Cleveland Indians court digerati with Tribe Social Deck

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

In the Cleveland Indians lackluster 2010 season the team can count one success: They drew a record crowd of social media lovers.

 

How? Through the Tribe Social Deck, a cordoned-off area in left field near the bleachers that serves as an invitation-only press box for the wired.

There's Wi-Fi, a flat-screen television with cable and electrical outlets for laptops. There's also visits from the communications staff and media packets with information about the players, statistics and game notes.

Sometime's there's surprises, too, such as upgrades to seats in the visitors dugouts or a suite when the weather's unpleasant.

It's the place where Tweeters, bloggers, Facebookers and others of the Internet ilk can watch the game live and connect with other members of the digital community.

Their comments have ranged from describing game play to shoutouts to friends. Many on Twitter post links to photos taken at the game.

Despite the Tribe's ho-hum action on the field this year, a spot on the Social Deck made a night at the ballpark one of the hottest tickets in town among the digerati.

The Indians' front office did not advertise the Social Deck when it was launched on Opening Day in April. Instead, over several games, the organization invited 18 influential people in the local social-media community, who talked, tweeted and blogged about their experience to their friends.

By May, the Indians had a website (indians.com/connect) where anyone could apply for a spot on the Social Deck by answering, in the Twitter-esque 140 characters (as on Twitter), questions about their interests and why they wanted to go.

At the end of the home season Wednesday, more than 500 people had applied this year to sit on the Social Deck. Five people were invited to each game, and each could bring a guest.

"It's sort of self-selecting, the way we went about the application," said Rob Campbell, executive development fellow-social media for the Indians. "We go to where they play."

The Indians worked with Arizona-based Digital Royalty to come up with the idea of a special section of seats catering to the social-media community. It's believed to be Major League Baseball's first, and the Indians have fielded calls from other teams inquiring about the Social Deck.

Sports marketing analyst Bob Dorfman, of Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco, said the Social Deck is an example of sports franchises trying to reach out to bloggers and Internet types.

"There's been a conflict in the press box over whether they should allow bloggers there," he said. "This is a great way to include those people, make them feel part of the team and get positive information disseminated. Everyone is doing it in some
way." 

While other teams have credentialed Internet-only writers, the Social Deck allows the Indians to include a broader spectrum of social media users, not just bloggers who want to cover the game, Dorfman said. 

Dominic Litten, leader of interactive marketing at Point to Point Inc., an advertising firm in Beachwood and founder of the Cleveland Social Media Club, was among those invited to Opening Day. 
Litten said that before accepting the invitation, he checked with the Indians and received assurances that he had complete freedom to say what he wanted about the game. Other online commenters will occasionally moan over a bad play. But most are polite. 
 Litten said the deck is a smart move for an organization trying to connect with an online audience that can be negative when the home team is losing. 

"Kudos to them for identifying them," Litten said. "It's something that's exclusive. And as soon as you make something exclusive, everybody wants it." 

Cleveland resident Paige Boyer, who went to the deck once as a guest and once as an invitee, said she continues to see the people she met at the ballpark. 

"It's a way to build your professional and social network, said Boyer, a communications and media relations coordinator with Hospice of the Western Reserve. "It takes that social media experience and adds human interaction, which makes social media even better."

 

Continental's free meals reach the end of the line

Say goodbye to free tiny pretzels and cold cereal Oct. 12 when Continental Airlines begins charging economy-class passengers for food on most domestic flights.

Continental, the biggest carrier in Cleveland, was the last airline to provide meals without a separate charge for all its travelers. United Airlines, which will merge with Continental on Friday, started charging for snack boxes in 2005.

Continental's move to a pay menu for some travelers means “Continental is now offering uniform product with other competitors,” said William Swelbar, a researcher at MIT International Center for Air Transportation.

“Meals were among the first thing to be cut back when the industry was looking to reduce costs,” he said. “Everyone followed suit. This has been a process by the airlines over the years.”

Monday's announcement gives more details and a date for the move, which was first announced in March.

Continental will still have free food in coach on international flights, as well as on domestic flights longer than 6½ hours.

First-class and BusinessFirst passengers will be unaffected.

All travelers will still receive nonalcoholic beverages at no charge.

Menu prices will range from $1.50 for a package of Pringles Original to Potato Crisps to $8.25 for a grilled chicken spinach salad.

The purchase menu also will include hot and cold dishes, such as an Asian-style noodle salad, an Angus cheeseburger, and a Jimmy Dean sausage, egg and cheese sandwich.

Snacks and desserts will include a gourmet cheese and fresh fruit plate, several types of snack boxes, a la carte brand-name snacks and chocolate-covered Eli's Cheesecake on a stick.

