Amplifying the patient voice

Patient-centricity has been a long-standing priority of our industry for good reason, and in today’s interconnected world where authentic storytelling is key, it has never been more important to bring to life the lived experiences of those who matter most – and amplify their voice.

If healthcare companies are serious about putting patients at the heart of their practices, then accessing their collective wisdom and needs is critical. To get this right, we need to start by engaging directly with those who have been diagnosed with a particular condition, and their loved ones/caregivers, to truly understand their mindset, behaviours and priorities. After all, they are the end users of pharmaceutical therapies, and the people that hold the insights that are so important to the success of brands and any associated marketing/communications initiatives.

By involving patients and patient groups in the co-creation of campaigns, we can be confident that our communications will be meaningful and connect in a relevant way. Above all, being sensitive to the challenges of particular groups.

By listening to those affected and seeking to understand their viewpoint, we can uncover game-changing nuances that may otherwise be easily overlooked. For example, while planning a recent disease awareness campaign for sickle cell, a patient advisory board meeting, along with discussions with the leading patient advocacy group, revealed important insights around the stigma that these patients experience. The resulting feelings of disillusionment with the healthcare system would be a key challenge for our communications campaign to help overcome.

It became apparent that messages would need to be delivered by credible and authentic voices in a relatable, non-patronising way. Giving a voice to this underserved community became central to our strategic thinking and we crafted a campaign that placed patient ambassadors centre stage. Our approach centred around working with those within the patient community to strike the right chord in terms of tonality of messaging and visual identity – providing a platform for this patient community to share their stories, and driving public recognition of the challenges they face.

In an increasingly digitised world, our communications outreach often takes place online, and a key growth area of our work is in building social media communities with the support of influencers. Partnering with relevant online influencers can help us engage with our audience in a trusted and authentic way, and influence conversations at a time when so many people are seeking health information and support online. If these influencers are patients themselves, their voice is all the more powerful and the peer-to-peer dialogue they initiate can be incredibly valuable for healthcare companies to tap into. The insights that can be gleaned may spark ideas or reveal hidden issues that can change the entire focus of a campaign or ignite a whole new communications approach.

A great example of this can be found in work we did in dermatology. Through influencer engagement we built a global online community of rosacea sufferers. The dialogue between these patients uncovered that feelings of ‘shame’ were commonplace – shame that they have a visible condition that can affect the way people perceive them; shame that they may have ‘triggered’ a skin flare-up through a simple lifestyle choice such as eating a spicy meal; shame that they are somehow being ‘vain’ by wanting a medical solution to take away the redness of their skin. With this key insight, we created a bold social media campaign to tackle shame head on and encourage rosacea sufferers to step out of the shadows and share their reality through bare-faced and filter-free ‘selfies’. The social media campaign that followed was hugely successful in propelling this overlooked condition into the media spotlight and supporting a step change in patient care.

As humans we are wired to relate to the experiences of others. By harnessing the power of storytelling, we can win hearts and minds.

Peer-to-peer engagement helps patients feel less isolated, and sharing positive stories can bring much-needed hope. It is commonplace for healthcare communications campaigns to feature patient case studies. But, in a world where social media now frequently exposes us to user-generated content, the way in which we present patient accounts is becoming increasingly important if we want to stand out from the crowd. Bringing a creative edge to the way we tell and share patient stories is essential and healthcare communications professionals are, quite rightly, competing to create the best ‘stand-out’ content. Whether that’s by leveraging the firsthand accounts of influencers, or by crafting video animations that tell a story in a more visually compelling way – presenting patient reality in a way that stirs emotions and crucially aids memorability is key to amplifying the patient voice.

By listening carefully to the challenges and experiences of patients, taking the time to involve them in shaping our communications and creating platforms for the authentic patient voice to be heard, we can help shape the healthcare environment and support improved outcomes.