On Wednesday 15th, hcsmca-ers went back to the basics and discussed the first impressions websites make and their evolution as influenced by social media. Janet Madsen (@Janet_Madsen) moderated the chat and started with the question:

T1: What does your website say about you?

Whether talking about personal websites and blogs or an organization’s, first impressions are important. But besides telling people what you do and who you are they also reflect how you engage in and with your community and how to join that community through social media.

#hcsmca T1: Informative, engaging and connected. We redesigned our site with the purpose of making it a hub for our social media spaces.

— Quinte Pediatrics (@QuintePediatric) 15 mai 2013

I intend for my website to show my professional face in a personable way. It also showcases #hcsmca, the community, our achievements, etc.

— Colleen Young (@colleen_young) 15 mai 2013

Hcsmca-ers also mentioned the challenge of the audience. Indeed, you have to know it well before launching a website and be able to answer questions like: Who they are? What do they want to see?

Our approach – create profiles of our users, including what drives them to our site. Content and layout was derived from that. #hcsmca

— Jade Gulash (@HQCsask_Jade) 15 mai 2013

However, if you have multiple user groups, how do you target them all on the homepage? It is possible to segment the home page or to build different content for logged in members vs. unlogged visitors or to determine the share needs and place them on the home page. Community chatters added they use Google Analytics to get to know their target population.

@colleen_young @eveningroundsFront page has clear & easy-to-navigate tabs, also linked photos targeted to different audiences. #hcsmca

— Alzheimer Society TO (@AlzToronto) 15 mai 2013

@ajay4quality I certainly use GA to track the growth in social traffic to a site #hcsmca

— Kendra Taylor (@KendraTaylor_) 15 mai 2013

hcsmca-ers debated how healthcare bloggers can build credibility. Some think endorsement could be a solution; for others having different authors contributing. Having the community members write posts, quotes from experts and influencers, including evidence-based information, reputable and detailed references and sources all lend to credibility.

@colleen_young @heartsisters @jbbc Health bloggers shld establish why they trust certain sources/what bias informs their perspective #hcsmca

— Ashley Ashbee (@cartooninperson) 15 mai 2013

Get credible friends and have them endorse you @jbbc T1: What can bloggers do to establish credibility, especially health bloggers#hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 15 mai 2013

What about the comments, do they reflect the blog quality? According to some members, the answer is yes because they show that the blog is read and often generate equally valuable content. However, some hcsmca-ers disagreed presenting the arguments that new blogs can have quality content but not yet a significant number of comments, adding that not all good articles have comments.

I think credible blogs also feature good commentary threads showing they are being read and provoking intelligent comment #hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 15 mai 2013

@cmaer Respectfully disagree. New blogs can be credible even before they garner an active following and commentary. #hcsmca

— Colleen Young (@colleen_young) 15 mai 2013

T2: Has the language of your site changed since you launched into social media?

First, we saw talked about the advantages of websites that are fitted with social media widgets, such as sharing buttons, Twitter feeds etc. Hcsmca-ers generally agreed that social media has influence the language and design of websites. There are more exchanges and more personal content. Launching into social media requires one to be ready to engage.

@hcsmca T2: Definitely. Moving more into focusing on 2way conversations. 1st step: adding social media icons to our front page! #hcsmca

— Alzheimer Society TO (@AlzToronto) 15 mai 2013

@heartsisters @janet_madsen Agree on more personal nature of writing, I think social media has allowed us to value personal more#hcsmca

— Sarah E. McMillan (@SarahMc67) 15 mai 2013

Social media has changed website design with more images, widgets, graphics and videos.

@colleen_young I’d like to put a word in here for the importance of interesting graphics/photos/images in every post @janet_madsen #hcsmca

— Carolyn Thomas (@HeartSisters) 15 mai 2013

Finally, hcsmca-ers declared the value of writing good headlines, especially for Twitter to stand out in the flood of information.

