Healthcare is one of public relations biggest growth areas, generating over 15% of member firm’s revenues according to the recent Council data. Healthcare public relations covers a number of sectors, including biotech, pharmaceuticals, animal health, vaccines, medical technology, and health care providers.
The quick pace of scientific and medical advances, the presence of global markets with diverging needs, and rapidly changing demographics all make healthcare public relations a dynamic field. To keep pace, and to provide their clients with the best counsel possible, PR firms are building their talent ranks with professionals with MDs, nurses and hospital executives.
Public relations professionals help promote products that improve quality of life the world over, and they also help clients navigate some of the world’s most intractable dilemmas, from AIDS in Africa to cost management in developed countries.
Healthcare clients typically hire agencies to help them do things they cannot do themselves. As one industry executive reports, “While our clients need arms and legs, what they value most is our honest counsel, our ability to help them see things differently, to bring our experience to their challenges, and to connect with the right people, at the right moment, in the right way.” Today, public relations firms offering a healthcare focus help clients navigate the needs of a rapidly changing healthcare payer landscape and the needs of patients in an era of shrinking budgets, growing demand, and changing laws.