Phillies’ Ace Gives Back to children’s hospital

October 24th, 2011

Ten years ago minor league pitcher Cliff Lee and his wife Kristen walked into Arkansas Children’s Hospital with their 4-month old son, Jaxon, who was diagnosed with a form of leukemia that doesn’t typically show up in infants. The child was treated by Dr. Robert Saylors, who told Jaxon’s parents his odds of surviving this disease was about 50-50.

Jaxon had multiple rounds of chemotherapy, suffered a serious relapse that he survived thanks to an experiment umbilical-chord stem cell procedure, and now finds himself cancer-free and in remission for the past several years. That’s the great news.

The good news happened last November when Cliff Lee, the Benton, Ark. native, has gone on to become a Cy Young-winning pitcher, who led the Texas Rangers to the World Series last year and helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies back to post-season play this year, and his wife dropped in for a surprise visit with Dr. Saylors in his office.

According to the article below from ESPN, Dr. Saylors was told by Jaxon that the Lee family had gotten him a chair. Confused, the good doctor told them he hoped it was a recliner. It was Kristen who couldn’t keep Dr. Saylors in the dark any longer and told him, according the report, that they had decided to donate $1 million to endow a chair at the hospital, the Jaxon C. Lee — Robert L. Saylors III, MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

ESPN’s Bonnie D. Ford reports it this way: ‘Stunned and a little weak-kneed, Saylors sat down. Endowed chairs are the seats around the conference table in medicine’s Valhalla, and he’d never envisioned himself in that company. Later, Saylors would begin to imagine how many kids and families could benefit from that money and the pain and suffering it might someday help alleviate. But in that moment, he was speechless.

“I didn’t cry, but I felt like it,” he said. “It never occurred to me that what I did every day had that level of meaning and impact for people. It just couldn’t sink in, that little nerdy Bob Saylors from Bossier City, Louisiana, someone gave a million dollars to me” — his voice cracked on the word — “for really just doing my job.”

With little fanfare outside of Little Rock and not much more than the typical reporting on the gift around the state of Arkansas, the Lee’s have been low-key about the gift and hands-off on its use. That’s the way they’ve wanted it. But you can read more of the story of Dr. Saylors, the impact of the gift to date and how Jaxon, now a fourth-grader is doing, with check-ups now at only once a year. – Simon Lee @simonslee (no relation to Cliff Lee)

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011/story/_/id/7040473/cliff-lee-wife-kristen-lend-quiet-support-cancer-hospital-arkansas

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30-40

October 4th, 2011

Life is an epic adventure. Whether that life lasts 10 minutes or 100 years, things happen to engrave a story that remains, forever, a tale of struggle and suffering, and of love and joy and every human emotion in between these highs and lows.

When someone sets about to tell all or part of this adventure of a life, the listener is often left with myths built or busted, legends destroyed or created. My purpose for this note is to do none of that. I hope to capture a 10-year chapter of facts. These are all things I saw, but not all of the things I saw. These are things to which I can bear witness and dont ever want to forget, as I near the final hours from closing these 10 years of my life.

I saw my 9-year old youngest son born. I was two months into my 30s.

I saw my 12-year old son turn 3. What a beautiful age. Life in this world is really just beginning, and a 3-year-old child proves it with every day that comes and goes.

I saw both of these boys start the first days of school, in kindergarten, with fresh faces and haircuts. Fear and excitement all over them both. A little sadness for a mom and dad, who knew what it meant to leave those kids there, at that school: were all getting a bit older.

a href=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Holly-Ball1.jpgimg class=alignleft size-medium wp-image-772 title=Holly Ball src=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Holly-Ball1-300×169.jpg alt= width=300 height=169 //aI saw a mother become a mom. As kids grow up, that should happen. Mothers go from life-giving to giving life meaning, purpose and love. When a mother changes into a mom, she NEVER returns completely to anything she was before, and shes all the more beautiful, youthful and alive as a result.

