SCIRIS brings together five outstanding agencies with a team of over 300 individuals who are driven to deliver excellence in communications and consulting. Our first SCIRIS guest blog is on the power of storytelling in medical communications and is provided courtesy of Jamie Harrison of Porterhouse Medical.
Porterhouse Medical is a global, strategic, scientific communications group providing powerful, insights-driven, healthcare communication services to the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.
Humans have told stories for millennia. Storytelling is an ancient but essential art form allowing us to harness the power of words, actions and imagery to convey information and evoke a meaningful reaction.
Why do we use storytelling in medical communications?
Whether directed towards healthcare professionals, medical affairs professionals, patients and caregivers, or the general public, storytelling can make scientific content more engaging and helps the audience to understand and appreciate its impact.
Applications for storytelling in medical communications
At Porterhouse Medical, we specialise in developing stories that breathe life into complex medical concepts, making them more relatable and memorable than pure facts and data alone. Our teams of Medical Writers, alongside our Creatives and Medical Advisors, carefully craft a storyline to convey the meaning, relevance and impact of complex scientific evidence in a format tailored to capture the audience’s attention.
How do we use storytelling?
Here are just some of the ways that we use storytelling to deliver impactful medical communications at Porterhouse Medical:
- Communicating the impact of disease
Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Although we can learn about diseases in textbooks, journal publications and other materials, the experience is real for patients living with these often life-changing conditions. We use storytelling to shed light on all aspects of a disease, including its symptoms, prognosis, diagnosis and treatment options, to help our audience fully understand and empathise with the patient journey. Furthermore, knowing how a disease affects patients, their families and caregivers, and healthcare providers enables us to better contextualise the scientific evidence delivered by clinical trials.
We also recognise that the experience of living with disease varies from person to person, much as the experience of caring for these patients can vary from physician to physician. Therefore, we often use a range of real patient cases to underpin many of our communications activities, including satellite symposia, advisory boards and educational programmes across a multitude of therapy areas.
- Highlighting unmet clinical and educational needs
Storytelling can not only illustrate the gaps between current treatment options but also pinpoint areas requiring better education or further research. Through crafting narratives guided by patients and physicians, we are able to highlight key unmet needs, with a view to positively influencing how these might be addressed. For example, our aim may be to improve understanding of drug mechanism of action among healthcare professionals, optimisation of treatment paradigms in clinical practice, or communication between multidisciplinary teams to improve the patient care pathway. These issues can be explored through development and provision of punchy communications tools, such as snapshot infographics, posters and presentations. Published expert consensus articles are another powerful tool for raising awareness of clinical unmet needs and areas for further education and research.
- Enriching the presentation of clinical trial data and real-world evidence
Let’s face it… although vitally important to medical communications, data can be dry and complex. Visuals are an essential part of storytelling and can be used to make data easier to digest while positioning the relevance of the data alongside a core narrative. A clear, well-illustrated story can help to contextualise pivotal trial data and translate these to real-world scenarios. This is particularly relevant for new treatments, where the aim is first to communicate the need for these options and then to explore the data to support them, all in the most impactful and engaging way possible. For example, we are able to showcase a ‘story in action’ at standalone meetings by illustrating underlying disease pathways and the evolution of the treatment landscape using vivid animations to set the scene for new trial data, while facilitating peer-to-peer sharing of real-world experience to help validate and strengthen the overall story.
- Building emotional connections with key stakeholders in patient care
Through blending real human stories with data, medical communication has become patient-centred while remaining grounded in robust evidence. Storytelling plays an important role in building emotional connections with those involved directly or indirectly in patient care, including healthcare professionals, payors and policymakers, and even the patients themselves.
By presenting stories that demonstrate clear clinical and emotional value, in formats such as patient video interviews, expert talking heads, or even podcasts, audiences are more likely to recognise the real-life, holistic benefits of a drug. Similarly, stories from patients who are waiting for a new treatment supported by a strong narrative and impactful data on the burden of disease and lack of alternative treatments can emphasise the urgency of making the drug accessible.
Acknowledging challenges and paving the way for potential solutions can persuade key decision-makers to make changes that will have a positive impact on the patient journey.
What is our framework for successful storytelling?
Whether aiming to communicate the impact of disease, highlight unmet needs, enrich the presentation of data, or build emotional connections with your intended audience, the core principles of successful storytelling are the same. Knowing your audience, what their educational needs are, and how they best consume information is fundamental to creating a compelling narrative while balancing meaningful scientific evidence with emotional engagement in a suitable style and format that truly resonates.
A framework for successful storytelling in medical communications.
If you would like to learn more about how we create compelling stories that turn abstract clinical data into persuasive, patient-centred narratives to educate and inspire, please contact Jamie Harrison at Porterhouse Medical ([email protected]).