@rhartnup: If you want to be noticed amongst the crowded twittersphere headlines are important way to get attention #hcsmca

— Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC) 15 mai 2013

Read the full transcript.

How has your website changed to fit the social media evolution?

Thanks to the social web, people from around the world come together to share information and support. We build networks and join communities online when we need help or advice.

Colleen Young, founder of Health Care Social Media Canada (@hcsmca & #hcsmca) and online community manager of Canadian Virtual Hospice, witnesses this phenomenon in health every day. Patients, caregivers, family, friends, and other supporters are increasingly taking part in online health communities to share information and find support.

Patients know things — about themselves, about each other, about treatments — and they want to share what they know to help other people. But web 2.0 technology alone does not make community. To build and sustain a community, you need a connector and enabler. You need strategic community management that works.

At the May 21 Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ, Colleen will share insights, stories and lessons learned from her experience managing a variety of online health communities, including:

• SharingStrength.ca |FortesEnsemble.ca
• Canadian Virtual Hospice | Portail canadien en soins palliatives
• Health Care Social Media Canada (#hcsmca)

She’ll talk about best practices in starting and growing an online community and demonstrate the importance of community management, data collection, content creation, collaboration, and other proven techniques that ensure the survival and steady growth of a thriving online community.

On May 8th, @Bonnycastle took the reins and moderated the hcsmca chat. Together we discussed the relationship between physicians and patients support groups. As an introduction, she wrote the blog post Should medical doctors advocate for patient support groups?

T1: Why is it important for physicians to advocate for patient support groups?

First, let’s see what hcsmca-ers think about patient support groups. Most view the support that patients gain from their peers as positively complementary to the relationships they have with their doctors and other healthcare providers. Patient support groups help patients to empower themselves and to guide their self care.

Peer learning is a key factor for that and Patient communities foster that empowerment. @nurturedchild @hcsmca #hcsmca

— James Spicka (@jcs0716) 8 mai 2013

What does it change if health providers advocate for patient support groups? Physicians advocating for patient support groups increase their legitimacy and reputation. It can help them be seen as a benefit to patients outcomes. It is also a way for patients and providers to work together and to improve their relationship.

@hcsmca It increases the support group’s legitamacy as an effective treatment tool if doctors are encouraging them. #hcsmca

— Bev Herscovitch (@bhersc) 8 mai 2013

T1 Because doctors have power and for support groups to work, they need to have buy-in from the entire hc team. #hcsmca

— Craig Thompson (@CraigTyyz) 8 mai 2013

However, before advocating, the provider has to know if the community is relevant or not. Additionally, they are more apt to advocate for patient support groups that demonstrate benefit to patients outcomes.

T1 Key reason MDs will advocate for patient communities is if there is evidence they improve patient outcomes #hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 8 mai 2013

To the question, “Do you think patients should tell their doctors about belonging to support groups?” hcsmca-ers think that it depends on the doctor. If he or she is open-minded about social media and Internet searches in general and support groups more specifically, then patients are more willing to share.

@bonnycastle depends on the doctor and what their reaction will be. Some doctors ridicule support groups, especially online #hcsmca

— Aurelia Cotta (@AureliaCotta) 8 mai 2013

Providers often equate anything that involves SoMe or support groups with WebMD or google searching @bhersc @aureliacotta #hcsmca

— James Spicka (@jcs0716) 8 mai 2013

Chat members also discussed whether for-profit groups can be considered reputable and valuable support communities. PatientsLikeMe was cited as a for-profit online community that is well respected because it is transparent and has clear guidelines.

@anetto It’s use that makes it a community or not. For-profit/non-profit, still groups of PEOPLE touched by serious illness. #hcsmca

— Julia Vyse (@Julia_Vyse) 8 mai 2013

T2: How can organizations and patients help physicians advocate for patient support groups?

