Making a difference with medical education

PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2015 Global CEO Survey showed that nearly a quarter of companies have shifted their corporate goals to focus on their impact on society. And at the 2016 World Economic Forum of economic and political leaders, new research highlighted that 'doing good business' no longer means just making mountains of cash, and that the value created by aiming to benefit society cuts across all stakeholders.

The annual Communiqué Awards, which recognise excellence and best practice in healthcare communications, were held in London on 7 July. Lucid Group was a finalist in all six of the programme, individual and company categories it entered this year. As we celebrate receiving awards in three of these categories - including being highly commended in the Communications Consultancy of the Year category - we reflect how our vision affects the stakeholders we engage with and question the value we create.

Our vision is clear: we aim to enhance patients' lives through medical education that changes healthcare professionals' (HCPs) behaviour and improves patients' health outcomes. Our key goal as a company is to lead the industry in terms of behaviour change, knowledge and implementation. And to work hard to find ways of measuring the impact on patients of what we do. This resonates with our stakeholders in a unified way. All of our stakeholders - whether they are pharma partners, HCPs or internal Lucid team members - can identify with and aspire to this goal.

We are lucky to engage with brave, forward-thinking pharma teams who have partnered with us for many years. These pharma partners are clear that education that simply delivers messages or raises awareness of clinical care gaps is not enough. These partners are thorough in their working approach. They are focused on agreeing which key behaviour changes need to happen to improve patient care in their given field. They are curious to understand the barriers to this behaviour change. And they are brave in working with us to design multiple, tailored interventions that support HCPs in changing their behaviour. Increasingly, pharma companies require that their teams adopt this approach. The investment in education is significant and we need to be able to demonstrate that it is improving care for patients.

[We aim] to find better digital solutions, reach more HCPs and tailor interventions to each HCP

HCPs also share our vision and value our approach. They are true experts in their own fields of medicine, but may struggle to develop and deliver education beyond lectures and case-study discussions. While these are helpful and interesting approaches to education, the academic literature recognises that these tactics will not help HCPs change their clinical practice, and that a combination of didactic and interactive education is most effective. So HCPs are learning from us and with us. As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in improving patients' outcomes with our education, HCPs feel that together we make a difference to the person that matters most: the patient.

If we look at the evidence further, the most effective behaviour change interventions are designed by tailoring tactics to overcome identified barriers and applying well-established psychological theories or models. Lucid has incorporated an established behaviour change model into its 5-step process for designing medical education that changes clinical practice to improve patient outcomes. In line with the evidence, our Advance Outcomes process is centred on the importance of correctly identifying behaviour barriers, and tailoring our education to overcome these.

This brings us to the third stakeholder: our internal team. While they are proud to be part of an award-winning agency, they are prouder of our aspiration to improve patients' lives. At times like this, following success at the Communiqué Awards, it is easy to rest on our laurels. But we have built an outstanding team. They gave us a clear indication at a company meeting in February that they want to be part of a thought-leading agency. They challenge us to continue to be at the forefront of academic developments in behaviour change. To find better digital solutions, to reach more HCPs and to tailor interventions to each HCP. And to find new and efficient ways of measuring the impact of our programmes on patients - because everyone at Lucid wants to change patients' lives in a positive way.

“I went into medical education from a scientific research background because I wanted to have a more direct impact on day-to-day healthcare and patients' lives. Challenging myself and our team to realise this each day at Lucid is why I come to work,” says Louise Verrall (Business Unit Director), Winner of Communiqué Emerging Leader in Healthcare Communications.

As we support our team to strive to innovate further in our tenth year in business, we will continue to be clear about our vision. In its simplest terms: we try to make a difference to the world by trying to improve patients' outcomes. We hope to inspire all our stakeholders to new heights by encouraging them to celebrate who they are and what they achieve. This approach is clearly award-winning, but this higher purpose also feels enormously satisfying and unifying for all involved.