Healthcare Communications Association (HCA)

The London Conference session addressed the determinants of health and we heard from a variety of different perspectives across the industry on this topic and how it has impacted them in their roles. See below the thoughts of Tammy Boyce, Senior Consultant at the Institute of Health Equity, Professor Michael Marmot's team at University College London, Stephen Walcott, Senior Researcher at the Runnymede Trust and Anita Ralli, Director of Government Affairs at Gilead Sciences. To see what the other faculty members at the London Conference thought of the session, click here: https://bit.ly/4bNAUxo Thank you to our London Conference sponsors: Ketchum UK, Aurora: a Spectrum Science company, Scientific Group and Virgo Health.

As part of the Healthcare Communication Association’s partnership with this year’s PharmaTimes Ltd Communications Awards, we can now confirm that the competition has been HCA CPD Accredited*, with all delegates able to receive 2.5 hours of accredited CPD from their participation. Mike Dixon, HCA CEO explains: “Our accreditation of the PharmaTimes Communications Awards further emphasises the continuing professional development benefits of participation in this unique competition. The format provides a safe learning environment for individuals and teams to challenge themselves in developing communications programmes under timed conditions. Participation provides a fantastic development opportunity wherever you place in the awards themselves.” The awards categories span across communications disciplines so whatever your role, in agency, pharma or charity, there will be a category for you. Medical affairs, brand and digital communications; for teams and individuals. Check out which category you could enter at: https://lnkd.in/e3TVBMeJ *HCA CPD Accreditation recognises and endorses quality Continued Professional Development opportunities within our sector, awarding them HCA CPD Accredited status

Inspiring, insightful, interesting and relevant were some of the words delegates used to describe the HCA Conference in Manchester last month! The event was a great success and embraced the central theme of innovation, focusing on the integration of technology and robust evaluation to drive advancements in healthcare communications. Hear from one of our esteemed speakers, Prof. Iain Buchan, W.H. Duncan Professor of Public Health Systems, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation, University of Liverpool on their thoughts regarding the event. To hear from the other fantastic speakers and panellists from the Manchester session on their thoughts and takeaways from the conference, click here: https://bit.ly/4bNAUxo Thank you to our Manchester Conference sponsors: IPG Health Medical Communications and AXON Communications

The Healthcare Communications Association is delighted to announce a new partnership with PharmaTimes Ltd for this year’s Communications Awards. The 2024 PharmaTimes Communications Awards provides a totally unique competition format which also offers entrants a highly valuable learning experience. Individuals and teams are challenged to develop a time-limited response to a fictional, but very realistic, communications brief; presenting to a panel of leading healthcare communicators. The Communication Awards provides a safe learning environment to challenge yourself, or your team, with everybody winning from the experience, even before the competition results. This type of opportunity very much aligns with the HCA’s commitment to support continued professional development within our sector, making the partnership a fantastic addition to our work. Have a look at this year’s extensive awards categories across medical affairs, brand and digital communications; for teams and individuals. Get your entries in now. https://lnkd.in/e3TVBMeJ

Following the success of the recent HCA Conference in London, insightful, informative and thought-provoking were some of the words delegates used to describe the event. The session addressed the determinants of health and we heard from a variety of different perspectives across the industry on this topic and how it has impacted them in their roles. We had fantastic feedback on the conference, in particular attendees mentioned how the session addressed issues that are typically difficult to speak about and gave people a unique perspective on topics that they had not considered prior to the session. We’d like to thank everyone who attended and participated to help make the event such a great success! To find out more about the HCA and our upcoming events please visit: the-hca.org – and if you are an employee of an existing member company but have yet to sign up for the HCA, click here: https://bit.ly/3P7J1ZS Thank you to our London Conference sponsors: Ketchum UK , Aurora: a Spectrum Science company, Scientific Group and Virgo Health.