Patients and organizations can both show healthcare professionals the positive impacts of support groups on patients outcomes by showing proofs and measures of their benefits.

t2: support grp can hopefully provide measures & preferably independent 1′s to ed MDs w evidence that the org/grp is mtg pt needs #hcsmca

— PaulGallant CHE MHK (@HealthWorksBC) 8 mai 2013

By discussing with their doctors, patients can assure that these groups help them manage their health.
Chat members also added that patients recognize what groups benefit them. Doctors can learn and curate a list of patient-vetted support groups by asking and listening to their patients.

T2: Physicians can’t really advocate for support groups w/o proof that they serve patient needs, which they get from patients. #hcsmca

— Samuel Dunsiger (@samdunsiger) 8 mai 2013

stories/convo’ b/w patient&doc can elicit meaningful measures to understanding support grp successes – thoughts? #hcsmca

— Patients’ Assoc (@PatientsAssocCa) 8 mai 2013

As for patient organizations, they can make doctors aware of what they do, give them resources of their patient support groups, distribute flyers in waiting rooms or ask to be included on hospital and doctor’s websites. However, some chat members underlined that the communications tools to reach doctors are very expensive and take time.

@bonnycastle Perhaps their role is working with doctors to make them aware of what they do so that docs can pass on to pts? #hcsmca

— Quinte Pediatrics (@QuintePediatric) 8 mai 2013

T2 Organizations can support their clinics and doctors by providing that first cut at a list of patient support resources. #hcsmca

— Craig Thompson (@CraigTyyz) 8 mai 2013

Read the full transcript.

Marie Ennis O’Connor (@JBBC) shared a list of patient support communities on Twitter that she is building. Feel free to add yours.

Have you ever joined a patient support group? How did you find it and do you talk about it with your doctor?

Nicole Ghanie-Opondo

On Wednesday May 1st, Nicole Ghanie-Opondo (@todayisbanana) moderated our tweetchat and asked the community how social media can serve behaviour change messages and help track diseases. As an introduction to the discussion she wrote an article in her blog – Behaviour Change, Disease Tracking & Social Media?

T1: People have tuned out of some behaviour messaging – can SM help?

Generally speaking, when it comes to behavior changes there is no miracle and most hcsmca-ers agreed that social media can’t be “the solution”. However, according to some chat participants, social media can provide useful peer support. By sharing real stories people may feel less alone and be influenced by the positive behaviour changes of others in their networks – “if you/they can do it, so can I”.

T1: SM can help folks empower themselves to change behaviours, especially when they meet others going through the same thing. #hcsmca

— Samuel Dunsiger (@samdunsiger) 1 mai 2013

Social media can also be a good tool to provide a message with a different approach, a more personal language and to get feedback from the audience.

@todayisbananas We need to use social media to provide information in a “real person” not professional way. Make it personal #hcsmca ^aw

— HaltonParents (@haltonparents) 1 mai 2013

Hcsmca-ers also noticed that social media can have a negative impact simply because they can transmit the wrong message to an audience.

@todayisbananas @samdunsiger. T1 SM is an agnostic tool and so can be just as powerful in reinforcing negative behaviors #hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 1 mai 2013

The opposite is also true because social media can be used to refute these wrong information through the sharing of studies for example.

@cartooninperson As community manager I’ve often used SM to correct info & slow rumours on things like ‘super STIs’ #hcsmca

— Nicole Ghanie-Opondo (@TodayisBananas) 1 mai 2013

The members debated about the length of the messages on social media and they notably said that short messages can be perceived as bossy. However, for others these messages are less pushy than longer ones.

@todayisbananas Yes, definitely. It’s hard to get message across in 140 char without sounding bossy sometimes! #hcsmca ^aw

— HaltonParents (@haltonparents) 1 mai 2013

@alainabcyr Bite sized chunks definitely more effective. Can’t expect SM to chg macro behaviour overnight #hcsmca

— Colin Hung (@Colin_Hung) 1 mai 2013

Social media can also be used to find out why people tune out behaviour change messaging and thus be a tool to bring them on board.

