5 Things Healthcare Leaders Can Do Right Now To Make 2024 an Impactful Year

There is no slow season when you’re a leader in a healthcare organization. The urgency to help patients is always there. The desire to improve and deliver better outcomes is always in the forefront of everything you do.

If you’re focused on making patients’ lives better every day, there’s no better time than now to raise the bar on what you’re doing.

Here are five things you can do right now to elevate your impact in both the short- and long-term:

1. Understand how to navigate the act that is in healthcare’s political spotlight.

The landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 took steps to reduce the U.S. spending deficit to fight inflation in a number of ways, including attempts to reduce healthcare costs.

While the IRA has several healthcare provisions, three will significantly impact biopharma bottom lines and the industry’s ability to innovate:

• Medicare Drug Price Negotiation: Gives Medicare the power to negotiate directly with manufacturers, setting “maximum fair price,” and kicks off the negotiation process in Part D for 10 medicines (prices go into effect January 2026).

• Medicare Part D Redesign: Out-of-pocket caps will lower spending for many seniors and cost “smoothing” will make it easier for those on a fixed income to pay for medicines. However, Part D plans may increase utilization management, making medicines harder to access.

• Inflation Penalties: Imposes penalties on manufacturers who raise the price of their drugs by more than the rate of inflation (Consumer Price Index or CPI-U).

The expected downstream effects of the IRA – and additional scrutiny during the upcoming 2024 election year – will likely have broad commercial and reputational impacts on the pharmaceutical industry.

Leaders across the healthcare industry need to understand the law, the changing political landscape, and where public sentiment stands to navigate through a time of increased scrutiny on pricing, access and commercialization.

For a quick review of the IRA through a healthcare lens, check out this great webinar from KFF.org. To stay up-to-date on key IRA milestones, subscribe to our free Value Report newsletter.

Take a Deeper Dive with Real Chemistry

Our Corporate Pricing & Public Affairs team can deliver a custom presentation to the key stakeholders in your organization that covers the law and its milestones, how the current external environment could impact your business, and how your organization can ensure it has a voice in ongoing discussions around the IRA, healthcare costs and access. For more information, get in touch.

2. Hone your storytelling skills.

For the scientists among us, science alone can be persuasive – the results speak for themselves. Outside the lab, though, science rarely changes hearts and minds if it’s not presented within the broader context of a story.

Whether you’re trying to persuade an internal audience (e.g., your boss, the executive board) or an external audience (e.g., patients, industry event attendees), you must translate complex science into memorable and polished narratives in order to have a meaningful impact.

To sharpen your storytelling skills, read Ann Handley’s newsletter and books, which are great resources.

Medical Education and Scientific Storytelling with Real Chemistry

Real Chemistry specializes in taking complex science and creating memorable and polished narratives. Contact us to explore how we can help you create a compelling and persuasive story for your audience.

3. Prepare for anything.

When a crisis strikes, panic is actually quite rare. The real danger lies in inaction.

To ensure they were prepared for worst-case scenarios, the Stoics had a practice called premeditatio malorum in which they would visualize disasters or crisis situations and meditate on how they would respond. When a crisis inevitably arises, you will be better prepared for having rehearsed in your mind how you will respond in a high-stakes situation.

To learn more about the ancient art of premeditatio malorum, watch this 12-minute explainer video from The Daily Stoic.

Real Chemistry Crisis Workshops

Our Crisis Communications and Corporate Reputation team can help you prepare and plan for any type of crisis. Contact us to ensure your team is prepared for anything.

4. Strengthen your leadership voice.

People trust people, not companies. If you’re an executive in the healthcare industry, one of the best things you can do right now for your career and your organization is to elevate your personal platform.

Boosting your visibility through thought leadership builds trust and authority. Where corporate messaging often lacks that personal touch, an executive with a strong voice in the market can humanize that message and deliver it in a more authentic way.

At Real Chemistry, strong leadership voices have been part of our past, present and future:

• Founder and Chairman, Jim Weiss, has always advocated for strong and diverse voices on our leadership team.

• Rachi Govil was named a PRWeek Woman of Distinction for 2023 before joining our Integrated Marketing Communications team as Chief Client Officer.

• Devon Taylor, VP of Brand Strategy for 21GRAMS, a part of Real Chemistry, delivers fascinating and unique insights on the Gamechangers of Health podcast she hosts.

Tap Into Our Executive Visibility Experts

We have executive coaches available to help elevate your voice in the market. If you’re interested in taking on more speaking opportunities, pursuing industry award recognition, and publishing powerful thought leadership around the topics you’re most passionate about, reach out to learn more about how our team can help you.

5. Get the latest industry intel.

The 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is right around the corner. And there’s a slew of other key conferences and medical congresses on the calendar over the next 18 months. Your brand’s strategy around key events plays an integral role in how your organization will be perceived in the marketplace.

Are your competitors making headlines? Are healthcare providers (HCPs) paying attention? Is your brand generating positive sentiment within your patient audiences?

If the annual conferences that matter most to your brand are going to bear any fruitful gains for your business, you have to start tilling the strategic soil right now. Consider investing in social listening tools (both for your own brand and your competitors) and then analyze the data before, during and after key events to see how perceptions and opinions shift based on big announcements.

When you have visibility into those shifts, you can adjust your medical communications strategy accordingly to maximize impact.

Get Congress Intelligence from Real Chemistry

Our experts bring together medical strategy and analytics to provide life sciences companies with a comprehensive picture of their impact at key medical congress events. With social listening, share of voice analysis, competitor tracking and scientific analysis of HCP commentary from a multitude of sources, you can gain a 360-degree understanding of stakeholder reactions. Contact us to learn more before your next big event.

Want more insights on the people, stories and ideas that are changing healthcare into what it should be? Subscribe to our Healthcare Connection newsletter and get transformative ideas delivered to your inbox every month.