It’s true that many of the corporate materials–like earnings announcements and medical meeting posters–we put out into the world are consumed by a lay audience, including patients, even though they may not be the primary intended target.
However, this should not preclude efforts to explain our science and technology in more accessible ways for patient communities.
These are a few of the opportunities we invite life science comms peers to evaluate.
Launch a dedicated patients and families section on your corporate website. Include content like community profiles and patient advocacy organization resources. Don’t forget to use lay language, and avoid jargon and acronyms.
When meeting with patient groups or welcoming community guest speakers onsite, think twice before whipping out the corporate deck. Take the time to develop a tailored presentation.
Create a version of your mechanism-of-action video that’s not overly technical and appropriate for a patient audience.
Partner with trusted HCPs and KOLs who already have established relationships with the community on a campaign or webinar series. You may also explore unbranded disease awareness campaigns, which sometimes can run in conjunction with a patient registry, but not always.
It’s never too early to attend PAO family summits and other community events, even if you’re not sponsoring. Establishing a consistent presence is key to building long-term relationships.
And, perhaps needless to say, work very closely with your medical, legal and regulatory colleagues to ensure compliance.
What strategies have you successfully employed to educate patient and caregiver communities and other lay audiences on your company’s or clients’ science?
Reporters are always looking to humanize stories coming out of our industry that can otherwise be dry and technical. It’s quite common to be asked by a journalist to speak with a clinical trial participant, for example.
This presents a dilemma for us communicators on many, many fronts, one of which being that sponsors should not know, much less be connected to, who’s in their trials.
How can we ethically and proactively identify sources who can speak from this perspective?
Patient advocacy organizations can sometimes provide the patient perspective itself or help identify an appropriate person.
And, be sure to maintain relationships with individual patients and caregivers from the community that may have been previously established when hosting guest speakers or for materials like community profiles.
Not to be overlooked are the trial sites, starting with a strong med affairs or clin ops relationship with the investigator and study coordinator. Meet early with the institution’s comms team. Ensure they know about the trial and science behind it. Brief them on the sponsor’s comms and media engagement plans. That way, you can refer reporters to your contact onsite and maybe even give them a head’s up about an imminent inquiry.
It’s a good idea to align in advance with all of these parties on when and how you might work with them to incorporate a patient perspective into your broader comms strategy for any given investigational therapy, particularly for the media engagement piece.
What’s been your experience working with media to capture the patient perspective?
For this week’s video, I’m going to riff on one of the excellent points that Jen Helfer shared in last week’s Comm Convo: Misconceptions around downsides of including patient perspective in corporate materials.
You’ve probably heard it before: This is an earnings press release. Or, this is a slide deck for an important business development meeting. Besides the photo of patients on the cover of our corporate deck, the patient voice isn’t appropriate for this setting.
Here are five counter-arguments that you can slip into your back pocket for the next time this comes up with your company or client:
Including the patient perspective …Humanizes the messaging. Let’s face it; investors aren’t the only ones who see your corporate deck nowadays.
Emphasizes the unmet need and provides validation for your value proposition.
Engenders confidence that the company understands the market.
Supports commercial projections by being able to say “We’re hearing that…”– there’s nothing like first-hand anecdotes to support hard numbers.
Inherently demonstrates strong relationships with the patient and care partner communities.
Remember, being in a position to truly reflect this perspective results from a patient-centric culture and operating model.
What are other benefits of incorporating the patient voice in corporate messaging?
Oftentimes, a company’s early patient advocacy efforts stem from the thought that patients are another stakeholder group to communicate to. This might sound obvious, but it’s critical to CONTINUE prioritizing this audience as therapies advance.
Whether you’re just beginning comms efforts in this area, partnering with an established patient advocacy function, or already have great patient community relationships, here are our top five must-dos:
- Understand the environment: Are there several big patient advocacy organizations or a single foundation? Is the treatment landscape crowded or is your company developing the first new medicine in this space in a long time? Also, what are the dynamics like between patients, their caregivers and major KOLs?
- Be aware of precedents you’re setting. For example, the timing of your first email or meeting with a PAO sets expectations for when you’ll engage with other communities related to future disease areas of focus. Are you initially engaging when your company declares a new program’s research efforts or not until there’s a development candidate?
- Be transparent but intentionally. Although PAOs may not always agree to a confidentiality agreement, being up-front with your main contacts about a program’s status can earn trust and credibility.
- Share consistent updates. Frequency and format will depend as much on your company stage as your PAO relationships, and can therefore take a variety of shapes. Maybe you’re having regular Zoom meetings, monthly email updates, or using quarterly earnings as a springboard.
- Finally, consider how complicated your news is. Are there new terms or MOAs that need to be explained in a sensitive way? Assess whether regular corporate messaging is appropriate for this audience.
What else should we keep in mind when communicating with patient and caregiver communities?
Authenticity.
We can’t neatly wrap up this week’s topic with a tidy little bow, but we’re wading in anyway, with the end of February concluding Black History Month and Women’s History Month in March.
But that’s not all. There was recently Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
And then there are Rare Disease Day and International Women’s Day coming up.
Phew.
Harvard Business Review put it succinctly back in 2013: “Be yourself, but carefully.” Being unabashedly honest in the workplace could backfire or at its worst, create an unsafe environment.
In a recent exchange on Adam Grant’s Rethinking podcast with D&I leader and author Denise Hamilton, he asked what word we may want to abandon from our vocabulary.
She said: Authentic.
It’s fair to say a lot of us would find that answer surprising.
Denise posits that, rather than being merely unfiltered, be effective, impactful.
When our T2B community last discussed corporate advocacy, a big takeaway emphasized that addressing sensitive subjects requires timely action and AUTHENTICITY.
This will continue to underscore all our monthly themes this year.
So, let’s take the time to ask ourselves: How do you determine what quote-unquote being authentic means to you… to your leadership, to your org or to your clients? How can we as an industry ensure not only what we say but what we do is value-driven and has tangible, positive impact?
Thanks for joining us in these considerations.
