‘Marketing saves lives’: Mount Sinai highlights care, research

Mount Sinai Health System’s brand stands out in a crowded New York City market through the “seamless integration” of its medical school and hospitals, the health system’s marketing chief told Becker’s.

The New York City-based health system’s “One Mount Sinai” strategy brings together employees with a set of common goals and objectives — from its Icahn School of Medicine to seven hospitals to numerous outpatient clinics.

“We’re unique in that we’re a healthcare system inclusive of a medical college, all of which is part of one integrated enterprise without a university relationship,” David A. Feinberg, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of Mount Sinai Health System and dean of marketing and communications at Icahn School of Medicine, told Becker’s.

“So our school is fully integrated into what we do, and that provides a tremendous opportunity for the synergy between what they’re doing and what the hospital is doing.”

New York is one of the most dynamic healthcare markets in the country, with Mount Sinai and two of its competitors in the city landing on U.S. News & World Report’s most recent list of the 20 best hospitals in the country. So it’s Mr. Feinberg’s job to differentiate his organization.

One way is what he called that “seamless integration” between the medical school and hospitals: “The new discoveries, the new information, the latest and greatest of what’s going on are things that our doctors have access to organically. … They’re involved in research. They’re on the cutting edge of what’s going on.” Mount Sinai is also the largest provider of residency training in the country.

Mr. Feinberg said he also touts Mount Sinai’s “commitment to compassion and being warm and welcoming,” which is backed up by feedback from patients and physicians, as well as the health system’s strong geographic and specialty footprint.

In addition, Mount Sinai’s marketing team has collaborated with IT to create a strong digital patient experience, with over 2 million regular users on the health system’s app.

One recent marketing campaign focuses on the “sandwich generation,” the large cohort of Americans, mostly female, caring for both young children and elderly parents.

“That campaign is one of the things we’re most proud of, and it’s gotten tremendous response where women say, ‘You understand what I’m going through,’” Mr. Feinberg said.

To determine return on investment for its marketing spend, Mount Sinai looks at the number of people clicking on sites, making appointments and downloading information. But Mr. Feinberg acknowledges that ROI is a “challenge” for healthcare marketing, with a greater emphasis now because of the industry’s financial straits.

“We’re all looking for better ways to measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, and it’s an ongoing journey, as we get more technologically advanced and have more access to how people are going through the system,” he said.

But that’s not always easy to do. A patient might start scheduling an appointment online but then stop and call the office, making it hard to track which marketing campaign led them to Mount Sinai.

“The purchase procedures are complex in our business,” Mr. Feinberg said. “It’s not like, ‘Gee, I need toothpaste. I’ll go to the store and buy toothpaste.’ It doesn’t quite work that way. So that creates challenges in terms of being able to track things longitudinally.”

AI will play a bigger role in assessing marketing ROI in the future, Mr. Feinberg said.

Like some other big health systems, Mount Sinai’s marketing team also uses AI to generate and edit content as well as create images. The department follows internal guidelines for responsible and ethical AI deployment.

“We want to make sure there’s always a human connection to everything we do in AI,” Mr. Feinberg said. “So somebody is taking the output of AI and editing it and then being responsible for it.”

As federal support for medical research craters, Mr. Feinberg also emphasizes the good Mount Sinai is doing for healthcare years off into the distance. In 2024, Icahn School of Medicine ranked 11th overall in National Institute of Health research grant funding and is on track to secure just under $500 million this year, which Mr. Feinberg called a “remarkable achievement for a medical school not affiliated with a university.”

“One of the things I say to folks is, ‘Marketing saves lives,’” he said. “Marketing saves lives because we connect people to the care they need, and we also help people understand the importance of the institution as a valued resource for both current and future medical care.

“Sometimes you think of branding as trying to sell more goods to more folks more often. I think of it differently. I think of branding as creating the association between your institution and the full value that it creates for people.”

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