How do you create a successful communications plan? A sound communications plan is an effective tool for any communications manager.

The plan needs to cover multiple bases and will involve your whole communications team. A successful plan needs to be managed well throughout the phases, from initial assessment, right through to measurement. Here are our six steps for an effective communications plan.

The ultimate guide to internal communications strategy

Assess your current communications strategy

 is to take a look at your current plan. Assess your strategy to identify any gaps or communications methods that are working.

Consult with your communications team – get their input on what they think you're doing well, and areas where you need to make improvements. Brainstorm new content ideas or new ways of doing things.

Ask your audience – you can do this with some simple Pulse Surveys where you ask specific, targeted questions on your current communication plan.

Look at how other departments in your organization communicate with their audience. Are they doing anything innovative or particularly successful?

When you've gathered all your data it's time to put your plan into practice by defining your objectives – what do you want to achieve with your communication messages, what are your goals?

 to organize or better project manage your plan.

Let's break it down: you need specific goals and a defined plan; you need to be able to measure the effectiveness of your plan; you need to 

allocate specific tasks to relevant members of your team

; the plan needs to be realistic both in terms of action and budget, and you need to monitor the success of the plan over a pre-defined time period.

You have your objectives laid out, you now need to identify who your audience is. The more you know about your audience, the more you can tailor your message and content to their requirements. You may need to segment your audience and have specific messages that are relevant to certain groups. 

 that allows you to effectively segment your audience, using different content, greetings, and subject lines, which allows you to better personalize your message and to drive up user response.

Different communications channels will be more effective with different groups of people. We've written about 

 in the past, who are more likely to engage with mobile-based channels as they are seldom at a desk. 

Use the information you have gathered in your assessment phase, combine that with your target audience data and you should be in a good place to decide on the best communications channels for your message.

You and your project team will now be loaded with pertinent information on which you can build a successful plan. The key to this is having realistic timelines – rushing at this stage isn't a good idea. You've done all the groundwork, now you need to set out your timeline.

When are you going to kick start your communications plans

What are the steps and when does each step need to be completed

What will be the frequency of your communications (once you've made that decision, stick to it)

We can never underestimate how important it is to analyze your communications. Poppulo’s 

 are a simple way to view all key data in one clear interface. Reviewing your communications plan will be an ongoing project – assess each communication you send out and identify its strengths and weaknesses. 

If you're noticing poor response rates, make tweaks in your next communication and continue to assess. Over time, you will be able to narrow down the points for success and focus on those – these might be as simple as sending out communication on a specific day and time. But it is only through constant monitoring that you will be able to see if your efforts are making a difference.

What are the important elements of a project communication plan?

 – This is the origin of the message and determines its intended audience and expected time delivery.

 – The message lies in the heart of what is being communicated and the way in which it is delivered. This includes everything from the words selected to grammar, style, and tone used.

 – This involves methods of communication such as mobile apps, email, video meetings, etc. The style and tone of communication can differ depending on what channels are selected. A group chat may be informal and use emojis, whereas a professional email may opt for more formal language.

 – The receiver of the message will analyze its intended meaning, including any underlying meaning. For example, a message that includes exclamation marks will be interpreted differently than the same message without one.

 – Feedback gives insight into the clarity of the message. If a message does not receive a reply, it must be determined if this is because the message was not understood by the receiver.

 – The environment is the space in which the message is communicated to its audience, whether it is face-to-face in the office, or virtually. This environment also comprises a psychological element; people think differently in an online environment than they do in a crowded conference space.

 – Context is a vital element of a project communication plan as it defines the tone and expectation of any particular communication. If these expectations do not align with how the message is being delivered, it can cause significant problems.

 – Interference is anything that occurs which alters or prevents the meaning of a message from being understood correctly. This can be anything from a person not paying attention in a meeting to someone not regularly checking their emails.

The complete internal communication software to engage your employees

How do you write a project communication plan?

