Now more than ever
A summary review of HCA activity in 2024
We are getting close to the end of another year, which is always a point for reflection on all the Healthcare Communications Association has achieved in 2024. There is no doubt our work this year has been against a background of our members having a more challenging year. Continued economic and political uncertainty across the globe has continued to have implications for pharmaceutical R&D, marketing and communications. Our collective work uniting, championing, and supporting those who work in healthcare communications, and the sector itself, is therefore more important now than ever. Correspondingly, we give extra thanks to all our members who have participated, supported, sponsored and led our work alongside their already busy roles in this environment.
The HCA’s key areas of focus remain as important, some perhaps more so, in difficult times as they are normally. Supporting best practice; helping identify and prepare for the future opportunities and challenges we face as a sector; supporting the continued professional development of our most important resource, our people; and providing the forums for shared thinking, learning, networking and discussion, to benefit us all.
AI
We ended the previous year by publishing our peer-reviewed roadmap for one of the biggest innovations in communications. AI will continue to impact our work going forward in ways we are only just starting to understand. In early 2024, we quickly followed up that roadmap with a more practical guide to Developing an Organization’s AI Policy. This was then followed by AI in Action, the sharing of real-world success stories on the use of AI to help inspire how we can appropriately capitalise on this new technology. AI discussion has also, quite understandably, been incorporated into many other initiatives over the year, just as it has into our working and personal lives. Recognising the learning curve communicators face, we quickly added an AI for Healthcare Marketing CPD course to our portfolio.
As we move into 2025, we continue our AI activity with workshops, forums and reports looking at areas such as skills development and further role requirements, as well as continuing to share experience from across and outside the sector. One thing is for sure, AI is here, and we need to embrace it. If we are not engaging with generative AI, we will be left behind as others around us capitalise on the benefits it can offer.
HCA Annual Conference
June saw another highly successful annual conference, held over two separate sessions in Manchester (Health Technology and Communications) and London (Determinants of Health and Considerations for Communications). These were attended by more than 200 delegates and faculty, from around 50 different organisations representing industry, agency and charity. Post-meeting evaluation showed delegates found the sessions informative, insightful, engaging, thought-provoking, relevant and inspiring.
Continued Professional Development
Our work championing and supporting CPD within the sector continues. Again in 2024, our conference and free to members events and activities alone provided more than enough learning hours to complete the annual 32 hours CPD standard recommended for healthcare communications professionals. Additionally, there are the accredited CPD courses we provide on topics such as entry level Molecule to Marketing and Science & Data through our on demand course Education in Ethics, Compliance and the ABPI Code of Practice, to more senior courses such as Influencing & Negotiation Skills.
In 2024 we formally launched HCA CPD Accreditation of external activities, providing an endorsement of quality and suitability for those accredited. The accreditation has already been awarded to single events and full corporate learning and development initiatives. The HCA also accredited the PharmaTimes Communications Awards this year, recognising their role in providing a unique and highly valuable personal development experience.
We are delighted to have seen the continued increase in communications practitioners using the HCA’s free CPD record platform, with many achieving their first annual HCA CPD Certification – congratulations to all these individuals who can now publicly demonstrate their commitment to continued development with the use of the certification logo.
Recognising the increasing role of learning and development within member organisations, we have also initiated a new series of Learning & Development Forums, bringing together those within companies responsible for leading in these areas. These forums provide an environment for open conversation and ideas sharing, with a focus on working together to identify and address new opportunities and challenges. They also help guide the HCA on the strategies and activities to develop that will most benefit our members and their work.
Agency Leaders Forum and Pharma Forward
Throughout 2024 we have continued to hold our Agency Leaders Forums, which provide a unique and valuable opportunity for members to share and discuss topics important to their business, with others from across the sector. In 2025 we have also enhanced our mirror activity for communication leaders working within Pharma, creating the Pharma Forward initiative. This sees forums held across the year on specific, relevant topics. The most recent discussing Partnership vs. Competition: Navigating the Changing Dynamics in Pharma.
Innovation Uncovered
Our journal shining a light on innovation and creativity in healthcare comms, is now on its 5th issue. Readership continues to increase, and we welcome editorial contributions from any members who have something to add to this discussion.
Start SMART
Incorporating published insights from senior leaders from agency and industry, the Evaluation Value Proposition was launched in January as the second output from the HCA’s working group looking at the important topic of measurement and evaluation. Encouraging all healthcare communicators to then build measurement and evaluation into their planning from the very start, the Start SMART campaign was subsequently launched at this year’s HCA Annual Conference. This important work continues, and available from the start of 2025 is a follow-on, Start SMART, free, on demand CPD course sharing best practice. The HCA will be encouraging all practitioners to take the short 30-minute course to help embed best practice measurement and evaluation across the sector.
Preparing for the future
With a focus on looking to the future, this year the Briefing Room video podcasts have continued to provide invaluable insights to members from the discussions with prominent senior business leaders at the forefront of change across a wide variety of roles in the pharmaceutical sector.
