Omnicom launches inter-agency health comms initiative

Global public relations group Omnicom has launched a new initiative to inspire, develop and share best practice in healthcare communications across its UK health-focused agencies.

HealthShare sees the group's FleishmanHillard Fishburn, Ketchum and Porter Novelli agencies collaborate on supporting innovation and growth in the UK's healthcare PR specialism capability through a series of agency-focused training sessions.

Karen van Bergen, Omnicom's chief executive, said: “At Omnicom, we strive to be at the forefront of change in the health marketing communications industry.

“Our new HealthShare training is a collaboration between leading London health PR teams. The initiative was designed by our own health PR professionals for our health PR teams, so we can better support our clients with effective, timely and innovative solutions to each and every challenge.”

The training sessions - which are to be hosted at Omnicom's London offices - include media training; preparation for working with health regulations, clinical data and medical education; and mentoring opportunities.

David Gallagher, president of international growth and development at Omnicom, said: “The launch of HealthShare is a first for us at Omnicom PR Group - bringing together colleagues from three of our agencies to design a united health communications training scheme.

“This learning and development programme will be in the hands of our PR professionals - and spearheaded by the cross-agency training council who have designed and developed the initial programme.

“We are always looking for opportunities to upskill our teams, and this innovation supports our health teams to learn, collaborate and grow.”