Digital Pharma: UK health clinic first for Pfizer
pharmafile | July 28, 2010 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, Pfizer, digital patients, digital pharma med coms, disease awareness campaigns, sexual health
Men in the UK can now go online for confidential advice and information about any health problem through a unique pharma initiative.
The ManMOT clinic is the UK’s first online health surgery for men and will be open for consultations every Monday from 6pm – 11pm for the next four months.
It’s funded by Pfizer and has the support of a number patient groups, among them Diabetes UK, Relate, the National Obesity Forum, and Heart UK.
“It’s well understood that men don’t see a healthcare professional as often as women, and survey data suggests this is often because they’re embarrassed or perceive such a health visit to be too time consuming,” Pfizer’s Andy Widger told Digital Pharma.
Pfizer has branded the ManMOT clinic as a ‘Monday Opportunity To Talk’, but it’s also a play on the UK’s Ministry of Transport test, or MOT, which assesses whether a car is roadworthy.
“We also found in our own survey last year that a worryingly high amount of men don’t regard health as being as important as caring for their car,” Andy said. “The ManMOT service means men can speak anonymously to a doctor, or counsellor, and we hope to encourage more men to think about their health more, and engage with the health system in a more timely manner.”
Visitors to the website can talk in confidence to healthcare professionals (HCPs) via private peer-to-peer messaging software, similar to MSN Chat, about any health issue concerning them.
ManMOT visitors can pass their time reading health information or taking a health quiz in a waiting room area while they wait for their consultation.
The online clinic will also feature a series of specialist sexual health and relationship clinics, hosted by sexual health expert, and News Of The World columnist, Tracey Cox and Relate counsellors.
The HCP team dealing with queries can’t give individual medical advice or a specific medical diagnosis, but can suggest the best course of action and steer website visitors in the direction of appropriate health services if necessary.
Pfizer says ManMOT is designed to enhance existing health services rather than replace them and offers uses a platform to log on anonymously in total confidence to seek health advice.
Learning as it goes
A week long trial of ManMOT last October saw more than 1,000 men visit the site and 22 million people hear about it through on- and offline PR efforts.
The site only received a full launch two days ago, but early indications point to it being a success for Pfizer.
“Although we’re keeping absolute numbers to ourselves until we can assess with our partners, suffice to say we had more visitors on Monday than in the entire week of last year’s pilot; and the GPs manning the service were kept busy throughout,” said Pfizer’s Andy Widger.
He added that the company has not set itself targets in terms of ‘hard numbers’, but is instead looking to “extend our understanding of the potential of this type of digital media”.
The company is ‘learning as it goes’, he said. Last year’s trial highlighted Monday to be a popular day with men seeking online health information, as well as revealing the breath of health issues they wanted to talk about. As a consequence of this Pfizer decided to partner with a wide-range of patient and health groups.
Agency support for the site
ManMOT was built by Leicester, UK-based digital agency Cite and promotional work is being led by The Red Consultancy, with its sister agency Shiny Red supporting digital outreach efforts.
The PR push accompanying its launch gained online and radio coverage, and led to the site being featured in a number of the UK’s national newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, News of the World and Daily Mail.
Although the communications plan has so far focused on traditional consumer media channels, newer digital tools will be introduced to build on the launch effort.
“From here on we’re looking to gradually introduce and try a variety of promotional tools – including social media,” said Andy Widger. “In this way we can assess and learn what works, and how we can best use these tools going forward.”
Men’s health research
The launch of the ManMOT service coincided with new research commissioned by Pfizer that revealed the depth of men’s reluctance to discuss their sexual health problems.
Pfizer’s medical director Dr Berkeley Phillips said: “We know there are a lot of men out there avoiding their GP completely, leaving health issues untreated until they require immediate medical attention. This may lead to serious medical conditions going undiagnosed.
“We’re hoping the provision of ManMOT will finally give men the opportunity to talk – particularly those who don’t have the time, or are too embarrassed to visit their GP.”
A survey of over 5,000 men carried out on the pharma company’s behalf in May 2010 found that 22% lacked sexual confidence in the bedroom – but many would rather avoid talking about it than seek help.
More than half (52%) of those surveyed who had experienced sexual performance problems didn’t tell their partner and 42% admited they would feel most confident turning to the internet for advice, compared to 25% who would prefer to consult their GP.
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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