Since 2009, ImageThink has been a pivotal partner in the life sciences, serving leading pharmaceutical companies, healthcare marketing agencies, patient advisory groups, and executive healthcare leaders. Yet, there is speculation from those who are unfamiliar with our work over how art can intersect with a field that is predominantly patient and data driven. This blog highlights the applications of visualization across four areas – medical communications, commercial, research and development, and enterprise – to reveal the synergies that emerge when our worlds collide.
At a glance, graphic recording and the life sciences seemingly operate on two separate planes. One end is fueled by creativity and visualization – the other is driven by data, science, and above all, the patient. It’s understandable for someone who operates in pharmaceutical, healthcare, or related fields to think that what we do at ImageThink doesn’t apply to them or their work. Yet, the two fields intersect in miraculous, and transformational ways.
This blog explores how integrating art into the life sciences can transform patient care, commercial strategies, research initiatives, and organizational leadership. Read on to learn real-world applications of ImageThink’s work in the space, and to uncover how you can incorporate graphic recording, graphic facilitation, and strategic visualization into your work.
Medical Communications
From scientific publications, to regulatory documents, to patient and health care professional education materials, medical communications disseminate health information. These resources translate complex medical knowledge into everyday clinical practice. As such, clarity, accessibility, and empathy are critical components, ensuring that all stakeholders can effectively understand and make informed decisions about the information provided.
ImageThink integrates visuals in medical communications to highlight patient experiences empathetically and distill complex medical information into engaging and approachable assets. Patient education materials and patient advocacy efforts benefit greatly from visual storytelling. Through it, ImageThink helps organizations reach, inform, and empower patients.
Patient Education Materials
In patient education materials, clear and empathetic communication is necessity. Strategic visualization and patient journey mapping promises and delivers both by accurately and sensitively relaying patient narratives, complicated procedures and processes, and pertinent medical knowledge in readily understood visual forms. Visuals not only increase patient comprehension and engagement, but they also create a shared understanding between patients, HCPs, and caregivers. By leveraging visuals, our clients empower patients by making them active participants in the care they receive, thereby improving the quality of care delivered.
Patient Advocacy
Incorporating graphic recording into patient congresses, conferences, targeted educational campaigns, and other patient advocacy programs invites patient interaction and deeper understanding with critical health information. While visualizing treatment options or processes serves to educate patients, it also provides a sense of agency over their healthcare journey. As a result, patients feel more connected and responsive to the information being shared.
Commercial
The commercial division drives adoption of innovations and ensures that medical breakthroughs effectively reach the market. After navigating regulatory environments and competitive landscapes, commercial teams develop and implement strategies that align internal goals with market needs, engage healthcare professionals, and ultimately ensure that treatments and technologies improve patient outcomes.
ImageThink deploys graphic recording and strategic visualization in our work with commercial teams to align teams and enhance commercial strategies. Whether in branding workshops or sales meetings, or in the development of marketing collateral, leveraging visuals sparks collaboration, shapes a clarified understanding of the market, and creates engaging content that resonates strongly with patients, HCPs, and other stakeholders.
Branding Workshops and Sales Meetings
Graphic facilitation transforms branding workshops and sales meetings by enabling attendees to think and work visually. The use of visuals in these spaces ignites creativity, and leads successful collaborative efforts. These specific sessions are enhanced by tactical creative exercises that help groups make sense of market research, explore new markets, and develop marketing strategy. The best part? Graphic recording captures the ideas and discussions, and crystallizes them into actionable takeaways. As a result of incorporating visuals, teams leave with a better commercial strategy, and with buy-in from the whole to achieve it.
