Candid Conversations brought together healthcare providers, pharmaceutical decision-makers, agency strategists, and POC media partners, where candid perspectives were shared on how pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing reveals itself in real care environments, and where approaches often fall short.

Across roles and specialties, providers described practicing conditions defined by limited time, rising patient anxiety, fragmented systems, and increasingly informed—yet often overwhelmed—patients. In that context, effectiveness at the point of care depends on relevance, trust, and workflow fit.

Providers challenged several long-standing assumptions about engagement. Care doesn't follow a linear path. Education doesn’t happen once. And decision-making rarely sits with a single individual. Instead, care happens across teams, over time, and under emotional pressure, realities that current marketing approaches don’t always reflect.

The takeaways were clear: pharmaceutical marketers can play a meaningful role in supporting care, but only when strategies are designed for clinical reality rather than idealized pathways.