by Morgan Lewis | Aug 20, 2025 | Blog
In 2025, decision-makers running health systems, physicians’ practices, insurers and life science companies have more demands on their attention than ever. Yet, even today, these leaders continue to seek out and read thought leadership articles to gain insight into the challenges facing their organizations.
Given their potential influence, these articles continue to play a valuable role as part of an integrated and multifaceted PR/marketing campaign. At Amendola, we regularly help clients craft compelling bylines that resonate with both readers and trade publication editors. But we still wanted to do a pulse check to determine what truly distinguishes one byline from another.
To explore this question, we recently ran a poll on LinkedIn asking: Which of these three is most crucial for getting published and engaging readers when writing thought leadership?
Here’s how the votes broke down:
- Focus on an industry problem: 77%
- Go easy on the self-promo: 15%
- Respect your readers’ time: 8%
Focusing on industry challenges took the top spot by a mile. Still, all three elements are nonetheless essential to thought leadership content that captures attention, builds authority, and clears editorial hurdles. Here’s a closer look at why each matters and how to ensure your bylines accurately reflect them.
Focus on an Industry Problem
The clear winner of our poll, this audience-focused approach centers on their needs and pain points. It is clear from the results that trusted thought leadership should not necessarily be about what your organization wants to say, but rather, what your audience needs to hear.
Editors prioritize content that informs and helps readers do their jobs better. If a byline sheds light on a genuine industry challenge, such as data silos hindering improvements in care quality and outcomes or the slow adoption of AI due to regulatory uncertainty, it immediately signals relevance.
Similarly, in our experience, the best-performing bylines from our health-tech and life-science clients have been those that closely align with the most pressing issues faced by providers, payers, pharmaceutical leaders, or other health IT buyers. For example, instead of broadly discussing the benefits of remote patient monitoring, a more valuable angle would be to examine how payers are adjusting their reimbursement models in response to regulatory uncertainty and what that means for provider adoption at scale.
In most cases, this approach means you should start your byline by identifying a pressing question or problem. If you are unsure about which issue will resonate most, start listening to your customers, the news, and the conference sessions that everyone is buzzing about. The more you anchor your thought leadership in the day-to-day challenges of your audience, the more likely it is to resonate and get published.
Go Easy on the Self-Promo
While only 15% of poll respondents chose minimal-to-no self-promotion as the most crucial trait of published thought leadership, it remains a major factor in whether an editor accepts or rejects a byline. Many otherwise strong pieces lose credibility when they shift from insight-sharing to sales-pitching.
The line between thought leadership and marketing copy is often thin, but it is critical. Readers come to trade publications for insight, not product brochures. Of course, your leaders should still showcase their expertise, but it needs to be demonstrated through stories, lessons learned, or innovative thinking, not direct promotion.
For example, if your company recently led a project that improved medication reconciliation accuracy, open the article by focusing on the broader issue: the clinical and safety consequences of poor medication data. Then, explain how to identify and solve the problem, sharing generalizable insights that other health systems or vendors could apply.
Ultimately, the goal is to earn trust, which is built by offering something of value without strings attached.
Respect Your Readers’ Time
Although this characteristic received the fewest votes in our poll, it should not be underestimated. Clarity and conciseness are the unsung heroes of persuasive writing.
Your audience is busy. They may be reading between meetings, during a quick coffee break, or in the few quiet minutes before their next patient or pitch. A strong byline makes their time feel well spent. That means using plain language, avoiding unnecessary tangents, and structuring your argument in a way that is easy to follow.
In technical fields such as health tech or clinical innovation, it may be especially tempting to showcase expertise through complex language. However, the best thought leaders recognize that simplicity is indeed a strength. One compelling idea, clearly expressed, will consistently outperform three half-developed ones wrapped in buzzwords.
If your byline cannot be understood by an intelligent, time-pressed reader in a few scrolls or less, it is time to revise.
