As the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus positions itself as a world-class research facility, the “Mayo Clinic of the West,” the world is about to find that out.
Researchers on the 230-acre campus in Aurora are the focus of the first national marketing campaign aimed at major TV, radio and digital outlets, as well as documentary-style videos on websites dedicated to showing off the innovative work.
“There is something incredibly special about the CU Anschutz Medical Campus that sets us apart,” Kathy Green, spokeswoman for the medical campus told Colorado Politics. “As an academic medical campus, our particular combination of clinical practice, education and research results in truly world-class patient care. In medical circles, we’ve been called the Mayo of the West, or compared to Johns Hopkins and some of the other top medical providers in the country.
“It’s time we share our story with Colorado and the rest of the country.”
The marketing campaign, called This Is Breakthrough, was previewed for Colorado Politics Friday.
“We have a remarkable story to tell about the Anschutz Medical Campus,” John J. Reilly Jr., the CU School of Medicine’s dean and vice chancellor for health affairs, said in a statement Friday.
“This is Breakthrough shares the powerful and inspiring work of our colleagues and serves as an invitation to visionary leaders to join us in developing the innovative care and research that will improve lives.”
The CU-Anschutz medical campus is the home to the CU health professional schools with more than 60 centers and institutes, as well as the two hospitals that treat more than 2 million adults and children a year, with more than $500 million in research awards.
“We remain a steadfast partner in the shared vision of improving lives through the advancement of research, along with the best in education, innovation and clinical care,” said Philip Anschutz of The Anschutz Foundation. “The foundation has been instrumental in accelerating the development of the campus.
“We have long known the depth of expertise on this campus,” Anschutz said. “Now, through this campaign, the rest of the country will also come to know CU Anschutz Medical Campus as one of the nation’s top medical destinations.”
Anschutz, who has been a major donor to CU Anschutz over the years, owns Clarity Media Group, parent company of Colorado Politics and The Gazette.
The ads also will appear in medical journals and at health science conferences. Each ad will have a dedicated website, where they’ll find more documentary-style videos about the work at CU Anschutz.
Examples offered by the medical campus Friday included:
Designing novel techniques to treat spinal injuries: Dr. Evalina Burger-Van der Walt, chair of orthopedics, helped develop new metal-alloy compositions to improve orthopedic implants, which CU Anschutz said resulted in more than 90% fewer fractures.
Training the body to fight cancer: Dr. Terry Fry, professor of pediatrics, hematology and immunology, and director of cancer immunotherapy at Children’s Hospital Colorado, is creating next-generation chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy, which the marketing campaign says is a “revolutionary approach that reprograms a patient’s T-cells to find and kill cancer cells.”
Inspiring new hope for the blind: Dr. Naresh Mandava chair of ophthalmology, is working to cure retinal diseases that cause blindness along with the department’s CellSight collaborative research teams.
To see the ads and learn more about the campaign, click here. The campaign was created by Karsh Hagan, a Denver-based advertising and branding agency.
The campaign, created in partnership with the two on-campus hospitals, will spend several millions of dollars across local and competitive national markets to raise awareness and support clinical faculty recruitment.
More ads with more faculty featuring the campus’ innovative work is expected in the months ahead, the campus said in a press release.
“Our campus has a long history of making discoveries that address some of the most pressing health issues facing the world,” Donald Elliman, Jr., CU Anschutz chancellor, said in a statement. “It’s high time we share our breakthroughs in ways that attract wide public attention. With this marketing effort, we aim to make the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus renowned from coast to coast, and our brand synonymous with world-class health science, education and care.”
Elizabeth Concordia, president and CEO of UC Health, said her organization is focused on superior care, innovation and outcomes.
“Many of the groundbreaking clinical trials and advanced treatments we’re providing our patients begin here on the Anschutz Medical Campus, and it is through the partnerships we have forged that we are redefining the future of medicine,” she stated.
Jena Hausmann, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Colorado. said it’s an exciting time to work in pediatric health care.
“Our pediatric physician scientists are making new discoveries everyday on this campus, and we’re able to take these breakthrough pediatric innovations to patients and families across the region and influence child health across the globe,” she said
Contact Joey Bunch at joey.bunch@coloradopolitics.com or follow him on Twitter @joeybunch.
Your Privacy Choices