A lot of work goes into the creation of medical communications projects, as they often deal with complex health issues or topics. However, a crucial part of medical communications which should never be overlooked is stakeholder engagement, at all parts of the project - from beginning to end. Stakeholder engagement is both a science and an art - it’s the process of collaborating, informing and building relationships with the individuals or organizations that have a stake in the project. In medical communications, this might be a client, a pharmaceutical company, a project manager, a medical advisory board, or the healthcare workers who will be on the receiving end of the medical communications. If you need to remind yourself why stakeholder engagement is so important - and how best to ensure it's a guiding light in all your work - we’re outlining it for you here!
Stakeholder engagement establishes trust and accuracy
Especially in the healthcare and medical industry, trust is imperative. When delivering a medical communications project to the end user, the audience should feel that the content is accurate, and informed by highly educated and trustworthy people. By engaging with key stakeholders from the start - scientists, healthcare professionals, key opinion leaders and regulatory bodies - your audience will have peace of mind by knowing that the content they’re diving into has been reviewed for accuracy and relevance.
We recommend that you always engage with subject matter experts at the start of any medical communications project to ensure your concept, course, or material is appropriate. Needs assessments are always a good way to start a project - it ensures your project will be highly relevant for your audience.
Stakeholder engagement enables feedback cycles
There’s nothing worse than getting halfway through a project only to receive feedback that something needs to be corrected. By establishing regular feedback cycles with the relevant stakeholders throughout a project, you’ll ensure that a dynamic dialogue is held, and feedback is provided where it’s useful and timely.
We recommend checking in with your stakeholders at least biweekly during the project development phase to ensure that a dialogue is established, focused on constant refinement and improvement of the project. You can also ask for their expectations at certain milestones, and build this into your project plan.
Stakeholder engagement builds collaborative partnerships
Collaboration is key for any project. Build collaborative relationships with relevant stakeholders, and you’ll notice more innovation and progress. This might come in the form of partnering with another organization known for their expertise in the subject or inviting consultants to advise on a part of the project that needs extra support. These types of partnerships not only enhance the quality of a project or strategy, but they will also extend the reach or impact of your medical communication initiative once it's launched and in the world.
When working on long or complex projects, you might find yourself in an echo chamber and unable to predict what the audience may think or feel when they see the finished project. If you’re not able to bring an external partnership into your project, we recommend finding a trusted connection in the industry to share your project with during the development phase to confirm you’re headed in the right direction.
Stakeholder engagement creates diverse perspectives
In a similar vein to building collaborative partnerships, ensuring diverse perspectives are reflected in your project is another benefit of stakeholder engagement. There are many different opinions and avenues of thought in healthcare, and so it’s important that your project takes many of these into account. Engaging stakeholders from different departments, organizations, or healthcare spaces will provide new viewpoints that will enrich your content by making it more inclusive and reflective of varied needs.
We recommend sitting down at the start of your project to review your project’s audience carefully, thinking about what type of healthcare professionals or workers will be included. Identify their different values, needs, opinions, and where or how they work - and address these different perspectives within your project as you begin strategizing your project.
Stakeholder engagement isn’t easy - it can be time consuming and oftentimes challenging to complete - but it’s imperative to have a highly successful final product. If you’re looking for examples of how stakeholder engagement can be successful in medical communications, we recommend reviewing these medcomms case studies which demonstrate how it creates credibility, inclusivity and accuracy.
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