiating HIPAA agreements to allow media to access their COVID-19 units so that the real story of the virus could be shared with their community. All of this was done with a one-person PR department.

Best Use of Social Media
This award recognizes the organizations that produced great content and engaged audiences on social media platforms (like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and yes, even TikTok) in the past year.

Winner: StudioNorth (Agency)
Over the past 12 months, the StudioNorth team has shared useful strategies, interesting articles and fun posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. Especially notable is the way they celebrate their new team members.

Honorable Mention: FINN Partners, KNB Communications

Winner: Mothers in Medicine (Association/Non-Profit)
Founded just a year ago, The Mothers in Medicine Fund is dedicated to supporting mothers who work on the frontlines of healthcare by providing financial grants to help subsidize the cost of childcare. In the first nine months, the fund raised over $80,000 and funded grants for nearly 100 mothers working in medicine, all driven through grassroots social media activity.

Winner: NextGen Healthcare (Health IT)
NextGen teamed with Amy Purdy, a 3-time Paralympic medalist to raise awareness for mental health, the importance of whole-person care, dealing with stress, and how technology can help to address access to care. Their collaboration included several livestreams on Facebook and posts on social media platforms.

Winner: Stacy Hurt (Individual)
Over the past year patient advocate Stacy Hurt has upped her social media game, especially on Twitter. She posts daily and give audiences a glimpse into the highs and lows of being a cancer survivor and a mother to a child with special needs. He unvarnished, from-the-heart posts are inspiring

Winner: Northwell Health (Provider)
Northwell’s social channels aim to inspire patients to take control of their health care journey. Sharing powerful patient stories and moving imagery, like the “Raise Women’s Health”, helped people feel seen and let them know they’re not alone in their health struggles.

Blog of the Year
This award is given to the best blog of the past year based on quality of content, frequency of updates and overall presentation.

Winner: KNB Communications (Agency)
Every week the team at KNB publish new and useful content on their blog. Their layout is eye-catching and their headlines are enticing. If you are a healthcare marketer, you can learn a lot just from what the KNB team has shared. What is most impressive is the variety of authors. It is not just one or two people penning the blogs, it’s their entire team.

Honorable Mention: healthlaunchpad

Winner: Empowered Blog Patient Empowerment Network (Association/Non-Profit)
The PEN Blog shares near-daily blog posts with practical, educational content for cancer patients and care partners. The blogs help empower patients with knowledge to make more informed treatment decisions for improved quality of life and optimal health outcomes.

Honorable Mention: The Health Collaborative

Winner: Sentry 340Buzz (Health IT)
340Buzz is a monthly blog series chronicling the twists and turns of the federal 340B drug program that cuts through the complicated details to tell covered entities what they need to know. It offers perspective and advice, when appropriate, at a time when the program is under tremendous scrutiny.

Winner: Healthpopuli, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (Individual)
Healthpopuli is one of THE BEST HEALTHCARE BLOGS that you can read. It is packed with insightful articles from Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. She has an uncanny ability to bring together themes and thoughts together that you would never have thought to be related. The stories she weaves makes the tangled web of healthcare a little more understandable and clear. Do yourself a favor and read Jane’s stuff. You will come away smarter and more informed about the healthcare industry.

Winner: Seattle Children’s (Provider)
The On-the-Pulse blog is a trusted source of health and healthcare information for parents and children. From creative approaches on serious subjects like “A Comic Book Hero Explains Inflammatory Bowel Disease” to timely articles dealing with raised by mainstream media like “The flu shot: Q&A for parents” their blog captures and engages the audience.

Employee Engagement Campaign of the Year
This award recognizes the best employee engagement campaign this past year based on results achieved, creativity, innovation and visual/audio appeal.

Winner: Redox (Health IT)
Redox has always embraced a remote workforce, and in the past year has invested in formalizing a program for key members of staff to become culture ambassadors. These ambassadors go through 4 days of intense training where they learn about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion AND learn how to diffuse situations that can flare up between co-workers on platforms like Slack. These ambassadors take what they learn back to their teams and help set the example for others.

Winner: CHRISTUS Health (Provider)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CHRISTUS leaders were committed to providing their Associates with the support they needed to feel safe and protected while in the workplace. They also wanted to build community through a system-wide focus on a culture of belonging, resiliency, and well-being. They implemented a program that proactively reached out to staff to encourage them to make use of support services that the organization made freely available.

