Educate

Our education strategy is designed to ensure that healthcare providers have the knowledge to identify appropriate patients and deliver effective care, that people have the understanding and support to start a therapy and stay on it, and that the broader healthcare environment is prepared when new medicines become available. This work begins well before regulatory approval, so that when a medicine is launched, providers are informed, patients are aware, and the healthcare environment is ready. Because better outcomes depend on aligned effort across systems, clinicians, and the people they serve, we focus on five areas:

• helping support healthcare providers with timely and accurate medical information;

• partnering with patients and communities to build awareness;

• reframing how chronic diseases are understood so that people feel encouraged to seek care;

• supporting patients from prescription through sustained health improvement; and

• embedding health literacy so that all patients can access and act on health information.

Supporting Healthcare Providers for Improved Care

Clinician awareness is the critical link between a medicine's approval and a person's access to it. A clinician who is informed about a treatment, understands appropriate patient selection, and can explain the evidence is often the person who opens the door to care. We invest in medical education programs that help clinicians understand the evidence behind our medicines, appropriate patient selection, dosing, administration, and monitoring. We create the majority of medical content in-house to ensure accuracy and rapid availability. As telehealth has expanded the ways people can access clinical care, we also work to connect people to informed clinicians through platforms like LillyDirect — helping a person who may benefit from a Lilly medicine reach a clinician prepared to evaluate the best treatment for the patient. Our goal is to ensure clinicians are supported with the clinical information they need whenever and wherever a person is seeking care.

Partnering with Patients and Communities to Build Awareness

Patients are more likely to discuss treatment options with their clinician and adhere to prescribed therapies when they understand their conditions and have confidence in the medicines they take. Awareness also helps patients recognize that treatments exist for conditions they may not have known were treatable. We invest in campaigns and community-based programs developed in partnership with patients and communities, helping people take the first step toward care.

We build awareness through campaigns and sponsorships that demonstrate our approach to improving health outcomes. We invest in disease awareness initiatives that help people understand conditions, recognize symptoms, and take proactive steps — particularly for diseases where early intervention matters. And we partner with clinicians, thought leaders, and communities to improve care for underserved populations where systemic barriers may prevent people from reaching the healthcare system at all.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Brain Health

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the clearest examples of why disease education must begin well before people need treatment. The disease can begin developing as early as 20 years before symptoms appear, when amyloid — a protein the body produces naturally — abnormally accumulates in the brain. Research indicates that up to 45% of dementia cases may be prevented or delayed by managing modifiable risk factors¹. Yet cognitive changes are often dismissed as normal aging, delaying the conversations with healthcare providers that can lead to earlier detection, risk assessment, and access to treatments that may slow disease progression.

We have invested in brain health research for more than 35 years, and our education efforts reflect the same long-term perspective. Our approach focuses on helping people understand that cognitive health deserves the same proactive attention as heart health or metabolic health — and that changes in memory, thinking, or behavior may warrant a conversation with a doctor rather than being attributed to aging alone. We invest in multi-year campaigns, healthcare provider education on early detection and cognitive assessment, and resources that help patients and families understand risk factors and take action. Women, who account for nearly 66% of Alzheimer’s diagnoses, are a particular focus of these efforts.

Sides of My Skin — Community Skin Health Initiative

Scientific innovation matters most when people can recognize concerns, navigate healthcare, and ultimately reach the treatments that science makes possible. Across the United States, many people living with skin conditions face barriers to dermatology care — limited specialist availability, transportation challenges, insurance complexity, and gaps in awareness can delay or prevent them from reaching care. For some, the first moment of recognition that something may be wrong happens in a trusted community space, not in a clinic.

That insight is the foundation of the Sides of My Skin - Community Skin Health Initiative, a healthcare access effort designed to improve the journey to care in dermatology by meeting people where trust already lives - in the trusted community spaces and relationships that are already part of their lives. Through collaborations with universities, advocacy organizations, community and faith groups, and beauty professionals, we sponsor programs that bring skin health education, non-diagnostic skin screenings, and navigation support directly into communities. The goal is not to replace clinical care, but to strengthen the pathway to it. Our Sides of My Skin program supports healthcare professionals with perspectives and resources to better understand the real-world barriers their patients face, while encouraging people to advocate for care that reflects who they are.

Reframing Chronic Diseases That Are Widely Misunderstood

Some chronic diseases carry persistent misperceptions that affect how people are treated and whether they seek care. Obesity is a clear example. Although it is a chronic disease with established biological drivers, it is often misunderstood as a personal failing — a misperception that shapes interactions with family, employers, and even healthcare providers. Clinical and leading advocacy bodies including the World Obesity Federation and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology have called for changes in how obesity is understood and discussed in clinical practice, recognizing that this misunderstanding produces stigma contributing to delayed care, lower trust in clinicians, and reduced engagement with treatment.