Start with your project’s communication needs

When it comes to writing a project communication plan, you will first need to understand that every project is different and varies in size, nature, and intention. This must all be taken into consideration when it comes to deciding on the most appropriate types of communication for the project.

Having a clear idea of your project's purpose can aid greatly in reducing the number of unnecessary emails and messages sent out to workers. 

Deciding on what is important for employees to know and what is not, prevents them from getting distracted from the task at hand. Be conscious of all communication with employees and make sure that every update they are receiving has a clear purpose.

It’s important to determine the best method of communication for your project. Is it the type of project that requires weekly face-to-face meetings, or would a project discussion board or group chat work best? Think about what would be the most effective method of keeping your specific team up to date and productive.

Deciding how often communication will take place throughout the project sets clear expectations from the start. In this way, participants will be prepared for any upcoming meetings or interactions ahead of time. 

By understanding the outline for communication, those involved in the project can rest assured that they will be kept in the loop and that there is no need for them to request status updates in the meantime.

Identify the project owner and key stakeholders

The project manager is not always capable of handling communications by themselves and therefore some responsibilities must be delegated to others. Assigning this ownership will aid your plan in reaching its full potential by allowing each chosen individual to take ownership of a specific communication method.

Why is it important to have a communication plan?

To identify and implement a range of communications activities

To ensure the alignment of staff members and stakeholders

To include relevant input in the communications process

To gauge your plan’s success and areas of weaknesses

The main goal of a project management communication plan is to determine the methods through which important information and messages are delivered throughout the project. This includes deciding who will receive the communication, when they’ll receive it, and how often they should expect to receive new information. 

The importance of having a project management communication plan in place lies in the fact that poor communication can lead to project failure, and as a result, lead to a big financial hit for businesses.

On the other hand, organizations that take the necessary steps involved in creating a communication plan will be capable of effectively sharing vital information and updates throughout the project. This steady flow of communication, allowing all participants to be on the same page throughout, will greatly aid the project in reaching a successful outcome.

Project management communication plan example

As the business world adjusts to the next stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, one can see the “next normal” beginning to emerge: a workforce that’s a mix of employees who come into the office and those who choose to work from home.

This new dynamic will especially demand leaders to apply soft skills – the most important being adaptability and communicators to convey these skills broadly. 

More than ever, leaders and communicators will need to be flexible, because nobody knows exactly what the future holds. What key elements of adaptability will help you and your team’s health and success? Read on.

How to coach your leaders to ace their communications

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, organizations faced a situation that they had never encountered before. In many situations, leaders, aided by internal communicators, rose to the occasion, supporting employees as they faced physical and mental health challenges, family issues and isolation.

This higher awareness for the wellbeing of employees was also accompanied by a breakdown of hierarchies. On Zoom, employees saw their leaders operating from spare bedrooms, kitchen tables and attics, joined by cats, dogs and children. Similarly, the mode of dress chosen by leaders relaxed, just like their teammates.

This decrease in visible hierarchy will likely continue in the “next normal” both because of the COVID experience and the influence of mores from millennials and Silicon Valley. Besides these cosmetic changes, there are some tangible qualities which adaptable leaders should demonstrate as they interact with employees.

However, there is an essential role that internal communicators can play. They help adaptable leaders show their true colors.

First, they need to be on the same wavelength as those communicators to understand their true nature.

Second, they need to craft communications which highlight the best characteristics of adaptable leaders. Third, they need to use a wide range of channels to spread those messages, whether it is communications such as email, speeches, contributions to yammer groups, etc. Internal communicators ideally should convey the following qualities that an adaptable leader possesses:

 Leaders will need to summon their courage to help their teams cope with a more fluid environment. They’ll need to show their mettle to develop creative solutions to new problems and reassure employees about the positive future for the organization as it weathers uncertain times.

Leaders will also need to show courage in how their company responds to societal issues that are meaningful to employees given the increasing focus on this area. 

Finally, leaders are going to need to be brave to honestly convey challenges in the early experimental days of the return.