Material Design and Branding
Commercial collateral and life science materials are often limited by a cold, clinical mold set forth by industry standards. They convey critical medical information, but don’t resonate with their intended audience. ImageThink helps commercial teams escape the mold and set new expectations for life science material design and branding by:
- understanding the goal and audience of the materials
- synthesizing and organizing complex information to clarify, and engage
- and infusing personalized, hand-drawn illustration to empathize, and resonate with key stakeholders
It’s no secret that visuals communicate better, and faster, than verbal or written communication. By using visuals in commercial collateral, commercial teams guarantee their audience is more knowledgeable, and highly engaged with medical content. In addition, leveraging strategic visualization in material design attaches a brand and branded elements to thoughtful illustration. Yes, it’s unique marketing material, but it also provides a way for your target audience to relate, and connect more deeply with your content.
Research and Development
As the cornerstone of the life science industry, Research and Development (R&D) is responsible for the development of new pharmaceuticals, medical devices, therapies, and technologies that transform patient care. To uncover unmet medical needs and improve patient outcomes, R&D operates on a continuous cycle of research, discovery, and implementation.
In the R&D sector, ImageThink leverages visualization to boost research insights and patient recruitment efforts. By visually translating scientific findings, ImageThink makes information visible, comprehensible, persuasive, and actionable for researchers and stakeholders.
R&D Insights
From the outside, R&D data and scientific findings can seem like a foreign language. Complex insights – and the communication of those insights – can make it challenging for team members, potential investors, regulatory bodies, or other stakeholders to grasp and utilize. Visualization steps in to solve this common challenge. Data visualization, strategic visualization, and infographic work absolves complexity associated with R&D datasets by offering high-level visual summary and depiction. This makes such information more accessible and easier to digest, thereby enabling better decision-making and collaborative efforts. Consequently, the path from discovery to market is expedited, communication with external stakeholders improves, and valuable research findings realize their desired impact.
Patient Recruitment and Awareness
Experts in the life sciences note that a major barrier to patient recruitment for clinical trials is a lack of awareness and understanding. This issue often stems from limited access to information about clinical trials and common misconceptions about their risks and benefits. Leveraging graphic recording and strategic visualization in patient recruitment and awareness initiatives offers a sound solution to this challenge. Visuals allow clinical professionals to communicate the benefits of participation in clinical trials and explain processes and expectations in clear, resonate way. This, in turn, alleviates common fears and misconceptions patients might have, prompting greater enrollment in clinical studies.
Enterprise
Enterprise leaders in the life sciences sector face the formidable task of steering their organizations through complex challenges. They operate in the “big picture” space, and lead strategic initiatives, organizational restructures, and efficient internal communications (to name a few). Such responsibilities require not only sharp insight and clear messages, but also a powerful, compelling leadership vision.
ImageThink bolsters enterprise leadership by use of graphic facilitation and strategic visualization. By enabling visionary leadership, ImageThink helps enterprise leaders facilitate organizational change, create organizational alignment, enhance internal communications, and ultimately drive insight to action.
Leadership Direction, Alignment, and Communication
Enterprise vision and direction influences organizational objectives and actions. It’s vital that leaders and management align around a north star, and can confidently communicate the vision, mission, and goals to the wider organization. In these areas of enterprise leadership, graphic facilitation helps foster an environment conducive to effective decision-making and strategic direction. A graphic facilitator helps leaders map out future paths, see connections between ideas, and identifies priorities. At the conclusion of a graphic facilitated session, the enterprise sector leaves with actionable roadmaps that document and communicate their message, decisions and the necessary steps needed to achieve success. Visual assets accelerate the adoption of ideas, and provide a reflection point for future organizational changes like mergers, rebrands, or shifts in strategic focus.
Employee Programing
When it comes to employee engagement and programming initiatives, visuals have the power to align employees with enterprise goals on an individual and global scale. ImageThink illustrates strategic roadmaps, core values, and other organizational messages with impact; in order to foster understanding and unity within employees. Whether you distribute strategic visuals in organization-wide communication channels, or display finished boards in communal areas, visual assets serve as a reminder of everyone’s shared purpose and role in realizing company goals, missions, and visions.
Your Life Science Partner
Our goal at ImageThink is to help you achieve optimal outcomes by thinking and working visually. Whether that be in your departments, organization, or for the patients you serve. Could your work in the life sciences use a unique, creative approach? Get in touch with us today to learn more.
