Clinical Engagement is more than a Marketing Pitch

Many suppliers in the world of healthcare IT have woken up to the importance of clinical engagement but they're not all getting it right...yet.

Credibility and authenticity have always been key parts of any marketing message. The power of social networks to spread a message can be more powerful than the most expensive advertising campaign. 

In complex markets, it's critical to be able to prove you understand the needs of your customers and that you've delivered for them. That's one of the main reasons it's great having customer case studies.

"Credibility and authenticity have always been key parts of any marketing message."

Another way is to have an end-user to advocate on your behalf as a part of your organisation...perhaps...a doctor or nurse? However, the way some health IT vendors have approached this hasn't always been the best. Remember, your clinical expert:

1. Is a clinician (!)

2. Is not just a marketing tool

3. Has lots of valuable frontline experience 

4. Can put your solutions in context

5. Is a strategic asset

Engaging a clinician and merely using them to do a product pitch or to give a presentation at a conference is a severe underutilisation of skill and expertise. I've been advising enterprise IT vendors over the past five years and the most successful ones not only want to appoint a clinical leader, they invest in building entire clinical divisions.

"...the most successful...invest in building entire clinical divisions."

These companies are a joy to work with and they engage myself and my team as strategic advisors throughout sales, marketing and product development processes but also leverage our skills when developing business cases and delivering projects to make sure clinical end-users and their organisations achieve outstanding, tangible results.

It can be a great first step to engage an experienced clinician to represent a supplier in the market and especially through thought leadership and commentary. However, the true value, the quantum leap in commercial success, comes from embedding a team of dynamic clinical leaders within an organisation to drive strategy, innovation and engagement in all parts of a company's processes. Then you will be truly clinically engaged.

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Dr Saif Abed (@Saif_Abed) is the Founding Partner at AbedGraham Healthcare Strategies Ltd.. By background, he is a UK trained medical doctor and corporate strategist specialising in healthcare IT.  He currently advises large, global healthcare IT software and infrastructure vendors, healthcare providers and academic institutions about a range of topics including clinical workflow, healthcare policy, cybersecurity and IT system benefits realisation.