Marketing firm targets medical community

A new medical marketing business aims to give a competitive edge to medical firms in the Augusta area.

"It's a really great time for a physician to position their practice as a provider of choice so that when the economy comes back they'll be ahead of the curve," said Betty Sosnin, the owner of MedMark Partners, a home-based business that started in January.

"When there's a recession like this, business owners in general tend to pull back, which is usually a big mistake," Sosnin said.

Before starting MedMark, Sosnin was a contract writer-editor for University Health Care System and MCGHealth Inc., in addition to two of the nation's largest medical marketing firms.

Because Augusta is considered a medical hub, she said, she sees growth potential in the community.

In the past, she said, physicians considered it unprofessional to market, but younger physicians are realizing they're also business owners.

"There's a special expertise needed in medical marketing. A lot of the things that you might do in marketing other products just might not be appropriate in medical work. You have to be extremely careful about things like over-promising or scare tactics. It takes a lot of experience to be really good in medical marketing," Sosnin said.