Bringing It All Together
Albeit unscientific, our poll results reinforce what we have long known from working with leading trade and consumer publications: the strongest bylines solve real problems, put the reader first, and let the value of the insight speak louder than the brand behind it.
In a time where healthcare leaders are navigating unprecedented complexity and constant change, the value of strong thought leadership cannot be overstated. Articles that identify real challenges, offer informed perspectives, and respect the reader’s time stand a far better chance not only of being published but also of being read, remembered, and shared. Whether written by an executive, subject matter expert, or seasoned communicator, the best thought leadership doesn’t just fill space, it fuels meaningful dialogue across the industry and elevates your company’s profile in the market.
by Morgan Lewis | Mar 5, 2025 | Blog
Now that we’re well into 2025, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the most-read blog posts of 2024. My theory about these popular posts is that they reflect the concerns, curiosities and goals of the larger population of that time … or it could just be our team’s savvy SEO strategies and engaging writing skills that kept readers reading.
Regardless, last year’s most-read posts indicate that visitors were looking for levity, given the many popular articles’ lighthearted nature. This is also understandable, considering that many of us were looking for some relief in 2024 from the nonstop barrage of news about the U.S. Presidential campaign.
Another theme that emerged is that several of you – despite the growth of ChatGPT and other generative AI writing tools – seemed to be looking for writing tips and commentary to improve your content. Hooray for real-life human writers!
Without further ado, the following are the top 5 most-read Amendola blog posts from 2024 (in chronological order).
Top 5 Most-Read Blogs of 2024
- “The Taco Bell Times And The Depends Undergarments Press: Is This The Future Of Local News?” by Brandon Glenn.
This amusing post kicked off the year by first discussing an unfunny trend: the widespread closures of daily newspapers and layoffs of journalists. This topic is close to our hearts at Amendola, given that many of us came from consumer and business journalism before jumping to PR. The post, however, does steer toward levity as Brandon explores what could happen if mega-corporations step in to “save” local newspapers by purchasing naming rights or other such business ventures (which occurred at his hometown’s newspaper). What could go wrong?
- “The Best Rule in AP Style is About Animals with Names” by Brandon Glenn.
Brandon returns to the most-read blogs list with his hilarious take on an obscure Associated Press-style rule about pronouns for animals with and without given names. As a follower of AP style (the most common writing manual in consumer and business journalism) for over 25 years, I cannot remember ever looking up if I should refer to a dog named Rex as “who” or “that” in a sentence. Thankfully, the style guide editors resolved this dilemma, which Brandon whimsically explains. So, which is it? You’ll have to read the post to find out.
- “Reflecting Back, Looking Forward: Amendola Marks 20th Anniversary,” by Jodi Amendola.
Our founder and CEO, Jodi Amendola, has seen it all in health tech: digital transformation, the rise of virtual care, COVID-19, and now, generative AI. Jodi’s vast experience and success are likely why so many blog visitors read her post on the 20th anniversary of the agency she launched out of her parents’ condo in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her secret? Jodi humbly admits that she doesn’t have a crystal ball to foretell the industry’s tumultuous changes. Instead, preparing for the unexpected, staying nimble and building the right team have made all the difference over the last two decades.
- “When Slow is the Way To Go in PR and Marketing,” by Chris Nerney.
Post-author and Senior Content Director Chris has decades of experience in journalism, PR, and marketing content, as well as five years as a standup comic in Boston. His wit shows through in this post about the occasions where speed is more of a risk than a benefit. Although filled with valuable and actionable information, Chris injects plenty of humor in describing situations professionals in our industry will recognize. For example: “…you may be writing about concepts that may be ever-so-slightly outside your wheelhouse. That’s OK – you probably didn’t go to medical school, and your yearslong devotion to Grey’s Anatomy will only get you so far.”
- “The ABCs and the 3 Ps of Media Interviews,” by Grace Vinton.
