Gaining Domestic and International Media Coverage for the Radiological Society of North America's Annual Meeting

Radiology cuts across more than a dozen medical specialties providing a broad base of topics with high media interest. New developments in diagnosing or treating breast, prostate, ovarian, liver and other cancers; imaging procedures that enable patients to avoid surgery; and radiological technologies that can detect everything from abnormalities in a fetus to child abuse to Alzheimer Disease make for "good copy" from a media vantage point. The Radiological Society of North America, the scientific and educational society for radiologists, sees consumer education as part of its mission and uses its annual scientific assembly as an opportunity to attract media and thereby consumer attention to important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease through imaging.

PCI works closely with RSNA staff and volunteer physicians to publicize the science of the meeting, which is held annually in Chicago the week following Thanksgiving. More than 3,500 papers, posters and exhibits selected for presentation at the meeting are reviewed for newsworthiness by a committee of physicians and by PCI science writers. About 20 are ultimately selected for news conferences, conducted over three days of the meeting. PCI develops press releases and news conferences with physician presenters, works with them before the news conferences so they can comfortably deal with reporters' questions, and arranges interviews for them with national and Chicago news organizations as well as media worldwide.

	Among the images released during the conference was this brain image that shows men and women listen differently.

PCI manages the RSNA annual meeting media relations on a turnkey basis, providing more than a dozen staff during the six-day meeting. Pre-meeting promotion with media begins about six months in advance with a registration mailing and continues in periodic bulletins to nearly 2,000 news organizations, inviting their attendance and alerting them to the topics that will be the focus of press conferences at the meeting. Advance contact accelerates in the 60 days before the meeting as PCI media specialists work with individual print and broadcast reporters to plan their coverage. B-roll is prepared and a special broadcast "press kit" is created to prompt television coverage nationally and in major markets. A press kit of releases, graphics and other information is developed and made available on PCI's Web site and in a hard copy format throughout the meeting.

On-site, PCI manages the news room, coordinating all RSNA scientific press conferences as well as facilitating about 20 additional press conferences held by exhibitors. Between 50 and 70 physicians participate in the "RSNA On The Air" project organized by PCI, for which brief, individual radio interviews are recorded and fed to national, regional and hometown radio stations.

Media have come to know, respect and have a keen interest in news from the RSNA scientific assembly, which is the largest medical meeting in the world with more than 60,000 attendees. On-site attendance by reporters averages about 230 per year, with many more covering the meeting through phone interviews with news conference presenters. Annual audience/circulation for RSNA stories average 400 to 600 million, not including international broadcasts on the Voice of America, which reaches servicemen and women, expatiates and people throughout the world, for a total of 150 million listeners per broadcast.

RSNA stories regularly are carried by all major wire services, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, network news and morning shows, Cable News Network, National Public Radio and "Paul Harvey News," Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Self, Glamour, and Ladies Home Journal to name a few. Dozens of major market dailies, and hundreds of television and radio stations in the U.S. and Canada carry RSNA news stories, as well as numerous international news outlets. Professional medical media from throughout the world also heavily cover the RSNA session, with entire issues devoted to the news of radiology after the meeting.

Much of this consumer coverage can be attributed to the RSNA press kit. PCI's medical writers translate papers meant for physicians into information consumer media can readily pass along to their audiences or readers. The American Medical Writers Association recognized this effort by awarding the Beth Fonda Award for Distinguished Achievement in Medical Communication to PCI for the RSNA press kit.