Moving up a level in your healthcare comms

Moving up a level in your healthcare comms

How can you take your health strategy, communications and campaigns to a different level? And what does that different level look like in your world?

For many organisations, it's planning season, as the penultimate month of the year rushes by. And as we all know, making an external or internal impact is tougher than ever in the hyper-evolved digital world. You constantly need new ways to frame messages, to personalise content for different audiences, to make the most of new channels. But you can't afford to generalise. Not all patients are digital natives. Plenty of stakeholders and colleagues are switching off from information overload.

Being clear, relevant and respectful has never been more important. Right now, we think that's at the heart of different level communication in health - whether you're delivering PR and communication content, medical education or patient information.

If you need a fresh perspective to take your healthcare comms to a different level as part of your 2023 thinking, get in touch. We're here for ideas, strategy, planning, delivery and ad hoc projects and we're experts at hitting the ground running. Everyone at The Difference is senior and experienced, so we really can think and act on a different level, as well as flexing specialist skills in and out on cue.

Patient communication has been a big focus for our clients lately - and the demand keeps on growing. In the wake of Health Literacy Month, we've relished heightened interest and wider conversations about what health literacy means for our clients and their audiences. In case you've missed it on social media (do follow us if you'd like to keep up with the discussion on LinkedIn or Twitter) we've curated some highlights for you below - take a look at who, how and what we mean by health literacy on a different level.

Meet our people who deliver it and find out how they do it

Starting my career in clinical research, I quickly realised how confusing and frightening medical and legal jargon can be – especially for a person deciding whether to take an unproven treatment for a potentially serious health condition. Clear, simple language and visuals can help to empower people to make better, safer health decisions. 

Achieve a different level of health literacy: Information overload can happen for many reasons and applies to pictures or images as well as words. If it doesn’t support understanding, leave it out. 

Read more about how Sally approaches a health literacy review for clients

I started my career in the NHS working first in audiology and then in speech and language therapy. I saw first-hand the barriers people faced to getting good health and wellbeing support when they had communication difficulties, disabilities or because of ageing. Working in the charity sector, I became even more aware of health inequalities: since then, I have been a constant advocate for health literacy.

Achieve a different level of health literacy: The most common mistake I see in published health information is in the use of visuals. Infographics don't always simplify things - they can be complicated, especially when they involve numbers.

Read more of Anneliese's best practice health literacy tips and observations

My early communications roles involved helping people understand the downsides of risky behaviour – using drugs, smoking, excessive drinking and unsafe sex. What struck me then was the extent to which well-educated and highly literate individuals responsible for producing health communications could overlook the difficulties inherent in reading, understanding and acting upon their outputs. 

Achieve a different level of health literacy: Making assumptions about people's level of understanding is one of the most common pitfalls when producing health information.

Read more about Jon's experiences and approach to health literacy communication

As a health writer, and also as a carer, I’ve often come across health information that feels a bit like I'm being 'talked at' by someone who isn't really focused on what matters to me. There’s a risk that we think of health information as ‘neutral’ because it has a scientific evidence base. But communicating health information is an art as well as a science. There are multiple ways you can convey any one piece of information.

Achieve a different level of health literacy: Some organisations are scared of involving users, because they don't have the resources for a big involvement programme. But just chatting informally with the people they serve can reveal crucial pinch points.

Read more about Eleanor's quest to understand the 'ultimate why' in health literacy

A very discreet bit of health literacy show and tell

 Enough talking, let's see the results! We love to share work we've done that's on a different level, but it's not always possible to reveal all the details. We're proud of how our expert approach to health literacy made a difference to a project last month and hope you'll forgive us for keeping the client name under wraps at their request.

 Health Literacy consultants Lisa Harper and Sally Snow worked with animator Oana Nechifor and graphic designer Richard Brown on health literacy optimisation for a disease awareness campaign. The aim was to get people to remember a list of signs and symptoms and encourage those at risk to talk to their doctor.

 Lisa says, "Our holistic approach to the health literacy review and revisions took the project to a different level for the client. We went much further than the content, carefully considering the overall look and feel to make sure there was synergy to drive home the key messages across different channels."

 The existing information included icons to illustrate the symptoms. Sally says: "This is generally good practice. But even as someone who has been working in patient information for more than a decade, the feedback from our small focus groups was enlightening. 'That says nothing to me' or 'is that supposed to be a hose pipe?' showed that the original icons were detracting from understanding. As a result, we were able to demonstrate a rationale for change and a qualitative improvement in this key aspect of the content."

Lisa adds, "The content had to be simplified and broken up, which generated more content in the end, not less. Sometimes clients become preoccupied with reducing the number of slides or pages, when actually, separating the content and letting it breathe can make it much easier to understand. We created new, user-tested iconography and a much simpler and more engaging animation, focused on the key messages."

Whether health literacy or something else is at the top of your priority list right now, we can help you boost your thinking or delivery to a different level in healthcare communications campaigns or projects. Please get in touch for a chat about any urgent jobs we could help you complete before the end of the year or if you'd like support with strategies you're forming and resources to deliver them in 2023.