The document discusses disparities in healthcare access among minority populations in the US. While lack of insurance is often blamed, the real issues are medical communities' ignorance of cultural health practices and lack of adherence to cultural competency mandates. Healthcare companies have adopted some multicultural programs but rarely allocate sufficient resources for success. Embracing cultural competence and forming cultural awareness task forces are key for companies to effectively engage multicultural audiences and see benefits to their bottom lines. As healthcare communications experts, the author argues it is their responsibility to educate clients on these issues.

1. the pulse of healthcare
As the population of the United States
continues to become more diverse,
disparities in healthcare have become
more prevalent. Large segments of the
population in key urban areas have neither
adequate access to care nor the benefits
of basic medical treatment to address even the more
common health issues such as hypertension, diabetes,
asthma, or obesity. While many assume lack of insurance
coverage among minorities is responsible for this
unequal distribution in healthcare, the real culprits are
the medical community’s ignorance of culturally based
health practices and the apathy with which it addresses
adherence to healthcare cultural competency mandates.
While hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and
healthcare insurance providers have adopted programs
to address multicultural audiences, they rarely allocate
the depth of resources or the time required for success.
In fact, although multicultural healthcare marketing
efforts have grown over the past 5 years, the investment
in this area represents a paltry 2% of total DTC marketing
budget. Sure, it takes time, energy, and effort to implement
programs to address multicultural health issues; however,
once a company does engage this burgeoning audience,
it sees positive impacts on its bottom line as ethnic scripts
increase. As healthcare communications experts, it is our
responsibility to educate our clients on how “multicultural
medicine” impacts their businesses and to give them the
tools to successfully navigate this area. Below are two key
questions to gauge whether your clients are prepared to
embrace the multicultural challenge.
Do your clients embrace the notion of “cultural
competence”?
Cultural competence is the ability of systems to provide
care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and
behaviors, including tailoring delivery to meet patients’
social, cultural, and linguistic needs. At the most basic
level, for a pharmaceutical company this implies providing
drug information in different languages and call centers
manned with multilingual operators to answer questions.
While hospitals, physicians, and pharmacists may have
adopted cultural competency initiatives (eg, providing
interpreters or developing relationships with community
associations who outreach to local minorities),
pharmaceutical companies have been slow to provide
tools and materials to assist in their efforts to address
multicultural patients.
Do your clients have cultural awareness task
forces?
A cultural awareness task force is a multidisciplinary
group made up of marketing, analytics, research, and
corporate communications personnel dedicated to
building a business case to support a multicultural
program and open to adapting current mainstream
marketing and public relations efforts to address
multicultural sensitivities. For multicultural efforts to
work, it is imperative that this group holds authority and
accepts responsibility for educating the organization
internally on the multicultural imperative.
About Havas Worldwide Health
Havas Worldwide Health owns the Euro RSCG Life and
Health4Brands (H4B) networks. The Havas Worldwide
Health network has a uniquely unified model with
all disciplines—medical, strategy, managed markets,
medical education, digital, DTP/DTC, advertising, and
PR—inside one agency, with one P&L. This allows us
to deliver channel-agnostic solutions that are right
for our clients’ brands without the traditional silos
and intra-agency complexities. Also, with more than
2000 employees in 60 agencies in over 50 countries,
Havas Worldwide Health has a presence in all the
major regions and markets. Havas Worldwide Health
is the global health holding company within Havas
Worldwide (Euronext Paris: HAV.PA), a global advertising
and communications services group headquartered
in Paris.
Habla Espanol? Are You Missing Out on the
Multicultural Opportunity?
> Ellen Gutierrez
Sources: Medical Marketing & Media. May 2010; Betancourt JR,
Green AR, Carrillo JE. Cultural Competence in Health Care: Emerging
Frameworks and Practical Approaches. The Commonwealth Fund;
October 2002.
HWWH Planning
Issue 5 Mar 2012
POWERED BY
As healthcare communication experts, it is
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE OUR CLIENTS on
how “multicultural medicine” impacts their businesses and
to give them the tools to successfully navigate this area.