Pharmaceutical Market Europe • November 2021 • 42
PEOPLE
Q&A
Rohit Khanna
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Other than my family, the simple motivation of finishing what I’ve started and the satisfaction of delivering projects to clients on time and on budget.
What’s the best thing about working in healthcare comms?
I think it’s this small belief that just maybe a meeting your company organised or an educational programme your company executed may have allowed a physician to learn something new that is going to impact a patient’s life.
What’s the worst thing about working in healthcare comms?
The hours – I work seven days a week (but that may have nothing to do with healthcare comms and everything to do with me!).
What’s your favourite bar or eatery?
I’m totally indiscriminate! I love good food and drinks and could never settle on just one place.
Which buzzwords/office jargon get on your nerves?
None. I don’t let things like that get on my nerves.
Which book/film would you recommend above all others and why?
Given what I do and my background, I think Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness is simply a classic. But so is anything by Daniel Kahneman, Steven Levitt, Dan Ariely, Malcolm Gladwell, or Michael Lewis.
Which person, living or dead, do you admire the most and why?
This is a tough one. I’d have to say Terry Fox. A young Canadian kid who lost his leg to cancer and decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer. That was 40 years ago, and to this day, there is more money raised in his name for cancer research than any other person in the world. It demonstrates the power of quiet fortitude and the power of an idea.
Who is your healthcare comms hero/heroine?
Before the pandemic I wouldn’t have had an answer. Since the pandemic, it’s an easy answer: every epidemiologist and public health individual who has tried to educate people about SARS-CoV-2.
What has been your career highlight to date?
I suppose there are two: we were the first health comms agency that launched/created the medical cannabis category in Canada. Before we and our clients came along, there was nobody doing classical healthcare comms for physicians looking to use medical cannabis. And second, it’s the publication of my first book Misunderstanding Health: Making Sense of America’s Broken Health Care System.
What’s your golden rule/piece of advice for someone starting a career in healthcare comms
The same golden rule for someone starting any career: work harder than everyone around you, listen a lot, ask a lot of questions and keep learning/educating yourself. If you do these four things, you cannot fail.
Rohit Khanna, MBA, MSc, MPH is the Managing Director of Catalytic Health, a leading healthcare communication, education & strategy agency.
He can be reached at: rohit@catalytichealth.com or you can learn more about him at rohitkhanna.com