Launched to coincide with COP29, our Going Green report was the output from more than 6 months of research. Providing insights on the move towards Environmental Sustainability, from BioPharma Communications and Agency leaders, the report makes 3 key conclusions and recommendations. The HCA will now work in partnership with the relevant stakeholders to consider these further as part of our 2025 sustainability activity.
Developing our younger talent…
Our Future Leaders and Rising Stars programmes, the latter directed and coordinated by the former, are now well established. Again in 2024, they have delivered Rising Star events in Manchester and London where those in their early career stages have had the opportunity to participate in mock pitch scenarios. Feedback from these events consistently shows that these safe learning environments help attendees build their confidence whilst also providing the opportunity to network with and learn from their peers. Our Future Leaders group launched their own LinkedIn group this year (HCA - Future Leaders) to help maintain communication between events and to share ideas, insights and content of interest and relevance. Another speed mentoring event saw new and established members of the Future Leaders group having the opportunity for open chats with a group of senior mentors from across the sector. As in previous years, this capacity event gains amazing feedback from participants and mentors alike.
… And promoting our sector to new talent
The HCA has maintained our Healthcomms Careers partnership with the PM Society in raising awareness of healthcare communications as a career path to those outside of the sector. This work has delivered a series of impactful LinkedIn campaigns this year, as well as attendance at careers fairs across the country. As we go into 2025, this partnership is holding a dedicated careers fair in London with over 15O attendees interested in our sector expected to participate. The HealthComms.Careers website has also directed over 2000 individuals interested in healthcare communications as a career to our members’ career websites.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)
We aim to embed DE&I into all our work, from trying to ensure our activity is accessible to all, to the targeting of the most diverse student universities in our graduate careers’ activity. We also aim to support our members with their own DE&I activity and understanding through specific initiatives and best practice guidance. For Global Diversity Awareness and Black History month, we partnered with member organisation Mearns & Pike on a Diversity in Communications campaign. Each week in October we published a short video exploring 4 poignant topics: Anti-racism, Racial Literacy, Diversity, Representation. Accompanying these self-guided videos were fact sheets and guides so teams or organisations could discuss and explore these topics further.
With event management being a significant part of many communicators’ roles, we partnered with another member, Oxford PharmaGenesis, to produce and launch a new best practice guide: A Guide to Inclusivity and Accessibility for Live Events in Medical Communications. This practical guide aims to help those organising events ensure that all attendees feel like they are welcome and have been thought of in the lead up to an event.
We started the year with the launch of a new set of resources, Thinking Different, developed in partnership with Fox&Cat and the ADHD Foundation, welcoming and celebrating Neurodiversity for those working in healthcare communications. The campaign aimed to help create healthier communications around neurodiversity so that the needs of neurodivergent people are understood and addressed by their employer and colleagues.
Business Partnerships & Benchmarking
Within the membership of the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA), there’s an acknowledgement that the health communications business partnerships and their related processes, are suboptimal.
Historically, our HCA Pitching Code of Conduct, alongside other market-place initiatives, have been steps towards positive change. In 2024, recognising there is still much to be achieved, the HCA has started looking to create an approach that is healthcare-specific, practical, actionable and developed in collaboration with the ‘Partnership Triangle’ i.e. the triangle of stakeholders involved in the business partnership (In-house business partner, Procurement, Agencies). This work is ongoing but the first output, the summary of a roundtable interaction, has been published and highlights the challenges and opportunities identified: Optimising Business Partnerships for Success and Sustainability. Already in progress, the Business Partnerships initiative is now tasking stakeholder groups with co-creating solutions to address these challenges and support the opportunities. Members will be able to hear more about those outcomes in 2025.
We know from the conversations, as part of this initiative, that the unique data and insights only obtained by agencies from the HCA’s Annual Benchmarking Report, are increasingly important and valuable for these business partnership interactions. As one of the foundational activities of the HCA, annual benchmarking survey participation is only available to member organisations, and only those who participate gain access to this unique data.
Together For Better
We hope the above review provides a helpful reminder of just some of what the HCA has delivered in 2024. Of course, this all only happens due to the kind support of our members; through their membership, sponsorship and partnership; as well as our individual members’ involvement and commitment participating in committees, working groups and forums.
The HCA is the sectors, and therefore your Professional Association - uniting and championing all those in healthcare communications. Everybody’s time is valuable, and we recognise resources are scarce, so the HCA is not a talking shop. We are laser focused on the way we utilise the resources we have available, the time of our volunteers, and the support from partnerships or sponsorships. Our activity is about action and making a difference for our sector and for those who work in healthcare communications; as we hope this reminder of what we have achieved in 2024, demonstrates.
We therefore thank you again for your continued membership and support. We similarly welcome your ideas and/or your involvement in any of our activities representing, supporting and growing our sector. Please do get in touch.
Now more than ever. Together For Better.