Digital Pharma: Byte-sized roundup
pharmafile | March 8, 2010 | News story | Medical Communications | Pfizer, digital pharma, digital pharma pfizer
A roundup of digital developments, including Pfizer’s new Facebook page and beta-phase science blog, Lundbeck, BMS, Baxter and Janssen-Cilag on Twitter, Shire supports Rare Diseases Day, Merck Serono’s fertility survey and NHS online health checks expand to ‘mid-lifers’.
Pfizer has launched an official Facebook page which it hopes will appeal to a wide range of people, including consumers and employees, both past and present.
It has nearly 2,800 fans and links out to a number of interesting company initiatives, including a two-part beta-phase site to showcase its science expertise and people who work at the company.
The Think Science Now online science forum highlights the work of a group of science and medical professionals from across the company, some of whom also contribute to its blog, which has been up and running since July 2009.
Think Science’s counterpart is It Begins With Me, the centrepiece of which is an ‘interactive mosaic’ of employee pictures. There are four large mosaics of a Pfizer employee, each consisting of thousands of smaller images of other employees.
– – – –
The ranks of pharma companies on Twitter swelled recently with a number of new additions, including Lundbeck. The company used its Twitter launch to raise awareness of rare diseases and showcase its support for the recent Rare Disease Day, to which it will donate $10,000.
Among the companies it joins on the micro-blogging service are Baxter and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The latter has long held a Twitter account, but only started tweeting this week, while Baxter first began using the service last month.
Other new additions were Roche’s Brazilian patient and healthcare professional information portal Dialogo Roche and the UK arm of Johnson & Johnson company Janssen-Cilag, whose tweets are led by coms manager Alex Butler.
– – – –
Shire was another company supporting Rare Disease Day, aiming to help generate media coverage to raise awareness of rare diseases, and provide information through its Brave Community online resource centre. This aims to connect patients with each other and to provide important information about rare diseases.
“For many patients and their families, the journey to a diagnosis and subsequent treatment can be a long, complicated process,” said Sylvie Gregoire, president of Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT). “Shire is committed to enabling people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives – and for us, this includes improving access to information as well as providing much-needed treatment for rare diseases.”
– – – –
Merck Serono has teamed up with Cardiff University for an online survey of couples trying to conceive.
The company says Starting Families will be the largest study of how people make fertility-related decisions and is supported by patient organisation network the International Consumer Support for Infertility.
The global survey is aimed particularly at Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US.
It’s for women and men aged 18 to 49 who are trying to conceive, and includes questions about health status, fertility knowledge and beliefs, experiences and intentions about fertility medical services.
Merck says the information gathered will be used to optimise its patient support programmes and plans to make the survey results available in the second half of 2010.
– – – –
The NHS has launched an online service to help people over 40 who want to improve their health. NHS MidLifeCheck gives personalised health advice based on answers to a multiple-choice lifestyle questionnaire and has been designed in tone and content to appeal most to people from socially disadvantaged communities. It is the third NHS Life Check service to be launched and follows similar services for teens and parents with babies.
– – – –
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Related Content
NICE recommends Pfizer’s new once-weekly treatment for haemophilia B on NHS
Walton Oaks, 21st May 2025 – Pfizer Ltd announced today that the National Institute for Health and Care …
Pfizer releases results for severe RSV-associated LRTD treatment study
US-based Pfizer have announced results from its substudy B of the ongoing phase 3 clinical …
New Real-World Data Published in Journal of Cardiac Failure on Effectiveness
Patients treated with tafamidis were associated with greater rates of survival compared with patients untreated …
