Whether you come from one of the big Pharma companies or one of the new HealthTech startups, you need to handle a specific set of challenges to create a compelling presentation.
From our experience, there are few key ones:
To make the presentation design process easier, we’ve gathered a couple of trends and approaches that address these challenges and can help you succeed without reinventing the wheel.
HealthTech presentations need to do more than just inform—they should be engaging, clarifying, and trustworthy across diverse audiences. Let’s start by getting more familiar with challenges that can impede success—be it a presentation, a pitch deck, or a one-pager.
A common challenge among companies in the Pharma and HealthTech industries is the amount and complexity of information.
To name a few:
To communicate all of this effectively in a presentation, pitch deck, or report, we often need to prioritize the key information first. After that, we decide on the style and presentation design tools we’ll use, including fonts and colors, data visualizations, imagery.
Companies in the Pharma and HealthTech industries often hold quite a responsibility. First and foremost, it’s for people’s health and even lives, then for substantial resources they need to get a new product to the market. Therefore, earning stakeholders’ trust may not be easy.
We should factor this in while working on the presentations, pitch decks, and one-pagers by highlighting information that increases credibility. For the high-risk industries, this will be about norms and regulations in the first place:
Managing personal information is a big responsibility for any company. With every issue, there’re big risks for those who provided data and the company's future. For instance, there’re HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU that regulate data handling.
Companies in Health and Pharma are often very focused on accurate testing since unreliable results risk patient outcomes and damage reputations. Standards like cGMP in the U.S. and GMP in the EU provide guidelines for testing medical products.
Companies need to meet strict safety and efficacy standards before bringing products to market. It could be complex and costly but it creates an important layer of trust for the audience to rely on. The FDA in the U.S. and the EMA in the EU regulate whether the medical product is safe and useful.
Where there are high stakes, there is also an explicit need to show that the company can respect and follow the rules. This can be demonstrated in different ways. Some are effective and help the audience retain the information, while others are less impactful.
In Pharma and HealthTech, audiences come from all backgrounds—doctors, medical reps, researchers, patients, investors—each with different ways of processing information.
Doctors and researchers might find oversimplified slides unprofessional, while patients can feel overwhelmed by technical terms. Investors, meanwhile, want clear outcomes, not just raw data, and may tune out if it’s too detailed or they don’t see what they need.
We need to adjust the company presentation or the pitch deck to fit each audience’s level of understanding and interests. Without that, there’s a risk of leaving the audience confused and disengaged.
For Pharma companies, as well as other HealthTech ventures, effective data visualization is essential to make complex information clear and engaging. Custom data visualizations are highly useful in cases of mixed multilayer data, while infographics, various maps, and charts work great for specific tasks:
Custom data visualization is best where no single approach—like a chart or heat map—can tell the full story due to the data complexity. In these cases, we start by understanding the data structure and the purpose it serves. Then, we create a blend of visual formats to display information in the most relevant way to the current presentation purposes.
Examples:
Mapping out trial phases, patient demographics, and key outcomes in a single view.
Tracking the phases of patient care from diagnosis to treatment outcomes.
Layering maps and trend lines to show disease spread and risk areas.
Plotting safety, efficacy, and patient response metrics for new drugs.
Breaking down healthcare costs to showcase spending patterns.
Mapping health risks to highlight high-priority areas for intervention.
Charts are ideal for side-by-side comparisons and trend analysis. They can be used in presentations, decks, and one-pagers to show treatment outcomes, demographics, and cost distribution in ways that make it easy to spot differences and trends.
Examples:
Comparing drug performance across different age groups or types of treatment.
Showing trends over time, like changes in patient recovery rates.
Breaking down patient demographics or the distribution of treatment types.
Infographics work well for turning complex processes and layered information into straightforward and rather simplistic visuals that guide viewers through each point. They’re effective for summarizing research and giving step-by-step overviews and can be used across different materials, such as product presentation, investment deck, stakeholder report, or company one-pager.
Examples:
Illustrating clinical procedures or treatment plans, like a cancer treatment roadmap from diagnosis to follow-up.
Condensing key data from clinical trials, with visuals for age groups, response rates, and side effects.
Contrasting pros and cons of a drug or treatment, useful for patients and investors alike.
Whether you’re preparing a healthcare pitch deck for investors or a product presentation for one of the health conferences, or even a quarterly report for your stakeholders, storytelling will be your friend. It brings data to life, helping audiences connect with the material on a deeper level.
Our brains process stories better than isolated facts. By wrapping data into a story, we make it easier for your audience to grasp the main idea and stay interested. Plus, by using storytelling, we can build an emotional connection, which makes the company’s brand memorizable and more trustworthy.
When patient stories aren’t possible due to privacy or any other concerns, we consider using a brand mascot or hypothetical case studies to build a narrative.
Below are some data visualization examples that use storytelling:
Present a patient journey or trial participant story supported by key metrics.
Use visual comparisons to highlight the effectiveness of treatments.
Frame data around questions like, “What does this mean for patients, doctors, or investors?”
For presentations packed with data, we always make sure to avoid complex design. Overly detailed visuals will distract from the core message and make it harder for the audience to focus on what matters. By using minimalistic design with sufficient white space we can make a better emphasis on the data itself.
One of the key rules we follow in presentation design is consistency. Everything we create needs to be in line with all previous assets so the audience recognizes and trusts us. Although you may shift a bit the tone and style depending on the purpose and medium, you still need to stick to the fundamental brand guidelines, including tone of voice, colors, fonts, and visuals.
Another fundamental thing we consider is industry standards. The audience may not be very understanding if we present a new medical device as if it was for entertainment purposes. And so, while keeping basic industry rules in mind, we should make clarity the first and foremost target. With clear layouts and simple language, we can make complex information easier to follow.
Adjusting presentations to a particular audience is the premise of clarity and further impact. While designing a presentation, we should consider that each group needs a separate approach:
Want simple terms, with minimal medical jargon.
More comfortable with specialized language—to them, it reflects professionalism yet only when used sparingly.
Looking for information related to the economic side, such as roadmaps, competitive advantages, and market potential.
Finally, we should consider cultural, demographic, and gender differences. Therefore, we always suggest proofreading texts and imagery to avoid biases and ensure that every detail is inclusive and appropriate.
Presenting about Pharma and HealthTech subjects always comes with a few levels of complexity, including hard-to-interpret data, challenges of building trust, and audiences with diverse priorities.
However, if you have clear goals, understand your audience, and stick to priorities, you can effectively address the above with the relevant combinations of texts and visuals.
Then, if you need any assistance with presentation design, reach out to us and share your current challenges. We’ll get back in up to 48 hours with suggestions on whether we can be helpful for you.
