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Digital Pharma: From virtual to actual

pharmafile | September 29, 2009 | Feature | Medical Communications |  digi, digital pharma, hcsmeu 

Last week I attended the Health Care Social Media Europe group’s first live ‘tweet-up’.

An actual meeting of the virtual #hcsmeu group, it was a chance to take off-line the fruitful discussions that have been held on Twitter every Friday for the past two months.

So, as noon approached, 20 ‘digital advocates’ congregated at the South London offices of online health information start-up healthUnlocked.

Our discussions were broadcast online via web cam, and a running commentary held on Twitter, where participants ranged from those actually in the room to those not even on the same continent.

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Once again the #hcsmeu discussions attracted high quality input from, among other places, the US, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

Following the group’s usual format, a focused discussion covering three topics took place over an hour from noon UK time.

This time these were whether Europe could lead the way in social media, social media and healthcare service rankings, and the impact of the FDA’s forthcoming hearing on social media.

On the first question, the general view was that Europe could lead the industry in social media, despite its tendency to adopt a default ‘wait and see’ position.

Even the regulatory environment, often cited as an excuse for not using new technology, may not be such a constraint, and it was hoped adversity might breed innovation.

Next up was the role of social media in healthcare service rankings, and how this might influence healthcare delivery.

The public is usually hungry for information about local doctors or hospitals and, in the UK at least, this has been fed online with the government-run NHS Choices and NHS Direct services.

But we’re some way from the kind of ratings culture that you see in reviews on Amazon or Trip Advisor. The group suggested that better web models to follow would be those of theyworkforyou.com and fixmystreet.com – two motivating and empowering sites that provide unfiltered information on UK government representatives and local community problems respectively.

The third and final topic of the day concerned the forthcoming public hearing on pharma’s use of social media that US regulator the FDA will hold in November.

For the European pharma industry social media continues to be the elephant in the room. Blogs are sponsored, Twitter accounts run and YouTube used, all online and completely open access despite the glaring lack of adequate guidance from regulatory authorities. So, the FDA hearing is of great interest to the industry on both sides of the pond.

It is difficult to gauge how the hearing will impact European pharma. One outcomes suggested on Friday was that it could have a liberating effect on the industry, as companies are encouraged by the mere existence of some guidelines to try to use social media more. But an opposite effect was also suggested. Whereby the initiation of a conversation on the subject could put a brake on any European use of social media until the FDA adopts a final position.

With that the hour allotted for discussion was over and it was time to adjourn to a nearby gastro-pub to socialising and sustenance.

The discussions, as usual, flew by, which is a great testament to #hcsmeu organisers Silja Chouquet and Andrew Spong and all the participants in the expanding Health Care Social Media Europe community.

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.

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