Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/731691
50 POPULATION HEALTH a lot of health systems out there who are viewing population health as a hedge strategy, and for them, I feel it would be a greater risk in doing something like this." And so far, the feedback has generally been positive. Mr. Gandhi car- ried the advertisements around with him for months. When he shared the advertisements at meetings with payers and plan sponsors, people indicated they thought it was great Mount Sinai Health System is will- ing to publicly declare their commitment to population health. Gordon Sleeper, with DeVito/Verdi ad agency in New York City, which worked on Mount Sinai Health system's print ad campaign, said he hasn't noticed any other hospital or health system willing to draw a line in the sand and say, "If our beds are filled, it means we've failed." "Mount Sinai has very publicly committed to being a leader in pop- ulation health. at said, many hospitals are advertising programs to promote healthier living, and many health systems are working to keep people healthier and out of the hospital," he said. Mr. Sleeper said advertising population health to the public is more like public service advertising. Hospitals are trying to nudge customers into modifying bad habits: eat right, lose weight, exercise. He said this new style of advertising is trying to modify risk factors that can cre- ate health problems in the future. NYC Health + Hospitals' fresh and social media-savvy cam- paign for teens Another health system offering a new style of advertising is New York City Health + Hospitals. e public health system typically does very little advertising, which is one reason its latest campaign is noteworthy. Its latest ads are calculat- ed to reach adolescents to promote the sexual and reproductive health- care services offered at 20 special YouthHealth locations. e campaign specifically targets New Yorkers age 12 to 21. As part of the campaign, young New Yorkers started seeing messages with popular emojis. e emojis, on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, include an eggplant and a peach that appear with the words: "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" A monkey emoji with its hands over its mouth of- fers advice on how to get confidential access to emergency contraception. By clicking on the emojis, users are taken to a new youth health ser- vices website with information on services available at the clinics, loca- tions and phone numbers. "is is a shi to underscore our health system's transformation from sick care to well care with an emphasis on prevention," said Ann Ormsby, senior director of brand implementation and marketing at NYC Health + Hospitals. "We want to give adolescents the information they need to make good choices to prevent problems before they happen. In this in- stance with our youth health campaign, we would rather a teen come in and get birth control than wait until they have an unintended pregnancy." Ms. Ormsby said the health system felt youth would be attracted to the emojis and therefore be more likely to click on them. Hospital officials also felt youth would share the images, thus expanding the organiza- tion's reach. e health system worked with VGD marketing and ad agency in New York City to come up with a campaign that would speak to youth in their own language. Robbie Szelei, director of strategy at VGD, said this campaign was par- ticularly challenging because he and the health system were trying to get through to youth specifically, while talking about the sometimes uncomfortable subject of sexual and reproductive health. ey also wanted to keep the message positive and hopeful, and they didn't want the advertisements to single anybody out. Before reaching the decision to use emojis, the health system ran a fo- cus group of youth to test out emojis. e results were positive. "I think there were approximately 15 kids in the room, and they loved it. ey just immediately thought it was funny. ey all knew what the eggplant was and had seen it before and so it really spoke to them in a familiar way," Ms. Ormsby said. In addition to the social media campaign and the new website, the campaign includes posters, brochures, wallet-size cards with the web- site address and ad panels that will be posted in city hospitals, accord- ing to NYC Health + Hospitals. Community-based organizations near NYC Health + Hospitals health centers are partnering with the system to distribute the materials. e campaign kicked off July 18. Since then, the system has already had about 22,600 unique page views on the campaign website. e goal of the campaign is to increase use of youth health services at NYC Health + Hospitals by 25 percent by the year 2020. n Johns Hopkins Opens World's First Multidisciplinary Zika Virus Center By Heather Punke A s Zika virus case counts continue to grow in the U.S. — more than 2,200 people have Zika in the states, according to the CDC — Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine opened the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Zika Center on August 24, which is dedicated to caring for patients affected by the virus. The center is staffed by experts from several Johns Hopkins Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health divisions, including epidemiology, infectious disease, maternal-fetal medicine, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pediatrics, physio- therapy, psychiatry and social work. Because the center con- centrates Zika expertise in one place, Zika virus patients will not need to travel to multiple providers or locations for care, according to William May, associate professor of ophthal- mology at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. The Eye Institute led the center's development, and Johns Hopkins believes it is the world's first multidisciplinary center dedicated to the mosquito-borne virus. Zika can cause birth defects like microcephaly as well as eye ab- normalities in infants. Outside physicians or Johns Hopkins clinicians can refer patients to the center, or patients can call the Wilmer Eye Institute to schedule an appointment. In addition to patient care, the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Zika Center team will also conduct research on Zika. "Our No. 1 priority will be focused on our patients, but our hope is that our care will also lead to many new develop- ments in the effort to fight this potentially devastating dis- ease," said William May, MD, associate professor of oph- thalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. n