FINN Partners is once again making moves to further boost its omni-channel platform with the addition of Medika.Life, a global opinion and news platform recognized for hosting and distributing health-sector thought-leaders’ content including the popular listicles “Fifty of the Most Influential Voices in Healthcare,” “Fifty of the Most Impactful Tech Innovators in Digital Healthcare” and “The 50 Most Influential Leaders in Pharmacy.” Starting on January 1, 2022, the platform, which reaches more than 100,000 monthly readers, will join FINN as a unique operating unit.
“The rapid success of Medika.Life is rooted in the desire of health thought leaders to also share ideas directly—without the filter of earned media—with interested audiences,” Gil Bashe, Chair Global Health, FINN Partners, who was among Medika.Life’s early authors, told PM360 in an email interview. “This medium opens the door to people sharing content in their voice and invites enthusiastic readers to make that direct connection. FINN offers a welcoming home to this community to expand the conversation.”
Bashe will take on an additional agency role as Medika.Life Editor-in-Chief and will be joined by Noah Finn, Managing Partner, Integrated Marketing, FINN Partners, as the platform’s new co-publishers. Meanwhile, Medika.Life’s current Editors-in-Chief Robert Turner and Jeffrey Livingston, MD will assume roles as Founding Editors-in-Chief Emeritus. Dr. Livingston is also editor-in-chief of Being Well on Medium, which will continue its collaboration with Medika.Life by sharing content across platforms.
“Medika is far more than simply aggregating medical data and information,” Turner said in a statement. “Since our founding in 2020, our goal has been to advocate for a medical community committed to uniting the fragmented health ecosystem toward a globally accessible, ethical, and equitable industry that places the needs of patients at the forefront.”
Dr. Livingston, who is a board-certified OB/GYN and CEO of MacArthur Medical Center in Dallas, TX, adds, “We amplify the voices of medical professionals who seek positive reform within the industry, and we provide a platform to highlight injustice, inequality, and racial bias in medicine. We created Medika.Life recognizing that even the most inspired and motivated voices require a network of committed fellow professionals for support and collaboration.”
Currently, Medika.Life hosts more than 40 authors sharing content in general medicine, health policy, ecohealth, disease awareness, and issues of interest for patients, payers, and providers. Popular contributors, including physician leader Hesham A. Hassaballa, MD, a New York Times featured Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine specialist in clinical practice for more than 20 years, and Lisa Bradburn, a psychotherapist writing about the nexus between technology and the human condition, will continue in their roles. Technology theorist John Nosta, contributor to Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, and Psychology Today will be joining the platform and additional editors and authors will be added in the months ahead.
“We embrace the opportunity to champion health leaders and influencers sharing ideas that are inclusive and encourage access to care,” Bashe told PM360. “The mission of Medika.Life and it’s operating methods will remain constant. The editorial direction has demonstrated it works and engages audiences. We will be staying the course. Additionally, we are now inviting authors onto the platform whose words already appear on Forbes and Fortune and easy-access business platforms such as Medium and LinkedIn. Health professionals and sector leaders are looking for homes in which to their words have reach. Medika.Life offers that and more—a place for health writers dedicated to advancing care and eager to make a difference through their words.”
Medika.Life will join with Pharmacy Podcast Network (PPN), which FINN absorbed in November, to form the core of FINN’s new omni-channel communications effort. Collaboration between the two companies will be nothing new, as past features like the “50 Most Influential Leaders in Pharmacy,” have appeared on both platforms. Under FINN, the companies will join forces to offer invited contributors opportunities to share their ideas and opinions with influential and important audiences throughout the health ecosystem.
“As an integrated marketing and thought leadership agency, we have to enable clients to tell their stories directly,” Bashe told PM360. “That requires weaving together the fullest potential of earned media, advocacy events, opinion pieces, speaking platforms, and digital and social media. Omni-channel communications is a vehicle and mindset that encourages health clients to share directly without third-party filters. When people write, post, and have greater direct reach, they strengthen bonds of trust through timely transparency. When we consider the amazing contributions of this life-sustaining and giving industry, we must ask why is it struggling to secure reputation traction. Part of the challenge is not having sufficient opportunity to make a direct connection with decision-makers and influencers—including patients. Omnichannel opens doors and, hopefully, minds.”
