Di Stafford is Founder and Director of The Patient Practice (www.thepatientpractice.com) – a consultancy specialising in all aspects of patient marketing, communications and relationship management.

She was formerly Head of Patient Relationship Marketing at Pfizer UK, where her role was to bring patient understanding and insight to the pharmaceutical division, and to enhance direct-to-patient communication and relationships.

She was responsible for establishing Pfizer’s patient relationship marketing capability, and for the launch of Pfizer’s flagship cross-portfolio patient programme, Brighter Living (www.brighter-living.co.uk), which provides information and support to patients with long term medical conditions.

She represented Pfizer across a variety of patient-related industry projects and initiatives, including the ABPI Involved Patient Initiative and Ask About Medicines Week (www.askaboutmedicines.org).

She is a Steering Group member for the Patient Information Forum (PiF) (www.pifonline.org.uk) and a director of a digital media and marketing company.

She has considerable consumer marketing and communications experience, having held senior marketing positions in Europe/North America within Unilever, PepsiCo and AXA Assistance/ PPP healthcare. She has also worked in strategic marketing consultancy, across a wide range of global clients.

Di has worked exclusively within healthcare over the last eight years. In 1998 she was a member of the management team who established the UK's first health and medical communications centre, Access 24 Ltd, which won several awards for its innovative patient information and support services, including medicine compliance programmes.

She has authored a number of articles, and is a regular conference speaker on the subject of patient marketing and communication issues.