Don’t Wait for Comprehensive Social Media Guidance
Tags: social media, Pharma, FDA, guidelinesOn December 31st, the FDA finally released its long awaited guidance on the use of social media, Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices." (click to download the actual PDF). As most of us expected, the FDA did not provide comprehensive guidance.
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Tags: ozmosis, BioPharma, life sciences, physician social networks, patient communities, Deloitte, sermoOn the heels of releasing its latest findings on the use of social networks in the life sciences industry, Deloitte Research has invited Ozmosis to join its BIO International 2011 presentation and panel discussion on "Improving Innovation Through Use of Social Networks" Thursday, June 29th in Washington, DC.
Read more » « CollapseThe New Engagement Channel: Physician Networks
Tags: Pharma, Bayer Schering Pharma, physician social networks, physicians, engagementLen Starnes, the Head of Digital Marketing & Sales, General Medicine at Bayer Schering Pharma, has long been regarded as a thought leader and trailblazer among Pharma executives when it comes to effectively leveraging social media. He recently shared a fantastic article on the impact physician networks are having across the world and how Pharma is moving to actively engage providers through each network.
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Tags: social media, healthcare, KOL, Pharma, workshop, life sciences, physician
I am delighted to announce the launch of a new hands-on, social media workshop series offered by Ozmosis Business Solutions. These workshops are available initially for BioPharma companies, with customized sessions for both payor organizations and health systems to follow later this summer. As we look back at the impact social media has made on healthcare, the opportunities for healthcare organizations to engage healthcare providers continues to expand.
Social Media's Impact on Healthcare - HCNM Keynote 
(You can view or download the presentation)
Social Media and Its Impact on the Healthcare Industry
Tags: social media, HCNM, Pharma, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, medicine, health systems, FDA, CDC, physician
Today, 650 hospitals have an active presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and numerous healthcare organizations have turned the corner to engage in conversations online. As we look back on the impact social media has had on the healthcare industry over the past year, we see dramatic growth in social media adoption by health care consumers, providers, and organizations.
For example, health systems such as Henry Ford have begun to broadcast surgeries and answer clinical questions live via Twitter, new communities like WiserTogether have made it easier for patients to share novel practices around specific conditions such as pregnancy, and services such as iGuard have changed the way we think about drug safety. The FDA’s public hearings in November also gave hope that the cloud of regulatory uncertainty would soon be lifted and the Dose of Digital Wiki now lists hundreds of active pharmaceutical social media programs.
While the industry has taken a giant leap forward into the brave new social media world, we've only scratched the surface of what is yet to come. So what does the future hold? Join me June 14th in Chicago, as Shahid Shah (CEO of HITSphere) and I explore the past and future at the 2nd Annual Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference. Our talk kicks off a terrific event, and I am honored to join the distinguished group of speakers Q1 Productions has assembled.
Announcing the launch of Ozmosis Business Solutions
Tags: social media, healthcare, Pharma, solutions, regulation, risk readinessIt's an exciting day for all of us at Ozmosis as we officially launch a new business unit. Ozmosis Business Solutions - an outgrowth of our core business - is focused exclusively on serving the social media needs of our clients throughout the healthcare industry.
When we started Ozmosis three years ago, Facebook had fewer than 20 million active users and Twitter was relatively unknown until the SXSW conference that March. Today, they have close to 600 million active users between them and their users spend an astonishing 500 billion minutes on Facebook per month and share more than 50 million tweets a day.
Healthcare organizations have been actively utilizing social media. More than 650 hospitals have an active presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Scanning the Dose of Digital Wiki shows how forward thinking major pharmaceutical firms are with their own social media programs. However, most of their efforts to date have been patient centric. Whether organizations are trying to educate their respective audiences or provide better customer service, they can also engage the more than 60% of physicians who consume user-generated content created by and for healthcare professionals.
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The Limits of Manufacturer Accountability in Social Media
Tags: Pharma, Bayer Schering Pharma, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Oglivy, Sanofi-Aventis, FDAIn its call for public comments on the promotion of regulated medical products using the internet and social media, the FDA sparked renewed interest in the role the agency's guidelines might play in pharma's embrace or avoidance of social media. While many manufacturers have moved forward with innovative programs (See the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki) there are still organizations unsure or simply unwilling to engage online in an uncertain regulatory environment.
