Digital Media Buzz > Big Pharma Dives Into Digital

Big Pharma Dives Into Digital

By Rebecca Jacoby

Ever wonder how the healthcare industry uses digital media? Brian Bass can tell you. As president of Bass Advertising and Marketing, near Princeton, N.J., and author of The Accidental Medical Writer, he works directly with pharmaceutical and healthcare companies planning and executing digital media strategies. According to Bass, whose firm heralds its 20th year this August, use of digital media spans the spectrum of the healthcare field.

“Digital media operations in healthcare are large and growing into different directions. Pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, hospitals and physicians recognize the importance of digital media and that is why they have websites,” begins Bass. “However, behind the Internet face of a pharmaceutical company is its intranet, a proprietary fabric of daily corporate information.”

Characteristically, intranet access occurs via password and activity is monitored to keep tentacles from tangling, rules in place and operations fluid. Intrinsically, a pharmaceutical company’s intranet potentially tracks digital projects great and small while rendering a consistent hum of daily inter-office employee communications, schedules, announcements, clinical trial activity and regulatory statistics, sales and training information and marketing plans.

Right now, says Bass, a tremendous amount of digital activity concerns sales training, with a thrust toward engaging learning as a positive process. “It is groundbreaking for Pharma because it ties together many operations of sales training under a single banner, including development of traditional printed materials such as detail aids and brochures with interactive programs into a nonlinear approach with text, audio and flash. The interactivity may also associate pop-up queries, rollover definitions or terms clarifications, assessments that offer multiple choice, click-and-drag options and games based on themes.”

The sales and training materials will assure pharmaceutical representatives will be knowledgeable and well-informed, but how is digital media used to educate other audiences about healthcare products and medications?

Physicians, clinicians and allied healthcare professionals receive information about new drugs and products through Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs, which offer specific category credit units applied as a requirement to keep licensing current. Unfortunately, the CME sector has met recent scrutiny due to a question of influence or predisposition to a particular company, program or product. So, the critical component, indicates Bass, is for providers of CME programs to oversee the process in detail, despite who underwrites the program, so that no bias is presented. Consequently, as a growing arm of healthcare’s digital media application, expect to witness increasing use of webcasts, podcasts and video delivery methods in CME programs through portals, medical niche sites, medical associations, exhibits and hospitals.

“It is critical to receive all parts of the content of a CME program, and the process is not as nonlinear as I’d like it to be,” comments Bass. He stresses that a nonlinear approach to CME should still allow a participant to track progress, finish each component and complete an assessment. For instance, a participant could choose to do part “C” then part “A” and “D” then “B.” The components would be completed, the order of completion the participant’s choice.

A third area using digital media is patient education. With new drugs being introduced to the market in so many therapeutic areas the need for detailed patient information is skyrocketing. Patients want to know not only about the medications they are taking but also about different disease states, symptoms, potential diagnoses and possible adverse effects. No longer do patients unconditionally trust the medical system; they are deciding to be more personally responsible for choices about their health. They are finding this information online.

“Having digital information available to consumers of healthcare through patient-oriented websites or sections helps patients, caregivers and family members make more confident decisions about their treatment,” adds Bass. It creates a deeper relationship between patients and physicians.

What about healthcare companies using social media? Bass believes these companies realize the value of social media, but because the industry is heavily regulated in all its external communications, legalities have overcome the potential opportunity afforded through this outlet. Until a way can be determined to achieve all the approvals legally required, promoting through social media would not be the most efficient strategy.

However, Bass thinks that one of the greatest opportunities in digital medical communications for healthcare is for medical writers who know how to think multi-media and multi-dimensional. Multi-channel seems to be the future call.

Digital media applications
For examples on healthcare promotion in action, visit Merck.com.  Aside from the navigational facets covering normal business operations, notice the detailed easy interface. Patients and caregivers require personal information and education about products they may take or about disease states. Healthcare professionals require information and education about what products are medically appropriate for patient care. Distributors require information about how to purchase and resell products. Research and a merger statement clue potential investors while activists can see what Merck proposes toward healthcare reform. The underserved can see what is available to help with prescription expenses. Further, all can view Merck’s responses to recent adverse event statements, as well as corporate financial and responsibility news.

Looking at websites for Glaxo Smith Kline (gsk.com) or Bristol Myers Squibb (bsm.com) validates that the format and categories are similar to those offered on the Merck site.

Editor’s note — Although asked, Merck’s media representative did not provide a response about the company’s current digital media strategy or projects underway. Neither Glaxo Smith Kline nor Bristol Myers Squibb received an inquiry.