Agencies are now expected to be as educated about compliance as their clients are, a change that prompted the Coalition of Healthcare Communications and the Center for Communication Compliance to offer a new educational offering for healthcare marketers.
The compliance “university” aims to help healthcare agencies and publishers stay up to date on the latest regulatory changes. In the past, clients tended to rely on agencies for their creative expertise and pharmaceutical companies handled the compliance aspects of marketing.
This is changing. “Those days are pretty much over,” said John Kamp, executive director of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, which advocates for healthcare advertisers. “Clients expect agencies to be as sophisticated about compliance issues as they are.”
The CCC Regulatory Compliance University will contain 24 eLearning modules. The content ranges from regulations pertaining to the advertising and promotion of prescription drugs to the impact of noncompliance—including examples of violations—as well as the dos and don’ts of common marketing tactics.
The organizations say that the back-and-forth between agencies and clients over compliance issues has a secondary cost. Companies can not only lose revenue due to government ramifications, like a settlement or a corporate integrity agreement, but they can also lose money owing to inefficient exchanges with their agencies.
The coursework is designed for all levels of competence, spanning entry-level employees as well as those with significant experience in healthcare communication. The price is about $125 per 30-minute module.