 This is true for several reasons. First, the way companies have communicated with their employees, vendors and partners during the pandemic has been more open and less hierarchical than ever before.

This has extended from the CEO down. Second, given the fact that people do not actually know what the future holds, it will be important to win the trust of your team to explain the challenges and opportunities that a specific situation holds. Finally, being transparent requires a leader to show their humanity, such as sharing their true emotions or relevant personal stories.

This quality is part of an adaptable leader’s power both because many elements of hierarchy were wiped away during the pandemic and because of the needs of an unsettled workforce. The days of a slick, ersatz, distant leader have faded.

Leaders today must be accessible and on the same wavelength as their team. One leader we work with uses podcasts to more effectively connect with his employees. Leaders like that frequently enlist internal communicators to persuade and lead people. Similar to transparency, an approachable leader needs to reveal their personal vulnerability as a signal to their teammates.

 An adaptable leader needs to be empathetic. The pandemic has taxed people’s mental and emotional health. Some have lost relatives, friends and co-workers to the virus and are understandably grieving.

Others have shouldered an inordinate amount of work (both professional and personal) and are exhausted. Some employees are apprehensive of what the future holds professionally. An adaptable leader demonstrates that they value the feelings of their teammates and care about helping them to return to normal.

An adaptable leader also recognizes the sacrifices and contributions that their team has made during this challenging situation, to applaud their diligence, determination and commitment. 

Employee Engagement and Retention Report* 

said that 52% of workers are considering looking for a new job as things return to “normal,” this empathy and appreciation may significantly reduce turnover.  Clearly, this skill may yield more returns than all the others combined. 

As they face the “next normal”, leaders will be buffeted by more challenges.  

If they can rise to the situation through bravery, transparency, approachability and empathy, they will enjoy an adaptability which will help them position their employees to adapt as well. 

Internal communicators play an enormous role in conveying those leaders’ qualities to employees, whether formally or informally. Ideally, these communicators can accurately translate the qualities of an adaptable leader to craft authentic communications that have the greatest impact.

https://www.achievers.com/resources/white-papers/workforce-institute-2021-engagement-and-retention-report/

Here’s how Internal Communicators can help adaptable leaders show their true colors

 in the New Yorker, which looked at the history of reports in the US on race riots, spanning over a century. 

Almost all of these reports asked the same questions, found the same answers, and made the same recommendations. It’s worth quoting from Lepore’s article in depth:

“In a 1977 study, “Commission Politics: The Processing of Racial Crisis in America,” Michael Lipsky and David J. Olson reported that, between 1917 and 1943, at least twenty-one commissions were appointed to investigate race riots, and, however sincerely their members might have been interested in structural change, none of the commissions led to any. 

The Changed Workplace 2021: What employees want and what leaders and communicators need to do about it

"The point of a race-riot commission, Lipsky and Olson argue, is for the government that appoints it to appear to be doing something, while actually doing nothing.”

. The many reviews (for example, the McGregor-Smith report) on treatment of underrepresented groups here in the UK have also made recommendations, many of which have not been implemented. Some have been implemented, so it’s good to see some progress.

And yes, of course, there’s been so much progress over the last century. Women can vote and be financially independent of men. Marriage is now legal for everyone in the four nations of the UK. 

These are real wins, but when you realise that there is still a gender pay gap (which 

), an ethnicity pay gap, a disability pay gap… you realize that we are measuring progress against a system that is, by its very nature, unequal. 

Therefore, unless that system itself changes, we simply can’t fix it once and for all. Something else will always come up. Just look at the year we’ve been through, which has made it just that little bit harder to turn a blind eye to our society’s glaring inequalities. 

Of course, there are those who have no problem turning a blind eye: there will always be people and governments which continue the legacy described by Lepore of being more interested in 

In my work, I look for ways that organisations can change their cultural fabric in order to start replacing the old system with something that works better for everyone. In fact, the act of changing your culture in this way is how I would define inclusive leadership:

Inclusive leadership focuses on making the invisible* structures of systemic inequality visible – and then changing them. 