One of our contributions to reframing public understanding of obesity combines published research with public storytelling. Lilly research, including an OBSERVE study published in Obesity Science & Practice in 2025, examined how internalized weight bias intersects with other social determinants of health — finding meaningful associations between stigma and limited social support, negative interactions with clinicians, and constrained access to environments that support healthy living. Findings like these inform how we engage healthcare providers and patients on obesity care. Alongside this evidence base, we support public-facing campaigns designed to reframe obesity as a chronic disease rather than a matter of willpower, helping create space for people to seek care without fear of judgment.

From Prescription to Better Health

Access does not end when a person fills a prescription. Managing a chronic disease day to day can be challenging — from taking medicine as recommended to maintaining nutrition, physical activity, and mental well-being. When these challenges lead someone to stop or change therapy, the access we worked to create may not translate into better health. We recognize how common these challenges are, and we focus on reducing friction through digital tools, behavior change resources, and integrated support models that help people start the appropriate therapy and stay on it.

Health Literacy as a Foundation for Access

Health literacy — the ability to access, understand, and use health information to make informed decisions — is foundational to everything described in this section. We apply a set of eight health literacy principles across our patient-facing materials, focused on plain language, culturally familiar framing, actionable steps, and visual design that supports understanding. When patients can read and act on the information they receive, every other element of the access journey has the potential to work better.

In 2025, we expanded the ways we help patients reach and benefit from treatment — through healthcare provider education, community-based awareness programs, digital adoption tools, public storytelling that addresses misperceptions of chronic disease, and initiatives that address the barriers people face before they ever enter the healthcare system. On the consumer and community side, we launched numerous education campaigns and invested in sponsorships spanning professional sports and cultural platforms to build health awareness and educate about Lilly and our medicines. We implemented disease state awareness and disease state education campaigns across several therapeutic areas.

• In September 2025, we launched Brain Health Matters, a multi-year global campaign encouraging people to take charge of their brain health and lower their risk of dementia from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Building on 35 years of research, the campaign aims to make proactive brain care a regular part of long-term wellness plans.

• The Sides of My Skin — Community Skin Health Initiative reached U.S. cities including Houston, New Orleans, and Miami in its first six months, engaging thousands of community members, helping identify people with potential skin conditions, and connecting people to health-related social resources. In early 2026, we expanded this work through additional community-rooted organizations, reaching even more people in more cities facing systemic barriers to dermatology care. This growth reflects our belief that communities are not simply recipients of healthcare messaging — they are essential partners in improving the journey to care and ultimately outcomes. Through related educational initiatives, we continued to partner with healthcare professionals, dermatology thought leaders, advocacy groups, and communities to develop and share educational materials and practical resources. These resources help support trusted community intermediaries, including barbers, stylists, and community health workers, to serve as frontline champions for awareness of dermatologic conditions and help communities better recognize concerns, access trusted information, and navigate next steps toward care.

• On obesity, we contributed to the published evidence base on weight stigma through an OBSERVE study, which appeared in Obesity Science & Practice in 2025 and examined how internalized weight bias relates to other social determinants of health among people living with obesity. We also support the advocacy and public awareness efforts of many leading healthcare organizations working to advance the understanding of and reduce the stigma around the disease of obesity. We have a surrounding global consumer campaign to raise awareness of obesity as a disease.

Going beyond the medicine, we announced a partnership with Thrive Global in January 2025 to embed behavior change tools and resources into our consumer channels, beginning with condition-specific content for obesity, diabetes, and migraine. In June 2025, we launched the Lilly Health app in partnership with Welldoc, providing a personalized health and medicine platform for patients prescribed Zepbound, Mounjaro and Foundayo. The app supports patients between clinical visits with medication tracking, dosing reminders, device connectivity, and a content library.

We intend to continue scaling medical education programs globally, including expanding international healthcare provider engagement. We are expanding the Sides of My Skin — Community Skin Health Initiative to additional cities and communities in 2026, collaborating with more community-rooted organizations to reach more people facing systemic barriers to dermatology care. Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen relationships with these organizations and the communities they serve, strengthening locally informed efforts that support education, awareness, and improved connections along the journey to care. Our focus also includes continued work to reshape public understanding of chronic diseases like obesity — through both published research and public storytelling that supports people in seeking care.

⁴Livingston, Gill, et al. "Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care: 2024 Report of the Lancet Standing Commission." The Lancet, vol. 404, no. 10452, 10 Aug. 2024, pp. 572–628. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01296-0/fulltext

Resources

• Find Care

• Brain Health Matters

• Sides of My Skin

• Obesity & Weight Loss Support Information

• OBSERVE Study

Related Topics

• Innovate

• Enable