Shaking up medical communication

Alongside advances in philosophy and technology, the world of medical marketing should continuously evolve. To that end, all who work in medical communications should constantly challenge themselves to explore and adopt new channels and mechanisms to deliver information. So why is it that none of us is surprised when, at the industry awards ceremonies, the same tactics win year on year? It's time to shake up the industry.

We may not acknowledge it, but advances in technology mean that most aspects of our lives are tailored towards our individual needs. From social media activity to supermarket habits, our activities are being mapped and interrogated, enabling commerce to selectively expose us to targeted merchandise. By understanding the motivations of the individual and tailoring the offer accordingly, customers become more receptive and retailers more successful in their marketing efforts; a win-win situation.

The same applies to the way that medicine is practised, with the focus becoming increasingly individualised at various levels (see figure below). For years, treatments primarily consisted of chemical compounds that were prescribed ubiquitously irrespective of personal characteristics. Nowadays, the advent of targeted approaches that require genetic profiling for patient selection ensure optimum efficacy and cost-effectiveness in an increasingly consumer-driven and austere healthcare environment. Similarly, the focus of treatment has shifted from a broad approach of targeting the troublesome organ to a more holistic and precise strategy, which recognises that each person leads a different life, with social, mental and economic factors all impacting on their disease and treatment choice. This shift also influences the treatment team, which has happily evolved in clinical practice from a single specialist didactically treating an ailment in isolation, to a multidisciplinary team collaborating in the care of the presenting patients, who are themselves key partners in their own repair and maintenance.

Everyone is different, including you, so why do the same as everyone else?

In a society where technology and (medical) philosophy is increasingly focused on the individual - who, in turn, expects a personalised approach - traditional blanket medical education must surely be defunct. Or are your customers that different?

With this question in mind, we have developed a contemporary approach to medical education - one that addresses educational needs from the individual's perspective and which is showing great dividends for us and our customers. Our programmes are: individualised, distilled and designed to virally disseminate key information.

The model integrates the established medical education cascade with multichannel content dissemination, building on the importance of thought leader input to support, ratify and evolve content development and delivery, while at the same time adopting a ripple (rather than a top-down) cascade to encourage viral content dispersion. To ensure scientific integrity and credibility, integrated into every medical education programme is a unique evolutionary process that encourages the target audiences to validate, contribute to and eventually own the content. In the same way that patients are now integral to their own care plan, your audience becomes a key player in their knowledge acquisition and sharing.

Everyone is different, including you, so why do the same as everyone else?

IntraMed: re-defining medical communication.

Abbie Pound is head of medical communications, IntraMed UK, abbie.pound@intramedgroup.com T: +44 (0)7824365952

Barbara Macelloni is head of educational strategy, EMEA and Asia Pacific Region, barbara.macelloni@intramedgroup.com