Donna became Editor In Chief of Telehealth & Telecare Aware in July 2013 after being Editor, North America from August 2009.
Donna Cusano is a strategic marketer, consultant and writer/editor who focuses on companies in healthcare services and technologies. As a marketer/communicator, she works with companies to establish brand and market leadership through customer-centric strategy, positioning, programs, external/internal communications, and promotions. The core is to find out how the company’s product is the best solution to the customer’s or client’s problem. This involves structuring and integrating marketing, branding, and value propositions to power the marketing journey.
Donna’s introduction to the field of healthcare and technology was with Living Independently Group, where she headed marketing for three years (2006-9) and helped establish the pioneering QuietCare behavioral monitoring and health predictive telecare system as the leader in the field. In 2009 it was purchased by GE Healthcare and now is a service line of ICON plc. She headed marketing for telehealth pioneer Viterion Corporation as first a consultant, then marketing director, in their transition to digital/online telehealth systems, where she directed rebranding, communications, lead management, and clinical training materials from 2014-2016.
In consulting, Allegro Marketing & Communications Consulting LLC provided services to Viterion, app security developer Blue Cedar, senior safety and wellness system CarePredict, data analytics consultancy SG Healthcare Analytics (Movedbymetrics.com), New York-based accelerator MedStartr and the 6,000-member Health 2.0 NYC group.
In her most recent communications and consultancy work, Donna consulted for Krames/WebMD (now WebMD Ignite) to reposition their marketing and sales enablement for their payer/health organization segment and develop new programs. Previously to that, she was marketing director for Collaborative Health Systems (CHS), a management services organization (MSO) for value-based integrated practice groups in Medicare and related programs (ACO, IPA). CHS was a division of WellCare Health Plans, a Fortune 100 healthcare payer, acquired in 2020 by Centene Corp. There, she helped to introduce population health and telehealth platforms to independent primary care practices managed by CHS.
Before transitioning to healthcare, Donna was a marketer in the travel industry, with four positions over 13 1/2 years at Avis Rent A Car (now Avis Budget), concluding as Director, International Marketing and Partnerships. In the epic times of the deregulated airline industry, Donna survived and thoroughly enjoyed her substitute for grad school–three years as Advertising Manager of New York Air. (And yes, she worked for Frank Lorenzo, the man who made the cover of Fortune in 1989 as “America’s Toughest Boss”.) She still loves commercial and historic aviation.
She has been interviewed in RCM Answers on chronic care management using telehealth and has published articles in HIE Answers.
Donna is committed to the advocacy and integration of healthcare technology into everyday life and care for all, but especially for older adults, those of all ages managing chronic health conditions and the disabled to achieve better outcomes for their health, safety, and independence.
Her experience in marketing, company positioning, program development, integrated communications and sales support spans several industries and over two decades. Based in New York City, she is available for consulting, writing, and advisory services globally.
Donna may be contacted for Telehealth & Telecare Aware, information and projects at donna.cusano@telecareaware.com.
(The Gimlet Eye is an occasional imprint of Donna Cusano.)
Communications portfolios: Box.com; Telehealth & Telecare Aware; please contact for additional materials
Marketing Analysis (a walk down memory lane from 2012, but at its heart a case study of marketing fundamentals):
Avis “We try harder” being towed to tag line junkyard? Editor Donna, a former Avis marketing executive, critiqued Avis US dropping the “We try harder” tagline in the US, which had been part of Avis’ communications since 1962, in favor of a new one in 2012, “It’s your space”, which mercifully was short-lived. The departure from a storied and meaningful phrase that literally repositioned the company in the 1960s for the next four decades plus meant a departure, and not a favorable one, for how we think of brand equity—and perhaps marketing as a whole. It was published on the SmartaMarketing blog (Australia) and association newsletter in September-October 2012 by the Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand (member access only). Car rental has evolved into a commodity like most travel products. It was fun while it lasted!
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