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The instant he learned about the
devastation caused by the tsunami in his home country of Sri
Lanka, Dr. Sandran Waran started making calls. As Medical
Director of Pediatric Neurology at Saint Clare’s Medical
Center and a native Sri Lankan, Dr. Waran knew he had to act
fast. He started making calls to colleagues and physicians
from across the country, assembling a team of medical
professionals to visit the affected communities, provide
immediate medical support and begin to rebuild the country’s
medical infrastructure from scratch. He called the best
physicians he could find – and then he called R&J.
Dr. Waran knew that he was not alone in
his desire to help the victims of the tsunami, and that
there were thousands of people in his local community
looking for ways to help. What he didn’t know was how to
reach all those people to tell them what he was doing and
ask for their support within the few short days before
leaving for Sri Lanka.
R&J immediately sprang into action. We
leveraged our contacts at local, state and regional media
outlets to make them aware of Dr. Waran’s mission and
encourage them to let members of the community know how they
could help.
The results were dramatic. News of Dr.
Waran’s trip appeared in virtually every media outlet
servicing the Saint Clare’s community. WCBS Channel 2 New
York came to Saint Clare’s to interview Dr. Waran and
produced a three-minute feature on his mission and the Daily
Record assigned a staff photographer to accompany the team
to Sri Lanka and document the entire journey for its readers
back home.
Needless to say, there was an immediate
and lasting outpouring of support from the community.
Canned foods, clothing, medical supplies, financial
contributions and donations of every kind came flying in to
Saint Clare’s and made their way to the people of Sri Lanka
along with Dr. Waran and his team.
Effective healthcare PR is almost
always about making connections with the community.
Sometimes it’s about helping make connections between
communities half a world apart. |
