Omnicom Public Relations Group agencies have published research that they say shows a belief among healthcare providers that pharmaceutical companies can help to solve health inequalities. 

The study was conducted by Hall & Partners, an Omnicom research group, and found that 81% of providers want pharmaceutical companies to work more with health systems to solve avoidable health inequalities, according to research shared by Porter Novelli, an Omnicom public relations agency that partnered on the project.

Researchers surveyed 176 U.S. providers and decision makers from public and private insurers, according to Porter Novelli, whose clients include pharmaceutical companies Bayer, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. 

“We felt that we needed to play our part in terms of doing research [to come to] our clients with solutions,” said Paul George, Omnicom global health lead. “[We] can’t just be reliant on our clients to have that research,” but instead apply the agency’s “deep analytics and data expertise.” 

The group will present the Health Equity and Purpose data at a panel on September 28 at the European Health Forum Gastein, a health policy conference in Austria. 

The conference features healthcare decision makers and representatives from leading patient groups, among others, and is “a real representation of these communities that we need to ultimately serve,” said Lisa O’Sullivan, growth lead of global health at Porter Novelli. “They are all going to be there, and so what a fabulous opportunity for us to serve up this data.”

Omnicom also plans to host a virtual panel on the data on November 1 in the U.S.

The research also found that more than half of healthcare providers would consider a company’s purpose when making treatment decisions; and 20% said they believed it would strongly impact their product selection; More than three quarters of providers agree that pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to overcome barriers to access among their patient populations and more than half of the leaders from public and private insurers believe that it is the responsibility of pharmaceutical companies to tackle health equity.

“[Health organizations] have to get much better with precision communications and much better in terms of embracing and building trust,” George said. “At the end of the day, we are only going to solve and connect and form strong relationships with communities if they trust us, and the only way they can trust us if we can make sure that they know that we are committed to them.”

This story originally appeared on PRWeek US.