(*invisible to those whom they privilege)

It’s practical, hands-on change, and it benefits everyone.

One example of something you can do to change the fabric of your culture and make it more inclusive is to really re-think the definition of “success.” Success is and has traditionally been aligned with a certain kind of trajectory – one that is focused on being promoted upwards through a hierarchy, making it to the top, in a steady flow. 

But this linear progression doesn’t suit everyone nor is it to everyone’s taste; but if there’s only one route to attaining this idea of success, people don’t have much choice.

So start at the top and redefine success: one thing you could do would be to allow for (in fact, encourage!) career breaks for 

Another good way in which to redefine success is to move away from the equation that full-time = successful; in other words, work to destigmatize part-time and flexible working for everyone.

I always encourage people to implement quick wins when it comes to inclusion, but not at the expense of the bigger picture. Training is a good example. I think training individuals is important, but not if it’s just sheep-dipping – and the only way to ensure that it’s not sheep-dipping is to plug it into a bigger picture. 

Like every other kind of initiative, inclusion has to be embedded in the fabric of the culture or it won’t stick – I can take a course on learning to speak Arabic or on how to be an electrician, but if it’s not part of my everyday life, it’s unlikely that I’ll retain those skills. 

So train your people by all means. But make sure that when they come into the workplace (whether that’s physical or virtual), they can put those skills to use.

There was a great example of ensuring training contributes to challenging systemic inequality given in the 

. In a case study looking at the NHS, they noted that data was collected, analysed and published regarding the likelihood of underrepresented groups accessed non-mandatory training, “including that which is designed to improve their career opportunities.”

And ultimately, this is the best tool I can offer you: if you always keep your eye on the big picture (aka the strategic narrative) – on the 5 year plan, the 10 year plan – when you devise your inclusion initiatives, then that will help you to focus in on the right ideas to create strategic cultural change that will have a lasting impact and legacy.

Why you've got to embed Inclusion into the fabric of your company's culture

 published this week is the dominance of surveys and the underutilization of focus groups and digital listening.

Over the past two years, Howard Krais, Mike Pounsford and myself have conducted interviews, run workshops and examined case studies. And in this latest report, we delve deep into approaches to listening through a global survey with more than 500 communication managers.

Many critics see the ‘employee survey industry’ as the antithesis of good listening. The constant cycle of questionnaires often appears to meet a management need to count opinions rather than an employee’s need to feel that their opinion counts.

The constant cycle of questionnaires often appears to meet a management need to count opinions rather than an employee’s need to feel that their opinion counts.

Despite the growth in new digital tools, the results of our study clearly illustrate that surveys dominate the way organizations listen. 

We found that the ‘large-scale engagement survey’ is used by 59 percent of respondents at least annually and is mentioned most often as the approach delivering insights. 

The Changed Workplace 2021: How employees feel and what leaders and communicators need to do about it

Additionally, 35 percent of respondents said that pulse surveys are used monthly, quarterly or on an ongoing basis. In contrast, 77 percent of respondents stated that focus groups were rarely or never used. This suggests that there is a broad under-appreciation of the insights that focus groups generate.

We acknowledge the benefits of surveys - they provide a comprehensive overview of opinion and enable comparative data analysis across functions, areas, and time. 

Differences or trends can be ascribed to events or processes which can be reviewed and changed or improved. Anonymity is also an important aspect of a survey – something that was raised many times in open comments in our research. 

But what also stands out from open comments is the importance of ‘face to face’ interaction (it may be virtual or physical) where employees can talk about their opinions and emotions – often with leadership there to hear and respond. 

Focus groups or dedicated listening sessions demonstrate a concern for the views of employees and generate deeper insights through more open and free-ranging discussion of experiences. Although they may appear to be more difficult and time-consuming to organize, focus groups are well worth the effort.

Perhaps the most surprising result in our latest research is that 53 percent of respondents agreed that employees are more comfortable speaking up on internal digital platforms than in other settings (19 percent disagreed). 

