Defining great health PR: Distinguishing health PR from consumer PR & other disciplines
By Martin Palin
Key takeaways
Health PR translates complex clinical, regulatory and health information into clear, credible stories that build understanding, trust and engagement.
Unlike general consumer PR, health PR operates within strict regulatory and ethical boundaries, including requirements set by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct. This requires specialist knowledge, robust evidence and careful management of patient experiences and health claims.
The strongest health campaigns bring health PR, medical affairs and government relations teams together, with each discipline contributing distinct expertise towards shared goals.
Health PR isn’t the same as consumer PR. Health PR is specific, highly specialised and nuanced. For people wanting to commission PR agencies or explore health-focused campaigns, it’s worth knowing why.
In this article we’re going to explain what happens in healthcare PR and how it differs from general consumer PR, medical affairs and other disciplines like media relations. We’ll also describe why it is important for your health PR agency to be working closely with your Medical Affairs and Government Relations teams.
What is healthcare PR?
Some people think healthcare PR is communications that targets only doctors and pharmacists. It is much more than that.
At its core, health PR translates complex health information into clear, credible stories that build understanding, trust and engagement. This might be in framing a news story about the government reimbursement of an innovative new medicine. Or in developing and launching a new disease awareness campaign that brings a focus on a particular condition or issue.
What distinguishes health PR professional is their ability to translate a development, regulatory milestone, medical issue, corporate challenge or emerging disease into a compelling story that gets attention. They do this by developing news packages and/or social media assets comprised of ambassadors, external spokespeople, patient groups, new data, and (most importantly) case studies with lived experience that helps personalise the message.
Health PR agencies might apply this storytelling approach to health promotion campaigns, disease awareness programs, new product launches, medical stakeholder engagement or issues management assignments. But essentially, these agencies are helping medical companies, hospitals, not-for-profit organisations, medical colleges and medical device companies tell a specific story in a compelling and commercially valuable way.
The overall aim is to build trust in health-related organisations and increase awareness of healthcare issues and their solutions.
How does health PR differ from general consumer PR, government relations or medical affairs?
There are a range of disciplines that come together to drive successful healthcare communications campaigns. But before looking at those, let’s be clear about the distinction between health PR and general consumer PR.
Health PR is different to general consumer PR.
General consumer PR is mainly interested in driving editorial coverage of products and brands.
This focus on brands, products and the deliberate links it builds to the sales process are some of the factors that distinguish it from health PR.
So whereas health PR is operating in a tight, highly regulated niche with a focus on diseases, issues and medical developments, consumer PR has a broader scope across areas like fast moving consumer goods, professional services, luxury goods and/or commodities.
The focus and purpose are very different. Consumer PR practitioners might be trying to leverage an advertising spend into additional earned media. So, in this case the advertising agency is investing a paid budget into a publication and the consumer PR agency tries to leverage that into additional value.
Consumer media relations operates in a completely different regulatory setting. Consumer PR is typically concerned only with Australian consumer law and in some cases the internal policies of the their clients. Consumer media relations doesn’t have the complex regulatory environment that a health PR practitioner might face on a regular basis.
For example, Australian regulations outlined by the Therapeutic Goods Administration prohibit advertising prescription medicines to the public except in limited circumstances. Other therapeutic goods may be advertised publicly, but claims, testimonials and endorsements are subject to specific requirements and may require non-promotional communications.
Applying the same kind of consumer tactic (eg using professional or celebrity endorsement) in a healthcare setting without reference to the specific regulations can cause problems and lead to fines, recalls and negative external relationships.
Health PR and general consumer PR are different. Health PR operates with;
Higher evidentiary expectations including clinical data
More complex regulatory constraints (mainly the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct)
Greater consequences if information is inaccurate
More specialised journalists, spokespeople and patient advocacy groups
Additional ethical considerations around patients and lived experience
Longer medical, legal and regulatory approval processes
A campaign or media relations program that has a medical focus requires a specialist health PR agency or experienced internal team to navigate the regulations, manage the third-party relationships and leverage their knowledge of health-related media outlets and the journalists who work there.
