On Oct. 28, 2016, my mother, Joan Biamonte, died of complications from metastatic carcinoma of the lung. Despite having her original tumor characterized and going through a regimen of chemotherapy allegedly tailored to her tumor type, her cancer proliferated and spread into her liver and brain.

Robert Leverte Jr. was honored by the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame as its 2018 inductee on February 8 at a black-tie event at The Pierre Hotel in New York City. Leverte’s prolific career has included founding ERS – an in-house ad agency at ER Squibb – co-founding Ruvane-Leverte advertising, serving as chairman at Bozell Jacobs Medical Group, and operating as CEO of the Leverte Companies.

Although the passage of the 2017 tax bill was a victory for pharma and medical marketers, major challenges are ahead for those of us inside the Beltway for the foreseeable future.

The rebranding of INC Research/inVentiv Health to Syneos Health in the beginning of 2018 was just the first of more changes within the company. In the rebranded company’s Syneos Health Communications subsidiary, the healthcare communication agencies GSW and PALIO have been combined under the GSW brand name.

McCann Health expanded its executive team with three significant appointments. Marcus Sigurdsson was named to the new position of global chief digital officer. Linda Szyper was appointed to the new position of global chief operating officer. June Laffey was named to the new position of executive VP, chief creative officer, McCann Health New York.

Publicis Health promoted Alexandra von Plato to the role of CEO and Michael du Toit was named chief growth officer.

Jennifer Gottlieb was appointed president of W2O Group, a network of complementary analytics and insights-driven, digital marketing communications firms. In this newly created role, Gottlieb has responsibility for three operating companies – W2O wcg, W2O twist, and W2O pure. Gottlieb continues to report to founder and CEO Jim Weiss, who retains responsibility for overall firm strategy and operations globally as well as business development, innovation, and marketing.

Diane Iler-Smith returned to Biolumina as senior VP, executive creative director. Iler-Smith has more than 20 years of strategic and creative leadership experience in healthcare communications, including extensive global and US branding and launch expertise. She leads all creative assignments at the agency.

Intouch Solutions continues to elevate employees across the agency.

I recently read an article about how awards do not really matter in the advertising industry. The author basically said the only thing advertising is supposed to do is sell stuff. I agree, but not completely. Awards do matter.