Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Good morning Sanofi, I had your drug Taxotere and as you can see from my photo this is
what my scalp looks like 4 years later. Do you have any comment to make?
It is not surprising, then, that the fear of adverse reporting and the lack of regula-
tion in this space are often considered the major barriers to the investment in direct-
to-patient channels like social media by pharmaceutical firms. Yet, according to a
recent study by Nielsen, the threats of listening to patients online are much smaller
than the potential benefits of investing in such interaction (Davies
2008
). Current
regulation by FDA requires four conditions to be met for a report to be considered
a communicable adverse event report: (1) the patient needs to be identifiable, (2) the
reporter needs to be identifiable, (3) a specific drug or biological agent needs to be
involved in the event, and (4) an adverse event or fatal outcome has to have occurred.
If any of these conditions is not met, the company
should not
submit the report to
the FDA, as it will be lacking rigor and will be impossible to follow-up on. The
Nielsen study found that only 1 out of 500 healthcare messages posted in social
media outlets actually meets the four criteria.
Some companies have already started to creatively explore the social media
space. Jonathan Richman, of the dose of digital blog (
http://www.doseofdigital.
com
), maintains a comprehensive list of pharmaceutical firms' social media efforts
(including blogs, Twitter pages, Facebook pages, and YouTube pages). The list has
been growing steadily, which suggests that an increasing number of companies are
investing in social media as a prime channel through which to reach patients.
7
In February 2012, when the third annual Healthcare Engagement Strategy
Awards were announced, Boehringer Ingelheim was praised for its personalization
of corporate communications through Facebook, and AstraZeneca was recognized
for actively engaging patients on Twitter, specifically with its #rxsave Twitter chat
on patient assistance programs.
8
Commenting on her successful experience on
Twitter, Jennifer McGovern, director of AstraZeneca's prescription savings pro-
gram, mentioned that it all started as an experiment about how to extend to online
channels the company's engagement with advocates of reaching patients eligible for
support.
Nevertheless, McGovern also admitted that most companies still have to embrace
real-time open conversation with patients on social media, mainly due to a sensitive
regulatory environment, the aforementioned fear of adverse reporting, and a lack of
clarity regarding what firms need to do to moderate social media interactions.
9
Reflecting on their work with #rxsave, McGovern highlights three factors for suc-
cess in social media: (1) having a clear social media policy that align the firm's
goals with guidance from regulatory agencies, (2) clarifying to all internal and
Search WWH ::
Custom Search