When you combine the forces of healthcare PR and medical education (Med Ed), it is hardly an oil and water mix. The two practices already coexist in forward-looking agencies and though the two disciplines do have their differences, the marriage between Med Ed and PR is ideal.
Med Ed and PR share a common nexus: Education. Med Ed naturally focuses on informing and updating healthcare professionals and today's best healthcare PR agencies look at their work as opportunities to educate.
Because of their common interest, groundbreaking Med Ed and PR agencies both tap highly credible outside experts to help them communicate scientific and clinical information. Both disciplines also advocate third-party partnerships with patient groups and professional organizations.
Between them, Med Ed and PR recruit those who make and influence medical opinion, like research scientists, health economists, government officials, patient advocates, scientific and consumer news media.
The shared objective is to help them gain a fuller understanding of the issues surrounding a client's product, so that they ultimately can convey that knowledge to healthcare professionals and consumers.
Communication Synergies
Because of these overlapping aims of education and communication, it makes sense to pair Med Ed and PR as a synergistic strategic team wherever possible, and within FDA parameters.
Med Ed, for example, can often be involved at an earlier stage in a product's development, well before the product is cleared for marketing by the FDA.
That communication effort should be impartial, approved by outside authorities, and aimed exclusively at health professionals. PR can also be involved early on, but not in the traditional mode of promoting the product. Instead, PR can help support the clinical trial recruitment effort of a developmental drug by communicating data to the investment community and educating the marketplace about a condition in certain circumstances.
Blending Style and Substance
When PR and Med Ed work together on a product launch or after a product is on the market, a well-choreographed synergy can take place. As with dance duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers - "he gives her class, and she gives him sex (appeal)" - PR can add "style" to Med Ed, and Med Ed can add substance to PR. This blending is essential to cut through today's information clutter.
People are deluged with data. Messages delivered creatively will be understood better and remembered longer. This holds true whether the venue is a symposium for scientists or an interactive Web site providing helpful, reliable information to professionals and consumers.
For this one-two punch to be successful, it's important for Med Ed and PR professionals to know when to work together.
Here are some useful tips to consider:
Allow educational messages to take center stage: Not every product needs the skills of both PR and Med Ed, but many cry out for collaboration. I remember counseling a company with a major cardiovascular product that used an advanced new technology the public didn't understand. The product was a true innovation in its field, but its technical advances didn't roll easily off the tongues of consumers.
We took the educational rather than glitzy approach. Early in the process, during clinical development, the Med Ed team worked with investigators and physicians.
Later, when the product was approved, the PR team crafted messages for the public based on those educational messages that targeted physicians used earlier. As a result of the combined effort, doctors, consumers, and the media understood the value of the product and key safety points.
Avoid redundant effort: Colleagues in Med Ed and PR are all communicators, but communication between different practice teams can be a challenge. For example, PR might have all the survey and focus group information about a product, whereas Med Ed harbors most of the essential clinical data. If there isn't open sharing and explanation, both sides are in the dark. This can lead to costly overlaps in effort or can cause important developments to fall through the cracks. Therefore, it's important to establish communication pathways from the beginning with multi-level agency meetings.
Nancy Turett is the president of the healthcare and consumer units of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. She can be reached at 212-704-8195 or [email protected].
Co-author Mark Deitch is the general manager of the healthcare education and publishing practice at Edelman. He can be reached at 212-704-8142 or [email protected].