Pharma: Trends and Uses Of Mobile Apps and Digital Marketing

• Many studies point towards social media having a negative impact on our mental health.
• However, new research has shown that the way people use social media could be an indicator that they may develop a mental health condition like depression.
• Everyone portrays a biased image of themselves on social media, so thorough assessments will still be required.

Various studies and news reports have linked social media use to mental health issues such as depression in the past few years.

Facebook has been around for just over a decade, and children are now growing up with many different social media accounts that even millennials struggle to keep up with.

However, it seems that social media may actually be helpful in some ways in identifying existing mental health problems.

A new study published this week suggested, for example, that an algorithm could guess the people who had depression just by analyzing their Instagram feed.

However, to understand how this works, we first need to understand what's wrong with social media in the first place.

Appoints former Sainsbury's Argos executive Bertrand Bodson

Early signs from the FDA point to an agency that seems motivated to move quickly and, ultimately, reinvent itself in the eyes of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry stakeholders.

Facebook is the go-to platform for pharma marketers, a new study finds. That's not surprising, considering the social network's mainstream ubiquity and large reach. But it's also because of Facebook's stepped-up efforts to reel in the pharma industry.

Most pharma companies use social media channels to broadcast content rather than converse with their audience. Typically, this follows two themes; broadcasting corporate news including regulatory approvals, appointments and disease awareness, and releasing other notable items, such as the latest data from congresses or stats on epidemiology.

Unlike many other industries, there is little attempt to use social media as a platform for conversation. This is primarily a result of the regulatory challenges faced by the industry.

There is still little in the way of true innovation in digital marketing across pharma. For most companies, having an e-detail, brand website and corporate twitter account ticks the digital boxes. Digital remains an afterthought of the marketing plan after the exhibition stands, symposia and patient leaflets have been ordered.

Fear of the known

The risk of not adhering to industry codes of practice means there is an inherent fear of digital channels and, in particular, social media. With most companies requiring approval of all external communications it is very difficult for pharma to converse over social media and certainly not with the immediacy that users demand.

Trust issues

There are a couple of key issues that reduce the impact pharma can have over digital channels. Firstly, social media users are used to engaging in conversation and debate. Pharma’s inability to engage in this way means their social media presence is far less engaging for patients and doctors than other content providers.

Secondly, there remains a distrust of industry. Deloittes’s report on pharma's adoption of social media* highlights the challenge, with 75% of doctors surveyed indicating a lack of trust in pharma.

Pharma companies should consider partnering with third parties who are trusted by their target audience. Partnering with professional bodies or third party networks offers great opportunities for industry to provide access to clinical data and insights which their partners are not able to deliver on their own.

HCP engagement

The rise in popularity of platforms such as doctors.net.uk, Medscape, Epocrates and Sermo indicate that like any consumer, HCPs are using digital platforms to engage with the content they want. In addition, HCPs are increasingly using digital platforms as a way of receiving medical education, whether via webinars, or new platforms like twitter’s Periscope. Tools like Skype are also being used increasingly by HCPs in their day-to-day working, including conducting MDT meetings with remote colleagues or even patient consultations.

As the traditional access to HCPs continues to increase in difficulty, perhaps a mix of online and face-to-face conversations will enable pharma reps to be more efficient.

Where the journey begins

Listening is key to developing digital solutions that meet the needs of HCPs and patients. Social listening, for example, by searching the web to see what’s being said about your company or products is a great way to gather insight and there are many free tools out there to get you started, such as Google Alerts.

Speaking to HCPs and patients and asking them to describe the patient journey and mapping out the challenges and gains at each point helps identify where solutions are needed. Co-create solutions with HCPs and patients rather than stopping at co-design. Co-creation means involvement at each step of the process as you design, prototype, test and refine solutions. Start small, get something out there and learn as you go.

Pharma companies are increasingly active on Twitter around medical meetings, but risk crowding out other conversations from independent medical experts with the ‘noise’ of industry tweets. In an Expert View piece, Annie Sullivan, director of corporate social media at Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), discusses the company’s novel approach of being 'a better social media citizen' and how its adoption of this strategy at the ASCO Annual Meeting in 2017 may help evolve the role of pharma on social media.

Social media, particularly Twitter, comes alive at medical meetings. Discussions online mirror the huddled conversations in the hallways of exhibition centers between researchers, patients, doctors and pharmaceutical companies. It’s a valuable resource for followers around the world who can't attend, or for those in the conference center to make connections that may not otherwise happen.

Responding to feedback

In 2016, we heard feedback from ASCO attendees that the 'signal' to 'noise' ratio was off. Interesting information and insights were being lost in the 'noise' of extraneous information shared on social media, particularly content put out by the pharmaceutical industry. Those following the conference online feared that if leading physicians were struggling to find useful viewpoints on social media, they would start to go elsewhere and the whole community would lose out.

As a company with a large online following, AstraZeneca decided that we had a responsibility to respond to this feedback. We realized we had to change the way we socialized with others online.

So, we set out social media commitments for ourselves at the ASCO 2017 Annual Meeting to ensure we were being 'better social media citizens.'

