By Sean Dowdall, President, Landis Communications Inc.
I’ve spent the past few years watching healthcare communications get more complicated. Between AI adoption, drug pricing pressure, patent cliffs and a news cycle that never slows down, health and pharma clients need partners who understand policy, science and public sentiment all at once, often across multiple countries at the same time.
That’s exactly why I’m glad to see the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) launch its new Health Practice Group, and why Landis Communications Inc. is proud to be part of it.
A Global Bench for a Global Challenge
The numbers tell the story: more than 20 independent PRGN agencies, four continents, 11 languages and 93 health specialists, all now working under one coordinated structure. The group is led by OVID Health, a London-based agency with deep experience in health policy and patient advocacy, under the leadership of CEO Jenny Ousbey.
I’ve worked in this industry long enough to know that no single agency, no matter how good, can cover every market or every nuance of a fast-moving health story. PRGN’s model solves that problem the right way: it keeps local expertise local while giving clients access to a much bigger pool of knowledge when they need it.
What This Means for Clients
Health organizations today are managing a lot at once. Hospitals are navigating cost pressure and staffing shortages. Biotech and pharma companies are racing to bring AI-enabled research to market while managing patent cliffs and supply chain risk. Patient advocacy groups are trying to be heard above all of it.
The new Health Practice Group gives PRGN member agencies, including Landis, a structured way to:
✅ Share expertise across borders instead of reinventing strategy market by market
✅ Combine local relationships and local media knowledge with a much wider international network
✅ Support clients on cross-border launches, policy issues and crisis response with speed and consistency
That last point matters more than people realize. In health communications, speed and accuracy go together. A structured global network shortens the distance between “we have a problem” and “we have a plan.”
San Francisco’s View on This
I’ll be honest about my bias here: San Francisco is ground zero for AI, and that shapes how I think about every announcement like this one. We’re watching AI reshape health communications in real time, from how research gets done to how patients and providers find and trust information. Being part of a global network means we can bring that front-row perspective to the table while still leaning on colleagues who know their own markets better than anyone flying in from the outside ever could.
Landis has spent more than three decades building relationships in health, life sciences and consumer health here in the Bay Area, with client work spanning UCSF, Sutter Health, Amgen, Align Surgical Associates and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, among others. Now we get to pair that experience with a much bigger global bench whenever a client’s story crosses borders, which, in this industry, is more often than not.
What Comes Next
PRGN’s Health Practice Group will meet regularly to advance cross-border work and align on emerging issues across hospitals, pharma, biotech, mental health, hospices, telemedicine and patient advocacy. That’s a wide net, and it needs to be. Health communications isn’t one conversation anymore. It’s dozens of conversations happening at once, in different languages, under different regulations, for different audiences.
I’m glad Landis has a seat at that table, and I’m looking forward to what this group builds together.
*Sean Dowdall is President of Landis Communications, an integrated communications agency based in San Francisco and a member of the Public Relations Global Network.*