Digital & Social Media

As a healthcare digital strategist, when I want to
understand trends and get a sense of what online communities are saying, Twitter is an essential source of data. The healthcare arena has generally been slow at adopting social media (mainly for regulatory reasons) but this is changing.

To demonstrate this, we developed the infographic at the bottom of this post to analyze Twitter activity from the diabetes community around EASD 2012, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ 2012 congress held in Berlin.

The infographic provides insight on a number of questions. Which stories dominated conversation at EASD 2012? Who were the main contributors? Was the diabetes patient community part of the discussion? How active were pharmaceutical companies at communicating on Twitter? It underlines the fact that those involved in the communication of science are rapidly adapting to a world where news moves faster and reaches more people, and where old boundaries, such as those between scientists and the public, are becoming more fluid. Read full post »

At a recent FDA/CDER-CHPA seminar on
promoting Over the Counter medicines in a social media world, experts wrestled with the fact that consumers are increasingly turning to others like themselves or other online channels for health information, data, and first-hand experiences to help them make better medical decisions. Almost half of consumers are reading someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog. They are turning to social channels and platforms because they want customer service, immediate answers to basic questions, guidance and someone to make sense out of the cacophony of medical information. Read full post »

Ketchum recently participated as a sponsor and presenter at ExL Pharma's 8th Annual Public Relations and Communications Summit.  In the post below, Katherine Watier summarizes key takeaways from the presentation that she shared at the conference.

Have you noticed that your search results are
changing? Have you noticed that when you search for things on Google the results you receive seem targeted to you – location and interests wise? Or if you’re using Bing, have you noticed the “Search Buddies” bar on the right that lets you ping your friends on Facebook and Twitter without leaving Bing search?

The world of search engines is definitely changing and becoming highly personalized to EVERY searcher. These changes apply for every type of search query – including those related to health issues.

Patients’ Searching for Health Information Read full post »

Editor's Note: This post originally ran on the Ketchum Blog and can be found here. 

Times They Are a-Changin’! These immortal words written
and performed by Bob Dylan in 1964 continue to echo through our world today. Perhaps it is nowhere more present than in the world of social media in the manner of altering the way we share our personal choices, particularly when it comes to topics of health.

It is unlikely in 1968 when The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) provided the legal standing for organ transplantation, that people might have imagined there would someday be a national computer registry of donated organs, but that is exactly what happened in 1984 through the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA). Eventually, states began to offer an individual the option to list “organ donor” as a status on their driver’s license; a private and personal choice declaring that if something were to happen to that person, their organs could be transplanted if determined usable. Read full post »

While it falls short of the comprehensive guidance
on social media that many were hoping for, the FDA’s new document on responding to unsolicited requests does have an interest and relevance for those working in healthcare communications on the other side of the Atlantic.

Of course, no digital project is completely ‘local’ and Europeans should always have half an eye on developments elsewhere in the world. More importantly though, the FDA has given us a useful clue to what regulators are thinking and the issues they face in coming up with clear rules for the rapidly evolving environment of the web and social media. It could also set the tone for European guidance, if and when it appears.

The most significant aspect of the FDA’s new document is that: Read full post »