That means recognizing that we are part of the wider social media ecosystem and ensuring that we contribute value to the conversation rather than just 'make noise' via conference hashtags. That also means our content must reflect our commitment to follow the science and our responsibility to the scientific community and cancer patients around the world.

We decided to tweet less and listen more. We focused on quality content and significantly reduced the number of tweets we put out over the ASCO meeting. We participated in the online conversation organically, by retweeting and highlighting valuable contributions to help elevate some of the ‘quieter’ voices at the conference, that we wanted a broader audience to hear.

Just 13 original tweets 

We did not engage in any paid promotion, a major cause of criticism in previous years. When we did post original content, we focused on what we do best - making our science accessible to others.

We knew from the start that this approach could reduce our digital footprint overall, but our focus was on value over volume. We sent out just 13 original tweets from @AstraZeneca and yet we still had a significant presence on social media. We ranked as one of only two companies in the top 10 #ASCO2017 influencer list on Symplur. By engaging with tweets from influencers and attendees, we expanded their potential audience by an average of 800%.

The community took notice and was very supportive of our new approach, encouraging us to continue. A Twitter poll from an ASCO Featured Voice showed that the majority of survey participants felt that there was less noise on Twitter during ASCO 2017 versus 2016 and several individuals attributed part of this shift to AstraZeneca’s efforts.

The whole pharmaceutical industry needs to reflect on how its activity on Twitter affects the broader community online, and evaluate whether its approach is actually serving the intended audience. This means considering what the pharmaceutical industry's role online can be – not only at conferences, but throughout the year.

The bottom line

It’s no longer enough to simply push out corporate content and share #DYKs (did you knows). The oncology ‘Twitterati’ have become very sophisticated and are expecting – in fact, they demand – considered scientific thought, insight and analysis.

Understanding how the communities we serve use social media – whether it’s to discuss science or share stories – is critical to ensuring industry contributions on social media remain valuable. A one-size-fits-all approach will not advance the industry beyond where it is now. It is only by listening that we can remain relevant within the social media ecosystem and become better social media citizens.

Condé Nast, Time Inc., and Vice Media have all recently launched health content businesses.

Several health IT companies have sought to address the challenge of drug delivery, distribution and medication adherence, but the dent they've made compared to what the likes of Amazon could do certainly give one pause.

Digital transformation journeys are being defined by the organization and the end-user. And, it’s up to a capable DX partner to help the organization build that vision.

The stakeholder group in healthcare that has been the most reluctant to adopt and to engage on social media is arguably pharma. Cultural and regulatory concerns have long delayed their entry. Today, much has changed and each year we’re seeing more and smarter behavior by pharma on social media.

Their presence is welcome, patients have long asked for pharma to become part of the conversations and listen to what they have to share. But this is a learning process for all of us, proper behavior has to be explored, tested and improved. We’re not going to figure this out overnight.

Using Symplur Signals, the healthcare social media analytics platform, with access to the social conversations from ASCO’s Annual Meetings the past 7 years, we have taken a look at one short story this data reveals to us.

MHRA has published guidance on the importance of applying human factors to medical devices, so they are designed and optimised to minimise patient and user safety risks.

Bayer’s Facebook ad campaign for multiple sclerosis drug Betaseron and its Betaconnect injector launched this month with several firsts. It's not only Bayer’s first Facebook ad, but it's also the first time Facebook has enabled a scrolling ISI inside a pharma ad.

Scrolling safety information allowed Bayer to stay inside text and photo limits of a pre-determined ad box but still meet FDA guidelines for necessary risk information. While some pharmas already do that in banner ads, it had not been done inside Facebook ads until this campaign, said Craig Hashi, Facebook Health client partner, who--along with Ozgun Demir, associate director of emarketing at Bayer--talked about the work at the Digital Pharma East conference last week.

Welcome to the August 18, 2017, edition of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). View the Web version of this issue here: http://bit.ly/PINUP081817

**********SUMMARY***********
Is it a good idea to invite patients into the official social media discussion channels of major medical meetings? While results of a study summarized in this issue seem to support the usefulness of patients in helping disseminate scientific information from meetings, some experts believe opening discussions up to patients invites "trolling" by malicious agents.

Articles in this issue:

• “Patient Participation in Health Care Conference Social Media Discussions”; http://sco.lt/547M9J
• “50% of Fast-Track Approved Drugs Have Not Been Proved Effective After 3 Years on the Market!”; http://sco.lt/8qhCzZ
• “Tumblr Low on Pharma's Most Popular Social Media Platforms List”; http://sco.lt/4wAMef

Further Reading:

• The Patients Included Movement: http://bit.ly/1FCbDDc
• GAO Report: FDA Expedites Drug Approvals, But Its Postapproval Oversight Stinks!: http://sco.lt/89j3Zp
• FDA is Lax in Enforcing Law Regarding Prescription Drug Postmarketing Studies: http://bit.ly/1PoqAsY
• Pfizer on Tumblr: http://sco.lt/6f2ecz

About Pharma Industry News Update

The Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp) is published every Tuesday and Friday as part of the Pharma Marketing News subscription service. It features curated pharma industry news and views of topical interest from a variety of sources. If you'd like to receive this newsletter, subscribe here.

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