What is medical communications and why is it unique 

As an award-winning medical communications agency, we’re delighted to celebrate #MedComms day! To mark the occasion, we wanted to share our insights into the world of medical communications and explain why it’s so unique.  

What is medical communications? 

Medical communications is about communicating scientific and medical information with audiences in a variety of formats. This could be healthcare professionals (HCPs) or the general public. 

Medical communications is unique as it translates evidence-based science into educational content. This means scientific research is easier to understand and more relatable (1). 

Medical communications services are suitable for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, delivering information and raising awareness on disease through interpretation of clinical data (1). This may include publication of clinical trial results, creation of educational webinars for HCPs or educational leaflets or websites for patients. 

At HRS communications, we utilise our team of medical copywriters with accredited healthcare backgrounds to help businesses find the best way of communicating scientific information. 

How can a successful medical communication strategy be developed? 

To produce a successful communication strategy, it is important to define your audience, establish the key message that you want to communicate and decipher which outcomes you want to achieve (1). Next steps involve choosing the format and channels that you want to deliver these messages on (1). 

Continual audit and development of content is required to ensure that the messaging is always relevant and appropriate to your audience (1).  

Putting the target audience at the centre of your campaigns and ensuring that all communication channels provide a cohesive message is also key (1). 

How do you get to know your target audience? 

When writing a piece of content, it’s important to keep your audience in mind. You can use insights gained from current customers. Or you can consider an audience you would like to target and then build a customer persona based on insights collected from research (1). This will strengthen understanding on how best to communicate to an individual or group. 

At HRS we are adept at creating content for both B2B, B2C and healthcare professional audiences. We will not only take your campaign to your audiences but will also create the strategy and the content behind it. 

Which is the best medical communications channel? 

Different communication channels serve different purposes. To start off you may use certain channels just to trigger an initial response and start up conversations within your audience. 

Next, you might want to develop some more engagement by getting your messages to the front of audience’s minds and nurturing those customers. You also may wish to deep dive into more detailed conversations in the form of webinars, podcasts and videos. Through these formats, detailed conversations on certain topics are further explored (1). 

Selecting the most appropriate and impactful communication channels is important for successful medical communications. This is because format and channel can influence the way someone absorbs information and learns. 

In summary 

Medical communications add value when telling a scientific story. Medical communications not only provide a way of connecting with healthcare professionals and patients, they also provide education and help audiences translate science into practice. In addition, identifying the target audience is essential when deciding which format and channel is most effective. Furthermore, it’s important to ensure that medical communications are evidence-based and that they are written by experts that understand the medical industry. 

This blog was co-written with HRS intern, Megan Edwards. 

References

1. MedComms. Omnichannel And Content Creation: The Challenges For Medical Writing And Content Planning [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2023 June 14]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZnLWTUa3Yw