Let’s look at how health PR interacts with other key disciplines like medical affairs and government relations.
Healthcare PR and medical affairs
Medical affairs professionals are focused on the scientific integrity and medical integrity of the company. They advise on the medical messaging that underpins business product descriptions and business objectives. These medical affairs professionals oversee medical compliance, build relationships with key external experts and focus on the reputation of the company from a medical and scientific perspective.
So whereas the health PR practitioner is likely focused on driving high value earned media, the medical affairs team is facilitating the relationships with external spokespeople and medical luminaries who play a role as “talent” in those campaigns.
Much of the medical “talent” that is used in good health PR campaigns is born out the relationship that the medical affairs team has with these key opinion leaders and medical experts.
Medical affairs is also heavily involved in compliance. So guidance on what can (and can’t) be said in media releases and on social media by the PR team often comes from the medical affairs people on the team.
So medical affairs and health PR each have their role. But a strong working relationship is an important part of successful campaigns.
Healthcare PR and government relations
Government relations professionals are focused on making the position of the company known to political decision makers and the people who advise them. People working in government relations ensure policy makers take on board the industry perspective when framing issues and making policy decisions.
The working relationship between the PR team and the Government relations team is also important.
Sometimes health media relations are used to put a topic into the public spotlight (via the general news media) at a time when policy issues are being discussed or decided. At other times the talent and/or data being used for health PR campaigns might be incorporated into some government relations advocacy. For example, if a compelling patient case study or patient group is being featured in the media on a particular disease or issue, the government affairs team might take the opportunity to introduce those case studies or groups to key political targets. Government relations is about ensuring that political decision makers understand the very personal dimension to the decisions they make.
The health PR team is focused on media. The government relations team is focused on political decision makers. So their roles and objectives are very different but both teams work closely together to ensure that messaging, personalisation and impact are consistent.
Summarising some roles and distinctions between health PR, consumer PR, medical affairs
The following table shows how health PR, consumer PR, medical affairs and government relations differ across a range of attributes and objectives.
Attribute | Health PR | Consumer PR | Medical Affairs | Government relations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Main objective | Translate technical regulatory developments or clinical info into relatable stories that drive earned media and social engagement | Build awareness of brands and/or help trigger product sales or service adoption | Build scientific integrity, manage medical messaging that underpins business objectives, oversee medical compliance, build relationships with key opinion leaders | Make position of company known to political decision makers. Ensure policy makers have appropriate information to make informed policy decisions |
Primary audience | Consumers and HCP’s via health journalists, news reporters, mainstream media and relevant medical publications | Consumers, buyers, general consumer mdi | Doctors, specialists, clinical bodies, researchers, regulators | Political decision makers and those that provide advice to policy makers, advisors, analysts etc. Local members of parliament. Parliamentarians with special interests or responsibilities for health related issues (eg, “Friends of…” networks) |
Key channels | News media, health focused social media, radio, breakfast and morning TV. Medical publications for HCPs | Lifestyle media, new product sections, lifestyle blogs, brand activations | Scientific symposia, medical journals, peer reviewed research papers | One to one briefings with political decision makers, events and conferences at Parliament house. Policy panel discussions |
Main evidence | Notice of changes confirmed by regulatory bodies, new clinical data | New product information or photography, market trends, consumer sentiment | Peer reviewed trials, consensus statements, official treatment guidelines | Modelling data based on various political scenarios, economic modelling confirming cost of an issue or disease to government |
Regulatory environment | Highly regulated with marketing codes depending on focus (MA, MTAA, TGA, AHPRA etc) | Moderate regulation. Australian consumer law, advertising guidelines | Highly regulated and monitored. Closely watched by competitors and regulators for scientific evidence of claims | Highly regulated. Lobbyists need to be registered in Australia |
Spokespeople and third parties | Credible external medical experts for independent commentary and context. Case studies for first person story-telling and perspective from lived experience. Works with Patient Advocacy Groups. | Brand ambassadors, lifestyle influencers, company executives, industry association spokespeople | Respected senior specialists and thought leaders. Medical colleges and associations | Patient groups, individual patients and medical experts supportive of political change or reimbursement of a new treatment option. |
Key success metrics | High profile earned media focused on health issues, diseases and new treatment options. Increased awareness of diseases and conditions | Referral traffic, brand engagement | Positive clinical sentiment, positive changes in treatment guidelines, acceptance of new treatment options by clinicians | Positive policy changes, government support for specific treatments or medical devices |
Health-focused disciplines work together in a successful health communications campaign
It’s clear then that health PR, medical affairs and government relations each play a specific role in contributing to successful health campaigns. What’s important to note, is the way these health-focused disciplines work together to deliver comprehensive, multi-faceted health-related campaigns that meet their KPI’s and drive change.