The new menu was developed with feedback from customers, who said they wanted more food choices on flights, Sandra Pineau-Boddison, Continental vice president of food services, said in a news release.

The airlines researched trends in the restaurant industry and tested a broad range of menu items, Pineau-Boddison said.

In announcing the move in March, the airline said it was eliminating some free meals because travelers no longer choose an airline based on the no-charge breakfasts, sandwiches, hot meals and desserts.

Continental expects to save $35 million a year from the move and see more revenue from the food-for-purchase program.

Air travelers have seen a steady unbundling of services they used to get for free, from checked bags to pillows and blankets on board.

Part of the reason is that airfares have not kept up with the rate of inflation and the price of oil, Swelbar said.

“It's really those cost inputs that have crowded out the superfluous offering of food,” Swelbar said. “Unfortunately, those little things are what gets cut.”

Parents jam phone lines, websites in wake of powdered Similac recall

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

While worried parents and caregivers jammed phone lines and websites, retailers across the region pulled powdered Similac from their shelves Thursday following a request from the maker of the best-selling infant formula.

Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories recalled nearly 5 million containers of powdered Similac on Wednesday after finding beetles or beetle larvae during an internal quality review of formula made in a Sturgis, Mich., factory.

Abbott was unable to immediately release lot numbers of the affected products because the recall involved several thousand lots, some of which differ by one letter or number, spokeswoman Raquel Powers said. The lot numbers were released by midafternoon Thursday. Go to cleveland.com/business for a list.

Earlier, the company listed a toll-free number and a Web address at which customers could find out if they had the recalled formula. But many callers at midmorning heard a recording directing them to a company web address, which was inaccessible because of heavy Internet traffic.

“It was very upsetting and a frustrating experience,” said Jessica Johnson, of Manchester, Ohio. Johnson, who has a 13-month-old daughter, said she was “frantic” when she heard about the recall this morning.

Johnson said her cousin, who has a 2-month-old, spent three unsuccessful hours on the Internet trying to find out if her infant formula had been recalled. The company spent Thursday beefing up the capacity of its phone lines and website, Powers said. Access had improved somewhat by late afternoon.

Meanwhile, clients of the Ohio Women, Infants & Children program jammed the phone lines at the program's Cleveland office.

Clients were trying to find out what to do because Similac is an authorized food under the WIC program.

WIC participants who had already bought formula were told to contact Abbott Laboratories to make arrangements for exchanges.

Those with coupons for the powder could come to the WIC office and exchange them for coupons for liquid infant formula, which is not part of the recall.

"I feel for my participants," said Barbara Riley, general manager of public health for WIC's Cleveland office. "They bought the formula and they can't replace any of it."

Callers also jammed the call center at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, a telephone triage center that represents physicians after hours.

Call volume was up 15 percent from the same time a week earlier, said medical director Dr. Andrew Hertz. Many of the nurses who staff the center said they took calls about the recall asking for advice or whether they should switch formulas.

Consuming small parts of insects or their larvae is not a significant health threat to children, Hertz said.

Even Abbott Laboratories' information saying infants could experience gastrointestinal discomfort or may refuse to eat as a result of small insect parts irritating the G.I. tract probably is a "worst-case scenario," Hertz said.

"I'm not even sure there would be gas," Hertz said.

Abbott Laboratories said that although more than 99.8 percent of the product from the Sturgis factory tested negative, the recall was issued as a precaution.

Retailers such as Heinen's, Giant Eagle and Dave's Supermarkets removed Similac products Thursday morning after receiving an e-mailed request from the formula maker.

"We have also implemented register sales block for the items, ensuring that none are inadvertently purchased," Giant Eagle spokesman Erik Yorke said in an e-mail. The stores also called customers who purchased the recalled items with their Giant Eagle Advantage card.

New powdered Similac is expected to be shipped in about a week, Powers said.

Welcome to Northeast Ohio, aka the Medical Capital

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Northeast Ohio has a serious identity problem when it comes to health care: Only 10 percent of people outside the area associate the region with the medical industry, a recent nationwide survey found.

The response will be unveiled today at the City Club of Cleveland.

It’s called the Medical Capital, an effort by health-care communication professionals to shape the national perception of the region as a powerhouse in the health-care industry. Ultimately, the goal is to bring money, entrepreneurs and established organizations to Northeast Ohio.

The effort doesn’t depend on billboards or pamphlets or bumper stickers.

Instead, it’s an attempt to catalog information about the region’s health-care institutions, innovations and people and spread it outside the region via a fact sheet, a blog (themedicalcapital.com), a LinkedIn page and a Twitter feed (@medicalcapital).

