Partner Article

Hart Biologicals appoints Onyx Health for National Awareness

Hart Biologicals Ltd, the award winning Hartlepool based business that provides innovative, technical solutions to help monitor a number of blood related medical conditions has appointed Onyx Health to undertake a national PR programme to demonstrate to healthcare providers the cost saving advantages of its anti-coagulation monitoring systems.

The Thrombi-Stat INR testing system which is used to monitor how quickly a patient’s blood clots has the potential to save the NHS £40m if used nationally. In an era of austerity where public funded bodies such as the NHS have to make every penny count, using the Thrombi-Stat INR system can make a significant budgetary difference even to the smallest anti-coagulation clinic.

It is estimated that 800,000 patients take a product called Warfarin each year to stop their blood forming clots which can lead to a stroke or heart attack. Each patient has to be carefully monitored throughout the year to check that their blood has not got too thin or too sticky that it forms a clot. This continual testing is a major expense to the NHS.

The campaign devised by Onyx Health will target the purchasing decision makers in hospitals and primary care giving them the tools to see just how much of a cost saving they can make by using the Thrombi-Stat INR testing system. The programme will also focus on organisations submitting tenders to undertake community based anti-coagulation testing, as using the Thrombi-Stat system will bring down the tender cost.

“As the time is right to demonstrate to the NHS the real cost savings that could be made with our testing systems, we decided to appoint Onyx Health to work on this programme with us as we wanted to work with a communications agency that had the in-depth healthcare knowledge and the expertise to support us in the UK and also globally, as our testing systems can be used in any setting anywhere in the world,” explains Alby Pattison, Managing Director of Hart Biologicals.

Onyx Health is the brainchild of Karen Winterhalter, who has previously headed up the healthcare teams for Europe, Middle East and Africa for several of the world leading global PR firms, including Burson Marsteller and Weber Shandwick. In 2010, Winterhalter relocated the business from London to the North East to support the growing life science business in the region. The company, now based in Durham, largely works with pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic companies who have a product they want to market to healthcare providers and consumers.

Having lead UK and global campaigns for the likes of Pfizer, Eli Lilly and GSK, Winterhalter wanted to be able to offer her knowledge and expertise too small to medium size businesses entering UK and global healthcare markets.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Onyx Health Ltd .