Ashley Windus, Director, Marketing & Corporate Strategy, Edwards Lifesciences
Edwards Lifesciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients with structural heart disease through innovative heart valve therapy. Following a successful pilot program in 2018, the company made the bold decision to launch a major heart valve disease (HVD) consumer awareness campaign. It was a new way of thinking for the medical device company and required a new person to run it: Ashley Windus.
In less than one year, Ashley created a nimble marketing department made up of three professionals focused on creating disease awareness initiatives. Together, they developed a disease awareness campaign that seeks to educate consumers and drive diagnoses of HVD by encouraging patients to reach out to their doctors and ask for an echocardiogram. This consumer awareness campaign, Reach for the Heart, hopes to spark a movement among patients and loved ones through a multimedia effort including: Broadcast, online videos, a consumer website, magazine, digital banners, in-office information, social media, email, and paid search. While the campaign only recently launched, Ashley knows how important it is to achieve its goal of raising awareness of HVD as 75% of Americans know little to nothing about it.
In her short time at the company, Ashley is already changing the game at Edwards. Because of her marketing acumen and collaborative style, Ashley has started and joined many broad-ranging marketing initiatives within Edwards. She has joined the ranks of Edwards Senior Management and recently was invited to speak at the “Every Heartbeat Matters” Summit, hosted by the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, where she gave a presentation on the undertreatment of HVD.