Our media relations dynamo and health-tech celebrity, Grace Vinton, offers advice on a perennial challenge facing health-tech PR and marketing professionals: media interviews. Grace, who has a hugely popular podcast of her own, presents helpful mnemonic devices in the post for health tech executives to prepare for interviews and tips for crafting memorable and easy-to-understand messages. Her guidance is also relevant for any chat with a potential customer, investor or partner where you may not have the time for a detailed discussion about your company and solutions.
New Year, Fresh Insight
Whether it’s writing tips, messaging advice, or insight into the health tech PR and marketing strategies, you can continue to rely on this blog in 2025 to supply you with relevant guidance. I can’t promise that all the posts will be humorous, but they will surely be engaging and informative. Thanks for reading!
by Morgan Lewis | Apr 14, 2021 | Blog
Writing is drudgery for many people, which is part of the reason our clients let us do some of that writing for them. Often, the hardest part is just getting started, even if you write for a living.
As I’ve described before in this blog, at the start of a writing project we may become overwhelmed by all the information we want to include in our written content, or unsure of how we want to start, and it leads to procrastination and more stress. We end up either missing a deadline or we rush to put something out that could have been better.
The best recent advice I’ve seen about overcoming writing procrastination comes from an anecdote in the irreverent best-selling self-improvement book, “The Subtle Art of Not to Giving a F*ck: The Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Better Life.” In the book, author Mark Manson recounts a story of a novelist who had written more than 70 books. The novelist’s advice for how he is so prolific, according to Manson: “200 crappy words per day, that’s it.”
Of course, Manson points out, the novelist rarely stops at 200 crappy words because the action of generating those first few paragraphs motivates him to keep going. Even non-professional writers get in a rhythm and it can be as difficult to stop as it was to get started. The 200 crappy words almost serves as a warmup to the real workout of writing 1,000 or 2,000 words.
How to Get Started
Sometimes, however, even getting those first 200 words down is challenging; that is where research can be a big help. Simply going online to research the topic, even if it is something you are already very knowledgeable about, can be highly motivating because you will likely learn new information that will help support your content. Other times, research can reveal that a competitor or other thought leader has already written pretty much the same article or other high-value content. Don’t despair. You can read similar articles or content and then look for gaps in their information or it can inspire a different, fresher angle for your article, white paper or eBook.
The opposite dilemma can also occur. Sometimes there will be so much research and information, and so many topics you want to cover, that you cannot imagine how you will assemble it all into a coherent whole. Here is where outlining can help to get you started and keep moving.
The outline doesn’t need to be the precise order of the final draft; it is just to get ideas down. Simply list the topic heading you want to cover in a section, such as COVID-19, and under that heading list all the relevant ideas you want to include (e.g., effect on elective/preventive care, growth of telehealth, reimbursement changes from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, etc.). Once you begin the bare-bones list, you will find that you want to add more and more detail and can begin to envision how the finished content will be structured.
From Outline to Draft
As opposed to writing an article from beginning to end, an outline lets you preview if the finished piece flows logically, if there are potential gaps of information, or if sections should be shortened. Recognizing these deficiencies in the outline stage saves writing, cutting and rearranging time in the long run. Once the outline is completed, writing the full draft simply means expanding each item in the list to full sentences and paragraphs. Depending on how detailed the outline is, writing the full draft may take much less time than expected.
With the full draft completed, the real hard part of writing begins: editing. Reading and re-reading what you wrote, cutting and rewriting for clarity is not as much fun as putting all the words together, but is perhaps the most important part of the process. Since editing means you are close to the finish line, that may motivate you to keep going.
Everyone Needs an Editor
Have you ever heard of Maxwell Perkins? Me neither. I found him through a Google search. Have you heard of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway or Thomas Wolfe? Me too. It turns out Maxwell Perkins edited all of these authors, and even convinced Wolfe to cut 90,000 words from the final draft of one of his novels.
