How to Cut Through in Digital Health PR: 5 Mistakes I See Every Week

Digital health and medtech are full of brilliant ideas. Every week I meet teams doing clever, meaningful work - often quietly - to make care safer, faster, kinder. And yet so many good projects don’t cut through. Not because the technology isn’t ready, but because the story isn’t.

Healthcare is different. You’re communicating into a system with its own language, incentives, pressures, and people who are stretched to the limit. If the message doesn’t feel relevant, humane, and grounded in NHS reality, it gets tuned out. After years working across healthcare, tech, and the public sector, these are the five traps I still see all the time - and a few glimpses of what works instead.

1. Leading with features instead of impact

It’s tempting to start with the dashboard, the AI, the integration - but those are what you think about. Others want to know: So what?

In the Cheshire & Merseyside fuel poverty programme, for instance, rather than leading with “new data dashboard deployed,” the messaging focused on real lives changed: over 1,300 people were identified, fuel support delivered, and clinicians able to prioritise patients differently. That shift in narrative opened doors to Forbes coverage.

That kind of storytelling - starting with human and system outcomes - makes the technical side feel purposeful rather than alienating.

2. Forgetting the NHS / health system context

Even if your product is brilliant, if you don’t speak the NHS language - priorities, budgets, governance, procurement - it can often feel irrelevant.

When I worked on Frimley’s transformation narrative, rather than pushing “new tech,” we focused on how data alignment could reduce delays, support patient flow, and free up clinician time. That framing led to coverage in The Times, not just trade press. (You can see the article here: “High-tech Frimley NHS trust aims to transform patient care with data.”)

If you don’t ground your story in the realities of the system, you risk being dismissed as “just another innovation.”

3. Underestimating the power of the human story

Data is essential. But data plus people is memorable.

In East Kent’s trial (recently featured on the BBC), the story that got attention was not just “trial underway” but “patients now linked remotely, early signs of improvement, staff reflecting on how care feels different.” That human hook draws people in.

Hold space in your narrative for one or two people - a clinician, a patient, a case that shows change. That’s often the door to wider interest.

4. Thinking short-term

Too many clients treat PR as a burst: “We’ll issue a single press release around this pilot, then move on.” But reputation and trust in health tech don’t come from a single moment.

By contrast, for the Cheshire & Merseyside fuel poverty work, we tracked progress, published periodic updates (e.g. “Figures reveal impact” reports) and used them to keep the narrative alive and credible.

When people see the momentum, not just the launch, they start to believe your long-term capability.

5. Overcomplicating the message

Sometimes projects are complex; that’s unavoidable. But your public message should feel simple.

If your audience can’t say back to you in their own words what you do, you’ve lost them. I once helped a medtech client revisit their language: removing three jargon terms, reorganising the wording, and we saw readership of their comment pieces triple.

Your job is to make complexity feel accessible, not dumbed down.

So what actually cuts through?

Clarity over cleverness. Outcomes before features. Human texture alongside data. Stories shaped with, not at, the NHS. And patience - because trust grows in seasons, not sprints.

The few examples above aren’t “wins”; they’re reminders that when you anchor a narrative in what matters to clinicians and patients, good work travels further.

Innovation tends to shout; care tends to whisper. The job of communications is to turn those whispers into clear signals that reach clinicians, commissioners, and patients. 

In healthcare, the message does more than promote - it supports better decisions, better adoption, and ultimately better care.