It's easy for some to accept that fear and hesitancy are warranted when billion dollar blockbuster drug franchises and patient safety are at stake. Yet, those of us who believe the power of the social web can improve both the bottom line and the public good will continue to push pharma to engage more openly and effectively online. As an example, Digital Pharma Europe is being hosted by Bayer Schering Pharma in Berlin this week. While I cannot attend in person, I will follow along via twitter (use #digpharm) and am encouraged by the fact that Bayer, among others, is taking social media seriously in Europe. Joining with Bayer in their respective comments to the FDA, manufacturers demonstrated they can come together to provide a near unanimous opinion on issues relating to the use of social media (See our summary of PhRMA comments here).
When it comes to defining what they should be held accountable for online, PhRMA, Abbot Labs, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Sepracor seek to limit accountability to content that is company owned and controlled. Novartis proposes that companies “should only be held accountable for those online communications which they directly own or control", while Pfizer distinguishes between company-controlled web properties and company-controlled content, saying that “statements by unregulated persons on manufacturer-hosted (or -supported) online forums are not statements by the manufacturers themselves.”
If the FDA adopted these recommendations today, would manufacturers more fully embrace social media? One would hope so, but in the absence of formal guidance, manufacturers still hesitate to engage openly with patients and providers alike. Behind closed walls on manufacturer sponsored or controlled private sites for patients and providers, some allow real conversations to take place. However, on the public sites they control, such as branded and unbranded Facebook pages, most manufacturers restrict commenting and often disable posting all together. If patients and providers can't engage the brand or company in an open conversation online because the manufacturer fears being held accountable for their statements, how much value does a presence on Facebook really provide? Clearly, we need to encourage more open, engaging and credible conversations in these settings. Without such an approach, we will continue to see manufacturers stumble in their social media efforts, as recent events illustrate.
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FDA Framework for Regulating Social Media Promotion
Tags: social media, BioPharma, Pharma, FDA, physician social networks
On March 16th, Ozmosis submitted its comment to the FDA's docket on the promotion of regulated medical products using the internet and social media, joining over 150 other submissions by drug manufacturers, health systems, consultants, agencies, advocacy groups, and private individuals. 
The level of interest in this subject should surprise no one.
The world of medicine has changed dramatically since the FDA's last hearings on internet use. In 1999, less than 50% of physicians used the internet for professional purposes. Today, Google reports that virtually all physicians (92%) use the internet to gather medical information in a clinical setting, and according to Manhattan Research, 89% of U.S. physicians now describe the web as "essential to their professional practice." With the groundswell for social media resources among physicians continuing to rise, Manhattan Research also shares that 71% of U.S. physicians are interested in or already use physician social networks for peer-to-peer interactions.
However, many pharmaceutical manufacturers hesitate to engage with physicians through social media due to the uncertain regulatory landscape. While there have been notable exceptions, as highlighted in our FDA comment, this missed opportunity is a detriment to patients, providers and manufacturers alike. We strongly encourage the FDA to provide clear guidance to avoid further delay.
So what would appropriate guidance for manufacturer participation look like? At Ozmosis, we have established a set of principles that, if applied to the broader web and social media landscape, would be to the benefit of manufacturers, physicians, and patients alike.
On Ozmosis, physicians use their real identities and share their professional affiliations, resulting in a more trusted and transparent exchange of clinical information. Since physicians always know with whom they are communicating and sharing knowledge, the insights and discussions that take place on Ozmosis are highly valued and insight rich. Any regulatory framework put forth must ensure the same level of trust, transparency and accountability our physicians already benefit from every day.
Read more » « CollapseImproving Physician and Pharma (Life Science) Company Interactions
Tags: Pharma, life sciences, ePharma Summit 2010, mobile
The 9th Annual ePharma Summit was recently held in Philadelphia the week of February 8th, otherwise known as “Snowpocalypse”. Those of us who braved the blizzard were rewarded with a terrific set of discussions on the role digital and social media can play to improve the working relationship between physicians and pharma.
In our last post, Practicing Medicine in a Mobile Powered World, Jason shared a vision of how a physician’s workflow might look in the not too distant future. As Jason described, this is a world where the pharmaceutical information and services physician’s require are available when the physician needs them, inserted into the clinician’s workflow in a manner that improves rather than hinders their ability to diagnose and treat patients effectively.
