ePharma

Do not adjust your sets! On Monday 29th October we will be doing something a little out of the ordinary - giving eyeforpharma away!

Next week eyeforpharma is being hijacked, commandeered, stolen away. Over the course of five days, patient ambassador and social media evangelist, Emma D’Arcy will be given absolute editorial control of our website as well as our popular Twitter feed.

After weeks of careful planning and excited conversation, I am about to put my reputation, and the reputation of our company in someone else’s hands. On Monday 29^thOctober I will be stepping down for the whole week, leaving our website, our social media accounts and our valued readers in the hands of a third party.

Why am I doing this? To demonstrate our commitment and in short, to put my money where my mouth is!

The balance of power has shifted towards stakeholders. Payers, physicians, pharmacists and of course patients. Of the four, patients are the single most important stakeholder in this industry. We continually champion the patient cause, encouraging and supporting new and disruptive ideas which can either assist in patient treatment or can empower patients to take greater control of their own destiny.

Of the many innovations over the past five years or so, none has been as widespread or disruptive as social media. The age of the “Facebooker”, the “Twitterati” and the online community have given rise to the age of the empowered patient. Gone are the days where physicians sit on a pedestal, to be blindly followed and revered as one might revere their local priest or sporting hero. Today patients arrive in the GPs office armed with reams of information, ready to question and challenge. For good or ill this is the reality that the industry needs to adapt to.

With that in mind, who better to share with you numerous stories, interviews and case studies on the real life impact, and tantalising potential of social media?

Emma will be using the week to outline and explore the patient agenda – that is the thoughts and ideas within this area which are shared not only by Emma and I, but also by many patient groups and healthcare professionals themselves.

Every day next week, Emma will be providing an editorial piece, as well as articles from a number of key players on social media outlining and demonstrating the number of ways it has and continues to revolutionise the patient experience.

At the beginning of this piece I claimed to be putting my reputation in someone else’s hands. This is true, but knowing Emma and what she has planned, I couldn’t be more excited for the five days of disruption she has in store. In fact I’m more concerned about whether they’ll let me back into the editors chair when I return!

So I ask you, next week, to tune in to eyeforpharma for what will be a very exciting week indeed, spread the word and join the conversation in our comments feed on site, or via Twitter.