Creating a connection

As healthcare communications professionals working in the era of patient centricity, we find ourselves interacting more often with patients. For example, we may need to speak to patients to gather insights on the psychosocial impact of a health condition or to improve the relevance and impact of educational materials. This can be an uneasy experience on both sides – a patient may not feel comfortable sharing certain information they consider to be sensitive or personal, even though it may be highly relevant. For a healthcare communications professional, it can be difficult to interview someone who is living with a severe illness for research purposes. By nurturing empathy and emotional intelligence, it is possible to create a safe environment. Our own direct or indirect experience of illness can also improve our ability to connect better and build a rapport, allowing the individual to feel at greater ease in sharing their story.

Building on the research

There is also a vast body of health communications and psychology research on patient experience that we can use to build our knowledge about this rapidly evolving field, allowing us to create evidence-based communications programmes. For example, when developing lay summaries for clinical trials, we can tailor our messages to the health literacy skills of our audience; in designing a successful disease management campaign, we might consider the initial level of patient empowerment within a specific patient community; and when developing educational materials, we can co-create them with patients because this will result in content that leads to higher patient satisfaction.

Innovation to empower patients

Designing programmes that have a meaningful impact on patients’ lives can undoubtedly help us to reconnect with our purpose as healthcare communicators, but what does the future hold? Will we need training, just like medical professionals, to build our empathetic communications skills? How can we effectively combine patient insights with other disciplines such as analytics, digital, creative and new technologies to create even more impactful patient programmes? This is a rapidly evolving field with many examples of successful initiatives and further potential for innovative communications that can move the needle.

The growing patient voice has been one of the most significant disruptors to the healthcare system in the past decade and is likely to remain prominent in the coming years. As healthcare communications professionals, this provides us with an opportunity to master relevant new skills, gain new experiences and knowledge and bring greater satisfaction to our work.

Are you looking for ways to make your health communications more patient-centric? Whatever you need, we’re here to listen and tailor-make a solution that works for everyone. Contact us to find out more.