I mention Perkins to point out that even the best writers need editors. Editing is not just for proofreading for typos, grammar and misspellings, either. Rather, an editor’s value is providing high-level, constructive feedback about the content, structure and readability of the content. Most importantly, the editor needs to look at the content through the eyes of your intended reader. Is it relevant to them? Will it make sense? Does one idea flow logically to another?
Just Write
So the next time you need to write, gather your information and just start writing. Whether it is full sentences or just a list of topics and ideas you want to include in the content, the act of getting 200 lousy words on the screen will save you stress and time in the long run – and likely result in a higher-quality finished project.
by Morgan Lewis | Jan 20, 2021 | Blog
COVID-19 left no industry unscathed in 2020 (well, except maybe Wall Street). One of the hardest-hit industries was healthcare, which is Amendola’s specialty. Throughout the year, we posted blogs with helpful advice about adjusting to the massive changes occurring in the economy and how to steer your organization when so much was uncertain.
Well, judging from the most-read blog posts from the year, it seemed our readers were more interested in writing tips than survival tips. This unexpected outcome, we hope, is a positive indicator that most of you coped well with working from home, virtual meetings and travel restrictions in 2020, and were simply trying to sharpen your written communication skills with the additional time on your hands.
So, without further ado, the following are the top 5 most read Amendola blog posts of 2020 in descending order.
5. The New Normal in Public Relations and Marketing
Our only post written in 2020 to crack the top 5 describes how various brands have responded to the pandemic and how there is likely no returning to a 2019 version of normal. As the post points out, while the world may have changed, the vision and mission of your organization should remain the same. Maintaining the status quo, however, is not an option and neither is giving up. Communicating strategically, i.e., not ignoring the seismic disruption caused by COVID-19, is essential and can help your company weather (and even grow) during this catastrophic time.
4. Simple Language and Communication Success
As a professional writer for more than 20 years, I can attest to how difficult it is to write with simplicity, especially about complex topics like healthcare and IT. As this post from 2017 reminds us: simplicity is often better. Keeping sentences short, avoiding jargon and using an active voice are important tips to remember for everything we write and across all forms of writing. It is no wonder that this post was among our most-read posts again.
3. The Importance of Feedback in PR From Media, to Writing to Client Relationships
Feedback, when appropriately delivered, makes us better at whatever we do, as this post written in 2018 reminds us. Feedback takes on an added dimension in PR because we need it from clients and colleagues, but also editors and other members of the media where we have deep professional relationships. Seeking feedback can certainly provoke anxiety in all of us, but, as the post assures us, it can motivate, improve performance and keep us focused on the right targets.
2. Health Care or Healthcare? Here’s the Answer You Won’t Find in an AP Stylebook
As a journalism major in college, the Associated Press Stylebook becomes your bible. Since Amendola has so many former journalists on our team (including yours truly) many of the manual’s terminology, abbreviation, punctuation and other rules are hardwired into our brains and fingers. (I still often write the word “percent” even though the AP ruled in 2019 that the “%” symbol is now preferred.) Publications and organizations often have their own style rules for content that differ from the AP, which is what this blog post from 2019 is about. At Amendola, for example, we write healthcare as one word, although the AP uses two. Curious readers (and writers) clearly wanted to learn more about the secrets of this vaunted manual, which is why it was in the top 5 most read for the second year in a row.
- Going in AP Style
Sheltered-in-place during the pandemic, many of us turned to self-improvement activities – exercise, healthy cooking, reading more books, learning a new professional skill — and were seeking online content and classes to help guide those activities. That is my highly non-scientific explanation for why four out of the five most-read blog posts from 2020 were about personal development, mostly improving your writing chops. Yet this blog post from 2018 was also the most read post of that year, as well as 2019, which makes me wonder if readers are on a self-improvement kick or they just don’t want to shell out $27 for an online subscription to the stylebook. Either way, this post is filled with helpful nuggets for writing a press release, blog post or any type of content.