@todayisbananas T1 Tuning out doesn’t mean msg needs to be louder. Unhealthy behaviour comes from social issue. SM can identify. #hcsmca

— Ashley Ashbee (@cartooninperson) 1 mai 2013

T2: Should public health be using social media for disease tracking, beyond the flu?

Some hcsmca-ers are skeptical; they doubt about the accuracy of the data.

Agreed, that is my concern ^aw RT @cihrcafe_hfx: T2: One worry might be how accurate we can expect data from SM to be. #hcsmca

— HaltonParents (@haltonparents) 1 mai 2013

They notably questioned the meaning “likes” and “RTs” on social media – Do they reflect people’s thoughts? Do people always read what they like?

@todayisbananas @colin_hung I never assume people read when they Like/RT. What if they just want visibility? What if they’re bots? #hcsmca

— Ashley Ashbee (@cartooninperson) 1 mai 2013

Members also added that even if the data are not perfectly representative, they can still give some information that shows useful patterns.

+1 RT @alextyml: re: T2… I think there is value because the info is there. SM makes everything public!#hcsmca

— Nicole Ghanie-Opondo (@TodayisBananas) 1 mai 2013

@farrahschwartz T2: Good point, especially, I think, stories like where access is lacking for certain issues. 1 story enough. #hcsmca

— Ashley Ashbee (@cartooninperson) 1 mai 2013

During the discussion, hcsmca-ers shared interesting links that I gathered here:

• Pharmville: Applying Gamification to Healthcare
• Helene Campbell launches campaign to support transplant recipients
• Adventures in Sex City – The Health Unit
• Trending Now: Using Social Media to Predict and Track Disease Outbreaks
• Flu Evolution in Canada
• Health Map

For more details about the chat, you can read the full transcript.

What type of media do you think is the most successful in positive and healthy behaviour change and why?

Thank you Pat Rich (@cmaer), online editor for the Canadian Medical Association, for capturing the highlights of the chat in this Storify. View the story “Medical students and their digital footprint” on Storify

@steveoph If u judge me on my peer review pubs, you have absolutely no idea who I am. Blog = 4 years of open thinking.vy different #HCSMCA

— Bryan Vartabedian (@Doctor_V) April 25, 2013

Read the full transcript.

What institutions are evaluating digital footprints well and how?

The lifecycle is your strategy for developing the community. It tells you what to do and when to do it. It’s backed by academic research, it’s proven to work, and ensures that the community manager understands what to work on next, as opposed to working in the dark. … [Until now] it’s always been visually unimpressive. There was never a single diagram that placed the stages, with the metrics, and the actions all in one place.

The FeverBee community lifecycle  poster is a great cheatsheet or quick reference guide.

My fellow panelists, Jenn Sprung (@mindthecompany) and Bruce Baskerville (@CrushTheCrave), and I (@colleen_young) will explore this question at Apps for Health (@appsforhealth) on May 16. Each of us will share our perspectives:

I will share best practices of Community Management That Works – How to build a thriving online community. Bruce will present the app Crush the Crave as a Case Study – Successes and lessons learned integrating social in a health app. And Jenn will remind us Don’t Forget the User – First-hand stories from the hand that holds the app.

We’ll delve into questions such as:

• Why do you need a social strategy? Online community should not be an after-thought in health app development. 
• What role does community management play?
• What is the impact of online social networks? What should we measure and why?
• The cat factor: What motivates community growth and activity?
• And what about the bad stuff? What to do when members “mis-behave”?

There’s still time to register - $10 for students, $50 for professionals and $25 for faculty. See the full line-up of panel sessions and student competition. Will Falk (@willfalk) will be giving the opening keynote. You can also follow the hashtag #appsforhealth on May 16.

What question would you like our panel to answer?

