Nation’s Leading Public Affairs Firm Grows Practice Building off Decades of Successful Healthcare Campaigns and Expertise; Including Recently Helping Lead Multiple Healthcare System Responses to COVID-19
July
8, 2020 (New York, NY) – SKDKnickerbocker (SKDK), the 2019 Holmes Report North
American Public Affairs Agency of the Year, today announced the expansion of
its practice division dedicated to communications leadership across the
medical, bioscience, and pharmaceutical industries. The Healthcare Practice
continues to leverage SKDK’s decades of experience and expertise to manage
high-stakes healthcare campaigns, deliver media relations support, and
implement thought leadership initiatives for partners in every segment – from
hospitals, to healthcare startups, to labor unions.
In
recent months, SKDK has been at the forefront of helping major healthcare
systems and companies – including Mount Sinai Health System, Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center, and SOMOS Community Care – navigate and respond to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, SKDK worked with the Greater New York Hospital
Association (GNYHA) to create an advertising campaign aimed at bringing
patients back to hospitals following the COVID pandemic in New York. Working
hand-in-hand with each organization, SKDK’s communications leaders helped guide
strategy and provide tactical support for internal and external crisis
response.
Healthcare
organizations are increasingly dependent on digital communication and virtual
access to healthcare information. In addition to expanding the healthcare PR
team, SKDK has added digital capabilities and developed specialized advertising
campaigns to address these new needs.
“Now
more than ever, healthcare has become one of the most important and defining
issues of our time, but also one of the most contentious,” said Loren
Riegelhaupt, President of New York Public Affairs and Managing
Director. “Healthcare companies need an experienced communications
partner that can provide timely counsel on crucial issues and move quickly to
deliver information. Our work on COVID-19 and many other vital healthcare
issues nationwide, has created a need to expand our practice with greater
resources and new innovative ways to assist healthcare professionals in this
fraught environment.”
Combining
expertise and strategic insight, the Healthcare Practice has the depth of
understanding and vast knowledge to help any healthcare client – unions,
patient groups, national hospital systems, academic institutions, issue
advocacy groups, biotech startups, and digital health companies – to navigate
and thrive in today’s ever-changing landscape.
“We
are seeing the massive implications to people’s lives and every aspect of our
economy from policy decisions related to healthcare,” said Meaghan
Rose Smith, Senior Vice President in SKDK’s Washington, D.C., public
affairs practice. “SKDK’s strategists intuitively understand how to
navigate these issues after our extensive work inside the halls of Congress and
state Capitols shaping policy as well as implementing successful campaigns from
the outside.”
Today’s
announcement builds on SKDK’s portfolio of specialized divisions of expertise
including the Litigation, Regulation and Investigation and Foundations and Philanthropy practices. For more
information on the healthcare practice, please visit: www.skdknick.com/our-services/healthcare.
About SKDKnickerbocker:
SKDKnickerbocker (SKDK) is a top national communications and
political consulting firm bringing unparalleled strategic communications
experience to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations
and labor unions, as well as political committees and candidates. With offices
in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Albany, SKDK offers strategic support
to managing a crisis, protecting a brand, advocating an issue or winning an
election. The influential Holmes Report once again named SKDK as the North
America Public Affairs Agency of the Year in 2019, following wins in 2015,
2016, and 2018. To learn more about SKDK, visit our website at www.skdknick.com.
—
SKDK is a proud
member of The Stagwell Group, a collaborative group of agencies who are out to
“reinvent the holding company,” according
to the Wall Street Journal. The Stagwell Group portfolio includes more than a
dozen best-in-class, digital-first agencies who are focused on what modern CMOs
need. Learn more about Stagwell at www.stagwellgroup.com.