Today, physicians need the following when it comes to assessing pharmaceutical information at the point of care:
1. Fast, simple, reliable answers to product questions
2. Peer-to-Peer interaction and trusted feedback
3. Access to rep like services provided on their terms
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A Call To Action: FDA, Social Media and Physician Engagement
Tags: social media, Pharma, FDA, physicians, GI Circle
Joel Selzer (LinkedIn profile), my Co-Founder at Ozmosis, has spent the past few weeks following the buildup to the FDA's Public Hearing on Social Media. After digesting last week's testimony and the conversations around it (visit www.fdasm.com for the latest courtesy of Fabio Gratton), Joel offers the following:
During my recent presentations at Digital Pharma and AdvaMed's Social Media Seminar, I argued that social media offers pharmaceutical and medical device brands a unique opportunity to engage with physicians. According to Mark Bard from Manhattan Research, 70% of physicians want pharmaceutical firms to engage them online and 60% of physicians either use or are interested in using physician social networks (just ask the docs on Ozmosis or Sermo). With thousands of physicians actively using social media every day to access and share medical information (see Rohit Bhargava's post on "How Doctors Are Using Social Media", one would expect pharmaceutical and medical device firms to salivate at the engagement possibilities.
Yet, both industries have been reluctant to engage doctors using social media under current FDA guidelines. Their reluctance has been disappointing to many but should not be surprising. Michele Sharp of Eli Lilly said it best at the FDA hearing:
To date, Lilly has avoided significant interaction with healthcare professionals and patients about our products in social media forums – largely because of a lack of clarity in understanding FDA’s expectations as to how we could participate and comply with FDA requirements.
This theme was reiterated throughout the hearings, and its absolutely critical that the FDA evaluate the impact of not providing guidance. Michele Sharp also nailed it when she called on the FDA to lead a series of public workshops that could, "collectively generate ideas, leverage the knowledge, expertise and experiences of the participants and work toward viable solutions, so that FDA can provide the detail and clarity to the pharmaceutical industry and others through Guidance or executive channels."
Lilly's recommendation is spot on, but in addition to immediately scheduling a series of public workshops…the FDA should appoint a Social Media Advisory Panel (a recommendation echoed by Zen Chu of Accelerated Medical Ventures). While holding the public hearings was a great step forward, the FDA needs to augment its social media expertise and it needs to do so quickly. Its clear from last week's testimony that the FDA has a lot of homework piling up and the best way we can accelerate their education is to demonstrate two very important points about social media use to the FDA.
1. Physicians and industry are already working together
2. Practical solutions exist to address the FDA's concerns
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Health 2.0 Day 2: Highlights and Musings
Tags: Pharma, Health 2.0, Keas, Athena Health, Sage SoftwareDay two at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco was just as busy as the first -full of amazing ideas and inspiration.
The day began with Jonathan Bush of Athena Health being interviewed by Chris Lawton of the Wall Street Journal. I was struck by Jonathan's blunt appraisal of the problems in the healthcare system. He was especially aware of the plight of the physician and how to incent them to adopt change (money). While I agree that certain things that cost money will require some financial inducement, I also believe that physicians will ultimately do what is in the best interest of their patients.
There was a great panel on various health technology initiatives from around the world. There is an understanding that mobile apps are the key to improving health and access to healthcare in underdeveloped countries. Deb Levine of ISIS showed off some pretty cool apps for disease prevention (HIV) using SMS (everyone's phone was beeping). James Mathews of Sage Software is one of the best moderators that I have seen - his calm demeanor and extremely insightful commentary was excellent.
There was a strange, but entertaining period where Matthew Holt dared to dress in drag and go through the process of testing a number of 'Consumer Tools' from H20. From genetic testing (23andMe) to apps that check for generic drug equivalents, estimate your savings, and even call the doctor to change the prescription, there are all sorts of fun toys for us to play with. Adam Bosworth unveiled Keas to the world today and it looks like a Consumer Decision Support Tool. It takes in health data from Microsoft Health Vault or Google Health and helps the consumer build a health plan while forecasting outcomes from specific diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes. It was a bit underwhelming but I suspect we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
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