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| Shannon Murphy |
Healthcare innovation continues to accelerate. Core areas such as digital therapeutics, virtual care, AI-powered remote monitoring and employer-driven behavioral health are transforming how care is delivered, managed and optimized across the healthcare ecosystem. These advances are enhancing patient outcomes, empowering providers with more actionable insights, streamlining payer operations and creating more efficient, data-driven systems overall. Yet as these innovations reshape treatment, the language used to describe them often has not kept pace. For communications leaders planning for 2026 and beyond, the question is clear: Does your messaging reflect the innovation your brand delivers?
Messaging is the foundation of an effective communications strategy, defining the core ideas, tone and value proposition that everything else builds upon. Clear, consistent messaging ensures media pitches resonate, social campaigns reinforce a unified story and executive visibility aligns with the organization’s narrative. In today’s complex healthcare ecosystem, strong messaging shapes public trust, drives adoption and differentiates market leaders from followers. Brands that refine how they talk about care now will cut through the noise and reinforce leadership in 2026 and beyond.
Closing the gap between progress and understanding
Healthcare communicators are taking on a bigger role than just spreading awareness. Today, their responsibility is to create real understanding and earn trust among diverse audiences. Each group—patients, insurers, providers and employers—has its own set of challenges, all while navigating an environment that is crowded with information and uncertainty.
| This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Oct. '25 Healthcare & Medical PR Magazine |
Digital health continues to expand at an impressive pace. In 2023, U.S. startups secured $10.7 billion in funding across 1,400 companies. Despite this investment, adoption remains inconsistent, with only 58 percent of Americans reporting use of health technology to support their well-being. Uptake is tempered by generational differences, privacy concerns and limited trust. At the same time, providers face challenges with interoperability and workflow integration, while employers contend with vendor fatigue and ongoing cost pressures.
With 2026 planning well underway, communications teams have an opportunity and a responsibility to reset. Clear, credible messaging sharpens positioning, bridges understanding gaps and ensures innovations are noticed and embraced.
The mandate for healthcare communicators
With U.S. healthcare spending at $4.9 trillion annually, the stakes are higher than ever. Communicators are expected not just to build brands, but to educate the market, validate new models and inspire confidence. To succeed, messaging must be:
Understandable to overloaded decision-makers.
Credible to clinicians and skeptics.
Bold enough to stand out in a crowded market.
Three deliberate moves can ensure messaging delivers on these imperatives before 2026 planning locks in.
1. Put people at the center. Effective messaging leads with human impact, not features. Highlight outcomes that matter, such as fewer hospital visits, improved sleep, less workplace stress and faster recovery. Emotional resonance cuts through complexity and builds trust.
A digital therapeutics company within the musculoskeletal space illustrates this well. The company highlights stories of patients regaining mobility, managing chronic pain without opioids and returning to daily life. Rather than focusing on motion-captured AI or back-end analytics, the company ensures its messaging is centered on human experience to connect far beyond the clinical.
2. Use plain language with purpose. Messaging can’t be credible or understandable if it’s wrapped in jargon. Use active voice, clear structure and relatable language your audience uses. Simplicity is not dumbing it down; it’s smart, sharp communication.
For example, a company within the AI-driven remote patient monitoring space can ensure its messaging emphasizes real-world outcomes—earlier heart failure detection, fewer hospitalizations, more clinician-patient interaction—rather than technical specifications of AI or biosensors. Plain language makes value clear to everyone, from patients to providers.
3. Align internally to build trust externally. Consistency drives credibility. Messaging fragmented across teams will fall flat. Alignment between leadership, sales, product and marketing ensures promises made externally are delivered at every touchpoint.
Companies aiming to strengthen alignment between internal and external priorities can draw inspiration from the mental health benefits sector. Employer-facing resources emphasize measurable results such as reduced absenteeism, while employee communications focus on fast access to care and culturally attuned providers. When combined, clear, empathetic and evidence-based messaging fosters trust across all audiences.
Messaging as a growth lever—and a PR imperative
In healthcare, clarity is operational, not cosmetic. Misaligned or overly technical messaging fails to engage and risks losing the audience. But when your narrative is consistent, emotionally resonant and easy to grasp, it commands attention, earns credibility and drives adoption.
For healthcare communications leaders, this is pivotal because messaging is a strategic growth lever. Agencies and internal teams embracing this mindset move beyond tactical execution. By embedding unified, people-centered messaging across earned, owned and paid channels, they ensure every interaction—from a media interview to a social campaign— strengthens reputation and distinguishes the brand.
Act before 2026 planning locks in
The window to reset your messaging is now, before planning is locked in and before competitors gain ground. For healthcare brands navigating rapid innovation, clear, purposeful communication is essential not just to brand impact but to overall market growth.
PR leaders who elevate messaging from cosmetic to strategic will drive adoption, shape public perception and influence the success of their innovations. The story you tell today sets the stage for the breakthroughs the market will embrace tomorrow.
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Shannon Murphy is Executive Vice President, Healthcare Lead at V2.
Havilah Clarke, head of marketing and communications at the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Institute, has joined Purposeful Advisors as a managing director.
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