For your content to attract engagement and downloads, you need to understand what your audiences need. In the healthcare industry, there are many different stakeholders, including patients, physicians, payers, and investors. Each stakeholder will have their own reasons for reading medical content, be it white papers, case studies, or educational materials, and have expectations of its contents.
Getting to know your readers, the challenges they face, and what motivates them allows you to write content that is tailored to their interests and increases your chances of providing a solution that will solve their problems.
And when you keep on producing content that contributes to your audience’s knowledge of a subject, or helps them with the problems that keep them awake at night, you develop strong relationships and trust with those audiences.
And it is trust that turns those audiences into clients.
And clients mean sales.
But, before you even think about creating content, you need to know why the different healthcare stakeholders would read it and what they expect from you. So, in this post, I am going to discuss five key stakeholders and the issues they care about that hopefully will be a source of future topic ideas for your medical content.
Patients
At the very basic level, patients expect to see information about the therapy or device and how to use it. However, they are also concerned about how safe and effective it is, whether they will improve their health and quality of life, and whether there will be services on top of the product that would help manage their condition. So, to win the hearts and minds of patients, your content needs to include:
- Information on the medication’s ingredients, or device’s features, and clear instructions on how to use it
- A detailed explanation of the treatment process, particularly if the treatment is gene therapy and administration and delivery is complicated
- The therapy’s side affects and risks associated with the long-term use of the medication
- How the therapy interacts with other medications
- Information on services that accompany the treatment such as access to nursing support and patient communities, devices that monitor blood glucose levels, apps that help with treatment adherence
- Insurance coverage and financial assistance for the therapy/device, particularly for multi-payer systems such as the US
- Patients-reported outcomes (PROs) and quality of life improvements brought about by the therapy/device in clinical trials and real-world use
- Latest developments in treatments and guidelines
- Advice on lifestyle choices that enhance the effectiveness of the treatment, and help manage the condition
Patients expect this information because they are most concerned about how the treatment impacts their daily routines and whether it allows them to lead fulfilling and active lives, beyond just surviving an illness. Patients also want valuable information and guides that enable them to make informed decisions that allow them to get the best out of their treatment, and improve their overall health.
Medical professionals
Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals don’t just want promotional material that tells them how brilliant a therapy or device is. They expect useful, objective information and educational content that improves their knowledge of the disease and the available treatments. Knowledge that will enable them to work more effectively and do the very best for their patients. With this in mind, content targeted at medical professionals needs to include:
- Scientific data from research papers that explains the technology behind the therapy or device
- Clinical trial results and real-world evidence on a treatment or device’s safety, efficacy, and quality
- Instructions on drug delivery and administration, particularly for complex therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, CAR-T therapies, and gene therapies
- Educational information on disease diagnosis, treatment, and management
- Medical content to pass on to patients so that they are empowered to manage their condition
- Educational materials on the various challenges to patient’s adherence to medication and the measures that can be taken to overcome those challenges
Healthcare payers
Payers include governmental health departments, health technology assessment agencies (HTAs), and private health insurance companies. Payer audiences are in charge of the financial resources used to pay or reimburse for new health interventions. These resources are limited so in any content presented to them, payers expect to see information on the financial implications of granting reimbursement of a new therapeutic intervention, as well as data on its effectiveness. So, content for payer audiences needs to contain:
- Clinical trial data and real-world evidence on a therapy or device’s efficacy, safety, and quality
- Data on improvements in quality of life, PROs, and long-term patient outcomes
- Evidence of the treatment’s ability to deliver the best possible outcomes at the lowest possible cost to the healthcare system (cost-effectiveness)
- Data on the financial consequences of reimbursing a new drug or technology (budget impact)
- Information on how a new medicinal product will impact patient populations and healthcare budgets at the national, regional, and local level
- Detailed reimbursement agreements, including detailed information on how payments for a new therapy, or device are tied to patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness
Investors
Investor audiences consist of entities such as venture capitalists and business angels. These types of audiences are a different kettle of fish in that their main concern is whether they will achieve above-normal financial returns for investing in your company. The content you deliver to investors is likely to come in the form of a pitch deck and needs to include the following to boost your chances of winning funding:
- How much funding your biotech/digital health company is looking for, and what will it be used for
- A clear explanation of the existing healthcare challenge that your new therapy or device can potentially solve
- Information on the limitations of existing solutions, and a clear illustration, supported by evidence of how your new health technology is better
- Detailed explanation of how and why the therapy/device will be successful, and how it will be brought to market
- A thorough analysis of the current market landscape and competitor analysis
- Financial projections and key milestones that will lead to the creation of value for both your company and the investor
- Strong biographies of the management team that showcase their scientific and commercial expertise
Regulatory bodies
Regulatory agencies such as U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are mainly concerned with the granting of approval of new treatments and devices. So, they expect information on the drug or device’s development and its efficacy and safety. To gain regulatory approval, you need to produce content that includes:
- Details of the drug’s discovery and development process, including the drug its target’s molecular structure, protocols and endpoints used in pre-clinical, and phase I to III studies
- Clinical trial results that prove that the new therapy or device’s benefits outweigh the risks
- Evidence that shows that the product’s labelling is appropriate for its intended use
- Information on the manufacturing methods and quality control procedures used, and strong evidence that they are effective enough to maintain the drug’s strength, quality, and purity
- Description of phase IV trials and real-world studies to be carried out that will collect data on the treatment’s long-term efficacy and side effects
Conclusion
As you can see, some needs of different healthcare audiences can overlap but do vary in terms of the information, arguments, and evidence they expect to see in the content you deliver. What’s more, thorough research is required as the needs of individual payers, physicians, etc. can also vary. This is important as having a deep understanding of these needs can enable you to create truly tailored content that resonates with these audiences and captures their attention, generating leads and sales for your health innovation.