By Rajiv Singal (@DrRKSingal)

There has been much debate about how physicians should adapt to the digital world. The obvious benefits of online information exchange and networking have to be considered in the context of maintaining the private and very intimate nature of the patient-physician relationship. In my view, physicians have always been public figures. We care for the public and conduct our business in public institutions. I am always aware that every new patient sizes me up at our first encounter. It starts even before their consult. They observe how I interact with others in the waiting room and likely make a preliminary judgment about my character. That first impression matters in the moments before I actually introduce myself.

While we all strive for that elusive work-life balance, it is increasingly difficult to separate our personal and public personas. Anyone can walk into my office, listen to me at a hospital fundraiser or potentially hear at a coffee shop from another person whether I treated someone well or not. As we adopt social media, the signatures of our conduct become magnified.

Getting into medical school has always been very competitive. According to a blog post Medical School Admissions: Striving for fairness despite “ill-designed” tools by Anthony Sanfilippo, the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education at Queen’s University Medical School, they received 3818 applicants for 100 spots this year. How does one choose? With so many bright, young people trying to enter medicine, it is difficult to decide who is worthy. It’s probable that out of every ten people with a 3.9+ GPA and widely diverse interests and only one will be lucky, leaving 9 disappointed and dreams shattered. Dr Sanfilippo’s account of the fictional Jessica and Matt illustrates this well. Yes, we train great physicians, but which superstars are we unknowingly excluding?

With this in mind there is a sense that maybe other criteria need to be considered in evaluating medical school applicants. Again Dr Sanfilippo offers some thoughts worth reading in his blog post Medical School Admissions: Unintended Consequences.

As people lead lives that increasingly include online communications and networking some have started to ask whether we should be looking at the digital signature or footprint medical school applicants. Will this shed light on strengths and noble endeavors that may not be apparent on ‘paper’? Perhaps expose character traits that may best be left outside of the medical profession?

I am not sure where the answer lies but I am certain that physicians occupy an important place in the public trust and how we conduct ourselves at all times on- and off-line must be worthy of the highest standards of the profession.

For the evening #hcsmca chat on April 24 (9pm ET), I recommend reading this blog post by Bryan Vartabedian, MD Assessing Med School Applicants’ Digital Footprints. In it @Doctor_V sets the stage for our discussion.

I leave you with these questions to consider:

• T1: Who is currently using an assessment of digital footprints to assess medical school applicants?
• T2: How can digital footprint assessment be developed to optimize this medical school selection process in a positive and meaningful way.
• T3: Can this be extended to post graduate medical education programs?

I look forward to seeing you Twitter on April 24, 2013 at 9pm ET for #hcsmca.

Fanny Gillet

By Fanny Gillet and edited by Colleen Young 

On Wednesday May 10th, @kgrindrod moderated our discussion on the relationship between journalism and social media. As an introduction to the subject Kelly offered a research article by @JulieLeask “Media coverage of health issue and how to work more effectively with journalists: a qualitative study” and blog post by @cdnorman “The Importance of Journalism to Public Health: 10 Years After SARS How Are We Doing?” This chat welcomed many points of view from people of diverse backgrounds and professions.

Early in the discussion we realized the need to define “journalist”. For the parameters of this chat, we were referring to the professionally trained journalists who are paid for their writing. Some people on the chat consider bloggers to be journalists. For the remainder of the chat we agreed that we were talking about journalists writing for main stream media or traditional media, and referred to bloggers as citizen journalists.

@cdnorman: @williampearl @cmaer Role is different between paid f/t pros and citizen journalists. Both serve important purposes #hcsmca

— Colleen Young (@colleen_young) 10 avril 2013

T1: Media coverage of health issues: How can we help journalists report on health via social media?

Healthcare organizations and researchers rely on main stream media to help them communicate their news, events and research. @SignalsBlog directed us to this article “Why the pen is sometimes mightier than the pipette” underlining that being published in traditional media can increase the rate of academic research citations. Social media can be used by journalists to reach healthcare organizations and vice versa. But one thing is sure – both parties have to build a trusting relationship to work well together. Social media can help to build such relationships, giving space for each side to get to know each other. Through social media we can identify our respective areas of specialty and learn to work together within each others’ realities (e.g., deadlines, internal approval processes, etc.).