At the same time, 58 percent of respondents rarely or never monitor discussions on digital platforms. This suggests that a method of expressing views that employees are comfortable with using is the one that is not used very much for listening.

Furthermore, reviewing discussions on internal digital platforms is more strongly associated with beneficial outcomes such as generating good ideas on how to work effectively than other listening methods used on an ongoing basis.

As organizations move to a hybrid model of working this year, digital will play an important role in future organizational listening strategies. However, there are also some issues with digital listening. These include:

Low participation (often, significantly, including leaders) in online forums and discussions

Ethical concerns that digital listening feels like eavesdropping if employees are unaware that discussions will be monitored

The problems of access being limited for some groups of employees because of the nature of their work.

The potential for insights from digital listening should not be under-estimated. A combination of pulse surveys, increased use of focus groups, and better internal digital listening are the cornerstones for any listening plan. 

Get this right and organizations will see tangible benefits such as effective change management, the generation of good ideas for effective working, responding well to changes, and the creation of innovative new products and services.

This blog by Dr. Kevin Ruck is based on the findings of the latest Who's Listening research report, From Measurement to Meaning, which you can download

The ways we listen to employees need to change

One of the popular trends in industry is that companies should make it a priority to support the personal growth of their workforce. The competitive labor market, the risk of churn, and the need to retain the knowledge of valued staff are all good reasons to support team members’ personal development goals, but the results can also be surprisingly good for business.

Perhaps one of the best examples comes from

 Early on in the company’s history, it made a pledge to allow staff 20 percent of their work time to set personal development goals and self-driven projects. In Google’s case, given the nature of the business, most of those goals were focused on software applications. Gmail was the outcome of one such self-driven project created by a staffer in the company; a project which ultimately helped with wider strategic organizational objectives and achieved 1.25 billion users by July 2017.

This highlights the importance of giving employees control of their own key areas of development, whether professionally or personally. Empowering staff in goal setting ensures that they feel

 and not simply another cog in the corporate machine.

 suggest that an individual sense of control within the workplace leads to a variety of positive factors, such as job satisfaction, better work performance, and greater commitment to the organization.

However, long-term personal development goals should not focus exclusively upon wider corporate objectives. Ideally, they should seek to foster professional development. That might be something as simple as learning about current thinking in management skills, to more subtle talents such as how to effectively read the body language of your colleagues.

The Ultimate Guide to Internal Communications Strategy

Employee well-being is closely aligned with personal productivity and performance in the workplace. Something as simple as

 was found to have an impact on staff health and the inherent dangers of a sedentary existence.

There are only so many hours in any workday, thus to be efficient with the time available, developing skills in being able to plan and consciously control how that time is allocated can have a significant effect on personal productivity. This may be as simple as having a daily priority list of tasks or maintaining a

Inter-personal skills can be key to making a group of coworkers an effective and efficient team. This was recognized as far back as 1936 when Dale Carnegie penned the seminal title

‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’.

 can be a powerful motivational tool both individually and across teams. In Steven Covey’s book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, he makes the assertion that a key metric of any goals-oriented individual must be an understanding of the intended destination; ‘begin with the end in mind’.

Setting and achieving personal development goals isn’t just stimulating for the individual; by taking people outside their comfort zone, it creates an atmosphere where accepted convention can continuously be challenged and tested. This allows opportunities for reflection and helps inspire a critical analysis of accepted workplace norms – for the benefit of the whole organization.

And of course, from a personal perspective, participants regularly investing in their personal development, intellectually or physically, benefit from improved employability as

they learn to critically analyze their work

, those working with them, and, perhaps most crucially, themselves.

Using your team’s differences to your advantage

Making meaningful connections within your industry

Carrying out quarterly career self-reflection

A problem with career goals is that they are often broad and make it difficult to aim towards something specific. Instead of saying that you would love a promotion at work, you should focus on the exact position you have in mind. Taking the time to sit down and decide all the important details of what you want your career to look like, and what your day-to-day life will entail, will allow you to get much clearer about the particular goals you are working towards.

