Joanne Shaw, the Chairman of Datapharm hosted a roundtable session at an eyeforpharma Patient Compliance and Communication Conference on 12th June, exploring the challenge for the pharmaceutical industry of compliance with therapies.
Participants in the roundtable session explored experiences of the internet as a channel for communicating and engaging with patients
The session was attended by 12 delegates from across Europe including France, Poland, Switzerland, UK, Germany and Spain. Most worked for pharmaceutical companies or for companies supporting the industry, for example agencies and publishing houses.
Delegates first reflected on the opportunities and benefits of using the internet to engage with patients.
o The internet provides an opportunity for industry to learn about its customers.
o Through monitoring customer activity on the internet; their contributions on blogs and social networking sites, the internet is a useful market research tool. It can provide insight into consumer beliefs, perceptions and motivations.
o As a result of ‘knowing’ your customer, pharma has an opportunity to segment audiences and to tailor communications to reflect the needs of specific segments;
o delivering compliance programmes which address and speak to the issues and challenges patients are reporting.
o Delegates agreed that the internet offered a channel through which to educate patients;
o providing access to information about medicines and support can help patients in the decisions they make about their medicines.
o Pharma can engage directly with patients through its own product and corporate sites, or by providing platforms for patients to interact (a company-sponsored social networking site, for example http://www.myalli.com/)
o The internet offers a fast and efficient means to provide information and support.
o User activity on websites is measurable. Companies can track usage of their own sites and search engine providers such as Google offer services to compare traffic to competitor sites.
o The internet supports peer-to-peer discussions (patients offering support to one another) and the healthcare professional-patient relationship.
o Mobilisation of patients on the internet has the power to influence markets; with patient networks demanding access to particular medicines.
Delegates then discussed some of the barriers and threats associated with using the internet to engage with patients.
o The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated. On the whole, companies cannot provide information about branded medicines, in contrast to information about devices.
o In some EU member states company sites are ‘closed’ to patients. Access to information from a company web site can only be via a healthcare professional at the point of prescription where the patient is given a password to enter the company site.
o Providing information about a medicine does not necessarily help to raise awareness of the brand, and therefore it limits the opportunity for establishing brand loyalty.
o It is difficult to relate activity on the internet to sales, therefore it is difficult to measure the return on investment.
o It is difficult to maintain customer loyalty to a web site. There are many competing information sources which are only a click away.
o It is impossible to restrict added value internet-based services to patients taking your medicines (free rider effect).
o The quality of the information on the internet is highly variable. Different sources can present conflicting information. The question was raised, how do people assess risk:benefit?
o The arrival of Google Health could pose a threat to industry. Through offering a service to patients to manage their healthcare on line Google is essentially building a database of industry’s customers.
The group was then invited to talk about some of the approaches they have taken in their local markets to overcome some of these barriers.
o UK: working with established third party content providers such as NetDoctor.co.uk to provide key messages about brands rather than building the company’s own web presence.
o Germany: sponsoring neutral sites that support user managed content, such as online groups. From the information gleaned from user discussions companies are creating ‘targeted’ adherence programmes delivered through a number of channels: the web, telephone and printed material.
o France: the restrictions on pharma engaging with patients are particularly limiting, but French patients are active on the web and seek information from Canadian sites.
o Accreditation of information on the internet may build consumer trust in the information.
Joanne Shaw described a UK model which enables companies to provide non promotional information about their products through the National Health Service. These information resources are called Medicine Guides www.medguides.medicines.org.uk . This has been achieved through a multi-disciplinary partnership approach involving representatives from the UK Government, the NHS, the medicines regulator, the pharmaceutical industry, patient and professional groups. Patients can now access branded information about a medicine from the NHS site www.nhsdirectonline.nhs.uk or via search engines.
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For further information, please contact:
Eve Laird
Director of Communications
Datapharm Communications
Tel +44 (0)1372 371411
Email: elaird@medicines.org.uk
