ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY & DIGITAL LEARNING PRODUCT
Physician Engagement & Sales Enablement for Boehringer Ingelheim
A patient-centric digital learning product designed from the ground up- translating dense clinical content into an interactive web experience for healthcare professionals, and equipping 18,000 sales team members with tools to communicate more effectively in the field.
CONTEXT
In 2013, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) Italy was already investing in digital health and physician engagement, ahead of most pharma companies at the time. They had an established online platform for medical professionals (MedTouch) but needed to go beyond static content toward genuinely interactive, behaviour-changing digital experiences.
This project sits at the intersection of B2B engagement strategy, digital product design, and sales enablement, at a moment when patient-centric design was just beginning to shape the future of healthcare communication
CHALLENGE
Physician engagement
Boehringer Ingelheim Italy reached out to us to develop an innovative physician engagement strategy, channeling it through MedTouch, their online platform tailored specifically for medical professionals that provides the latest medical insights and tools to enhance patient care.
They aimed to enhance doctors' soft skills development, particularly in patient communication and relationship management with online educational formats. The challenge was to transform dense scientific content into a dynamic digital experience for busy healthcare professionals that would improve educational outcomes and support the sales force, making it a useful resource for improving patient-doctor communication.
Sales team enablement
Furthermore, they wanted to create a training video series to support and empower their sales teams’ communication and storytelling skills. Directed at 18.000 Medical Science Liaison professionals, Sales Representative, and Functional Managers, these videos focused on making communication concepts emotionally impactful, concise and immediately applicable in the field.
APPROACH
Discovery & needs assessment
Ran a structured challenge diagnosis with the Boehringer Ingelheim Italy team — mapping organisational goals, audience needs, content gaps, and platform constraints before defining the format. This scoping phase shaped every subsequent decision: format selection, content architecture, production approach, and team composition.
Format & product definition
Developed a new format architecture from scratch, scoping the learning modules, interaction model, visual language, and multimedia mix required to serve both physician and sales team audiences. Translated the brief into a product specification that the cross-functional team could execute against.
Patient-Centric Design & Digital Learning Development:
Online Course Creation on a custom-designed web page: Developed a content strategy that restructured dense academic and scientific material into modular, scenario-based online course format, prioritising cognitive accessibility, narrative flow, and practical application. It featured original animations, custom visuals, and copy, all designed to provide a user-friendly educational experience.
Visual Storytelling: The use of visual storytelling and animated explanatory video formats, including the creation of a visual iconic alphabet, helped in simplifying complex medical information and making it more accessible.
Team assembly & production direction
Assembled and directed a purpose-built cross-functional team across strategy, copywriting, illustration, motion graphics, voice narration, and front-end development - managing delivery across two parallel workstreams (online course and video series).
The visual team included emerging designers from Density Design Lab at Politecnico di Milano, one of Europe's leading information design programmes, bringing fresh academic research perspective on visual complexity and data visualisation to the medical content.
SOLUTION
Digital learning product on Patient-Doctor Communication
Interactive course built on a custom web interface, mobile-responsive, HTML5/CSS front-end
Bite-sized scenario-based animations with professional voiceover, dialogue, and role-play narration
Visual iconic medical alphabet, a custom icon system designed to simplify complex clinical concepts
Modular structure covering patient communication, rapport building, and soft skills development
Long-form Content: In-depth reading materials for download
Sales enablement video series
Training videos on communication skills for field teams
TEAM
Daniela Berto (Strategic Lead): Engagement strategy, Format and product definition, Needs assessment, Cross-functional team assembly and direction, Project delivery.
Lisa Cadamuro: Copywriting
Marta Croce: Visual/Icon Design, Illustration
Miriam Palopoli: Motion Graphic Animation
Alessia Ieluzzi: Voice Narration
Luca Prati/Antonella Mauri (Yottacle): Front-end Development