More than 80 percent of people locally already associate the area with health care, the Cleveland Plus marketing alliance found in its survey. But people find it difficult to describe why the region is a powerhouse.

Through the Medical Capital project, organizers hope public officials, businesspeople, public relations practitioners and others will become more knowledgeable and pass that information to people outside the area.

“We all tell our stories really well individually, but in the aggregate, it’s much more powerful,” said Erinne Dyer, director of corporate communications at the Cleveland Clinic and one of the group’s organizers. “I don’t think that story has ever been told.”

The project spans manufacturing, education and economic development groups, in addition to hospitals and health-care providers. More than 120 professionals have been involved since 2008 to develop the program.

The group found that the region is home to:

More than 600 medical-related organizations, including 60 hospitals.

Twenty-seven colleges and universities, housing more than 20 medical education programs.

Twelve of the top 18 medical device manufacturers in the nation.

Nearly 500 U.S. patents issued in the past four years.

More than 480,000 health-care, bioscience and support workers, including 9,000 physicians.

More than $835 million in venture funding for 90 companies since 2003.

“We don’t want to launch a brand,” said Cleveland Plus spokesman Rick Batyko. “This isn’t a campaign. The Medical Capital is a phrase we use to tidily sum up all the assets we have here in Northeast Ohio. We hope all communicators will infuse this into what they are already doing.”

The health-care professionals, who volunteered their time to the effort, plan to meet again in November.

“It’s more of a civic pride movement,” said Christina DeAngelis, communications director at Case Western Reserve University. “In order to do that, everyone needs to sing the same song.”

The City Club event is sold out, but you can watch a webcast at noon today on the City Club website: cityclub.org.

Woman who got face transplant at Cleveland Clinic has normal life again, doctor says

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Health and Medical Writer

 

Connie Culp, the recipient of the first-ever U.S. face transplant, now can do many of the things we all take for granted: smile, squint, purse her lips and feel her grandson’s kiss on her cheek.

Culp, 47, had her last surgery — to remove excess skin at the jawline — at the Cleveland Clinic in mid-July and has returned home to Unionport in Jefferson County.

She also has returned to a normal life, says her physician, Dr. Maria Siemionow. After the latest surgery, she can go out in public without people staring at her and saying hurtful things.

“She is happy, as happy as she can be,” Siemionow said. “She is very surprised that no one is paying attention to her when she goes out.”

Culp lost the middle of her face in the fall of 2004 when her husband shot her before turning the gun on himself. He survived the shooting and is in prison.

Culp underwent the groundbreaking transplant in December 2008 after nearly 30 procedures failed to help. She couldn’t eat solid food, drink from a cup, smell or taste.

The only way she could breathe was through a hole cut into her throat.

Siemionow led a Clinic team that transplanted 80 percent of the face and underlying anatomy from a cadaver. Culp made her first appearance in public in May 2009.

Since then, much function has returned to Culp’s face, Siemionow said, because her nerves have grown back.

“Her face was flat like a mask without a lot of expression after surgery,” Siemionow said. “She now has a vivid face with full expression.”

Creating a better hospital gown: Von Furstenberg helps Cleveland Clinic with the design

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Health and Medical Writer

 

Although medicine has changed greatly in the last 80 years, the hospital gown has not.

It’s pretty much the same embarrassing garment worn and reviled by your grandmother’s generation, short-sleeved and thigh-high, its gaping back held together with twill-tape ties.

The Cleveland Clinic has been working on a new, improved version of the patient gown for about three years. An initial prototype was deemed unattractive. But now, some patients at the Clinic and its regional hospitals are trying out a newly revamped patient gown — designed with input from fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her team.

Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove met Furstenberg at a medical conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. He invited her to work with the Clinic’s gown redesign team, and she agreed. Soon after, Clinic executive liaison Jeanne Ryan flew to New York City to meet with the winner of the Council of Fashion Designers of America lifetime achievement award. Ryan was assigned a designer and a fabric expert.

Ryan says she told the team that the gown had to be comfortable and dignified, provide easy access for caregivers and work for ambulatory and nonambulatory patients.

They came up with a gown with elements recognizable to von Furstenberg fans familiar with her signature wrap dress: a wrap design with a bold, graphic print.

Von Furstenberg herself designed the print, which incorporates the Clinic logo.

“I’m not surprised to see the print and that it somehow spells the name of the Clinic,” says Connie Korosec, chairwoman of fashion merchandising and design at Ursuline College. “She did these iconic prints in the 1970s.”

Korosec also gave the gown high marks for its functionality.

“I like it because it wraps to the front or to the back,” she says.

