Brianna Graham, MPH, CPH

No matter your tone, audience, or goals, brevity is your friend. A patient audience may not have the background knowledge that a provider does, but both have short attention spans. Keep your writing concise and interesting, otherwise they’ll find another source that can share the same information in a quicker and more engaging way. When you’re looking for sources, depending on who you’re writing for, you should consider interviewing a healthcare provider for their insights. They may have a story that helps bring life to your content that a study or other written source can’t provide. And if you choose written sources, make sure they’re reliable—like PubMed, the World Health Organization, Cleveland Clinic and other authoritative orgs!

Creating your portfolio isn’t a one and done process. After you create it, you’re unlikely to get any traction unless you put it to work. There are a bunch of different ways to do that, but these are my favorite: 🔗 I share a link to my portfolio on my LinkedIn page. 👩🏾‍💻 I make sure to share it directly with people looking for health-focused communicators. 📑 I also share individual pieces on LinkedIn from time to time, and I share relevant work in my pitches. This helps me not only promote what I’m capable of, but also what my clients are up to—which is helpful since I work with healthcare providers, health tech companies, and nonprofit organizations!

I host my portfolio on my website, because I don’t want to be at the mercy of a platform where I can’t control the style and formatting of my work. It also gives me a place to share information about my services, pricing, & other info however I see fit—I’m not limited by the fields available. I can add pages, sections to pages, & redesign any time! A website is a pretty big undertaking, but you can start simple & expand over time. The latest iteration of my site is light years beyond where I started. I kept learning, adding to it & rebranding as my business grew. My portfolio started as organized links on a single page. Now, it’s several pages—each with a theme—and my work is displayed through hyperlinked screen caps. It’s changed so much!

Effective communication is an underrated skill—especially when your audience is as busy and often overwhelmed as physicians. Finding ways to reach them that they're receptive to is the biggest challenge, and it varies at every health-focused organization. Meetings are great for important updates you need to be sure every team member knows. Emails, flyers, & more are great for reminders about how SDOH fits into everyday patient care. Newsletters can help highlight providers who are doing a great job of prioritizing SDOH in patient care & celebrating wins for organization-wide accomplishments. The most important thing is to be creative. Find engaging ways to communicate with providers. Figure out what works and do more of that!

Managing a chronic illness is often complicated, especially when they require active management each and every day, like diabetes, multiple sclerosis. Most people don't pick up on the nuances of managing their disease the first time they learn about it. That's why it's really important for patient care teams to provide ongoing health education. Implementing programs to manage chronic conditions is another way to reinforce and followup with patients. There are so many apps and coaching services at our disposal now, whether you need medication reminders, helps scheduling appointments, or more hands on guidance. Finding one (or several) that works for your patient demographic is a great way to make sure they have the help they need everyday!

Implementing an online platform in your practice has little benefit if you aren't using it. Preparing your clients ahead of time may help encourage more of them to engage with you on it. Before implementing the online platform, make sure you have your patients' correct email and cell phone numbers so they can receive an invitation to the platform. You should also talk to patients about it so they know when the platform will be live. Once it's live, send periodic invitations to patients who haven't registered. You might even consider helping them register in your office—especially if they have trouble with technology. Then, you'll be ready to send messages, lab results, and other data back and forth safely and securely!