I saw my wife become something else, too: a beautiful woman, with wisdom, grace, style, love and caring.

I saw a girl become a woman of strength, a rock for those around her. I saw her smile. I saw her cry. I saw her fight. I saw her love. I watched her take on the world and win more than she lost.

I saw my marriage to her blessed by the Church. On the same day, my two sons became members of the body of Christ through baptism.

I watched as all three members of my family received the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ through the Holy Eucharist for the first time.a href=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/first-holy-communion.jpgimg class=aligncenter size-medium wp-image-767 title=first holy communion src=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/first-holy-communion-300×225.jpg alt= width=300 height=225 //a

I saw friendships bloom and blossom and others wither and die.

I saw friends become business partners. I saw business partners become friends.

I saw an idea turn into a business and watched that business provide opportunities. I saw people get married, start families, buy homes and enjoy life a little more, in part, because an idea was acted upon – an idea became a business.

I saw failure lead to success and success give way to failure.

Ive seen life and death, health and sickness, love and hate.

Ive seen money come and go. Ive seen dreams interrupted by life, and life give dreams that werent imagined.

I saw hair on my pillow and in the shower and on my towel and skin where that hair should be. I saw dark hairs that remained in a href=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/funtiimes-on-vacation1.jpgimg class=alignleft size-medium wp-image-773 title=funtiimes on vacation src=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/funtiimes-on-vacation1-300×169.jpg alt= width=300 height=169 //aplace turn gray, and wrinkles, forged with experience, replace smooth spots, leaving a glimpse at the character who will make up the remaining pages of this story.

I saw part of Europe. I sat first class. I stayed in fine hotels, frequented the finest restaurants and bars. I ate well, and too much, oftentimes. I drank well, and too much, oftentimes.

I drove a car with the lid off from time to time.

I skied (or, should I say, I tried skiing). I bought a Cartier watch. I saw the Pacific Ocean from an infinity pool in Mexico while holding my wifes hands. I drank Big Ass Beers walking on Beale Street in Memphis. I had the best time in New Orleans. I slept on a cot on aa href=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/New-Orleans.jpgimg class=alignright size-medium wp-image-765 title=New Orleans src=http://blog.lee-stafford.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/New-Orleans-300×170.jpg alt= width=300 height=170 //a beach in the Caribbean. I saw dolphins from the deck of a ship, the Grand Canyon from the seat of plane. I saw the stars on the sidewalk in Hollywood, and rode in the backseat of a convertible Stang, with the top down, drinking peach schnapps from a bottle out of a paper bag.

I danced into the wee hours of the morning. I spent some nights never sleeping.

I put the finest wines Id ever tasted to my lips. I rubbed elbows and worked with the smartest people Ive known, writers, artists, thinkers, leaders, doers.

I put my toes in the sand in new places and heard what the ocean sounds like against shorelines I may never see again. I felt the breeze on my skin in the East and the West. I did these things with people I loved, and who loved me back.

These are the facts as I saw them, and there are many more. And should I live another 40 years (or more) or ten years or less, these were some of the blessings of 30-40.

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Well, thank God you’re retiring

June 29th, 2011

Max,

I read with great joy of your “retirement” from that awful liberal rag and so-called “alternative” paper, which has long been the mouthpiece of whacko, left-wing, anti-business, pro-commie, gay-loving, anti-God, progressive trash.

Art, some would call it (those folks tend to stay in Hillcrest).

Journalism, a claim made by even fewer, at least no one in God’s Country of West Little Rock, where the skin is white and the living is easy, and the signs in the yards every other year yell “NO TAXES” and “VOTE for a Christian (with some fish symbol to illustrate something that still escapes me).”

Informative, I guess. (I must be careful with what I’ll admit in writing. You understand.)

Entertaining? Only if you like to watch some rich, powerfully corrupt asshole squirm and dodge and dance and hide and run and rant.

