Who it's for → Healthcare

Behavioural Design training for the healthcare sector

The behaviour change training for healthcare professionals whose work raises treatment adherence without forcing it.|

In healthcare, you never speak to just one audience. The patient decides differently from the doctor who refers, and the insurer paying the bill looks at something else entirely. Most healthcare communication explains, warns, informs. Meanwhile treatment adherence, referral behaviour and trust are shaped by something else: the automatic brain, fear, habit. That's exactly why this is a different training for the healthcare sector: you learn to design the behavioural layer that most healthcare communication misses.

Nine behavioural challenges in healthcare → Or go straight to our courses →

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Healthcare professionals work together on a behavioural analysis during the Behavioural Design Fundamentals training at SUE Amsterdam

Healthcare is a behavioural discipline

Every healthcare professional runs into these behavioural challenges.

A new device, a referral, a prevention campaign, a prescription: it always comes down to whether the patient, the doctor or the insurer actually does something. Time and again it turns out: good information is not the same as behaviour. The question isn't whether you recognise this. The question is how you break through it.

01 · Treatment adherence

Why doesn't the patient take their medication as prescribed?

Leaflet read, explanation given, and yet the patient stops. Knowledge turns out to be a poor predictor of behaviour.

02 · Patient journey

Where in the patient journey does someone drop off without us noticing?

GPs often spot it too late, hospital information is too technical, and patients hate the word "patient".

03 · Referral behaviour

How do I get GPs to refer sooner, or recommend our device?

Good product claims convince a purchasing department. A busy GP needs something else.

04 · Launching new products

How do I market a new device or drug straight to patients?

Twenty years of B2B experience with doctors and hospitals teaches you little about convincing an individual patient.

05 · Trust & fear

How do I remove fear without hiding the risks?

Full transparency sounds honest. Often it scares people away from the treatment altogether.

06 · Prevention

How do I get people to book a screening they'd rather postpone?

The invitation is clear, the importance is obvious, and the appointment still sits unbooked in the drawer.

07 · Healthcare as a community

How do I design one message for the patient, the doctor and the insurer at once?

One Dutch care region reframed itself from "a system with capacity problems" into "a caring community", and discovered loneliness was an overlooked driver of care demand.

08 · AI in healthcare

What's my added value once AI can also draft patient information?

AI writes the text. Understanding why a patient drops off remains a human job. Or does it?

09 · Proving impact

How do I show that behavioural design measurably improves adherence and satisfaction?

Reach and opens don't convince a board. Treatment adherence and patient satisfaction do. But you don't measure those automatically.

From practice

Why "patients with a disease" was the wrong starting point

You're launching a glucose monitor that warns diabetics through their phone the moment their levels turn dangerous. Medtronic had worked exclusively with doctors and hospitals for twenty years. Now the device had to reach an individual patient directly, not a procurement department.

Doctors and family members talked about "patients with a disease". The diabetics themselves had one job-to-be-done: lead a normal life, like everyone else. The sound alert was initially set to be removed. Too annoying, the team thought. Research showed the opposite. Patients loved it. It freed them from constant finger pricks and gave them the feeling of being a normal person, with a safety net.

All communication was reframed around normalcy and freedom, not disease and limitation.

When the trial opened, the places filled within two hours. People signed up even at full price.

Why the SUE Behavioural Design Method

Behavioural science made usable for professionals who aren't behavioural experts.

Most behavioural science knowledge sits locked away in academic papers and consultancy reports. SUE built its own method, the Influence Framework, that translates that knowledge into a practical step-by-step process any healthcare professional can apply, without a scientific background.

Read: the SUE Influence Framework explained →

SUE Influence Framework, five forces that determine human behaviour, applied to patients, doctors and health insurers

No academic theory, you work on your own healthcare case during the training and go home with a worked-out intervention plan.

Built on Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler, scientifically grounded but accessible for practitioners.

Our own method, the Influence Framework is taught nowhere else, described in the #1 bestselling management book.

16 years of experience, from Medtronic and Roche to Bristol-Myers Squibb and ZorgDomein: healthcare organisations have trained with us to learn how to design patient behaviour, treatment adherence and referral behaviour.

