This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1531003507313215v1 20/1/6    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Perler, B. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Perler, B. A. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Branding of Vascular Surgery

Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, bperler{at}jhmi.edu

The Society for Vascular Surgery surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) to understand how PCPs make referral decisions for their patients with peripheral vascular disease. Responses were received from 250 PCPs in 44 states. More than 80% of the respondents characterized their experiences with vascular surgeons as positive or very positive. PCPs perceive that vascular surgeons perform "invasive" procedures and refer patients with the most severe vascular disease to vascular surgeons but were more than twice as likely to refer patients to cardiologists, believing they are better able to perform minimally invasive procedures. Nevertheless, PCPs are receptive to the notion of increasing referrals to vascular surgeons. A successful branding campaign will require considerable education of referring physicians about the totality of traditional vascular and endovascular care increasingly provided by the contemporary vascular surgical practice and will be most effective at the local grassroots level.

Key Words: branding • vascular surgery marketing

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?