Healthcare PR has its own little quirks like every specialist area. You can bet that behind every “breakthrough” story on the TV news and every heart wrenching “miracle cure” in the Sunday Telegraph is a health-focused PR consultant who knows how it works.

Clients and colleagues sometimes ask me what I think the keys are to successful health-focused PR. And so here they are for the record:

1. Personalise the story: There's an adage in medical media relations that will always hold true – “No case study, no big story”. All big medical stories lead with the personal angle; the patient, the success story or the family. You might think it's too hard to get a good case study. That's fine – it just means you think it's too hard to get a big story.

2. It's not about you: Good healthcare PR is driven by what others say about your products and your issues – not by what you say about them. If it's a development in depression, what do the mental health groups think, if it's a cardiovascular story, what will the Heart Foundation say about it. Remember, you're the client and/or manufacturer, so what you think doesn't count for much in the context of a news story.

3. Tell healthcare professionals first: So Today Tonight is going to feature your big medical breakthrough. What will doctors say when the viewers start asking them questions tomorrow. Sh*t, did you even tell the doctors?!

4. It's not about your media release: Don't waste precious time and resources haggling over the copy in the fourth paragraph of the media release. It's about the news package you can pull together around the release – a case study, an expert, some new stats, a breakthrough development, all announced at a major medical conference – not about the words in the media release

5. A health week or health conference is not a health story: A health week might act as a backdrop for a story – but it is not the story itself. Don't think you can get media to do a story about asthma because it is Asthma Week. PR Consultant: “But it's Asthma Week!” Journalist: “So what?”

6. Own the research, own the story: Many health-focused stories are underpinned by the release of new research – sometimes about prevalence or otherwise about the success of certain treatments. Make sure it's you that owns, commissions or controls the research – otherwise you're just playing PR catch up with the people who do.

7. Know the marketing codes: Good marketers know that specific codes for prescription-only medicines and over-the-counter products determine what can (and can't) be done from a PR perspective. For example, some aspects of some codes allow media releases but forbid direct to consumer ads. Part of your job is to understand what is possible and to work with your PR agency to maximise what is legal.