It was quite a year for healthcare marketing in 2021. As the pandemic continued, with new therapies emerging—including the first FDA-approved vaccine—healthcare marketers across the globe continued adjusting their strategy and approach to delivering crucial healthcare information to HCPs and patients in fresh and innovative ways. Here are some of our favorite campaigns, events, and perspectives that defined this year.  

1. Virtual Patient Care: Starting to Shine
   “As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the United States last year, healthcare organizations that had been slow to embrace a virtual health model suddenly began implementing virtual care solutions at a breakneck pace. And patients have adapted just as quickly. According to a May 2020 survey of 1,000 patients by Wakefield Research on behalf of software company Kyruus, 72% of respondents had their first-ever virtual care visit during the pandemic, and more than 75% were very or completely satisfied with their virtual care.”
   
   
2. How Pharma Can Use Automation for Better Decision-Making
   “In the shift to an increasingly data-driven future, robust portfolio analytics processes are key in enabling organizations to maximize their value by identifying gaps and implications (eg, risks, upside) of potential portfolio decisions. As pharmaceutical organizations navigate the institutionalization of these processes, they face several challenges that inhibit them from achieving their goals.” Using automation to improve decision-making processes can help address these challenges.
   
   
3. Walgreens Unveils the “This is Our Shot” Campaign
   Teaming up with John Legend in an effort to combat vaccine hesitancy, Walgreens developed a campaign to “remind Americans that the vaccine is the nation’s opportunity to help bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Delivered across a variety of channels, the campaign kicked off with a commercial that aired on April 4, where he explained what getting vaccinated means to him.
   
   
4. The Digital Transformation Journey for Medical Affairs Conference
   This year’s Digital Transformation Journey for Medical Affairs conference was a dynamic and engaging event that tackled some of the biggest issues facing medical affairs today. We saw presentations and discussions on a wide variety of topics from virtual assistants to machine learning algorithms to digital engagement. The biggest message from the conference was “it’s time for medical affairs to seize the digital moment.”
   
   
5. Solving the Speed Vs Risk Dilemma With Modular Content
   “Digital is quickly becoming the new way of doing business. Marketers face mounting pressure from the C-suite to amp up business value through personalized omnichannel experiences. At the same time, they must continuously improve productivity and speed. More field emails and longer virtual meetings require a healthy pipeline of relevant, compliant content.” Since no company wants to trade-off between safety and speed, many are looking to modular content to accelerate the content lifecycle.
   
   
6. Deloitte Explores the Future of Health
   “In the future of health, we expect six key areas—data sharing, interoperability, equitable access, empowered consumers, behavior change, and scientific breakthrough—to collectively transform the existing health system from treatment-based reactionary care to prevention and well-being. The traditional boundaries of the industry will dissolve and new roles will emerge in the future of health as exponential innovation propels the industry towards 2040. Explore what the future of health could look like—a dramatic transformation driven by new business models, emerging technologies, and highly engaged consumers.” 
    
7. Leading Experts Provide Insight on Shake Ups in the Social Media Landscape 
   “In a Twitter survey taken in the beginning of the pandemic, 77% of users said they feel more positively about brands making an effort to support society at the moment; 89% said brands should provide reliable, accurate information; and 70% said brands should provide prompt customer service.” To better understand how changes in social media are impacting life sciences marketers, PM360 consulted 10 experts.
    
8. The Importance of Digital Opinion Leader Identification
   For decades, key opinion leaders (KOLs) have been the go-to peer experts from whom HCPs prefer to learn. Holding prestigious positions at universities and centers of excellence and typically having published numerous peer-reviewed papers, KOLs can be easily identified for their expertise and depth of experience and knowledge. However, a new type of opinion leader in the healthcare landscape has emerged over the last half decade or so—the digital opinion leader (DOL). Read our recent whitepaper to learn more about DOL identification.