In order for a goal to be effective, there needs to exist measurable criteria to highlight the achievement. Without this measurement, it is difficult to determine if the goal was actually a success. If, for example, someone has the goal to increase their income, this is very ambiguous and there is no way to determine what exactly this would look like. On the other hand, if someone says they want to increase their income by 20 percent, then they have a benchmark that allows them to easily track their progress.

Your goals should be challenging but attainable

When setting career goals, there should be a certain challenge involved and the need to raise the bar and work hard if you want to succeed. If a goal is too easy to reach then there is no room for growth. However, setting goals that are too far-fetched or unattainable will only lead to disappointment. Set goals that are compatible with your skills and abilities and determine if your current circumstances allow you to pursue this goal. Ask yourself, are there any obstacles in your way? Is there anything you can do to overcome them? Are you willing to learn new skills to meet your goal?

People too often set career goals that sound good or that they think they should be striving for, instead of goals that truly matter to them. Any goal should be important to you and something that would make you happy if you were to achieve it. If you set certain goals because others expect you to, then you will lack the motivation to pursue them whole-heartedly. Examine what your priorities are in life and then set goals that align with this. Once you find a goal that is important to you for the right reasons, it will motivate you to keep on pushing forward to achieve it.

Determine how you are going to achieve the goals

To achieve any goal, you must have a strong idea of what you have to do in order to reach it. You should ask questions such as:

Do you need to make any lifestyle changes?

After outlining your goals, you must now determine whether you are committed enough to see them through. This is particularly relevant if the goal you have in mind is a challenging one. You must decide if you are willing to dedicate the time and effort towards achieving it, or to learn any new skills that may be necessary. If you feel you will not be able to provide this level of commitment, then you must revise your goal and set one that you can be fully committed to.

It’s very common for people to know what they want to achieve, but they simply do not have a timeline for when they want to achieve it. Not having a timeline in place can make goals less effective and lead to long-term procrastination. If you have no set date in mind, then what is there to motivate you to start working on your goals? Having a deadline holds you accountable. If you do not reach your goal by the date you had planned then it must be deemed a failure. With a deadline in place, it is also easy to break the goal down into smaller parts that need to be achieved every day, week, or month.

Putting your goals into writing will make them much more real and will inspire commitment and motivation. Having them displayed somewhere you can look at often, such as on your desk, is ideal. When writing out your goals it’s important to use positive language such as ‘I will’ and opposed to ‘I might.’ It is also useful to visualize what it will look like when you achieve your goals. Research shows that visualization works as a strong motivator and makes people more likely to succeed with their goals.

 – Creativity continues to be of importance to employers. Dedicating time to a new hobby, spending time away from technology, going for walks, or practicing pattern recognition are some examples of ways to improve creativity.

 – This remains one of the skills that separate humans from robots. People can improve problem-solving skills through various techniques such as focusing on a solution rather than the problem.

 – Cognitive flexibility includes having the resilience and ability to cope in the face of unpredictable change. There are different approaches to developing cognitive flexibility such as self-awareness, exercise, and changing routines.

 - Emotional intelligence involves someone’s ability to process their emotions, in addition to the emotions of those around them. Some ways to improve emotional intelligence include practicing active listening, improving communication skills, and dedicating time for self-reflection.

 – Having an understanding of how the various departments of a company align is becoming increasingly more important in business. Ways to improve transdisciplinary skills include organizing knowledge-sharing coffee dates, shadowing colleagues from different departments, and launching company learning events.

Embracing new media and virtual communication

 – Modern technology is continuously allowing the traditional notion of the workplace to evolve, with a constant increase in the number of remote workers, and the use of various communication apps such as Slack and Zoom. Therefore, it’s important workers familiarize themselves with the various tools and technology available to them within their organization.

 – In today’s globalized world, workers need the ability to communicate across different cultures in order to work collaboratively. Being familiar with one's own culture, along with being respectful and willing to learn about the cultures of others, will make communicating much easier.

