What Engagement Looks Like Today: Pharma to Physician – and Patient
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, what do healthcare communication and engagement look like in the new social distancing landscape?
By now, we’re starting to settle into the idea of minimizing in-person interactions, postponing visits to the doctor, and canceling nonessential procedures. For the healthcare industry, as well as others, conferences have been canceled, events and communications are moving online, and traditional face-to-face sales rep functions have been virtually eliminated.
How do you reach and engage patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in this strange “new normal”? And how can you continue to support them in the many ways that they engage and connect with one another?
Here are some of the key questions:
How do pharmaceutical and medical device companies continue to meaningfully engage with healthcare providers and patients?
How do hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices stay meaningfully connected to and continue to educate their patients to help them remain safe and healthy?
How do clinical trials continue despite the disruption caused by COVID-19 precautions?
Continuing to serve patient and provider communities is more important than ever. The emerging wisdom is that we’ll need to rapidly evolve new ways to engage and educate. At Artcraft Health, we’re achieving this through Remote Engagement.
People may not be gathering face to face, but they’re still engaging human to human. Patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers need this now more than ever. This moment is an opportunity for brands to draw closer to physician and patient communities to support them in navigating this new normal together.
We meet them where they are in the world and at their current level of understanding, fully honoring the environmental and contextual factors that affect their experience. In short, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic requires delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time…in the right way.
The global pandemic is a call to meet patients where they are
People are home. Many are avoiding unnecessary local travel. People with chronic conditions, such as diabetes or Crohn’s disease, or who are otherwise vulnerable still need ongoing treatment—that hasn’t changed. They also require support for ways to stay healthy and maintain critical self-care during the pandemic.
In addition, as people are spending more time at home, digital behavior has increased. People with chronic conditions may be searching online for information about their conditions as well as consuming news about coronavirus.
People are worried. All patients—especially those at high risk—can benefit from timely, customized medical content. There is an urgent need for health literacy during this public health crisis. That means accurate, easy-to-understand education people can act upon.
Through Remote Engagement, brands have an opportunity to help healthcare providers support their patient populations through the delivery of real-time communication and education in the current social distancing context. How?
With a “patients as people first” approach, Artcraft Health applies empathy and insight to ensure information is delivered to patients in a way they can digest and understand. We’re finding that patient-friendly animation and podcasts, for example, are effective ways to explain a disease state or tell a brand story to patients. At all times, but especially during these uncertain times, it is important to reach patients with compelling information that encourages them to stay engaged with their healthcare providers and any prescribed treatment plans
No matter what the delivery mechanism, Artcraft Health puts its proprietary approach to health literacy to work—CUE, Clear Understandable Education. According to Greg Santore, Artcraft Executive Vice President:
“Now more than ever, health literacy should be a priority. Every single one of us needs to be able to understand and act on the information available. This applies across the board, not only regarding our current COVID-19 crisis, but also for patients with comorbidities—where it’s truly a matter of life and death. We need to pay attention to, and get creative with, how to communicate and educate the population.”
A call to meet healthcare providers where they are
Healthcare providers are relying more on online resources. According to the email marketing firm DMD, this past March, the rates at which healthcare providers opened pharmaceutical emails reached a 12-month peak, and website visits increased 6.5%. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 75% of physicians reported increasing their reliance on digital resources.
They’re virtual. Due to the pandemic, most in-person activities have been canceled, including medical conferences, events, and face-to-face interactions. Many meetings and events are now being held virtually. We’re finding that certain workaround solutions—webinars, for example, with engaging components, such as animations, polls, and interactive activities, are working incredibly well.
So, what does Remote Engagement look like in the context of engaging and supporting healthcare providers? Without face-to-face access, pharmaceutical and medical device companies will need to engage healthcare providers in new and different ways. For the promotional landscape as a whole, this means a shift away from in-person sales rep details to more agile nonpersonal promotion in which content and engagement is delivered in various channels.
Nonpersonal promotion includes novel communication methods that can be adapted to changing situations. Stephanie Murrin, Chief Creative Officer at Artcraft Health commented:
“Without rep access, we’re helping clients tell their brand story in different ways––animation, virtual meetings, audio tours and podcasts. We need to have the same or increased impact through new methods. Our CODE™ program (Customized On Demand Education) has great flexibility and is helping providers offer timely content to their patient community.”
A call to meet clinical trial participants where they are
What does COVID-19 mean for a clinical trial? It poses particular challenges. With trial participants likely cutting down on out-of-home travel and in-person visits, how can trials continue remotely? How will this new normal of social distancing and stay-at-home measures affect recruitment, retention, and compliance? What types of strategies can be used to support sites and patients when in-person visits are greatly decreased?
Clinical trial expert and Artcraft Vice President of Clinical Engagement, Todd Zimmermann says:
“This new normal is already affecting clinical research studies. Telemedicine can provide an excellent option to complement in-person visits… For infusions and other forms of self-administration, telemedicine coaching and counseling can help increase confidence and compliance—even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided."
So, what does remote engagement entail in the context of a clinical trial?
In the midst of abrupt social distancing measures, trial participants may be wondering about the status of their clinical trial or what adjustments will be made. Clinical trials that remain ongoing will need agile ways to adapt to current conditions, stay connected with trial participants, and provide ongoing clinical support and guidance.
In this context, Remote Engagement can include timely communications about critical steps in the trial delivered digitally to help manage the process and maintain communication with patients even if onsite visits are not possible. Zimmermann says,
“While [telemedicine] can't replace all visits, proper support through educational videos, live video chats and pre/post visit emails can reduce travel and allow visits, whether on-site or in-home, to focus on blood draws and other physical requirements.”
Artrcraft Health specializes in supportive education for clinical trials, whereby integrated programs that include print tactics, online content, videos, websites, and apps, guide participants through their trial journey and support compliance, even in situations when check-ins or drug administration must be done remotely.
As we seamlessly continue to serve patient and provider communities through Remote Engagement today—and in our future new normal—we are poised to evolve unique ways to engage and educate patients and caregivers, and to support healthcare providers wherever they are
Artcraft Health is a hybrid agency delivering both patient engagement and education strategies, and innovative solutions across all media channels. We help patients, healthcare providers, and all relevant stakeholders develop the skills, knowledge, and motivation they need to understand and communicate their diagnosis, initiate and adhere to their treatment, and experience the best possible outcomes. We specialize in four areas: clinical trials, promotional education, hospitals, and demo devices