Eleanor Clifton: EHMA & ME - Leaders in Healthcare Management

Hi, I am Eleanor! I am a junior majoring in Communication Studies. This semester I was placed in a healthcare organization and worked specifically within their marketing sector.

The European Health Management Association, also known as EHMA, is an organization that stands for the betterment of healthcare in the EU. To be more exact it is a non-profit membership organization that focusses on enhancing the capacity and capability of health, management to deliver high-quality healthcare. Their mission is to focus on the question of “how” health policy is implemented. They strive to share knowledge, conduct training sessions, and research new projects. Since 1982, EHMA has been doing just that and making a real difference to the lives of Europe’s 500 million citizens. It is the only membership organization that brings health managers, health professionals, policy-makers, researchers, and educators together. The organization prides itself on cultivating an environment that nurtures innovative thinking on complex matters. With a secretariat located in the heart of Europe, EHMA maximizes its impact by placing its membership of over 100 members in 30 countries at the heart of all that it does.

In this organization, I have been given the role of Events & Communications Assistant. In this role, I am acting as the liaison between the partners and the organization, assisting with contract negotiations and agreements. This role allows me to play a part with the main conference in the summer as part of the core team. My day-to-day tasks vary, I start the morning off by answering emails, scheduling social media posts for the week and a daily meeting. I then check all of the platforms the organization uses to ensure that they are running and tally new abstract entries (we monitor this number closely to ensure the success of the conference agenda). I run maintenance on the websites and adjust the CSS code if needed (WordPress platform).

After my daily tasks are completed I move onto my personal projects. The main extensive project that I am currently working on is creating a new marketing plan that involves nearby universities that teach about healtcare management and new healthcare startups. I am creating this campaign to target non-member schools and startups for conference attendance, as well as, abstract submissions. I am doing this because we want to bolster our numbers to ensure an enriching conference experience for those who attend. My other personal projects entail developing a media package that includes: designs for a cover page, conference program designs, badge designs, pictograms (icons for subthemes), and general designs for conference flags and banners. Another part of this project is selecting the goodie bags that the attendees receive (the main requirement is that the bag must tell a story and relate to the location).