From Google to Amazon, the giants are getting serious about healthcare innovation 

In recent years, Google and their parent company Alphabet have been seriously investing in the health sector. Google Health – conceived in 2006, discontinued in 2012 and restarted in 2018 – “is committed to helping billions of people be healthier through products and services that connect individuals and bring meaning to health information”.  

If you asked someone who they thought were the main contributors to climate change the answers would likely include energy companies and automotive industries, right? Not everyone thinks of the role that the pharmaceutical industry plays, even though it contributed 55% more CO₂ than the automotive industry in 2015.¹ In 2019, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and chemicals was the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions within the NHS England.²  

In November 2021, my career trajectory did a full 180°. With a Pharmacy degree and a few years of med comms experience, I joined the Creative Club – taking my first big step into the cool and colorful world of medical copywriting. Before I had time to doubt myself, it was day 1 at the virtual office, and with Stephen King’s wise ‘On Writing’ words engrained, and my A-level grammar refreshed, it was time for me to bellyflop into the pool of the unfamiliar.
 

Messaging in a time of war - how digital transformation has created a new battlefront 

Since the digital age began, the way we learn, communicate and view the world has transformed. Over recent weeks, it has become increasingly clear how the world’s digital metamorphosis offers power to the people in previously unprecedented ways.  

On 16 March 2020, we sent an email saying “The Prime Minister has just held a press conference where he advised people to avoid non-essential contact with others – and to work from home where possible. It seems therefore, that we should close the office from tomorrow. I’m assuming this might last several weeks or more, so remember to take all your gear home with you!” 

Just two years after my older sister had been diagnosed with cervical cancer, I was given the news that I had both ovarian and uterine cancer. Of the five types of gynecological cancer – vulval and vaginal being the other two – my sister and I had three. It was a huge blow and something that, as a family, we felt ill-prepared for. I subsequently underwent a double oophorectomy and a full hysterectomy, surgical procedures involving removal of my womb and both of my ovaries, which left me struggling with the symptoms of surgical menopause as well as the side effects of chemotherapy.