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Bob ChandlerBob Chandler, co-founder of healthcare firm Chandler Chicco Agency and former president of parent company inVentiv Health’s communications operations, has launched a new agency.
That new shop, MaxAscent, is a boutique healthcare communications consultancy specializing in PR, advertising, advocacy, social/digital, corporate positioning and crisis management. Chandler told O’Dwyer’s that MaxAscent’s focus will be “to initiate and sustain conversations between patients and the communities that treat them, making interactions more frequent, engaging and, ultimately, more successful.”
“I wanted to get back to a hyper-focus on this and felt it best to do it in a small, highly specialized agency,” Chandler said, adding that the “timing has never been more appropriate and important.”
Chandler said he has access to more than 20 staffers who work virtually, and he’s presently looking to lease a space in downtown New York sometime next year.
The announcement comes alongside the arrival of a new global micro-network of healthcare communications agencies, Watershed Bridges, to which MaxAscent will serve as a member, along with nearly a dozen firms specializing in healthcare communications.
Other partner agencies will include firms specializing in patient behavior, medical education, public affairs, experiential marketing, advertising, corporate communications, narrative development, and storytelling, as well as the emerging field of patient intelligence.
Chandler, who was previously executive VP and managing director of Burson-Marsteller’s healthcare practice, co-founded Chandler Chicco in 1995 with Gianfranco Chicco, building it into a top independent healthcare PR shop with blue chip clients like Allergan and Novartis. That agency was sold in 2007 to Burlington, MA-based healthcare communications group inVentiv Health for $65 million.
Inventiv, which is owned by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, is also parent company to firms Chamberlain Healthcare PR and Allidura Consumer. InVentiv in early 2013 tapped Chandler to lead a revamped communications operation, which included PR, policy, advertising and digital in addition to his leadership role at Chandler Chicco. Chandler left the agency in 2014.
“There has never been a time in my long career in healthcare where professionals looking after patients have felt more worried sick about our system of care delivery. There is upheaval related to where Obamacare will land, there are massive changes looming in Medicare and problems of accessing medications are at an acute stage,” Chandler told O’Dwyer’s. “Patients, more than ever, need to consult with their caregivers and caregivers, like never before, need to know how to guide patients, not in just changing behavior but also figuring out delivery options or alternatives that could help them, at least in the short-term.”
Lo Isidro, senior director at Real Chemistry with more than a decade of strategic communications and PA experience, has joined Narrative Strategies.
Nelson Fernandez, former North American chair of APCO Worldwide and managing director of Burson-Marsteller, has joined Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as director of communications and PA.
Lilit Bargar, who was most recently an EVP in the healthcare practice at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at GCI Health as EVP, corporate practice lead.
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