Medical communications explained:
a very brief overview for the newcomer

We look at your product (drug or device) in the context of existing treatments and market needs. We make an assessment of where your product fits, what potential users need to know about it, how strong (or weak) your data is, and what is the best way to communicate with users. The communications plan will also be influenced by your budget, what internal resource you have, what part your investigators can play, what your timescale is - and a host of other factors.

What have we got to work with? Successful products are based on good data. But when you design a trial can you anticipate what might be needed by the marketing team - ten years later? Our crystal balls are polished, and our experience of working with various levels of data (dreadful to stunning) may help to ensure you don't miss any opportunities. Your CRO will manage the data collection, but we can manage the investigators to keep them enthusiastic and supportive (also see Professional Relations below).

The clinical trial is finished, and now you need to publish it. If your data is not peer-reviewed and published in good time, the credibility of the product will be undermined and communications options seriously limited. The lead time to publish abstracts is at least six months; for full publication, expect at least one year. But clinicians are often too busy to write up results and may not choose the best meetings or journals. We will prepare a plan to make the most of your data. Data is your product's most valuable asset: do not squander it.

Do you have any enemies? Or advocates? Do you even know? A well-managed professional relations programme underpins all your product development and communications. Not only will it identify your critics and supporters but it will also provide constant feedback for the product and the programme. Forget Advisory Boards - an overworked and out-moded concept - a professional relations programme is much more than this. A programme run by people who know the product, the potential users and the market, will be a thriving and two-way flow of information, ideas and activity.

Scientific and clinical congresses are excellent focal points for implementing, and refining, communications programmes. Your data may be in the scientific programme (at last!), you may have an exhibition stand, a small workshop or a massive symposium. But we believe in getting more out of meetings - on your behalf - with 24-hour a day networking; making new contacts; creating opportunities for collaboration, trials, publishing; talking to the press; acquiring competitive insights; and, of course, collecting all those free pens and umbrellas.

As launch approaches, you may need material to educate the potential user, particularly if your product or device is novel, or works in a different way. There is no standard formula: the best educational programmes will reflect thorough research and insights into the understanding and needs of the user, combined with the knowledge and experience of the product advocates. Check out our Examples page for ideas on training manuals, videos, CDs, slide sets and so on.

From laboratory to bedside, the media are there. Two hundred people may hear your data at a meeting, but two million more may read about it in a journal, a newspaper, on the Internet or via email alert. Success lies not in churning out corporate press releases, but in understanding what makes a story, in assiduous contact with journals and editors, in meticulous preparation of materials and speakers, and in hard slog.

And don't forget the charities and patient advocacy groups. Amidst the hubbub generated by the scientific drive of the company, and the enthusiasm of the clinicians for a new therapy, the patient's voice needs to be heard.

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