Health IT Podcast of the Year
This award is given to the best Health IT focused podcast or internet radio show from the past year based on quality of content, audience engagement, regularity of episodes, and overall production.

Winner: Overrated & Underused
Airing on the Healthcare NOW Radio network, the Overrated & Underused podcast examines the strategic decisions that health IT marketers must make every day. Fun, dynamic and most of all – interesting, this podcast is well worth listening to.

Healthcare Podcast of the Year
This award is given to the best Health or Healthcare focused podcast or internet radio show from the past year based on quality of content, audience engagement, regularity of episodes, and overall production.

Winner: Pharmacy Podcast Network
With 40+ different co-hosts, the Pharmacy Podcast Network delivers a wide array of audio content with a specific focus on pharmacy. The quality of the content is outstanding, especially over the past 12 months. If you are in the pharmacy or pharmatech world, PPN is where you need to get your podcasts.

Health IT Trailblazer of the Year
This award recognizes an individual for their leadership, mentorship and innovative contributions to the field of Healthcare and Health IT. Whether they are recognized or not, these individuals are considered “disruptors” or even “disturbers”. They are the pioneers forging a path for the healthcare industry to follow.

Winner: Julia Hanigsberg, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab
Julia Hanigsberg is the President & CEO of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the largest children’s rehabilitation hospital in Canada. She is an outspoken advocate for disabled youth, Through initiatives like Capes for Kids, Julia has led the charge for Holland Bloorview to raise over $4 million to support programs for disabled children and their families. She continually engages her community via social media and is a visible champion for health equity, inclusion, cultural transformation, diversity, and business excellence.

HITMC Community Member of the Year
This award is given to the individual who has gone above and beyond to help other members of the HITMC Community, share knowledge with the Community, and best represents HITMC values (creativity, resourcefulness, vulnerability, lifting others up, inclusivity, and equity).

Winner: Dalton Patterson, CorroHealth
Dalton has truly embraced the HITMC ethos by being vulnerable, asking questions, connecting people together, and worked very hard to produce amazing results for his company. At conferences Dalton is always encouraging peers to become part of the HITMC Community.

#HITMC Contributor of the Year
This award is for the individual who has most actively contributed to the online #HITMC conversations on social media – Twitter and LinkedIn in particular. Those contributions can include sharing articles, experiences, strategies, advice, stories, answering questions, etc.

Winner: Joe Desiderio
If you have participated in any of the #HITMC tweetchats or just watched the hashtag on Twitter, you will have seen Joe. He has been a consistent and valued contributor to the online marketing conversations. His insights, helpful references and challenging questions are appreciated by all who follow #HITMC. Plus his enthusiasm is infectious!

Marketing Campaign of the Year
This award recognizes the best marketing or PR campaign this past year based on results achieved, creativity, innovation and visual/audio appeal.

Winner: The Sequoia Project, TEFCA (Association/Non-Profit)
The TEFCA campaign was particularly daunting as The Sequoia Project needed to educate and encourage participation in the voluntary legal and technical framework, which was very complex documents to understand. They were further constrained by the federal government communication processes.

Winner: GetWell “Serving the Underserved” (Health IT)
Although it is a known problem, few healthcare organizations have successfully addressed health inequities in a meaningful way. This multi-pronged campaign gave voice to a critically important issue and provided actionable insight into how those in the healthcare industry can uniquely tackle it. GetWell’s campaign included webinars, a dedicated blog, and a well-researched whitepaper.

Winner: Advocate Aurora Health, “Let’s Live Well“ (Provider)
Launched in the summer of 2021, the Let’s Live Well campaign reintroduced the Advocate Aurora Health brand to consumers as COVID-19 cases declined and vaccines became widely available. The campaign recognized that we had all been on pause, but encouraged consumers to be active participants in their health care journey. #LetsLiveWell was used as a simple, but powerful mantra that came to life in broadcast, out of home, digital and social.

Marketer of the Year
This award recognizes the outstanding work and achievement of a marketing, PR or communications professional in the past year. This person has demonstrated outstanding leadership, resourcefulness, creativity and teamwork over the past year.

Winner: Grace Vinton, Amendola Communications (Agency)
Grace is not only an accomplished PR and Communications professional, but she is also a tireless patient advocate. In her day job she works with some of the largest companies in the healthcare industry, leveraging her vast network to get her clients press coverage. She does all the little things you’d expect from a PR representative. Last year she arranged more than 500 interviews for her clients. Outside of work Grace’s passion for patients shines through with her work as a podcast host that features women in healthcare and life sciences. If you could only use one word to describe this person, it would be VIVACIOUS.

