Communication—the missing “last mile”

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

“I am an independent consultant with a background in healthcare and patient advocacy, specialising in patient engagement and partnerships.”

What is front of mind in your business currently?

Right now, there’s more work than ever, but budgets are tighter and the number of service providers has grown. That combination puts pressure on both clients and suppliers, and it means everyone has to do more with less. At the same time, the perennial challenge remains: ensuring patient engagement roles have a real seat at the table inside companies, not just a supportive function on the side.

What are the greatest challenges you face in your role? What are your pain points and barriers to overcome?

Working independently comes with real uncertainty. It can be hard to say no to work, even when you suspect it might block something more strategic or interesting later. There’s also a constant balancing act between diversifying clients to reduce business risk and going deeper with one organisation. The better you know a client, the more effective you can be. The downside is exposure if priorities change or key sponsors move on. Additionally, it matters to demonstrate the value of your work while still ensuring the person who commissioned it is visible and credited for making it happen. Finally, connection to the patient community through volunteering is essential for credibility and perspective, but it’s also time-intensive and not always easy to sustain.

What are the greatest opportunities yet to be realised or on the horizon for your business and the industry?

For my business, a major question is whether to stay solo or expand into a small team. Both options have clear trade-offs.

For the sector, the big opportunity is to strengthen how we communicate the value of patient engagement, including its commercial value, while continuing to support strong, funded, empowered (and sometimes renewed) patient organisations. This also means supporting the development of the next generation of patient advocates.  If we start taking that ecosystem for granted, the whole field risks losing momentum.

If you could create overnight change, what would it be?

Compliance processes are necessary and understandable, but they make it cumbersome to include patient perspectives. Many patient advocates don’t fully realise how many internal steps a patient engagement professional has to go through to have even a straightforward discussion. Those safeguards protect patients, reflect the law and reflect the reality of working within publicly traded companies,  but they also create walls between communities living with a condition and the people trying to develop better treatments. If I could change something overnight related to my work, it would be to simplify those pathways without compromising protections.

What role does communication play in delivering real impact?

Communication is often the missing “last mile”.

Companies produce genuinely useful materials and insights, but too often they stay behind corporate firewalls. Investing in speaking, publishing and sharing externally is as important as developing the work itself. 

If it doesn’t reach people, it can’t create impact.

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