Pharma, Patients and Social Media: Engaging the Empowered Consumer
Its scope is global, its membership limitless, and its power undeniable.
Social media — whether Facebook, Twitter, viral messages or blogs — has gripped the public imagination, created its own language, and given rise to a new form of communication.
And nowhere has its impact become more evident than in public health, where greater numbers of patients self-educate by going online to discuss their disease, research symptoms, and review drugs. Newly diagnosed patients chat and bond over shared experiences; advanced and new patients alike exchange opinions on everything from their disease to their drugs within an open, diverse and highly motivated community.
Accessing the wealth of real-world data unbranded patient networks and social media generate would provide pharmaceutical companies with critical information on actual drug outcomes, ensure greater visibility, and expose patients to even more knowledge about disease and treatments — yet few have effectively done so.
The question is why?
Key insights from expert sources:
FirstWord’s third report in the best-selling Pharma and Social Media series — Pharma, Patients and Social Media: Engaging the Empowered Consumer — has the answers. The report explores the benefits, problems, and solutions to accessing social media through highly focused examples, analysis, and case studies. It investigates how patients use unbranded social networks, looks at the limitations inherent in branded patient networks, examines the marketing, knowledge, and development opportunities awaiting those who successfully negotiate social media, and, perhaps most importantly, outlines best practices for doing so.
The report reviews the current social media landscape to establish:
The report:
Social media — whether Facebook, Twitter, viral messages or blogs — has gripped the public imagination, created its own language, and given rise to a new form of communication.
And nowhere has its impact become more evident than in public health, where greater numbers of patients self-educate by going online to discuss their disease, research symptoms, and review drugs. Newly diagnosed patients chat and bond over shared experiences; advanced and new patients alike exchange opinions on everything from their disease to their drugs within an open, diverse and highly motivated community.
Accessing the wealth of real-world data unbranded patient networks and social media generate would provide pharmaceutical companies with critical information on actual drug outcomes, ensure greater visibility, and expose patients to even more knowledge about disease and treatments — yet few have effectively done so.
The question is why?
Key insights from expert sources:
FirstWord’s third report in the best-selling Pharma and Social Media series — Pharma, Patients and Social Media: Engaging the Empowered Consumer — has the answers. The report explores the benefits, problems, and solutions to accessing social media through highly focused examples, analysis, and case studies. It investigates how patients use unbranded social networks, looks at the limitations inherent in branded patient networks, examines the marketing, knowledge, and development opportunities awaiting those who successfully negotiate social media, and, perhaps most importantly, outlines best practices for doing so.
The report reviews the current social media landscape to establish:
- Which unbranded social patient networks succeed and why?
- Why and how pharmaceutical companies can access social media to gain better understanding of patient needs, while outlining the challenges companies face
The report:
- Examines how patients use branded and unbranded social networks and outlines the benefits and limitations of each
- Reviews which measures those in the industry are undertaking to negotiate access to social media
- Offers critical knowledge into the challenges of tapping into Web 2.0, as well as the possible solutions
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PATIENT AND SOCIAL NETWORKS: THE EMPOWERED PATIENT
PATIENT SOCIAL NETWORKS: BRANDED VERSUS UNBRANDED
Unbranded Patient Social Networks and Pharma
Juvenation: How Novo Nordisk leverages online diabetes network
PatientsLikeMe: How Novartis leverages online MS network
Advanced Breast Cancer Community: How BMS leverages online cancer network
TuDiabetes online patient community
BreastCancer.org online patient community
Canadian Skin Patient Alliance online patient community
Diabeticconnect.com online patient network
Networks in-progress
PatientsLikeMe and UCB
Roche and diabetes social summit
BENEFITS FOR ENGAGING IN PATIENTS SOCIAL NETWORKS
CHALLENGES PHARMA FACES IN ENGAGING PATIENTS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
HOW TO ENGAGE: GUIDANCE FROM THE PATIENT NETWORK EXPERTS
Case study from CureTogether
Case study from whydot GmbH
APPENDIX- ALL FEATURED WEBSITES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
PATIENT AND SOCIAL NETWORKS: THE EMPOWERED PATIENT
PATIENT SOCIAL NETWORKS: BRANDED VERSUS UNBRANDED
Unbranded Patient Social Networks and Pharma
Juvenation: How Novo Nordisk leverages online diabetes network
PatientsLikeMe: How Novartis leverages online MS network
Advanced Breast Cancer Community: How BMS leverages online cancer network
TuDiabetes online patient community
BreastCancer.org online patient community
Canadian Skin Patient Alliance online patient community
Diabeticconnect.com online patient network
Networks in-progress
PatientsLikeMe and UCB
Roche and diabetes social summit
BENEFITS FOR ENGAGING IN PATIENTS SOCIAL NETWORKS
CHALLENGES PHARMA FACES IN ENGAGING PATIENTS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
HOW TO ENGAGE: GUIDANCE FROM THE PATIENT NETWORK EXPERTS
Case study from CureTogether
Case study from whydot GmbH
APPENDIX- ALL FEATURED WEBSITES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
