Evaluating a Health PR agency that can manage clinician-facing communications

It’s not difficult for communications agencies to describe themselves as health-focused or experienced in the medical sector. It may be that a modest amount of health-related exposure triggers an idea in an agency about a new and lucrative area of work.

This can generate a challenge for medical brand managers or pharmaceutical procurement professionals who are keen to identify agencies with genuine expertise in clinician-facing communications.

In this article we offer some suggestions for identifying agencies with the kind of expertise and experience required to manage clinician-facing projects. This article provides practical criteria and a checklist for choosing an agency with the right experience to target healthcare professionals.

In this article we’re going to cover:

1. How clinician-facing work differs from consumer-facing communications

2. Tips for assessing the capabilities of a PR agency for clinician-facing projects

3. How news sense, content processes and media relationships differ when the target audience is comprised of clinicians and health care professionals 

General health experience does not deliver clinician facing credibility

People who work in healthcare PR choose to specialise in medical projects because these projects are stimulating and diverse. Some might think that health-related work is limiting or repetitive, but nothing could be further from the truth. These projects can incorporate broad disease awareness targeting consumers, new product announcements for primary healthcare professionals, medical device launches targeting specialists, everything in between and much, much more.  

Consider an area like paediatric medicines. We might be talking to parents about appropriate pain relief choices for their babies in one campaign and then drafting technical medical information for experienced paediatricians in another. It’s diverse and interesting work.

The broad scope of these health-related briefs and projects however can make it difficult to identify agencies with the specific expertise and experience in delivering campaigns that target clinicians.

The approach required for a consumer health promotion campaign, with its emotional hooks, broad messaging, and sharp news values is different to the peer-reviewed evidence and expert gravitas required to effectively engage clinicians. 

So whereas a consumer facing health project might be successful because of an agency’s experience with consumer media, a clinician facing project is going to require a sharp medical news sense, an appreciation of varying clinical responsibilities, the ability to translate highly technical information and a subtle approach to working with third parties and external experts. 

If an agency is inexperienced in these areas or a PR agency is chosen on the strength of general health credentials, then the client risks lost time spent educating agency staff, misaligned messaging and diminished credibility among medical specialists.

Capabilities that signal HCP-focused expertise

There are some tell-tale signs that indicate an agency has genuine experience in a clinician facing campaigns.

1. Clinical trial data translation

You will see in their reverse brief and in their draft copy that a well experienced healthcare PR agency can translate technical data and peer reviewed papers into bite sized but credible key messages for specific audiences.

This is more than simplifying medical terminology or selecting an attention-grabbing statistic. It requires the agency to understand the data, identify the story within it, preserve important caveats and explain why the findings matter.

For example, the Australian Institute of Health and Wellness (AIHW) data shows that dementia has overtaken coronary heart disease as Australia’s leading cause of death, reflecting the ageing population. A skilled agency could use the data to tell a clear story about our populations changing health needs and the implications for clinicians, patients and the health system.

Specific expertise is needed to interpret peer-reviewed clinical research. Not all PR agencies could read a client’s study examining the safety of their new monoclonal antibody for early Alzheimer’s disease and navigate the study design, identify the findings that are most relevant to clinicians, and understand the context around them.

Agencies need to have enough scientific and clinical understanding to build an engaging and clinically meaningful story for clinicians without oversimplifying or overstating the evidence.

In short, experienced agencies can create messages are true to the data but presented in a compelling and readable way. 

2. Understanding stakeholder relations and how to manage Key Opinion Leaders 

Whether it is sponsored content in a medical publication, a media release targeting a specific specialist group or a panel discussion at a conference, key opinion leaders (also known as external experts) are likely to play a key role as contributors, speakers or advocates. 

Managing these relationships is delicate work. Your agency should be comfortable having direct contact with key opinion leaders where necessary and understand the sensitivities around appropriate payment, codes of conduct, company policies, suitable travel arrangements and other logistical and workflow challenges. 

One objective is to manage the project successfully. Equally important is to do so in a way that ensures no external parties are compromised or made uneasy about the processes. When stakeholder relations are handled well, your agency can help you foster positive, long-term relationships with these experts. 

3. Understanding the nuances required for different types of healthcare professionals. 

Understanding the ways in which healthcare professionals differ is important. The general heading of “clinician” or “healthcare professional” covers a wide range of roles, responsibilities, qualifications and professional titles. 

Is this a primary healthcare issue whereby we target general practitioners, primary care doctors, and practice nurses? Or is it for a specific group of specialists? And if so, which specialists? 

Targeting “healthcare professionals” could include pharmacists, optometrists, dietitians, nurses, midwifes, allied health professionals, immunologists, oncologists, and many, many others. These different healthcare specialists all have different networks and read different things. 

Experienced agencies know what matters to different specialists and how to talk to them. This involves knowing their professional interests, sticking points, patient-facing responsibilities and reading habits.

