case study

This case study highlights our work with ASCEND Cardiovascular, a developer of cardiology imaging and reporting software. ASCEND recently pivoted to focus exclusively on the cardiology market, and Healthcare Service Consultants helped them sharpen their focus on this important medical segment in several ways: 

• Developed a more identifiable corporate presence through trade shows and press releases
• Supported the launch of a new remote image viewing product in the cardiology space
• Supplemented the marketing efforts of existing corporate executives

ASCEND Cardiovascular develops software designed to improve cardiologist workflow. The company has over 20 years of experience in cardiovascular IT and is led by a practicing cardiologist.

ASCEND’s solutions focus on cardiovascular image visualization and structured reporting, such as its ASCEND InView zero-footprint DICOM viewer for cardiovascular image review and analysis, and its ASCEND CV portfolio of multimodality cardiovascular structured reporting software.

In late 2022, ASCEND implemented a corporate rebranding, changing its name from ASCEND HIT to ASCEND Cardiovascular. The rebrand signified the company’s renewed emphasis on the cardiovascular IT market. It was accompanied by the launch of new cardiology-focused solutions like the InView image viewer software and Catalyst LIVE, a remote telepresence application that enables communication and collaboration between members of the cardiology team, including sonographers, technologists, and cardiologists. 

The rebrand followed our year-long engagement with ASCEND in which we helped raise the company’s visibility among both OEMs and end-users in preparation for a major product launch. We also helped the company position its product by interviewing physicians to determine their needs and clarify clinical use cases.

2.1 Indirect Sales Channel

ASCEND traditionally has sold its products through OEM partners. As a result, the company did not have the level of visibility among end-users that a vendor that has sold directly might have.

2.2 Resource Constraints

The company’s primary sales executive also oversaw its marketing efforts, which created resource constraints as product sales began ramping up.

2.3 Staffing Deficiencies

ASCEND did not have the staff resources to properly investigate important aspects of how the product might be used by clinicians and its adoption impacted by current reimbursement.

3.1 Gather Voice of Customer

Our initial work was to lay the groundwork for the upcoming launch of Catalyst LIVE by interviewing cardiologists who work with MRI to determine their needs for remote image viewing software. We wrote up our findings and provided a summary and suggestions for overall positioning, target use cases, market segments and value propositions by market segment. We also provided feedback to product development in an effort of influence the development of additional capabilities.

3.2 Researched Reimbursement

We also researched the reimbursement environment to understand whether end-users would be able to leverage existing reimbursement code and under what conditions they could be utilized. This information was also used to create educational marketing materials that sales could use to help facilitate sales of Catalyst LIVE.

3.3 Digital Content

We wrote press releases and social media posts to support the company presence at major tradeshows.

3.4 Tradeshow Support

We helped ASCEND plan for exhibiting at trade shows with its own booth (previously, the company had appeared in the booths of its OEM partners), and we planned and managed trade show-specific promotions.

3.5 Content Development

We wrote a positioning paper and sales sheet on Catalyst LIVE that articulated the product’s value proposition.

3.6 Microsite Development

We created a microsite highlighting the benefits of Catalyst LIVE, working with an outsourced web developer to have the site built and posted.

3.7 SEO

To draw traffic to the microsite, we conducted SEO analysis and optimization.

During our engagement with ASCEND Cardiovascular, we helped the company’s existing marketing team conduct the market and end user research necessary to support the launch of its new remote telepresence application, Catalyst LIVE.

We also helped the company raise its overall visibility in the marketplace as it pivoted from being purely an OEM supplier to increasingly selling solutions directly to end-users and creating its own brand recognition. Our activities ran the gamut, from performing market research, writing press releases to building microsites to developing thought leadership content.

Contact us if you feel your company could also benefit from improved positioning and a strategic marketing approach.