Digital Healthcare as a Life's Work

“A life’s work is the main activity that one has been involved in during their life, or their most important achievement.” - Collins English Dictionary

Digital healthcare is my life’s work. I didn’t plan on it. When I was a kid I didn’t have visions of growing up to be a “new media executive at a healthcare company.” I wanted to play third base for the Yankees! But somehow, at this stage of my life, it has occurred to me that digital healthcare is not just my job or even my career. It has evolved for me to become something that I have not only become pretty good at, but, upon some reflection, is something important to me as a human being.

When I started my career in digital healthcare, it was, quite honestly, completely by accident. It was the mid-90s and I had discovered something that leveraged my skills in writing, design and technology: the world wide web. As a side project in my last non-healthcare job, I built our company’s website. Then, after a layoff, I faxed my resume (yes, faxed) to any job I found in the paper (yes, the newspaper) that had the words internet, website or emarketing (yes, emarketing). I was called by Ortho-McNeil to take a contractor role building some websites and, embarrassingly, I thought I was taking a gig at Ortho, the bug killing company. That is until one of my first meetings was about birth control pills. Within the first few months, it became clear to me that "this internet thing" had the ability to reach people in a way that was going to become very important to pharmaceuticals and other related industries. What used to be an arm’s length doctor-patient-product dynamic was about to be flipped on its head and I saw an opportunity to lead the way. As a young, go-getter, I made it my primary goal to prove this point to my bosses at Ortho-McNeil and by the time I left the company, I was no longer an independent contractor but was the first fulltime digital communications employee for one of Johnson & Johnson’s biggest pharma companies. I went on to take digital marketing and communications roles at Novartis, Forest Labs, Cadient Group and Targetbase before I came back to Johnson & Johnson in 2011.

What is it about this 20-year journey that makes it more than a career? It comes down to the realization that the digital work any company does is quite possibly some of the most important customer-facing work they do. And, in healthcare, the significance of that work is infinitely multiplied. Let me break that down...

When a customer engages with a company in the digital space, they are usually at a critical point in their relationship with that organization or product. They are making emotional decisions about buying, staying, committing, defending, and other intangible, sometimes irrational, connections. Think about it from your own perspective. You can insert any industry and you will realize that when you engage online with a company or product you are on the cusp of making important decisions about them. You are in a semi-fragile mindset when the smallest detail can take on greater importance. For me, a good “design-your-own-vehicle” experience will drive me into the dealership (no pun intended). An array of real world product demo videos will help me decide about a musical instrument I am considering spending money on. Online customer reviews of local plumbers have influenced which phone number I’ve dialed in an emergency. Each of these examples also rely on traditional advertising and media to gain your attention, but when the time is “now” for a buying decision, a service need, or a level of support, digital is becoming, if not has become, the most important door that gets opened.

Now, let’s apply that to healthcare with a real-world example. When my wife and I were new parents, we had many sleepless nights early on with our sick daughter. One particularly long night at two am we had a critical dosing question about a product her doctor had prescribed. We also were uncertain if we were able to give it to her while she was taking another drug. At that ungodly hour, where did we go to find the answers? Of course we desperately went to our smart phones, looked up the drug and the product website in hopes we would find the information there. That faceless, cold, “digital asset” literally advised me and my wife on how to use the chemical we were about to put into our 8-week-old baby’s mouth. It became our most trusted resource when we needed it.

As a digital marketer, I know the process it took to get that website through copy review, design approval, legal and regulatory review, IT sprints and build times, brand manager approvals and more. But in the middle of the night, I was the father who stood in a darkened nursery with a crying baby and needed answers – literally, potentially, life and death answers – and that “digital asset” was all I had.

Websites, apps and social media are a critical resource for everyone that a healthcare product touches. A doctor needs information about drug side effects and she has no time to wait for her sales rep to come in so she looks it up online. The hospital administrator wants to buy a product to fill the shelves of an operating room and he needs it to be an easy transaction. The child of an Alzheimer’s patient is feeling helpless as they sift through piles of treatment options for an ailing parent so they join an online support group to learn about the experience of others in their same position. Who supplies this just-in-time, life-altering information? No television commercial can do it. No visual aid in a sales rep’s hand will have that sense of urgency. Digital touches people’s lives at the time they are most in need. That makes being your company’s digital healthcare expert a very important job. I cannot overstate this. This role requires a person to not only be knowledgeable in digital strategies and best practices, but humble enough to realize that they are playing a critical part in the delivery of someone’s well-being.

To quote Keanu Reeves: “Whoa...” That’s a hefty responsibility. As marketers and communicators, we look to impressions, click-thrus, video views, likes, shares and engagements as success metrics. When I reflect on my successes in digital healthcare as a life’s work, I try to define my wins in those moments I may never see or be able to quantify. I derive satisfaction – which is the best measure of a life’s work – by the knowledge that somewhere, someone’s life may change for the better because of the work I was involved in. When the cold process of website development is happening; while the copy review team is nitpicking the technical and legal ramifications of your messaging; when the social media plan is being meticulously pulled apart and rebuilt remember that, yes, this work will show improved share of voice and measurable ROI and improved brand equity and that is satisfying from a business goals and objectives perspective. But what is most satisfying to me is that in some small way – and perhaps in a very large way – I am playing a part in improving people’s lives.

I have been fortunate enough to have seen real examples of where the digital work I’ve been a part of has impacted patients, caregivers and doctors. I’ve been able share my experience through dozens of speaking engagements and while developing and mentoring the next wave of healthcare marketers and communicators at the places I’ve worked. I may be paid to do a job that sells more product and drives company reputation, but, if I’m doing it right, I’m also making a positive human impact. How can that not be my most important achievement? How can that not be my life’s work?

The content of this article is the personal view of Pete Dannenfelser and does not represent the views of his employer.