4. Awareness of the medical media landscape and the many different healthcare professional publications 

Media knowledge and channel selection is also important. If the target audience is GP’s and the agency sounds like it’s only just discovered what Australian Doctor is and who it targets, then that sounds alarm bells about experience and familiarity.

Agencies with experience in negotiating earned value in clinician-focused publications should be able to tell you which publications are most relevant to your target clinicians, what makes a story genuinely newsworthy for their editors, and which angles are unlikely to gain traction. 

These healthcare PR agencies will have experience speaking with healthcare editors and journalists and understand how to shape a pitch around the media outlets specific interests, while maintaining the clinical accuracy and credibility expected in medical communications.

5.  Can navigate the complex regulatory environment

Clinician-facing communications operate within a complex regulatory environment, so an agency needs more than a general awareness that healthcare is “highly regulated”. 

The right health-focused PR agency should understand how the constantly evolving Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requirements, APRHA guidelines, and a client’s internal policies shape what can be said, to whom and through which channels. 

For example, in 2024 the Therapeutic Goods Administration issued $300,000 worth of fines to medical companies for ‘unlawfully’ advertising weight loss medicines. 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s guidelines are constantly evolving. Changes earlier this year further tightened control on how medicines are promoted to the public, especially online, as it announced new fines up to $16.5 million per breach for corporations.

A capable healthcare communications agency will understand the regulatory compliance guardrails for your specific product or technology before recommending claims or creative concepts. 

The agency will easily be able to distinguish between the messages allowed in communications intended exclusively for healthcare professionals verse material that may reach the public.

Strong regulatory knowledge is not about defaulting to cautious and ineffective copy. It enables the agency to identify compliant ways to communicate a meaningful message, while anticipating approval concerns and reducing avoidable rework. During a pitch, ask how the team has navigated regulatory constraints while preserving clarity and strategic impact.

6. Distinguish between “earned vs paid” in medical publications

Most medical publications will carry ads or have some kind of “Sponsored Content” programs that run in and around their editorial copy.

Agencies with experience will know how the different sections work, how content is developed for them, what the decision-making process is and who takes responsibility for different types of content. They will know that the media outlets sales teams take responsibility for the paid content while the editorial team and journalists take responsibility for the editorial content. 

A healthcare PR communication agency will have a sharp medical news sense and relationships with news decision makers at these media outlets - not just relationships with the commercial teams whose job it is to sell space.

Checklist: Does your agency have the right clinician-facing credentials? Before appointing a healthcare communications agency for a campaign targeting health professionals, ask:
Can they show you relevant clinician-facing work? Ask for case studies involving audiences similar to the healthcare professionals you need to reach.
Can they confidently interpret clinical evidence? They should be comfortable working with peer-reviewed papers, clinical data and technical medical information.
Do they know the relevant healthcare media? They should be name dropping publications that reach your audience and know what their editors consider newsworthy
Do they understand earned versus paid medical media? They should be confident in securing earned media for you, and not just have a track record of paying their way into these medical publications
Can they demonstrate a strong medical news sense? Ask how they would turn your clinical information into a credible story that clinicians will want to read.
Are they experienced in working with medical experts as spokespeople? They should understand the practical and professional sensitivities involved in engaging clinicians and other third parties
Do they have relationships with healthcare editors and journalists? Look beyond relationships with the commercial teams selling advertising and sponsored content.
Does their first response to your brief inspire confidence? Their questions and initial ideas should demonstrate healthcare knowledge
Do they understand the regulatory environment? They should be familiar with the relevant TGA requirements, industry codes and compliance processes that apply to your product or service.

Clinician facing expertise at Palin Communications

Almost all the projects the team works on at Palin Communications have a component that targets healthcare professionals. 

Whether that is targeting infectious disease specialist with campaigns about HIV (as we do for ViiV) or talking to GP’s about their role in a patient’s weight loss journey, or reminding healthcare workers (and the procurement teams that make the decisions about what products to use to protect them) about appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE’s) for Halyard, the Palin Communications team is well versed in healthcare communications.   

All of these projects require the team to translate complex clinical or “patient journey” data into creative tactics and effective engagement strategies. Palin Communications do it as part of a multi-disciplinary team across the medical and public affairs professionals who work on the client side of the project.

In brief

Communicating with healthcare professionals is tricky work. You need to be working with agencies that have done it before, understand the nuances of communicating with different professional groups and have a keen medical news sense shaped by previous campaigns. Third party support and external experts are crucial to these projects so you need agencies that can navigate those relationships and achieve results in a way that makes everyone feel positive about the process and reassured by the outcomes. 

You’ll know you are working with the right agency when they talk the right language and can put the right case studies on the table for you to review. 

If you have a clinician-facing communications brief and want to have this kind of conversation with the team at Palin Communications, then feel free to drop us a note

Or maybe you just want to chat? If you are interested to find out more, email us at hello@palin.com.au