Panelists
– Natasher Beecher, global creative lead/ACD, TANK Worldwide
– Daniella Harkins, SVP, go-to-market, LiveRamp
– Hannah Lucas, director of product management – advertising, PurpleLab
– Kathleen Nanda, chief creative officer, FCB Health NY
– Larry Dobrow, editor-in-chief, MM+M (moderator)
Far too often in the past, health equity was framed as a moral imperative — if acknowledged at all. The pandemic changed that, helping to contextualize the issue and demonstrate its inextricable link to good business.
Participants in this panel, sponsored by Purple Lab, describe the pandemic as a “powerful collective experience” that served as a catalyst for a critical pivot in healthcare comms. One example: Care providers from different disciplines uniting to create innovative initiatives to reach a wider variety of audiences.
“Healthcare providers are [seeking] new ways to use data and find new partners to create better experiences,” reports LiveRamp’s Daniella Harkins.
Meanwhile, TANK Worldwide’s Natasher Beecher cites Memorial Sloan Kettering as “a shining beacon for how different industries can collaborate together.” Its “Working with Cancer” campaign, which won the Lions Health Award, created a cross-industry coalition to end the stigma of cancer in the workplace.
Increasing partnerships with retailers are helping health providers gain access to consumer data, which, in turn, nets insights into customer behavior and identifies barriers to care. This helps marketers focus beyond prescriptions to understand how race and income might affect prescription abandonment, notes PurpleLab’s Hannah Lucas.
“We’re finding ways to responsibly connect different data points to provide more insights into consumers,” explains Harkins.
Strategic partnerships can also help provide direct access to specific audiences.
“We’ve seen hospitals put [satellite] offices in communities,” observes FCB Health’s Kathleen Nanda. “Getting more people into the system, treating them and instilling confidence goes a long way to create better outcomes.”
Still work to be done
Despite the strides made, more progress is needed, particularly when it comes to the clinical trial process, where inclusivity remains a guideline, not a requirement.
Lucas notes that even approaching the 30-year anniversary of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requirement for the inclusion of women in clinical trials, recent studies have shown that sex is still not a data variable in some current trials. Nanda reports that only 3% of clinical trials include African Americans.
“Clinical-trial inclusivity goals have changed. [More companies] are holding [themselves] accountable for a success metric,” she adds. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
Panelists are concerned, though, that the industry may revert to a “business as usual” mentality.
“Amplification without action is meaningless,” says Nanda. “These are big systemic problems that require commitment and action.”
“It’s on us to continue the fight,” adds Harkin, who hopes to see greater data democratization across healthcare providers and better use of AI to “create relationships with people based on where they are and what they care about.”
Lucas would like to see social determinants of health variables of patient populations taken into account at the outset of media planning and buying initiatives.
Panelists mentioned “vulnerability,” which could become a defining characteristic of authentic communications in the future, myriad times.
“There’s so much power in vulnerability,” suggests Harkins. “People want to relate with someone. We’re all struggling with the same things.”
“It’s what keeps us human,” concludes Beecher.
Click here to watch the panel in its entirety.
