Modern solutions for age-old problem in health care

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Chris Smith worked in communications for health care companies around New York City for 15 years.
In 2006, he got the revelation that sparks so many entrepreneurs: There’s a better way to do things.

With that in mind, he founded SmithSolve as a mobile technology that he hopes will revolutionize the way people in health care communicate.

“You have a new media environment and a lot of communication needs, where a lot of information is shared very openly across different audiences, whether it’s industry, policymakers, patients, advocates or hospitals,” he said. “So, what we specialize in is delivering a message that everyone can understand and explains how sciences and medicines are helping patients.”

The company’s mission, as Smith tells it, is to help biomedical and pharmaceutical companies “tell their story” by developing messages through videos, websites, infographics and other multimedia platforms and delivering that to patients.

But the drive for Smith and his team extend beyond a business’s mission statement.

“There’s a business goal, but there’s also a really important mission of helping people, and I think that’s what is the common thread through everything we do,” he said. “It’s what motivates our talent.”

One aspect of its business that touches on this drive is the work it does in the realm of rare diseases, which Smith says is a great model for what he calls “relationship-based communication.”

“You’re dealing with very small numbers of people that are highly motivated to connect, learn and support each other,” he said.

While conferences for diseases such as blood pressure attract researchers in tens of thousands, rare diseases do not get near that amount of attention.

“You go to a rare disease conference and you may have 100 people, if you’re lucky, that might include researchers, policymakers, patients, advocates, industry, government and every other aspect of it from the science, supportive care and information,” he said. “They’re all in it together and they’re all connecting.

“There’s a great exchange of content and information regarding rare diseases, more so than other areas. That teaches us how to make the messages clear and involve the right people in the right conversations to move people toward health.”

Working with clients that include PTC Therapeutics, Ophthotech and Jazz Pharma-

ceauticals, Smith says that’s the real mission.

“The goal is informing people so they can make smart decisions about their health,” he said. “It all comes down to that.”

In an industry as complex and personal as health care, communicating those issues can sometimes require a certain level of finesse in managing all the available information.

“The physicians, the hospitals, the health care systems, the patients, the caregivers are all part of the story — they’re the ones sharing the information, they’re the ones who are educating themselves — and what we do is build a better understanding across the whole community about what that looks like,” he said. “If there’s complex data coming out, we’ll work with the investigator to explain it easier or the patient groups so that they understand it and share it in formats so that people get it.”

To achieve that mission, Smith said, after 15 years of doing this work for health care companies in New York City, he’s happy to keep his company in New Jersey.

“We enjoy working in New Jersey because it is a hotbed of research,” he said. “It’s the ‘World’s Medicine Chest,’ so to speak.”

When it was founded in March 2006, the company was originally located in Denville. Then, in 2013, the company relocated to Morristown in a move Smith said was largely strategic.

“It was an expansion with the goal of attracting talent with the proximity to the train station, restaurants and others,” he said.

Dan Kurpick, a 22-year-old account coordinator for the company, is just one of those talents.

Kurpick, a recent graduate from William Paterson University, first worked for the company as an intern before becoming a full-time employee after graduation.

“Chris and (Chief Operating Officer) Tina (Okun) gave me the opportunity to intern here and test me out and offered me a full-time job,” he said.

Apart from the company culture, the location was another draw for Kurpick.

“I’d love to work in the city, but this is just as great because it’s a little bit of both,” he said.

“I think it’s a really vital town because you’ve got a lot of marketers, communicators and resources that are right around the corner,” Smith said. “Within a few blocks, you have digital design agencies, medical education firms, branding firms, photographers, videographers.

“There’s a bit of a community here, some specific to pharmaceuticals and health care.”

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