Whether it is writing tips, strategic branding guidance, media relations best practices or any of the other many PR and marketing topics we cover, we hope that you’ll continue to visit our blog throughout 2021. Who knows… maybe we’ll even write about AP style again.
by Morgan Lewis | Aug 5, 2020 | Blog
Stats and other evidence can look great at first, but after a little digging…not so much
A big part of the content we create for clients, whether it is a blog post, bylined article, white paper, or even an infographic, is research. It can be a collaborative process where the client will recommend statistics or a recent study they have discovered and want to highlight, but often it will be up the writer to unearth interesting data on their own.
Anyone who’s spent time researching online knows what an exhaustive process it can be. When searching on PubMed, for example, a writer can spend hours scanning study after study and still not find enough relevant data for the article they’re writing. Either the nature of the research does not quite relate to your content, it’s too dated, or it says nothing conclusive other than “more research is needed.”
Searching for recent results from a non-scientific poll or survey can be even more fruitless and risky. Part of the reason is healthcare information technology is at least a $227 billion industry, and it can be difficult to generate media and industry awareness of your company (unless you have a great partner like Amendola). That is why many companies will conduct their own survey or poll to generate media interest.
More often than I would like, while researching for one client I will discover the enticing results data was from a survey commissioned by a competitor. Such a conflict makes those stats, while tempting, off-limits. (But I am surprised how often I come across competitors who will cite one another’s research in their content.)
To avoid these mistakes and ensure the research you use in your content is relevant and accurate, consider these tips:
Get to the Bottom of it
I came across this stat recently that was perfect for a writing project I was working on: 85% to 99% of medical device alerts are not clinically actionable. I saw it cited in numerous medical journals and even in books with different attribution, with many citing it from The Joint Commission.
Although TJC did reference it, the stat originally came from a 2011 report from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, which cites that figure to a study conducted by Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. I highlight this example to illustrate how challenging, but also how important it is, to identify and link to the original source of the stat.
Not only is it the most accurate way to present the data, but you may discover that by getting to the root of the source it may not be reliable or from an organization (i.e. competitor), that you want to draw attention to in your content.
Find the Context
Avoiding information from a competitor is an excellent reason to scrutinize the source of data. But after you determine where the information is coming from, the writer should also investigate the context around the data so you can further evaluate its credibility.
Some organizations will issue press releases, or mention in blog posts or bylined articles, “astounding” results from a survey or research they’ve conducted. In reading the full report or study it came from, you will learn that its PR or marketing materials carefully omitted important context, which creates a misleading perspective.
For example, you may find survey results that show “90% of physicians are considering retiring within the next five years.” However, if you dig deeper into the survey, you may find that the survey question was only conducted on physicians age 65 or older. While that may be an exaggerated hypothetical scenario, it shows how risky it is to feature data without investigating the context.
Science or Pseudo-Science?
As New York Times reporter Carl Zimmer pointed out, thanks to COVID-19, many more people are reading scientific papers, but are finding them difficult to understand. Although I’ve been reading these studies for many years, I, too, occasionally struggle to interpret findings that I can incorporate in the content we create.
Fortunately, article abstracts typically offer enough information to help decide if you should keep reading. Abstracts also provide insight into the scientific rigor behind the study, such as if it is a randomized controlled trial, which is the gold standard for medical research.
Even in such trials, if it includes only a very small or narrow population of patients, it may not apply to what you’re writing. The publication itself should also be considered. A peer-reviewed publication is ideal, as is information published in prominent journals such as JAMA, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet, although even some of these journals have taken some credibility dings lately in the rush to publish COVID-19 research.
You are the Gatekeeper
Regardless of the quality of the data or the publication, you are the ultimate gatekeeper: Do you find the information and publication credible? Will it be meaningful and interesting to the prospective reader of the content? If so, then include it.
The great part about finding lots of meaningful research data is that it can help accelerate the writing process. With lots of information to include, it is just a matter of organizing and presenting it compellingly…but that’s for another post.