The toughest part of the project turned out to be choosing the fabric.

Ryan was surprised to learn that most patients report being too warm in the hospital. She had expected the opposite.

So Ryan and the designers searched for a material that was lightweight enough to be cool but heavy-duty enough to withstand heavy, frequent laundering and things such as monitors and drains being pinned to it. They also looked for colors that would not fade.

“There was a lot to consider,” Ryan says. “I’ve been a nurse for nearly 30 years, but I did not have a complete understanding of how involved it was going to be. I’m used to other kinds of more technical stuff, but that’s OK. It’s an interesting, ongoing project.”

After the gown was first piloted on the colorectal floor at the Clinic’s main campus, a problem with the snaps was discovered: They didn’t fasten securely. The team corrected the problem and recently started a second trial now under way on general medical-surgical floors at Fairview and Euclid hospitals and in the vascular ICU on the Clinic main campus.

“Cleveland Clinic was very keen in us working with them on hospital gowns. We worked with their head nurses and combined need and design,” the designer posted on Twitter in August. “We are very proud of our hospital gowns for the Cleveland Clinic. We worked hard at it and we hope it will make patients happier! DVF”

Initial feedback has been good. Some men have said they find the print a bit feminine, so the team is considering changing the color scheme. And the fabric has shrunk in the wash, so the gowns might be made longer to compensate.

Von Furstenberg is not the first to re-envision patient gowns. Maine Medical Center in Portland, which serves a large Muslim community, redesigned its patient gown in 2004 after learning that many Muslim women, whose religion and culture require them to be covered, were canceling doctor visits because they were embarrassed to wear the gown.

Cynthia Rowley created a gown for Hackensack University Medical Center in 1999 that featured a mock turtleneck with three-quarter sleeves and drawstring pants with matching robes for men; V-necked and scoop-necked gowns for women; and three-quarter length pants for children.

Dim and Den Sum food truck now a fixture at the Cleveland Clinic farmers market

By Kaye Spector

Plain Dealer Health and Medical Writer

Setting up his Dim and Den Sum food truck at the Cleveland Clinic’s farmers market was a no-brainer for chef Chris Hodgson.

After all, he uses only fresh ingredients, grown or raised locally, just like what’s sold at the farmers market. Hodgson also likes the idea of serving — and selling — well-prepared food to the people from whom he bought the ingredients.

And then there’s the sheer number of potential customers: nearly 22,000 Clinic employees at the main campus, where the farmers market will continue for the next four Wednesdays this year.

That’s a lot more fish tacos and blue burgers than Dim and Den Sum sells at some of its other haunts, like late at night outside the Flying Monkey in Tremont or the Happy Dog in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

The Clinic invited Hodgson, his three helpers and his revamped FedEx truck to its main-campus farmers market to induce people other than hospital employees to patronize the weekly event.

The market was created as a way to offer nutritious food to Clinic employees, patients and visitors as well as residents of the surrounding Fairfax neighborhood, where it’s difficult to find fresh food.

But a few things had to happen before the truck could participate. Hodgson had to retool his high-end menu to comply with Clinic guidelines for food sold on its premises: No trans fat, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, no fried foods.

That meant Dim and Den Sum couldn’t serve its signature dish: handmade tater tots, served with fancy sauces. “We had a huge following, just for tater tots,” Hodgson says.

Hodgson and his crew took the potato treats off the menu. Each week they instead create three Clinic-friendly side dishes. On Wednesday, there was couscous with almonds, cilantro, red onion and cranberries; a Greek-yogurt parfait with almonds, granola and Ohio honey; and corn salad with smoked carrots and basil.

Because Dim and Den Sum is a movable feast, the business has to get the word out often and quickly about where it’s going to set up shop and what’s going to be sold, both of which change from day to day and, sometimes, on short notice.

Its fans keep track of Dim and Den’s movements and menu by “liking” the business on Facebook, checking on dimanddensum.com or following @DimAndDenSum on Twitter.

A tweet brought Caitlin Hooi, 28, to the farmers market on Wednesday. She made a detour from her home in North Ridgeville to her business in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood to lunch at the food truck.

Hooi, who had never been to the Clinic farmers market, was disappointed she couldn’t buy any tater tots. “It makes me very sad. They’re amazing,” she said, laughing while waiting for her gourmet burger topped with blue cheese, sweet slaw and lettuce.

Hodgson is hoping to compete in the Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race.” As of Wednesday, fans who voted for Dim and Den Sum on the Food Network’s website (foodnetwork.com/the-great-food-truck-race) have put the business in third place.

The main-campus market, operated by the North Union Farmers Market, is open Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. through Oct. 6.