Remembering cultural diffs between worlds of journalism and research also key – diff norms, deadlines, resource limitations etc #hcsmca

— Julia Belluz (@juliaoftoronto) 10 avril 2013

Healthcare organizations can help journalists by providing them with interesting topic ideas, relevant information, experts to be interviewed, images, testimonials, etc. Journalists also mentioned that people sometimes reached them via social media with story ideas and that social media can be helpful for them to find different points of views.

I find it helpful when people (within reason) reach out to me on SM about things to cover/read #hcsmca

— Julia Belluz (@juliaoftoronto) 10 avril 2013

T1: We can help journalists report on health via social media by being mini-journalists giving them good twitter traffic to trend #hcsmca

— Glenn Lanteigne (@GlennLanteigne) 10 avril 2013

According to some hcsmca-ers, the journalist-healthcare organization relationship has to be built before we need journalists – this collaboration requires anticipation. Twitter can help find people and build such relationships.

T1 HC orgs could help by building relationships with journalists in advance of a health crisis.#hcsmca

— Craig Thompson (@CraigTyyz) 10 avril 2013

Hcsmca-ers pointed out that jargon can sometimes interfere with effective collaboration. Indeed, for journalists, especially for non-health/medicine journalists, it can be hard to understand medical jargon. To avoid misinterpretation, healthcare organizations and researchers should provide concise, clear, plain language material to journalists, particularly because traditional media timelines do not always allow for review of the article before it is published.

Info may be reported same way as presented by healthcare specialists–needs to be clear and actionable, limited jargon #hcsmca

— Farrah Schwartz (@FarrahSchwartz) 10 avril 2013

T2: How do health journalists use social media to research stories and to disseminate them?

Health journalists use social media as a source of information. But hcsmca-ers questioned whether people using social media were largely talking into an echo chamber. Perhaps and for that reason journalists would never use social media as their sole source of information. However, listening via social media may help them find new perspectives that they may otherwise not be aware of and help them connect with subject matter experts or thought leaders. Several hcsmca-ers mentioned they had been contacted through Twitter to provide context for media stories.

@signalsblog absolutely, which is why #hcsmca works well as an echo chamber – great for ideas for long features

— Charlie Fidelman (@HealthIssues) 10 avril 2013

It’s not only an echo chamber tho – I stumble on items/opinions all the time I would have otherwise missed #hcsmca

— Julia Belluz (@juliaoftoronto) 10 avril 2013

Traditional media is also one way for patients to tell their stories. Some hcsmca-ers pointed out that patient stories may not always be used for the patients’ benefit. Is social media helping to change this?

Hlth reporting too focussed on Big Pharma & medical industrial complex issues – gd 4 business; not always good for patients #hcsmca

— David Lewis (@DrPlumEU) 10 avril 2013

@cmaer i think patients are getting more accomplished at telling their stories directly through blogs etc #hcsmca

— Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC) 10 avril 2013

For the complete discussion, you can read the transcript.

Where do traditional media and social media intersect for you?

On April Wednesday 3rd, we explored as yet uncharted territory for #hcsmca, namely pharmaceutical companies, their reputation and the role they can or should play in the future of health care. The chat was moderated by @williampearl who also wrote an article on her blog Social Media Pearls, introducing her framing of the topics.

T1: What can pharmaceutical companies do to improve their reputation /relationships in health care?

The first comments pointed to transparency and accountability as key ingredients to improving their reputation. They should, for example, explain where the money goes, why they stop certain drug production or how they target the research funds.

