Doctor-First Marketing Strategies to Improve Patient Outcomes
Dr. Douglas Flora
Executive Director of Oncology at St. Elizabeth Healthcare

Doctor-First Marketing Strategies to Improve Patient Outcomes

With Dr. Douglas Flora
By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer

How can healthcare marketers and executives engage doctors in impactful storytelling to improve patient outcomes? In this podcast, Dr. Douglas Flora, Executive Director of Oncology Services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, shares actionable strategies to overcome doctor reluctance and create powerful, doctor-driven marketing programs.

Dr. Flora explains how he aligns marketing with what motivates his doctors by focusing on mission-driven campaigns. These campaigns help engage doctors more deeply and lead to better patient outcomes. He shares how tools like annual video sessions and patient stories can make screenings feel more personal, especially in high-risk communities.

Dr. Flora also talks about how approaching marketing as a shared mission adds value to the doctors’ work and boosts their confidence, particularly through media training.

For healthcare marketers looking to build effective, doctor-led campaigns, this podcast offers practical advice on how to get doctors more involved and improve patient care.

Listen to the podcast:

Key Insights and Takeaways

  • Leverage mission-driven marketing with insights from Dr. Douglas Flora, who helps doctors share their passion for patient care through first-person storytelling.
  • Identify doctors' strengths and preferences (e.g., public speaking or writing) to place them in roles that maximize their effectiveness and comfort.
  • Streamline content creation by organizing annual video sessions, saving time while delivering consistent, high-quality materials.
  • Use patient stories to create relatable content that drives efforts in prevention and screenings, especially in high-risk communities.
  • Engage reluctant doctors by framing marketing as a mission that adds value to their work—provide media training and support to enhance their comfort and confidence.
"When you wake up in the morning, you want to make a difference—a dent in humanity, like Steve Jobs said. Here, doctors and our marketing team work hand in hand as cancer fighters, each using their unique skills to help patients. That’s the power of messaging: uniting talents to make a meaningful impact. It’s truly beautiful when it all comes together."

Dr. Douglas Flora

For your reference, here are links to the Harvard Business Review article and DISC theory referenced in the podcast:

I highly recommend listening to our podcast in its entirety for more in-depth coverage of how a mission-driven approach to healthcare marketing can align provider goals with patient outcomes and how marketers can effectively amplify those successes.

Want to explore this topic further? Check out the following Healthcare Success blogs:

Note: Dr. Douglas Flora’s original panel discussion on this topic was held during the 2024 Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategy Summit in Las Vegas.

We invite you to subscribe to our blog and connect with us on LinkedIn: Stewart Gandolf and Healthcare Success.

Note: The following raw, AI-generated transcript is provided as an additional resource for those who prefer not to listen to the podcast recording. It has not been edited or reviewed for accuracy.

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