9.3/10

★★★★★

4.8/5

★★★★★

5.0/5

★★★★★

Accredited by

What healthcare professionals say after the training

10,000+ professionals have taken a SUE Behavioural Design Training.

The healthcare professionals among them have one thing in common: they look at patient behaviour, treatment adherence and referral behaviour differently afterwards.

What a fun and interesting two days it was! The training was very well put together: the alternation of theory and practice, examples, exercises, key takeaways and the fantastic breakfast and lunch and location. It really helped me, and I will immediately apply this to the organisation and campaigns.

Lieke Resink

sr. Marketer · Zorgdomein

★★★★★

The Behavioural Design Academy gave me insight into the importance to start at the behavioural change of the user/client. On top of this, you do not only get the insight but also the tools to apply this in practice and to test your ideas within your organisation. I really recommend this course!

Sophie Borm

Business Developer · ZorgDomein

★★★★★

Extremely inspiring training, with which you start thinking even more from the needs of the target group. Thanks to the "Influence Framework" "The Job To Be Done" remains central and you learn to remove "Anxieties". I can't wait to put this method into practice!

Paul Reuvers

UX designer · VGZ

★★★★★

Learned a lot these two days because of the super clear explanations, great methods, vibe and because it was made applicable to me.

Lennert van Hunen

UX Designer · VGZ

★★★★★

At the beginning of this sprint, you indicated that we would look for the pathway that makes behaviour easier and more logical for our GPs. And we indeed found that pathway. I am delighted with what we have created right now.

Paul Goossen

Customer Marketing Manager · Bristol-Myers Squibb

★★★★★

These are a lot of insights, a lot of stuff for us to do, a lot of stuff to implement. We have learned a lot on how to approach physicians differently, how to implement things differently to make it work for them.

Michaël Magagnin

Senior Product Manager Hematology/Oncology Benelux · Bristol-Myers Squibb

★★★★★

This course gave me great insights, is pragmatic but still with a diligent approach, and very practical and effective.

Esther Syfrig

Head of communication · Roche

★★★★★

Good programme! Good ratio between theory and practice. Fast pace, but still easy to follow.

Alexander Bindels

Digital project expert · Roche

★★★★★

Empathy brings you to the essence of the problem.

Maud van Angeren

Product marketer · Zorgdomein

★★★★★

After the training

What healthcare professionals do differently after the Behavioural Design training

No abstract knowledge. Concrete changes in how you approach patient behaviour, treatment adherence, referral behaviour and prevention.

You analyse patient, doctor and insurer behaviour before designing an intervention

You use the Influence Framework as your starting point. Which pains, gains and anxieties apply to the patient, and which to the referring doctor. Often the real job-to-be-done turns out to simply be: lead a normal life.

You design the context around a treatment, not just the explanation of it

You know how to design a device, a prescription or an invitation so the desired behaviour also becomes the easiest behaviour. Not just medically sound, but psychologically logical too.

You speak the language of behaviour with doctors, leadership and health insurers

You have a shared framework to explain why a patient or doctor responds the way they do, and how your communication adapts to that without abandoning medical-legal frameworks.

For your manager

What your manager wants to know

Need to convince your manager? Here's what actually changes.

Higher treatment adherence and patient satisfaction

A patient who understands and trusts their treatment stops less often. Behavioural Design translates directly into the treatment adherence figures and patient satisfaction scores leadership tracks.

Less resistance from healthcare professionals

Doctors and referrers accept a new protocol, device or piece of communication faster when it matches their own job-to-be-done, not a product claim. That saves months of delay in the referral pathway.

Compliance without fear-based communication

Conveying risk information honestly without making people disengage is a behavioural challenge, not a legal one. The training prevents technically correct compliance copy from driving patients away.

View available dates → Get in touch

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions about the healthcare training

Yes. Our courses are EQAC-accredited and you finish with a certificate. You can start with the two-day Fundamentals Course (€1,490 excl. VAT) or move on to the Advanced Course for experts (€3,990 excl. VAT).