T1 They can ensure needed drugs don’t disappear unexpectedly or for no reason but $ #hcsmca

— Annette McKinnon (@anetto) 3 avril 2013

T1: Show they are invested in positive patient outcomes (not just $)e.g. compassionate use as mentioned by @cloudhealth #hcsmca

— Anne Dang, CCPA (@AnneCCPA) 3 avril 2013

Participants cited examples of positive actions that pharmaceutical companies have taken. @CLOUDHealth mentioned Pfizer’s role in a young boy’s recovery and @Colleen_Young linked to a now archived website – SharingStrength.ca – for women with breast cancer in Canada that was sponsored by Astra Zeneca. Others reminded us that some pharma companies help patients pay for their drugs and finance non-profit organizations.

When developing SharingStrength.ca sponsored by AstraZeneca, we held patient focus groups. Patients were positive abt pharma.#hcsmca

— Colleen Young (@colleen_young) 3 avril 2013

Hcsma-ers agreed that pharmaceutical companies have to be transparent when they sponsor organizations. When it is correctly managed, it seems that patients have no problem with the fact that a pharmaceutical company is involved.

@hhampson they were okay about pharma sponsoring patient education and online community with proper governance #hcsmca

— Colleen Young (@colleen_young) 3 avril 2013

Some hcsmca-ers think they also have to show transparency regarding their trials and notably the ones that are not made public. Besides, @rhartnup shared the website AllTrials.net that is petitioning to have all trials past and present registered, and the full methods and the results reported. They hope to encourage governments, regulators and research bodies to implement measures to achieve this.

@anetto There is a movement now led by @bengoldacre to address this, since trials with negative results are important to know about #hcsmca

— Ruth Hartnup (@rhartnup) 3 avril 2013

Hcsmca-ers also approached the subject of sponsored continuing medical education (CME). Indeed, pharmaceutical companies are very involved in funding CME. Some questioned the sustainability of CME without their financial help. However, in a perfect world, they should invest in CME without influencing the healthcare professionals on their prescription practice.

@stevedempsey Good question. More specifically, how willing is pharma to fund hands-off CME with no product references? #hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 3 avril 2013

Docs should learn to critically appraise any research/advice given to them by pharma so as to make their own judgement #hcsmca

— Sunny Chan (@waisunchan) 3 avril 2013

T2: How can pharmaceutical companies help/support the social change in health care and patient communities?

Hcmaca-ers mentioned that these companies should listen more to what’s happening on social media and to the patient’s voice. However it was noted that because of legislation regulating pharma, they don’t have a big field of action.

T2: Informing and engaging important stakeholders in social media, dialogue in tweetchats (HCP or pt-oriented) is a good start #hcsmca

— Anne Dang, CCPA (@AnneCCPA) 3 avril 2013

It is difficult not to be suspicious when it comes to pharmaceutical companies actions. Hcsmca-ers tend to think that whatever they do, there is a marketing goal behind their action. They are a business and like all businesses they need to see a return on investment.

Also need to remember pharma are very profitable businesses so they need an ROI to contribute even if just altruisim = more goodwill #hcsmca

— Pat Rich (@cmaer) 3 avril 2013

During this chat @willimapearl also mentioned the new titles that she observed appearing in pharmaceutical companies, such as “Director of Patient Experience” or “Director of Patient Advocacy”.

@williampearl Yes – again, part of pharma marketing strategies. Not altruism – just good business #hcsmca

— Carolyn Thomas (@HeartSisters) 3 avril 2013

Community members also think pharma could help patients find treatment alternatives to manage their diseases.

T1:Rx co’s “could” also invest in developing alt solns to “prescriptions” by adding grt research approaches to natural alternatives #hcsmca

— PaulGallant CHE MHK (@HealthWorksBC) 3 avril 2013

If I could sum up this discussion with one word, that would be scepticism. Indeed, even if we saw some examples of positive actions, pharmaceutical companies’ good will remains in doubt. When talking about pharmaceutical companies, nothing is simply black or white. They have a big role to play in patients’ lives but they also have to be disassociated.

Can it be that pharma has such a stinky rep that even being transparent will be suspicious? #hcsmca

— kathy kastner (@KathyKastner) 3 avril 2013

The full transcript is well worth the read.