The Weber Shandwick Collective has launched a Women’s Health Center of Excellence in North America to help organizations address gaps in research and public understanding of women’s health conditions.
Initially launched in EMEA as a cross-agency offering last year, followed by LATAM and APAC, the center will now be curated for the North America market.
“We felt North America was such a unique market. From a targeting and social perspective, we wanted to ensure that we were looking at this data indicator through the lens of each market,” president of health for Weber Shandwick Americas Jamie Dowd said. “We’re thinking about it in terms of awareness, but also the general support across regulatory bodies, policy issues and social issues, so it’s giving a full spectrum.”
Dowd is leading the new offering along with newly appointed senior advisers, social worker and cofounder of Let’s Talk Menopause Donna Klassen and Dr. Lisa Larkin, physician and founder of Ms.Medicine, a national network of female-focused concierge physicians and health experts.
In their senior adviser roles, Klassen and Larkin will assist TWSC teams in developing client strategies and tactics to address women’s health concerns, as well as spearheading new research and programs in partnership with the agencies.
Dowd and Klassen teased the launch of the offering at PRWeek’s Healthcare Awards+Conference on Tuesday. In the event’s closing keynote, the duo highlighted key issues surrounding a lack of knowledge around menopause and how the center can be utilized to enact change.
“This conversation and [Klassen’s] insightful points can come to something that can actually help us make a change,” Dowd said at the event. “We hope that this conversation inspires everyone to think about just one or two things you can do differently in your communications programs, and it would have a huge impact in the lives of women.”
Klassen pointed out that her purpose is about helping women get the healthcare they need while not being embarrassed to talk about it.
Klassen and Larkin’s passion and experience in menopause advocacy is a good entry point for the center, Dowd said, but the advisers’ own understanding as well as the purpose of the new offering are intended to be much broader.
“It doesn’t have to be our traditional life sciences, biotech pharma clients, but how do we use this with organizations and across all of our health systems to think differently about [women’s health],” she said. “I love that it opens up a different set of client bases for us as well.”
Dowd is looking to bring on additional advisers across varying sectors and specialties such as health equity in the future, she added, noting that the ultimate goal is to uncover the “full spectrum of care for a woman.”
As part of the offer, TWSC has built a data-based Women’s Health Indicator focused on the North America market to help clients uncover gaps in patient communities and address questions about women’s health information. The indicator assesses awareness and support for specific women’s health issues through systematic data analysis, culminating in a maturity assessment that highlights perception gaps and biases.
Data is analyzed against 10 healthcare criteria, including visibility, representation, advocacy, regulatory support, systemic guardrails, HCP awareness, NGO and/or PAG support, national health bodies, social dynamics and awareness. The findings are collected through social listening across social and traditional media and a quantitative analysis of government and regulatory documents.
Data is then benchmarked against broader women’s health issues and evaluated on a three-point scale in each category. The resulting score provides an average of how the issue is represented across dimensions of media, system and society, according to the agency.
Weber Shandwick’s North America head of analytics and intelligence Jodi Phillips and global head of analytics and intelligence Ridhi Malhotra are assisting in bringing the tool to the region.
Client requests for women-specific health data hasn’t been prevalent thus far, but has been woven into client conversations and informal meetings recently, Dowd said. She cited a January report by the McKinsey Health Institute that found that investments addressing the women’s health gap could potentially boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually by 2040, as part of the reason for the rise in interest.
The indicator and overall center can service clients both within and outside of a women’s health specific portfolio, Dowd noted, while also internally providing community among women staff and incentive to potential hires.
TWSC named Laura Schoen chief healthcare officer in January, following other health appointments at the collective, including Pam Jenkins as chief public health officer and Dowd as president of health for the Americas.
TWSC consists of a group of agencies under the Interpublic Group Specialized Communications and Experiential Solutions unit, including sub-brands Cappuccino, Current Global, DNA Communications, KRC Research, Flipside, Powell Tate, Prime, Resolute, That Lot, United Minds and Weber Shandwick.
The Weber Shandwick Collective reported a revenue increase of 6% to $970 million globally and $580 million in the U.S. in 2023, according to PRWeek’s 2024 Agency Business Report.
IPG’s Specialized Communications and Experiential Solutions segment posted 1.5% organic revenue growth in Q1 to $340.2 million. In addition to TWSC, the unit includes Dxtra Health, Golin and R&CPMK.
This article originally appeared on PRWeek US.