You say you’ll spend your time now on the “blog.” Well, that’s good, but what you’ve got there isn’t a blog. Blogs are for mommies who whine and over-share the content of Junior’s shitty diaper. Right?

Your so-called “blog” is really just a porn site. Don’t tell anyone you know this. Yes, this is all off the record (appealing to the “journalist” in you): As a baby, raised in the morning with the Gazette, and balanced with an afternoon pick-up of my grandfather’s Democrat, I had a well-rounded education with varying viewpoints. But the Arkansas Times (magazine) was off limits. I was taught a healthy loathing for its form of outrageous lies.

So imagine the difficulty with which sneaking peaks at your news stand pornography was for me? Skulking into some patchouli-soaked, liberal hide-out, late at night, busting up meetings of Future Socialists of America with my uniform of  khakis, loafers and golf shirts, to secretly grab an ink and paper version of your words, reporting and editing.

Man, it was a tough life. Then you started the “blog,” so upstanding Pro-God and Country citizens such as myself could access your porn properly, as all porn is to be consumed, online, in the dark of night, in the privacy of our own homes.

To hear you’re going to be spending even more time and energy on this endeavor is like an answer to my prayers. I wish you continued good health, fine sources and sharp thoughts.

As a young journalism student, I was asked if journalism is something I did or was a journalist what I was. I answered it was who I was, Simon Lee, journalist. Despite leaving the paper business years ago, I’ve remained a journalist, a reporter, and info junkie whose secret highs come from reading the likes of you. And always learning new tricks for the craft from you.

You’ve never officially been my editor, but you always have been.

Much love to you and your family, the real one at home and the real one in the newsroom.

Si

Simon S. Lee

Chief Executive Officer

501.975.2040 | simon.lee@lee-stafford.com

2200 Brookwood Drive | Suite 110

Little Rock, Arkansas 72202

Fax 501.975.2042

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Site makes the health-faith connection

May 26th, 2011

In a project started earlier this year, Meredith Gould, sociologist and author of seven books including, Deliberate Acts of Kindness: Service as a Spiritual Practice (Doubleday); and The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today (Morehouse), uses her site, www.healthfaith.com to draw a powerful connection between health care and faith.

In May, Gould presented to the D.C. Health 2.0 STAT group, discussing the correlation between virtual communities and health care communities. The core of her position:

  • Virtual community is real community.
  • Everything that happens in an IRL (in real life) community happens in virtual community – only faster.
  • When it comes to time and timing, figure on a 3:1 ratio (e.g., one month in a virtual community is the functional equivalent of three months in an IRL community).

Additionally, she uses the site to discuss the use of “prayer language,” such as “I am praying for you” or, “Please pray for me”when discussing health care issues online and in social media and asking an important question: “Is the language of prayer, the language of compassion, no matter your level of spiritual belief?

What’s fascinating in both her Health 2.0 presentation and in related posts are the similarities she observes and effectively draws between health care organizations and religious organizations. A few of the most obvious similarities she’s noted: structures and governance; positions and behavioral expectations of participants; and protocols for interaction.

With the approach of PhD-level sociologist who’s been writing about faith and health care for years, the site addresses two topics generally not discussed openly in professional settings in a manner that isn’t preachy or professorial, but one that is engaging, entertaining and wonderfully informative.

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My love affair with the pencil

April 10th, 2011

My friend Jessica Levco asked me to provide a quote on why I like using a pencil for a story she was working on for ragan.com. The story is about old-school habits communicators still use. I was all too happy to oblige, and not surprisingly, provided her with much more than a quote.

My love affair with the pencil, particularly the Dixon Ticonderoga #2 lead pencil with its classic neon green and yellow colors, started when I was a little kid. Like 3-4 years old little. My grandfather, who lived in the house in the neighborhood directlybehind ours, wrote with this pencil, jotting notes and math problems on the daily newspaper next to stories. “Just thinking,” he’d say. I spent some time of every day of my life until leaving for college with him at his house, snagging a pencil when I needed a new one and visiting about news events and his “thinking” of the day.

