What Med Comms teams need to know about modern platforms
Medical Communications has always been about getting the science right. That part hasn’t changed. What’s changed is how and where that science shows up.
Science isn’t just shared in journals and congress halls anymore. It’s happening in feeds, forums, and search results. And that shift is changing how science moves, and who it reaches.
HCPs don’t consume information in a vacuum
Healthcare professionals use digital platforms the same way the rest of us do. They scroll, skim and save things for later. The difference is how little time they have to do any of it.
That reality has important implications for Med Comms. Long explanations and complex layouts are easy to skip. Information that’s well-structured and easy to process is more likely to land. This isn’t about oversimplifying science. It’s about respecting how people actually engage with it in a busy digital environment.
How to put this to work:
- Build every asset for mobile-first, not desktop
- Lead with one clear takeaway before any detail
- Use visuals that explain something, not just decorate
Social is already part of scientific exchange
For many clinicians, social platforms are now the first place to see new data, new disease insights, or conversations about clinical practice. Even when the original source is a journal or a congress, discovery often begins elsewhere.
This changes how scientific stories travel. They move through feeds, comments and shared links before someone ever reaches the original source. That peer-driven layer shapes what gets attention and what doesn’t.
For Med Comms, this means social isn’t just a channel to promote what already exists. It’s part of the scientific exchange itself.
How to put this to work:
- Include social in campaign planning from the first brief
- Decide how a story should travel before you finalize the asset
- Design posts that point people toward deeper content
Why repurposing isn’t enough
A lot of teams still treat social as a place to drop in content that was created for something else. A paper becomes a post. A slide becomes a graphic. A long video becomes a clip.
That approach can work, but it rarely brings out the best of the science. Content that was designed for a different context often feels awkward or overly dense in a feed. It’s easier to scroll past something that doesn’t feel native.
Designing for social from the start leads to stronger results and better engagement.
How to put this to work:
- Choose a feed format before you choose a file format
- Bring social thinking into the story before long-form content is locked
- Let the platform shape how the story is told
The growing role of HCP voices
Influence in healthcare no longer lives only in journals or on stage. It also lives with clinicians, researchers and patient advocates who’ve built trust and communities online.
These voices bring science into a real-world context. They can explain how data fits into daily practice and what it means for patients. That makes scientific ideas easier to understand and easier to share.
For Med Comms teams, this is an opportunity to let credible peers carry part of the message in a way that feels natural.
How to put this to work:
- Identify HCP creators who already talk about your space
- Bring them into concepting, not just execution
- Give them room to explain the science in their own words
Measuring what’s actually happening
One of the biggest shifts in social media is the increased visibility of engagement. You can see what people click, how long they watch and where they go next.
You can also see how conversations change over time across the broader landscape, not just on your own channels. That creates a level of feedback that traditional scientific channels rarely provide.
For Med Comms, this means there’s more opportunity to learn, to adapt and improve.
How to put this to work:
- Analyze how people move through and interact with your content
- Use engagement and follow-on actions to understand what resonates
- Compare how conversation shifts before and after key moments like data releases or congresses
Omnichannel is about showing up, not showing off
Most people still go deep on science, but they now discover it in pieces. They might first see a post, then a comment, then a link to something more detailed. Over time, those touchpoints build familiarity, context, and interest before they ever open a full paper or sit through a presentation.
Scientific understanding is shaped through repeated, connected exposure across different moments and channels. When messages are aligned and build on one another, each interaction adds meaning rather than noise.
Omnichannel works when each channel has a clear role and the story compounds over time, not when presence becomes the strategy.
How to put this to work:
- Use social to spark discovery, not deliver the full story
- Intentionally guide audiences to deeper medical content over time
- Reinforce the same scientific narrative across channels, each serving a distinct role
Where the conversation is headed
Scientific exchange isn’t confined to a few formal settings anymore. It’s happening in public in digital spaces and through real people who shape how ideas spread.
For Med Comms teams, the opportunity isn’t to chase every platform or trend. It’s to bring the same depth and credibility that’s always defined the field into the places where conversations are already happening.