Winner: Kathryn Ayers-Wickenhauser, DirectTrust (Association/Non-Profit)
Kathryn has leveraged relationships, tools, methodology, partnerships and a modest non-profit association budget to create an outsized mark in the loud and crowded field that they operate in. In just a few years she has transformed the perception of our initiatives and brand. She has shown immense creativity and made a one person team feel like a team of 20. The net result is that she more than tripled the number of campaigns executed…including the very memorable Interop Heroes campaign.

Winner: Sara Strom, Panda Health (Health IT)
Sara is a visionary, creative and analytical thinker. In less than 6 months since joining her current company, she has led a brand refresh, launched a new website, ran the exhibits for her company at multiple conferences, earned media placements with multiple outlets, hired agencies and built a team. Sara is also a passionate advocate for the HITMC Community and has fully embraced the give-before-you-get ethos. Her journey in healthcare is inspiring.

Winner: Michael Parkerson, Atrium Health (Provider)
Michael has led Atrium Health through transformative partnerships and engaged consumers and industry thought leaders to raise the health system to national prominence. He drives his teams to be “consumer obsessed” and to think like a customer and meet patients – both new and existing – where they are, with a specific emphasis on data-driven awareness and preference, demand creation and growing advocacy. He is truly a transformational leader.

Marketing Rising Star of the Year
This award recognizes the outstanding work and achievement of a marketing, PR or communications professional who has been in healthcare for less than three years. This person has demonstrated outstanding resourcefulness, creativity, personal growth and willingness to learn the complexities of the healthcare market.

Winner: Olivia Schlabach, FINN Partners (Agency)
Olivia has successfully managed clients, built healthcare media relationships, and led several company-wide PR efforts, all with amazing professionalism and over-the-top results. She is always prepared with knowledge and recommendations. She has embraced the challenge of being in healthcare. Her quiet confidence is an inspiration.

Winner: Victoria Stone, MGMA (Association/Non-Profit)
Victoria has only been in healthcare since August of 2020. Right from Day 1 she was asked to take the lead in organizing one of the industry’s premier national conferences, continue to push the evolution of the brand for the association, and launched new products and services to MGMA members.

Winner: Jasdeep Mann, ReMedi Health (Health IT)
Jasdeep has been in healthcare for less than three years, but in that time, has rolled out a rock-solid content marketing strategy, positioned his company as a leader in a very competitive market segment, launched an ABM campaign from scratch, and rolled-out a COVID solution within weeks of the pandemic starting. He did all of this as a marketing team of 1.

Marketing Team of the Year
This award recognizes the Marketing Team that has achieved outstanding results, worked cohesively together, collaborated well with other departments and produced stand-out content, campaigns and programs over the past year.

Winner: The Beryl Institute (Association/Non-Profit)
The marketing team at Beryl Institute has done an amazing job over the past year with shifting their signature events from online to hybrid (in-person + online). In addition, the team has worked hard to launch brand new studies, reports and other educational content offerings to the community. The team has also grown and expanded at a time when it has been hard to find talented marketers.

Winner: MEDITECH (Health IT)
The pandemic really disrupted the MEDITECHs Marketing team since a lot of their content was derived from interactions with customers, but customers were much harder to reach, and response times were delayed with every surge or variant. Video crews were not allowed in hospitals and many customers did not want to travel to user forums or trade shows. The team adapted by pivoting to blogs, podcasts, remote video interviews, social media, virtual events,

Honorable Mention: Hyro

Winner: Signature Healthcare (Provider)
The small marketing team at Signature Healthcare is small but extremely high achieving. This year they have spearheaded successful campaigns promoting their school of nursing (recruiting new students) and their cancer center. They have revitalized their long-running and acclaimed patient safety campaign. They have promoted pediatrics and primary care to drive new patient volume. And they successfully navigated the retirement of their long-time CEO, Kim Hollon. All of this was done while still battling COVID in the communities they serve.

Marketing Tool of the Year
This award recognizes the technology solution that improves the lives of patients and healthcare staff from a marketing perspective or that leverages a marketing approach.

Winner: CareCognitics
CareCognitics offers a tool that applies casino loyalty principles to better engage and motivate patients. This includes personalized engagement and even rewards for patients and staff.

Patient Advocate of the Year
This award recognizes the tireless efforts of an individual who is working to improve healthcare for patients. It is awarded to an individual that has raised awareness about the rights of patients, helped to make healthcare more patient-centered, brought the patient perspective to the design of IT solutions/healthcare workflows, or has directly improved the healthcare journey of a patient at the local, regional or national level.