Last night we ran our second HCA Future Leaders Speed Mentoring event in London where our line-up of senior leaders from agency-side, client-side and the public sector, met with our Future Leaders to share their experiences and answer their questions. Thank you to Sam Griffiths and Sophie Crane for organising such a well run and successful event and thank you to all our senior leaders who gave up their evening to impart their wisdom on the next generation of talent in our industry. Finally, a big thank you to Virgo Health for hosting us so generously in their wonderful London office.

Do you want to build a picture of what working in the Healthcare Communications sector could be like for you? Our ‘Career Stories’ featuring people working in the sector can help you do this! From how they started their career, to what a typical day at work looks like, their career highlights and what they love about their job. These insights will demonstrate how joining the sector can offer you a fulfilling, purpose-driven career with diverse job roles and numerous opportunities for career development. Thank you to Grant Alison for sharing his journey in Healthcare Communications! Grant started his career after studying infectious diseases at university as an assistant account executive at an agency. He now works in the pharma comms team at Virgo Health as an Account Director where his role focuses on various activities, including media relations and press office, social media strategy, corporate events and content development. Grant’s advice for anyone starting their career is to ‘be a sponge for information and ask lots of questions’’ You can read Grant’s career story here: https://lnkd.in/gyjfRn6A #HealthcareCommunications #MedicalWriting #PharmaCareers #MedComms #NewJob #GraduateJobs #CareersInScience #CareersinHealth #LifeSciences #ClinicalStudies #AccountManagement #PharmaComms #JobsInMarketing #MediaRelations #SocialMediaJobs #CareerStories

Join us and 90TEN for the 'Trends in Patient Advocacy' free virtual webinar series. Register to attend the first webinar: Who Cares? How can we better support caregivers to improve patient outcomes? 📅Monday 8 July 🕘12:30-13:30 BST 🖥️ Virtual Session Register here: https://bit.ly/3zmiSUh We have three expert speakers sharing their personal and professional experiences on ways that pharma can work with caregivers to improve patient outcomes.

Today the Healthcare Communications Association launch on social media our campaign asking all healthcare communicators to always Start SMART when planning their communications activities. Creating SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) program objectives enables us to demonstrate the impact and value of our work. If we Start SMART, we can always ensure we are embedding effective measurement and evaluation into our communications work. Many healthcare communicators will be interested in, or will be attending, the Communiqué Awards this evening, where best practice is recognised and championed. Effective measurement and evaluation rightly represents a significant proportion of the judging criteria and will have been integral to the shortlisted and winning entries. Talking with communicators across disciplines, within Pharma and agencies, the majority recognise the importance of effective measurement and evaluation. However, despite this, all too often effective measurement and evaluation is either taken out due to cost or time considerations, or only considered at the end of a project. The Start SMART campaign aims to encourage all communicators to focus from the outset on what, how, and when we are going to measure and evaluate - embedding these principles from the very start, makes them an integral part of the activity. This enables us as professionals, and as a sector, to continually learn and adapt, to ensure we consistently deliver our best work. Start SMART needs to become the healthcare communicator's mantra. As organisations, teams, and individuals, please take a pledge today to always Start SMART. #StartSMART #TogetherForBetter #cxhealth

We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in making the HCA Conference session in London last week a tremendous success! The key takeaway was clear: health equity is a true measure of societal progress. The unsettling data on the social determinants of health underscored the significant work that lies ahead. The session attracted over 140 attendees, both in-person and virtually, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our sponsors: Ketchum UK , Aurora: a Spectrum Science company, Scientific Group and Virgo Health. A special thank you goes to our exceptional speakers: Dr Tammy Boyce, Stephen Walcott, Darcy Bowman and Elizabeth Hampson, for their brilliant insights and stimulating panel discussions. A big thank you also goes to panellist members Anita Ralli, Nina V. and Sarah Gordon. We also greatly appreciate the contributions of our sponsor presenter Natasha Weeks, and Molly Stephenson, for her excellent insightful presentations and contribution to the panel discussion. #HCAConference2024 #AcceleratingExcellence