J&J tops social media leaderboard
pharmafile | January 22, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Facebook, IMS, J&J, JJ, Twitter, You Tube, social media
A new report has found that Johnson & Johnson is the most engaged pharma company when it comes to using social media.
This is according to the IMS Institute which has released a new study called Engaging Patients through Social Media about both pharma and patients’ role in using the digital space when it comes to healthcare.
IMS used the top three social media channels – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – and went about ranking the top 10 pharma companies by using its three measures: a Reach Index, a Relevance Index and a Relationship Index (each of which used likes, shares and re-tweets).
Of the 10 pharma firms that were active across all three channels, Johnson & Johnson came out on top by a wide margin (given that it is also a giant in consumer healthcare goods), with the runners up all tightly bunched.
The full list of the IMS Health and Social Media Engagement Index is:
|
Rank |
Pharmaceutical firm |
Score |
|
1 |
Johnson & Johnson |
70 |
|
2 |
GlaxoSmithKline |
25 |
|
3 |
Novo Nordisk |
23 |
|
4 |
Pfizer |
20 |
|
5 |
Novartis |
18 |
|
6 |
Boehringer Ingelheim |
18 |
|
7 |
Bayer |
19 |
|
8 |
Merck & Co |
13 |
|
9 |
AstraZeneca |
10 |
|
10 |
UCB |
9 |
But whilst J&J may be lapping up the kudos, the industry as a whole received less praise as the report also found only 23 of the top 50 drugmakers actively use social media for their business, with only 10 using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
This is no real surprise as pharma has for many years been reluctant to use social media due to the large (and legal) pitfalls it could face as a consequence if not used carefully.
This includes facing the wrath of regulators or local country codes for inadvertently breaking rules on advertising prescription medicines – as Bayer was reprimanded for by the PMCPA in 2011 – or for allowing tweets about a study to be sent before formally published for shareholders, something that got Medivir into hot water just last month.
This reluctance has led to few pharma firms wanting to risk getting caught up in their own social media dramas, and therefore the effective infrastructure to use these sites to their best ability is lacking across the industry.
The IMS Institute says more needs to be done: “Advancing social media to a more central position in healthcare – particularly in the appropriate use of medicines – requires improved quality of information, a more proactive embrace of technology tools by pharmaceutical manufacturers, and greater recognition by healthcare professionals of the positive role social media interactions can play in wellness, prevention and treatment.”
This is because more patients – notably younger patients with single chronic diseases – are using social media to discuss their health more, whilst also wanting to gain more information about treatments and what to expect.
Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, added: “Increasingly, patients are turning to social media as an essential forum for obtaining and sharing information related to their health.
“This trend only heightens the need for relevant, accurate content that can be accessed and used throughout the patient journey. Healthcare professionals, regulators and pharmaceutical manufacturers all need to overcome their reticence and acknowledge the vital role that they can and should play as participants in the healthcare conversation.”
But the report does acknowledge that whilst the usage and presence of social media channels is rising, it still lags among the population segment that uses healthcare services the most: i.e., patients over 65 years of age, and those with multiple chronic conditions.
Wikipedia go-to site for doctors
The IMS Institute’s report also found that Wikipedia is the leading single source of healthcare information for patients and providers.
According to its study 50% of surveyed doctors who use the internet have consulted Wikipedia for information, especially on specific conditions.
The most searched for health-related topics on the free, publicly-edited site was the term ‘tuberculosis’, which received 4.2 million page views. This was closely followed by searchers for Crohn’s disease, pneumonia, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
By looking at trends in drug sales for both for new prescriptions and for those patients continuing old scripts, IMS found some indication that people also use Wikipedia to get information about their drugs.
It found that younger patients (i.e., those under 40) tended to research illnesses and drugs on Wikipedia before they started a course of treatment. Patients a decade older were likely to search their treatment right around when it was prescribed.
But patients in their mid-fifties were looking up their prescriptions long after they were first prescribed. The authors of the report believe this may be because of family members and caregivers searching on the behalf of the elderly, once they become aware of the patient’s new treatment or side effects it may be causing.
Younger patients, this data suggests, may be more likely to weigh possible treatment options based on information found online.
Ben Adams
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