Winner: Pat Rioux
Pat Rioux has been a fierce advocate for patients – especially given her own healthcare journey. She brings this unique perspective to her work Health IT. More specifically, she has been a key member of the New England Chapter of HIMSS where she has done important work recruiting sponsors and ensuring the patient voice is represented.

Public Health Campaign of the Year
This award is for the best public health awareness or educational campaign based on reach, results achieved, creativity, quality of content, and visual/audio appeal. Campaigns that advertise specific healthcare services or programs (ie: a smoking cessation program) are not eligible for this award. Only campaigns designed to educate or raise awareness of a public health issue are eligible.

Winner: Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
Memphis is a culturally rich city, home to a large population that have been especially wary of the COVID-19 vaccine. Methodist created their “This Is How We Live” public campaign with this in mind. The campaign successfully increased vaccination rates, especially with those who were at high risk.

Video of the Year
This award is given to the best promotional/marketing video this past year based on creativity, visual appeal, clarity of message and production quality.

Winner: DirectTrust, “Let’s Talk About Fax“ (Association/Non-Profit)
Let’s talk about fax features Jared Johnson doing a parody song about how Direct can be an alternative to fax. It is an example of thinking outside the box in healthcare marketing. Good luck getting this song out of your head.

Winner: Definitive Healthcare, “Latitude Reporting“ (Health IT)
This explainer video from Definitive Health is professional and polished. It conveys a lot of ideas in just a few seconds. It is a great example of what explainer video should be.

Winner: Ochsner Lafayette General, “Why Did You Get Vaccinated?” (Provider)
This powerful video was created to help change the conversation for those that were hesitant about COVID-19 vaccinations. Veterans from the community shared their experience of getting vaccinated when they were active in the military and why it was important to them at the time…they then spoke about that same thinking that went into their decision to get vaccinated for COVID-19 even though they are no longer active military.

Virtual Event of the Year
This award goes to the organization that held the best virtual event in 2021. Nominations are judged on the complexity of event, feedback/comments from attendees, session variety (panels vs lecture vs other formats), creativity and innovation. User conferences are eligible.

Winner: OHIMA (Association/Non-Profit)
The OHIMA21 Virtual Conference had record-breaking attendance: 1222 HIM professionals from across the country. The conference featured 40+ sessions, 50+ speakers, and 30+ exhibitors. Overall, 15,000+ hours of education was viewed by attendees.

Winner: Premier, Inc – Breakthroughs (Health IT)
Premier’s Breakthroughs Conference included an incredible stage where presenters were LIVE and they even had studio where a live band played. The production quality was out of this world!

Winner: Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System – NICU Reunion (Provider)
SVMHS did not let COVID-19 stop them from celebrating the NICU babies. Together the marketing team collaborated with the NICU department, Nutrition Services, and their Foundation to come up with a virtual event that included a cooking demonstration, contests, activities for children, and a book reading.

Website of the Year
This award is given to the best website based on ease of navigation, visual appeal, mobile experience and quality of content.

Winner: MERGE (Agency)
The MERGE site was updated with bold eye-catching graphics that emphasized the company’s new messaging around storytelling. Interactive and fun, it what you want to see from a creative agency.

Winner: Civitas Networks for Health (Association/Non-Profit)
Civitas Networks for Health deployed as a new organization, combining the efforts of SHIEC and NRHI.  Along with the announcement of the new organization, they launched an easy to navigate and visually appealing website that makes it immediately clear who they are and what they do.

Winner: Carium (Health IT)
It takes guts, grit, creativity and passion to re-imagine a brand and website. In February 2022, Carium unveiled a complete brand transformation grounded in experience-led, strategic design. Our aim was to be informative, provocative, inspiring and (hopefully) entertaining.

Winner: Boston Children’s Hospital (Provider)
We all have an emotional reaction when we see other people. That fact is evident on the Boston Children’s website. It is full of picture of children, staff, parents, and supporters. The well-designed site is easy to navigate with the most common patient actions (like book and appointment) prominently displayed.

Honorable Mention: Riverside Health System

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Swaay.Health helps build a brighter healthcare future by inspiring those who want to create it.  Through the power of stories and positivity, we bring together a community of healthcare marketing, PR, and communication professionals.  Swaay.Health covers the news, trends, innovators, technologies, and success stories that the healthcare marketing community needs to know.