Healthcare PR in a Cost-contained World
Posted on Fri, Apr 09, 2010 @ 08:56 AM
With healthcare reform legislation signed by President Obama on March 23 2010, there's no doubt that along with changes to the US health insurance system, there 
will be a much greater focus on healthcare cost-containment in the years to come. Predictions on whether the impact of this legislation on the US pharmaceutical industry will be positive or negative are mixed.
What does this mean for healthcare public relations? Actually, on this issue, I'm bullish. I think there are a number of reasons why public relations has a major role to play in the changing healthcare environment, and I discuss them in a recent article I published in Communique Volume 16.
Most importantly, challenges such as communicating the very real differences between cost effectiveness as opposed to price when talking about a drug, biologic, device or procedure require the development of multifaceted, nuanced arguments. And public relations, more than any other marketing discipline, is best at framing complex issues, creating and mobilizing advocates and engaging in conversations with multiple stakeholders.
For these reasons, healthcare PR is alive and well in countries where healthcare cost containment has been in place for decades. As an American who lived and worked for eight years in the United Kingdom, you need only look at the vibrant, continuously evolving and highly creative UK healthcare communications agency business to see proof of that.
There is no doubt that changes in the US healthcare system will place new pressures on the life sciences industry to communicate in different ways. I believe that as a result, healthcare public relations will become a tool that these companies will rely on more than ever before.
For a PDF of the article I published recently in Communique 16, click here.
--David Avitabile