Artifex helps bridge medical communication gap

BOULDER — The merger of two companies to form Artifex Communications Services Inc. will result in 20 to 30 new jobs in the Boulder area next year according to owner Jim Griffey.

A new way of teaching communications skills will fuel much of that growth.

Artifex, a speaker training and presentation skills firm in Boulder, was formed in October with the merger of Boulder-based q.d. communications and Norwalk, Conn.-based The Brents Consulting Group. Both companies conducted training and educational programs that were geared toward medical launch meetings put on by pharmaceutical companies, but on different scales.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Cares: April 2024

In Colorado, 1 in 3 women, 1 in 3 men and 1 in 2 transgender individuals will experience an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime. During April, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month with the hopes of increasing conversations about this very important issue.

Some of Artifex’s clients include Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and Novartis. Those pharmaceutical companies need physicians who can effectively communicate the benefit of their products.

Bob Sikora, vice president of clinical education for Pfizer, said Artifex teaches physicians, who can often speak over the heads of patients, to turn “technical speak into a more practical speak.

“They bring a skill set that we don’t necessarily have time to do internally,” Sikora said. “They bring their expertise, and we bring ours and partner to put on a program.”

While q.d. focused on educating physicians on how to communicate complex information to other physicians and patients, Brents focused mainly on consulting pharmaceutical companies on how to convey information about disease states and new products to executive teams and physicians who attended their launch meetings.

“The expertise was very similar,” Griffey said. “Where we applied them was what made them different.”

Griffey said q.d.’s competitive advantage was its capacity to follow large launches around the world. Brents, located on the East Coast, had more flexibility in meeting with clients since many major pharmaceutical companies are headquartered there.

That flexibility is a major reason Artifex is attractive to customers.

“They were very understanding and cooperative to develop programs we needed,´ said Sikora, who said he employed the component companies of Artifex 40 to 50 times per year for his group.

“Some other companies might not be willing to go outside their standard offering and offer something different.”

Griffey, who founded q.d. in 1994, purchased the Brents Consulting Group in 2002 and operated the companies separately, decided to merge them this year.

“Both of those coming together made solid business sense,” he said.

While the privately held company’s headquarters is in Boulder at 2040 16th St., Griffey moved operations on the East Coast from Norwalk to North Brunswick, N.J. Artifex Managing Director Mark McGrath will work out of the North Brunswick location.

Currently, the company has 50 “faculty members” who travel worldwide and conduct training at the launch meetings. About 30 of the employees are based in Boulder while the rest are located all over the United States. McGrath said that many Artifex employees work out of their homes.

Griffey said he plans to hire and train 20 to 30 new employees in the Boulder area next year.

Artifex trains its own employees, who come from many different backgrounds.

“Regardless of occupation, if you have the passion to teach, you’d probably fit well with our group,” Griffey said.

He said the increase will be needed to accommodate growth brought on by the merger.

Though he would not disclose revenues for q.d. or Brents, Griffey said he expects 2004 Artifex revenues to increase by more than 25 percent of the two companies’ combined 2003 revenues.

The company’s services can cost pharmaceutical companies between $3,500 and $15,000 for a meeting, said McGrath. He said the price can vary for several reasons, such as the size of a meeting, how many faculty members are needed and how many workshops Artifex conducts simultaneously.

Griffey said much of the growth also could be attributed to a new, proprietary aspect of his company’s teaching called “core operating systems,” a method for which the company has a patent pending. In addition, the firm has dedicated sales efforts to expand into the biotechnology and medical device arenas.

Core operating systems will teach physicians how to tailor their communication with each patient to increase adherence to treatment regimens and understanding of specific treatments.

“It tracks how you think and learn at a neurological level,” Griffey said.

Using the new system, patients would fill out a four-question assessment during intake, asking things such as, “What would make it hard for you to concentrate: visual clutter, noise in the room, or activity?”

Using a patient’s answers, a physician can gain some neurological insight into how that patient gathers, sorts and integrates information.

Griffey said that patients not following treatment plans, which can lead to further illness, cause a major financial drain on the health-care system.

By adjusting their communication to the learning preferences of each patient, physicians can effectively teach, motivate and get a patient to execute a treatment plan, even in the face of side effects that may occur, he said.

This new communication method will be integrated into Artifex’s workshops next year. Griffey said the company is still training its employees on the method.

Artifex’s portion of launch meetings will qualify as continuing medical education for physicians since “core operating systems” are scientifically based. That’s good news for physicians, who are required by state medical licensing boards to complete a certain number of CME hours each year.

“Before, physicians were learning information but not learning how to communicate it,” Griffey said. “We’re trying to help physicians create a more collaborative dialogue with patients.”