IOM Launches Marketing Agency: Rebrands Chronic Diseases

HHS satisfied with DRECC 

By A. Lotta Blarney

WASHINGTON: April 1, 2015. Inspired by its success with rebranding ME/CFS, the IOM has opened its own marketing and branding agency, the Disease Rebranding Enterprise for Chronic Conditions (DRECC).

The move was heartily endorsed by Solve ME/CFS Initiative (SMCI), a nonprofit corporation which itself has been recently rebranded.

"We are 100% behind this forward-moving strategy," said Carol Head, CEO of SMCI. "With the IOM's new name and definition, physicians will be able to diagnose anyone with SEID. The IOM has allowed us to leverage and grow the patient base synergistically, which is, I think, a paradigm-shifting, win-win situation for all of us."

Secretary of HHS, Sylvia Burwell, also greeted the announcement with enthusiasm. "Names that don't accurately describe medical conditions have held us back for centuries. HHS has already submitted a list of chronic illnesses to DRECC for rebranding, and I can tell you that so far we are quite satisfied with the results."

Some of the conditions which will soon find themselves marketed with more accurate names are:

Diabetes: Insulin systemic pancreatic insufficiency disease (INSYPID)

Impotence: Systemic inability to last longer illness (SILLI)

Muscular Dystrophy: Disease of underfunctioning muscles (DUM)

Heart attack: Ventricular atrial possibly inflammatory disease (VAPID)

Pneumonia: Systemic thoracic underproduction of pulmonary inhalation disease (STUPID)

Death: Disorder in which everything appears to be defunct (DEAD)