Drug companies haven’t learned to hold hands with patients yet

Social networking…

Could there be a more abused buzzword? (ahem, that was a rhetorical question as i am sure there are many more out there). From Facebook to MySpace to a variety of other social networks (heck let’s throw in Health 2.0’s OrganizedWisdom, Patient’s Like Me, and DailyStrength just for good measure) recently it has become apparent that people like to share with other people. I came across a great blog post by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of iHealthbeat titled Drug Companies Lag in Adopting Social Media To Communicate With Consumers.

First a big hat-tip and thanks to Matthew Holt’s and John Sharp’s blogs:

John’s succintly points out…

the companies could learn much from their patients using this medium. There is also potential to enhance compliance – perhaps patients could learn from each other more about how to manage a chronic condition like diabetes.

Matthew also pontificates…

These BTW are good things for drug companies and patients

Let’s get into the meat of things though, Jane (who knows how to craft an article!) leads off with a true “head-scratcher” …

As many as one in three U.S. residents with diabetes were taking Avandia in May 2007. That translates to somewhere between four and five million U.S. residents who might have been Avandia consumers at the time when Steven Nissen’s study linking Avandia to risk of heart disease was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After the study came out, FDA, GlaxoSmithKline — Avandia’s manufacturer — mainstream media and television lawyers created a cacophony of conflicting information. However, a significant number of patients found information solace in blogs, wikizines and other consumer-generated media.

And i especially liked here interview quote from Grant Bruce…

It appears that in the current environment, drug companies are throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater when it comes to using social media to impact patient health behaviors. “The risk for the industry [in not taking advantage of social media] is that there is a baby in that bathwater,” Grant said, adding, “Pharmaceutical marketers need to understand this new environment and be aware of the ongoing discourse that’s out there” among consumers, providers and analysts.

But the real nugget that jumped out to me was this…

Patients today have lower regard for content created by pharmaceutical companies than they do for information generated by advocacy groups, physicians and fellow consumers. A Kaiser Family Foundation report found that 18% of consumers “most of the time” trust what pharmaceutical companies say in their ads — a much smaller share than in 1997, when 33% said they could trust drug company ads “most of the time.”

HOLY COW!! I understand the fear of litigious patients and the nature of informality that is often persistent in social-networks, but come on guys… it would appear that when embraced – these networked forums (if you will) have the potential to provide tremendous benefit and reinforcement of behavioral changes and prescriptive compliance.

Can someone send a copy of the Cluetrain Manifesto to the Pharma gang?! “…enables people [patients] to have “human to human” conversations, which have the potential to transform traditional business [pharma] practices radically.”

Jane – great article, well put together, and well worth the time to read.