Goal setting is a vital factor in the workplace. 

 will motivate individuals to increase their efforts, provide them with stronger focus, and help them prioritize. If a person does not have a goal to aim for in their work, they will suffer from a lack of motivation and will struggle to achieve any growth in their career. However, with an end goal in sight, projects take on more clarity and meaning. To perform to their highest potential, people need to be striving towards something they feel is important, rewarding, or aligns with their personal values.

Personal development goals for work

Digital transformation has fast become a key strategy in organizations all over the world. Some sectors, like manufacturing and retail, have embraced digital transformation, while sectors such as healthcare have been slower to implement widespread 

There are many reasons for this: healthcare is a complex sector that deals directly with sensitive patient data and life and death circumstances.

Applying digital technologies to any layer of this multi-pronged sector requires a measured approach. However, the benefits of digital transformation in healthcare are significant and could change the nature of how countries provide healthcare services.

The way in which we interact with brands has changed. Consumer organizations like Apple, Google, and Amazon have built global brands by offering user-friendly, seamless products and services. 

We've also become inherently mobile, doing everything from banking to grocery via our mobile phones. How is the healthcare sector responding to citizens' demands for increased flexibility, accessibility, and ease of interaction?

 enabling the digitization of healthcare services and making patient data more accessible. But let's look at some key digital technologies that are poised to kick start digital transformation in healthcare and make a dramatic impact on global healthcare services.

Employee comms can make or break your digital transformation – Here’s how to do it right

As its name suggests Big Data concerns huge volumes of data. The task with such large volumes, as one would expect in a healthcare setting, is analyzing it and gaining information from it that can then be used 

. Here are some of the key areas in which Big Data is making a real difference in the healthcare sector:

Providing more accurate health insurance rates

Delivering more personalized healthcare services

 uses data to deliver precision medicine. Its platform gathers and categorizes data from lab reports, clinical notes, radiology scans, and pathology images. That data is being used to accelerate oncology research and help doctors to create more personalized and informed treatment plans.

Pharmaceutical R&D has arguably never been more important than right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we're seeing the clear ways in which data has helped to develop much-needed vaccines in an incredibly quick timeframe.

 are building huge data libraries that help pharmaceutical companies and researchers to easily access and make sense of vast amounts of data. This helps speed up drug and vaccine development, enhances safety, and results in better outcomes.

VR has been identified as a key tool in digital transformation in healthcare. Though the technology is most associated with the gaming sector it is beginning to make an impact in the healthcare market; 

the augmented reality and virtual reality in the healthcare market

 is expected to reach $5.1 billion by 2025. Here are seven ways in 

which VR is being used in healthcare today

Easing pre-surgery anxiety among patients

 examined the use of Virtual Reality as a drug-free tool to manage pain. Researchers compared pain scores of two sets of patients: one set used Samsung Gear Oculus VR headsets that featured immersive 3D nature videos, while the second set simply watched nature videos on a bedside TV. This simple but effective study revealed that the "use of VR in hospitalized patients significantly reduces pain versus a control distraction condition.”

The wearables market has exploded in recent years with devices like the Fitbit and Apple Watch emerging as popular wearable devices. 

While these particular devices are aimed at the fitness market, we are now seeing more advanced wearable medical devices that keep track of anything from heart rates to oxygen levels. Here are some of the more common wearable devices and what they monitor:

Sweat meters to monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics

Oximeters to monitor the amount of oxygen carried in the blood for those with respiratory diseases such as COPD or asthma

We've mentioned before how digital transformation is a holistic process aimed at transforming every layer of an organization. The increased use of wearable medical devices allows for this digital transformation in healthcare to extend beyond an organization itself and put healthcare into the hands of the patients. 

Armed with all of this data about their heart rates, movement, oxygen levels, blood sugar levels, consumers and healthcare professionals can take a more proactive approach to healthcare services. The market 

is poised to grow to over 520 million units by 2025

 with smart clothing in particular set to make huge strides.

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