In college, as a journalism student, stringer for the local newspaper and reporter for the school paper, I’d learned from a professor who’d worked for years at the New York Times, that pencils were superior to ink pens because lead pencils wouldn’t smear when taking notes in the rain or at a wet fire scene. That made sense to me, so I never bothered learning to write with a pen. In fact, when I use a pen to take notes, I can barely read them myself.

I like sharpening pencils; I like the smell of the wood and graphite as I sharpen them, and the smell of the eraser in use and the rubber bits left behind, requiring a brush of the hand to clear; I like the feel of a pencil in my hand and the callus on middle finger from using a pencil (after all, that callus is how I learned right from left and still use the trick today); I like the sound made when scratching notes on notebook paper. Most of all, I like the letter-by-letter and note-by-note reminder, from my hand through the pencil, that things change and can be changed, making pencils better for “just thinking.”

PS: The first word I ever wrote, TOWN, was with my grandfather’s pencil. Up until then, it was the happiest day of my life. Probably happier for my grandmother, though, who sat for hours with my putting letters together on paper, then asking, “What does w-o-g-m spell, Mamaw?” “What does t-r-g-h, spell, Mamaw?” Ect. Etc. When I hit “TOWN” I’d finally won.

What’s your favorite writing instrument? Please let me know here or on Twitter @simonslee.

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Former Smith and Nephew Global Marketing Manager joins lee|stafford

January 13th, 2011

A new year brings a new face to the lee|stafford team. Well, Laura Teuton may be new to some of you, but the reality is we’ve been

Laura Teuton

working with her for years, and I know many of you know her. Before joining lee|stafford at the start of the year, Laura was a client of ours for more than 5 years. She’s been a Global Marketing Manager for Smith and Nephew Orthopaedics, where her work ethic, innovation and professionalism have earned her a reputation of excellence and success.

Needless to say, we’re proud and excited and honored to have her join our firm as a Senior Account Manager. She further bolsters our credentials as experts in the medical device marketing space with her years of service and product launch success at Smith and Nephew. Additionally, she’ll remain based in the Memphis area, home for her, her husband Gary Teuton, her son, Cole, age 11, and two daughters, Sydney, age 2, and Collins who is 5 months.

Beyond working with the Memphis-area medical device community, Laura will work with new national and global medical device and healthcare clients.

Please feel free to follow Laura on Twitter (she’s new to Twitter, but we’re doing our part to add a great voice to the healthcare communications and social media community!) and add her to your Linkedin Network, if she’s not a contact for you there now.

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11 Predictions for 2011

December 31st, 2010

11.  Hospitals and clinics will study the U.S. Postal Service, not the hospitality industry, for patient-relation strategies, care-delivery innovations, in-clinic time management techniques and staffing tips.

10.  Gas prices will rise, forcing more Americans to park vehicles and walk, stemming the obesity epidemic for the first time in years.

9.  More Americans walking will create a massive surge in orthopaedic procedures.

8.  The cobalt chrome futures market will become the new gold standard.

7.  In fashion, styles from the 1930s and 1940s are adopted, with men wearing suits and ties to ballgames, dress hats to the office, and housewives wearing dresses daily.

6.  Apple will release the iJet, a personal jet pack, fueled by an iPad.

5.  In entertainment, 3-D will appear everywhere, mainly as the result of the clever marketing of all live stage shows as “NOW IN 3-D!!!”

4.  CNN will change its name to TNN — the Twitter News Network — and the New York Times will become the New York Tweets after both media properties are purchased by Twitter in a private deal worth thousands.

