Can pharmaceutical/healthcare companies leverage social media to better understand their end consumers - the patients? Anyone outside the pharma world might quickly say sure, it seems like a slam-dunk. But inside the pharma world, there are real challenges to taking advantage of the resource that social media represents. Pharma/healthcare companies are very highly regulated in how they communicate with patients, and it’s natural that for many companies, this would translate into a feeling of being limited in how they listen to patients as well.

One area of concern relates to Adverse Events (AEs) with prescription medications. Social media is a different type of communication than what pharma companies are used to getting from patients - it’s informal, and it isn’t necessarily written with pharma companies as the intended audience. Before diving into these waters, many companies want an answer to a key question: How often are AEs mentioned within social media discussion, and do these mentions meet the FDA’s four criteria for AE reporting?

We decided to find out. Earlier this year, Nielsen Online conducted an analysis of 500 healthcare messages across multiple disease categories to understand the extent of AE mentions within social media discussion. While almost all of the messages would meet at least one of the FDA’s AE reporting criteria, we found just 4 (less than 1%) that mention a specific adverse experience, and only 1 that includes all four of the criteria needed to file an AE report with the FDA; that message described a chemotherapy patient who experienced a side effect not listed with the treatment, and asked whether this side effect might mean the treatment is working. The analysis is described in full in a newly published whitepaper available here.

So back to my original question: Can pharma/healthcare companies leverage social media to better understand their patients? Of course, we think the answer is yes - and we’re not alone, judging from the work that many of our clients are doing.