The government relations are able to have discussions primed by media coverage because of the work being done by health PR team. The health PR team is able to deliver major earned media success because it is working closely with the medical affairs team to identify and brief the right key opinion leader (i.e. the talent).
You need teams in the loop who understand their discipline and the workflow required to drive great health campaigns.
Find a health PR agency that understands the jigsaw
If successful health campaigns are the ones where the three key disciplines (health PR, medical affairs and government relations) are all being done well, then it is important to have people on the team who understand how it all fits together.
The team at Palin Communications has been doing this for decades.
For Adora, we’ve raised awareness of IVF success while government relations teams were in important reimbursement discussions.
The media relations component of PainChek saw Palin Communications receive a Highly Commended at the industry Golden Target Awards (NSW) for “Investor Relations” where we set out to give a voice to people who cannot verbalise their pain. This was a perfect example of government affairs and health PR working collaboratively. The issue of dementia and the ability of new technology to assist in pain management was being put on the public agenda via a high profile media relations strategy at the same time as the government relations team was successfully negotiating substantial government support to make the technology more widely available.
Or maybe we want to put new technology on the agenda in the knowledge that policy discussions about its reimbursement are inevitable in the future. This was the scenario when Palin Communications team was helping Seqirus raise awareness of its new nasal spray to treat anaphylaxis.
Where medical affairs teams have organised medical specialists to help educate local clinicians on treatment guidelines and new therapies, the Palin team has successfully leveraged this into broader media interest in areas like asthma, depression, allergy management and other disease areas. Indeed close collaboration with the Medical Affairs team is one of the key ways in which external experts are sourced for high profile health PR campaigns. We’ve done it successfully in disease areas like angioedema and many other conditions.
Some final thoughts
Great health communications strategies are generated out of specialised teams that each know their role.
You won’t end up with a great campaign if
The agency doing the health PR section is not deeply and exclusively focused in health, and/or
The teams responsible for PR, medical affairs and government relations are not working closely together and contributing their specific expertise to the integrated, multi-faceted program.
At the very minimum, if you have a health related campaign then you need the PR part of it to be done by a specialist agency. One that understands what is required from each member of the team.
Palin Communications can fill that role for you. Perhaps it’s worth a further conversation? Feel free to contact us at hello@palin.com.au
FAQ’s
What is healthcare PR?
Healthcare PR is a specialist discipline that translates complex health information, clinical data and regulatory developments into clear, credible stories.
It involves activities such as engaging journalists, running social media campaigns, telling patient stories and leveraging key opinion leaders to make complex health topics more accessible and relevant.
Depending on the campaign, the target audience may be the general public, patients or healthcare professionals.
The overall aim is to help healthcare organisations build awareness, understanding and trust for specific health issues and their solutions.
Can I get a generalist consumer agency to manage the PR in a health-focused campaign?
No, a health-focused campaign is best managed by a specialist health communications agency. Unlike consumer media relations, health PR requires clinical understanding, medical accuracy and familiarity with requirements set by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct. Without this expertise, campaigns can create compliance issues and reputational risk.
How do the various elements of a health campaign – PR, medical affairs and government relations work together to drive positive results?
Each discipline brings distinct expertise to a health communications strategy. Medical affairs supports medical compliance; health PR translates complex information into compelling media stories; and government relations engages political decision-makers. Working together, they align health messaging, stakeholder engagement and campaign impact.
