Digital tech and the medical landscape have both changed enormously in recent years. As a result, so too has pharma marketing. But unfortunately, too many medical communications efforts still rely on the 20th century, and as a result, fail to make an impact on brands.
Medical communications (MedComms), or promotional peer-to-peer education, is an essential discipline for brands to educate HCPs and facilitate clinical conversations with diverse stakeholders. MedComms can include everything from gathering expert insights and developing scientific narratives, content, and visualizations; to creating and executing interactive tactics for key opinion leaders, community HCPs and other audiences such as patients and payers.
But effective peer-to-peer engagement in the 21st century goes far beyond the traditional speaker bureau and the conference hall, with a data-driven omnichannel approach that’s scalable and cost-effective. It balances an unquestionable expertise in the complexities of your brand’s science with a full understanding of the education ecosystem that you and your brand need to operate in to be successful.
It’s not easy to convey and clarify science well enough to stand up to scrutiny from the world’s leading experts while simultaneously providing clinical value to community HCPs in their daily practice. It requires robust medical knowledge, empowered by the adept use of learning and behavioral-science principles, as well as innovative technology and data-science-driven strategy.
And even the best educational content can fail if it’s not delivered by the “right” expert or isn’t engaging enough. Facilitating scientific exchange is truly a different realm than traditional HCP promotional tactics, but it does require the same omnichannel expertise. Rather than looking at a tactic or a channel in isolation, it’s necessary to build a holistic infrastructure across channels for better reach and deeper engagement.
Peer-to-peer education is central to the practice of evidence -based medicine. Providing a forum of collaboration where HCPs engage in dialogue to discuss clinically relevant scenarios related to a medication catalyzes better outcomes for patients. Moreover, the credibility gained from enlisting the right HCPs to deliver the education can play a crucial role in shaping brand reputation, market position and long-term success. Done right, MedComms can elevate a brand, conveying its clinical relevance to the people who need to know so patients can reap the benefits.
EVERSANA INTOUCH has more than 20 years of experience creating hundreds of scientific narratives, facilitating countless advisory boards, creating more than 1,000 conference experiences, and more. There are hundreds of MDs, PharmDs and PhDs deployed across EVERSANA, with more than 30 experts dedicated specifically to elevating promotional peer-to-peer education for brands.
For more information, including case studies of cutting-edge digital and in-person HCP engagement, contact us.