This is especially relevant for healthcare. You're never speaking to one audience: the patient, the doctor or referrer, and the insurer or hospital as the commissioning party. You learn to apply the Influence Framework to each of the three, so your message to the patient doesn't get stuck on distrust from the doctor or complexity at the insurer.

Experienced healthcare professionals often say afterwards: I already sensed this, but now I understand why. The training gives you the scientific framework behind treatment adherence, patient trust and referral behaviour, and a concrete method to design for it deliberately instead of relying on gut feeling.

Deliberately a mixed group: marketers, communication advisors, UX'ers and policy makers from healthcare, alongside professionals from other sectors. Maximum 16 participants. That mix is what makes it valuable: you learn not just from the content, but from how other sectors approach similar behavioural challenges.

Yes. We invoice under a company name and the training is EQAC-accredited, which makes expensing easier. Get in touch if you need a quote or additional information for your request.

Start with the Fundamentals. It gives you the complete Behavioural Design framework: the Influence Framework, the JTBD method and all the core tools. Deep Dives such as Behavioural Interviews build on that with specific applications. Without Fundamentals, a Deep Dive lacks its foundation.

The Fundamentals course is the broad foundation: 2 days live (or 33 online lessons) in which you learn the complete Behavioural Design framework. After that, you can apply it to any healthcare context. A Deep Dive training lasts 1 day and goes deep on one specific theme, such as Behavioural Interviews or Building Support. If you take both, Fundamentals always comes first.

The training doesn't touch medical-legal compliance or privacy policy itself, that stays with your legal and quality team. What you do learn is how to communicate within existing frameworks in a way that builds trust instead of fear, and how to convey risk information honestly without making people disengage.

Ready to take the next step? Check the next start date or ask your question.

View start dates → Ask a question

10,000+ professionals came before you · 9.3/10 rating · EQAC accredited

Behavioural Design is the missing layer.

Why good patient information still isn't behaviour change

Behavioural Design for the healthcare sector is the application of behavioural science to patient behaviour, treatment adherence, referral behaviour and prevention. The method helps you understand why a patient, doctor or insurer responds the way they do, and how to design the context around a treatment or message so the desired behaviour also becomes the easiest behaviour.

96% of behaviour is automatic. Most healthcare communication speaks to the conscious brain: explaining, informing, warning. The Behavioural Design Method teaches you to read the unconscious, and design your communication around it.

Five forces determine every behaviour. Pains, gains, anxieties, comforts and jobs-to-be-done. The SUE Influence Framework teaches you to recognise them in patients, doctors and insurers, and use them to design interventions that land.

Behaviour is designable. The Behavioural Design Method gives you a step-by-step process to change the healthcare context, not the patient, so treatment adherence and referral behaviour actually improve.

The behaviour change training for healthcare professionals whose work raises treatment adherence without forcing it.|

Every healthcare professional runs into these behavioural challenges.

Why doesn't the patient take their medication as prescribed?

Where in the patient journey does someone drop off without us noticing?

How do I get GPs to refer sooner, or recommend our device?

How do I market a new device or drug straight to patients?

How do I remove fear without hiding the risks?

How do I get people to book a screening they'd rather postpone?

How do I design one message for the patient, the doctor and the insurer at once?

What's my added value once AI can also draft patient information?

How do I show that behavioural design measurably improves adherence and satisfaction?

Why "patients with a disease" was the wrong starting point

Behavioural science made usable for professionals who aren't behavioural experts.

Healthcare training: three featured formats for healthcare professionals

Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course

Behavioural Design Masterclass

Deep Dive Behavioural Interviews

Or browse all our trainings and programmes

10,000+ professionals have taken a SUE Behavioural Design Training.

What healthcare professionals do differently after the Behavioural Design training

You analyse patient, doctor and insurer behaviour before designing an intervention

You design the context around a treatment, not just the explanation of it

You speak the language of behaviour with doctors, leadership and health insurers

What your manager wants to know

Higher treatment adherence and patient satisfaction

Less resistance from healthcare professionals

Compliance without fear-based communication

Frequently asked questions about the healthcare training

Why good patient information still isn't behaviour change

Would you rather discuss the options with us?

Book a call

Insights for healthcare professionals

90 seconds of Influence