3. In new medical research released early in the year, butter is shown to cause Alzheimer’s.

2.  In new medical research released late in the year, butter is shown to improve memory.

1.  After starting the year with a big victory over THE Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4, the Arkansas Razorbacks start the 2011 college football season ranked in the top five, win the Southeastern Conference West division, the SEC Championship and goes on to play in the BCS National Championship game in 2012.

Woo Pig Sooie and Happy New Year, y’all.

See you next year! @simonslee

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Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us to you

December 29th, 2010

In the spirit of giving, we’ve again made donations in our clients’ honor to food banks in their communities. We’ve done something similar for the past several years and remain proud to continue this holiday tradition.

Below, you’ll find a list of the groups we donated to this year. Please consider helping the hungry and homeless in your area with a donation. This time of year many of your local food pantries and shelters are depleted and any help you can provide helps them continue their missions into the new year.

(North Carolina) http://www.foodbankcenc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Branch_Durham

(Northern LA County) http://www.scvfoodpantry.org/howtohelp.php

(San Diego Area) http://www.sandiegofoodbank.org/

(Dallas Area) https://donate.ntfb.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=192

(Memphis Area) http://www.midsouthfoodbank.org/

(Boston, New England Area) http://www.gbfb.org/donateFunds/index.cfm

(Indiana) http://www.feedindiana.org/

(Minneapolis Area) https://www.emergencyfoodshelf.org/HowToHelp/DonateMoney/Donate.aspx

(Central Arkansas) http://helpingarkansas.blogspot.com/

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Report and survey on FDA and medical devices

December 10th, 2010

I’ll offer full thoughts and opinions on this report when I complete it, but wanted to get it shared today, and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

FDA impact US med tech innovation report FINAL

And have a great weekend, @simonslee

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My experiences with the Power of Patient Education…by Shar

December 8th, 2010
Working with the medical device field, and consulting with the marketing teams of huge multibillion dollar companies to create patient education literature, I’m well aware that a knee implant can be one of several different “name brands”. Before I started working at lee|stafford, I never even thought about patient education and how impactful it could potentially be to the patient as well as the device company. Surgeons empowering their patient with knowledge of what kind of metal is actually going to be put in his/her body is just good practice in itself, but knowledge of these details will also lead the patient to be an advocate for the surgeon as well as the implant itself spreading good referrals around to family and friends. 

For example, last year my aunt had bi-lateral knee replacement surgery and my first question to her was what kind of knees you are getting? She actually knew the name of the device company and all the details about the implants. She had brochures and online references about the product. She ranted and raved about how great the surgeon was and how she respected and trusted him and the entire experience. I was and am very impressed that the surgeon, as well as the medical device company, did such a fantastic job creating educational materials and passing the information along to the patient who then passed it down to me- a possible referral source. 

ANOTHER example, my uncle uncle had knee replacement surgery several years ago and when I inquired about how the surgery went, he whipped out this little ID card from his wallet and on the card was: his name, his surgeon’s name, and name of the device company that made his implant that was in his leg. He smiled as he took out the card and was actually proud to show me ant and tell me his “war story” about surgery and proceeded to talk highly of his surgeon. I got so involved with his story and how positive he was, when I talked to my dad about his own knee replacement, I mentioned he should talk to my uncle and he should go to the surgeon he used in Dallas! 

On the other extreme, this month, my OTHER uncle had his knee replaced and before his surgery I asked him what kind of knee he was getting? He didn’t know. His knee replacement surgery was last week and as I’m visiting him in the hospital, I asked him again if he knew what kind of knee he had? Still, he didn’t know. So that means that his brother, sister, best friend, and other family members will never know the name of the company that made his knee implant, therefore, missing an obvious opportunity to spread the word about the implant. Not to mention the “wow factor” of his surgeon completely educating him and making his surgery an informed and predictable experience. (…which we all want when it comes to surgery!) 

So, not only does my job have even more validity than ever, I have THREE stories to contrast and compare. I am a firm believer in the power of patient education and how it can positively impact a patient’s experience as well as create a first-hand referral source. 

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