The health tech opportunity with ICBs laid out in the NHS Business Plan 2023-24
The NHS is under enormous pressure right now and challenges loom large in the recently published NHS Business Plan 2023-24.
However, there are two key themes running through the report that present real opportunities for health tech, med tech and clinical software companies to support the NHS:
NHS England is betting on technology and digital solutions to improve the quality, speed and efficiency of its care (it could be yours!)
Two thirds of NHS England’s £168.8bn 2023/24 commissioning budget has gone directly to the 42 NHS Integrated Care Boards (are you ready?)
As the healthcare PR agency that drives tangible business outcomes, at Evergreen PR we regularly help excellent health tech and med tech companies to secure NHS adoption.
Take a look, for example, at our recent work supporting clinical software company Meddbase to achieve NHS adoption. In a few months, we launched an industry-leading white paper report as part of an integrated campaign that won attention, created enthusiasm, built authority and triggered action. We:
Attracted 100+ NHS organic business leads to attend a single educational webinar to learn how they could implement software that delivers health outcomes
Generated several requests for information on purchasing the Meddbase product ON THAT LIVE WEBINAR
Helped secure tangible revenue WITHIN MONTHS and a handful of NHS ICB and other private healthcare customers are now in late stage conversations.
Their Chief Strategy Officer, Lawrie, was delighted with the impact…
“This was a really successful piece of work, driving leads that have ultimately led to new revenue. Evergreen’s expertise in healthcare was clear to see and meant they knew exactly what was needed to build an impactful campaign, identifying the best data and using exactly the right language to speak not only to our prospective customers i.e. health organisations but also to their customers i.e. patients. I thought it was excellent.”
In our experience, working in such busy high pressure environments, it’s easy for health tech and med tech marketers to get bogged down doing the wrong things - creating the wrong messages, prioritising the wrong people and reporting on the wrong things.
If you have the technology to solve some of the NHS’ problems but you aren’t securing the level of adoption that your technology and your hard work deserves, then it’s likely your plans are falling down in one of the above areas.
Get it right though and the impact can be transformative.
Now, in this blog, we are going to share some of the prioritisation, behaviour science and healthcare communications techniques that enable us to unlock these opportunities to secure tangible ROI.
Follow the money (hint, you will arrive at the door of ICBs)
Many marketers working in the health tech or med tech space think only about the specialists that will use their product. However, while these ‘user buyers’ can be useful advocates, ultimately they will need to show how purchasing the technology will contribute towards achieving wider objectives.
In its latest business plan, NHSE reported that £114.3bn of its £168.8bn commissioning budget goes directly to ICBs - that’s 66%!
It is true that ICBs often delegate some of their commissioning responsibility to place-based partnerships, so there is certainly value in influencing decision-makers in NHS Trusts and other local organisations.
However, as the overarching strategy is managed at ICB-level, you should prioritise demonstrating how your technology can solve their challenges.
ICBs are assessed annually against set criteria and there are some really important areas that health tech and med tech companies can potentially help them with, including:
Improving the quality of its services and its approach to population health management
Reducing inequalities of access or outcome
Using technology, innovation and research to enhance productivity
If you can connect your technology to these issues, you have far more chance of securing adoption.
Build evidence-informed narratives (backed by data, organisations, people - and reality!)
At Evergreen PR, we’ve developed the ‘Narrative Framework to Action’ method as part of our MERTO Framework - which helps health tech and med tech companies build a credible (and true) story around how their product solves current challenges.
Our narrative method is outcomes-focused healthcare PR in action, since it has been systematically designed to trigger behaviour change in decision-makers, by winning attention, building authority and creating enthusiasm, while ensuring decision-makers and advocates have all the knowledge and skills they need to take action.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this since, when you get it right, the impact can be huge.
Take this very recent example of our work with NGPod, creators of an innovative med tech device that allows Nutrition Nurses to check whether a nasogastric tube has been placed correctly - which can literally be a matter of life or death!
Building advocacy among nurses while also demonstrating how the technology would improve patient safety - a priority for ICBs! - was crucial.
When it came to the media relations arm of the project, we prioritised our work with Nursing Times - the UK’s biggest nursing title - landing a flagship article with them.
It was by far the most engaged with article of the month for the publication - generating upwards of 1,000 engagements from nurses and 250+ shares and comments. You can read these for yourself right here. More importantly, it helped our campaign to generate tangible outcomes, including inbound leads and the opportunity to engage with the scores of potential prospects that commented on the article.
People make decisions - use behaviour science (you probably already do in some ways)
Technology purchase decisions may involve digital, medical, IT and other specialists, as well as input from various committees and boards. However, it’s important to remember that, despite all of the processes and procedures, people remain at the heart of the NHS buying process.
Taking a Behaviour Science approach to developing messaging provides a framework for moving people along the funnel towards taking the actions you need them to take in order to achieve the desired outcome.
Our MERTO Framework utilises the COM-B Behaviour Change Wheel system, which outlines that you need to ensure people have the capability, opportunity and motivation to take the required action. If they are not motivated, enthused or energised, they won’t bother, and, if it sounds like too much work or they don’t understand how to go about it (capability), then, again, it just won’t happen.
You also need to map the individuals involved at each stage of the buying process - understanding how and at what stage they interact with each other. This can help you to prioritise effectively and to design distinct messaging and activity to trigger each of your audiences to behave in the ways that you need to achieve the desired outcome.
We recently used our MERTO Framework to power an integrated healthcare PR programme that helped the Royal College of GPs to trigger a 645% increase in the number of GP practices signing up to their Veteran Friendly GP practice programme.
The programme had already been proven to be effective in leading to improved patient experiences and outcomes, yet it had been hard for the College to secure adoption due to the immense capacity pressures that GP staff have been facing throughout, and since, the pandemic.
Our campaign brought the emotional story of veterans to the forefront, bringing to life how their experiences could create physical and mental health challenges that are not always immediately obvious - while also widening the audience focus from just GPs to also include Practice Managers, practice nurses and other staff such as Social Prescribing Link Workers. Through integrated campaign work and powerful messaging, we created a motivation among GP teams to get accredited because they felt that they should (to help their patients) and because they could see the benefits that having access to support and information would provide to them.
The resulting big upticks in accreditation have been applauded by the Government and NHS England.
Do you have health technology or medical technology that could support the NHS with some of its current challenges? Are you and your team not seeing the adoption levels that you think that your hard work deserves? If so, we’d love to help! Contact me (Leigh) on 0114 437 2487 or email leigh@evergreenpr.co.uk for a free consultation.
Leigh Greenwood Chart.PR is the founder and managing director of Evergreen PR, the healthcare PR agency that drives tangible outcomes.