Pharma's Influence ($ + Twitter) Over Medical Societies

(click on image for an enlarged view)

Today, I came across a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today report (here) that links pharmaceutical industry payments to physicians and medical societies that determine treatment guidelines for drugs that they produce. The report focuses on the anticoagulant market and Gregory Lip, a British heart doctor with "extensive financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Lip has also served on treatment guidelines panels that have recommended greater use of the new [anticoagulant] drugs.

"Critics argue the financial relationships can lead to guidelines that make ineffective, costly or potentially harmful recommendations," says the report.

"Drug companies and some doctors counter that those with conflicts often are top experts in their fields and they provide essential insight to such committees. A 2012 Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found that treatment guidelines for conditions treated by the nation's most popular drugs, which accounted for $94 billion in sales at the time, were written by panels heavy with doctors with financial ties to drug companies. The investigation found that 66% of doctors on 16 guideline panels that listed conflicts had financial ties to drug companies. Nine guidelines were written by panels where more than 80% of doctors had financial ties to drug companies."

But pharma uses more than money to influence medical societies and its members. They also use Twitter. Hows so?

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What I Learned During Day 1 at iPharma 2015

I am attending CBI's iPharma 2015 conference in New York City. Yesterday was the first day. I chaired the Technology Track and moderated a panel discussion that attempted to answer the question: Can Mobile, Apps and Wearables Make an Impact on Health Outcomes?

 Of course the answer was "Yes! And…"

As I learned from a previous speaker, that phrase was how "innovators" like Walt Disney suggested his staff greet new ideas instead of saying "No, because…" That is, people should add more suggestions for how the idea could work and not just shoot it down immediately.

It's just one little thing I "learned," which I can put into practice at my next homeowners board meeting when they try and shoot down my idea of using technology & social media to make running a homeowners association more transparent and inclusive. I imagine marketers -- especially digital marketers -- could apply the same thinking when their ideas are being shot down by MLR or upper management.

BTW, "innovators/innovation" is one of the terms on my Pharma Buzzword Bingo Card, which is shown in the accompanying image (updated at end of 2nd day). You can see that quite a few buzzwords (13) were mentioned during yesterday's sessions (for a buzzword score of 54%). Note that the complete bottom row is marked off and I have achieved BINGO!

BTW, Peter Justason, Director of eMarketing at Purdue, began a remark in a panel discussion with the phrase "If you are a pharma guy…" He didn't mean "The" PharmaGuy so I just put a dashed line through that in the card. Note: PharmaGuy is trademarked!

But enough of silly learnings. What did I learn that might be more useful for pharama digital marketers?

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The Patients Included Movement: My Comments on the Global Charter, re "Key Patient Advocates" & Transparency

"Patient centricity" is all the rage these days among pharmaceutical industry conference attendees and speakers. It is even becoming more common for actual patients to be part of the faculty/speakers and/or attendees of these conferences.

This wasn't always the case, which is why Lucien Engelen launched the "NO-SHOW Patients Act" in 2012 (read "No-Show patients on conferences : Patients Included™"). Lucien founded and is the Director of the Reshape Center at the Radboud University Medical Center located in the Netherlands. The Center is at the "convergence of patient empowerment and (exponential) technology."

Lucien said he no longer could imagine a conference about healthcare with a NO-SHOW approach of patients, by which he meant:

• no patient IN the program, 
• no patient ON the stage or 
• no patient IN the audience.

Lucien announced he would boycott such conferences by declaring "I will NO-SHOW on healthcare conferences that do not add patients TO or IN their program or invite them IN the audience also I will no longer speak at NO-SHOW conferences."

The "Patients Included" logo shown above can be used free of copyright for conferences that have patients ON stage, IN the program or invited as patients to the conference. "Do not ask US if your are eligible for it," says Lucien, "the audience will be your 'judge' ;-)" BTW, you can't use the fact that "we are all patients" to qualify.

Now the "Patients Included" movement is getting more complicated. Some activists are developing a "Global Charter" that goes much further than Lucien's NO-SHOW Patients Act and lays down specific compliance guidelines.

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