The Disparity Disconnect: What Pharma Media Can Learn from IHI’s Framework

When the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) released its white paper, “An Approach to Systematically Identify and Evaluate Health Disparities,” recently, it wasn’t written for media planners, marketers, or agencies. And yet — it should have been.

Because buried in the report’s technical language is a message that cuts straight to the heart of our industry: you can’t fix what you don’t measure, and what you don’t measure, you perpetuate.

For healthcare systems, the IHI offers a structured way to uncover where inequities live and how to close them. For pharma media, it offers something just as powerful: a mirror.

What if the same inequities that shape care outcomes are quietly shaping the reach, comprehension, and resonance of our campaigns?

“Equity isn’t just a care delivery issue — it’s a communications one.”

The Wake-up Call Hidden in the Data

IHI’s framework is pragmatic, and argues that to close health gaps, organizations must “systematically identify and evaluate disparities by stratifying outcomes across population groups.” That means breaking data apart by race, ethnicity, language, income, disability, geography — and seeing, clearly, where results diverge.

That’s of course a focus for us in pharma media too. We already measure almost everything: impressions, clicks, conversions, brand lift. But what we should measure more is who’s missing.

• A digital campaign that performs beautifully in urban markets might barely register in rural areas.
• An awareness program written at a postgraduate reading level could alienate the very communities most affected by a condition.
• A “national reach” buy might unintentionally exclude populations because of algorithmic bias in targeting or data modeling.

These are media disparities — invisible in the dashboard, but deeply real in their impact.

“When reach looks equal but understanding doesn’t, that’s not success. That’s inequity at scale.”

From Media Disparities to Health Disparities

IHI’s approach starts with humility; a willingness to admit we don’t always know where inequity hides.

Because disparities in communication don’t begin with bad intent; they begin with blind spots.

• Blind spots in data; when algorithms favor the measurable over the meaningful.

• Blind spots in creative; when representation becomes a stock photo, not a lived perspective.

• Blind spots in measurement; when performance metrics reward efficiency, not fairness.

In IHI’s model, healthcare organizations should look to build systems that continually identify, evaluate, and improve. Within pharma media, we do this every day with media performance, and there should be an encouragement to do in within inclusivity.

Applying IHI’s Three-Step Method to Pharma Media

1. Identify: See Who’s Missing

Go beyond audience volume. Map campaign reach across demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic lenses.
Ask: Who isn’t seeing our message? Which populations are underexposed or underserved?

2. Evaluate: Quantify the Gaps

Create an Equity Stratified Media Report — your new lens on performance, to see relevant data you can act upon.

3. Act: Build Equity Into the System

Equity can’t live on a slide deck. It has to be coded into briefs, creative reviews, and KPIs. Just as IHI calls for “embedding improvement into every level of healthcare,” equity must be embedded into every stage of media. That means pre-testing messages with underserved groups, ensuring readability, and tracking representation as rigorously as media-specific ROI.

The Moment We’re In

As generative AI reshapes content creation, data privacy changes how audiences are reached, and public trust in pharma continues to fluctuate, the way we communicate matters more than ever.

Pharma media doesn’t just support the healthcare system, it shapes how people experience it. Decisions about targeting, language, and measurement influence who is reached, who is understood, and who is left behind.

That requires a broader definition of performance. Reach should reflect fairness as well as efficiency. Compliance should account for clarity and inclusion, not just safety. And measurement should show not only what worked, but for whom it worked — and where it didn’t.

“The next frontier of media planning is personalization with representation.”

Five Steps to Building Equity Into Pharma Media

1. Audit Who’s Missing
   Stratify your last three campaigns. Where did engagement lag? Which geographies or groups underperformed?

2. Add Equity KPIs to Every Brief
   Define expected reach and comprehension across populations — and report against it.

3. Co-Design With Communities
   Bring patient voices, advocacy groups, and local partners into creative development.

4. Empower MLR as Equity Partners
   Involve compliance early to champion readability, accessibility, and inclusive representation.

5. Publish and Learn Publicly
   Transparency is trust. Include equity data in internal QBRs and, when possible, in public reporting.

Closing: Seeing the Invisible

The IHI paper calls for the courage to confront inequity where it hides and to build systems that make it visible. A great responsibility sits with pharma media. When communication fails to reach or resonate equitably, the cost isn’t just inefficient spend it’s missed understanding and widened gaps.

2026 should be the year pharma media starts asking a follow-up question to “Did it perform?”: “Did it perform fairly?”