Social Media & Health Care Conference

Last Tuesday (Nov, 3, 2009) I attended a conference about “Social Media & Health Care” held here in New Brunswick, NJ. The participants were predominantly (not exclusively) employees from the Johnson & Johnson umbrella of companies but from various departments (marketing, communication, product development, legal, financial etc.). The conference was focused on how companies are engaging online, how they can do more and better in the future, and how they can take advantage of this new communication opportunity in “good taste”.

The speeches began with Ray Jordon, Corporate Vice President of Public Affairs and Corporate Communication at J&J who listed some vital statistics:

• 61 % of Americans search for health information online
• 60 % of those seek information from people like themselves (lay people) - not professionals
• 56 % of those that searched online changed their medical approach due to their research and
• 53 % of those that searched would ask their doctors about information they found online or would seek a second opinion.
  

He went on to discuss how this change in “corporate credibility” was an opportunity worth addressing. To help companies better understand the challenges when attempting to communicate to the masses on an individual level (he was referring to the fragmentation of users online) several guest speakers were brought to share their insight. Two of which are “Patient Bloggers”, meaning regular people that host their own blog (sometimes with a forum), that talks about living life with their condition.

Kerri Morrone Sparling, has Type 1 Diabetes and writes on SixUntilMe.com,

and Jenni Prokopy has chronic pain (and a stream of other conditions) and writes on ChronicBabe.com.

Both expressed a desire for more credible medical sources to be available online. They were not opposed to the involvement of medical companies in online education; they simply stated that it “needs to be done the right way”.

Both bloggers had over 10,000 viewers monthly and complained that many of their readers use Google to search for information, although it has been proven that often the first search results are often not from medically reliable sources. They both experienced companies getting involved in their blog the wrong way. If companies are simply there to tap into a consumer market, they will be quickly detected and removed from the site. According to them, the manner of speech and frequency of involvement are dead give-aways.

Their advice:For companies to properly get involved, they need to be honest. They should first contact the moderator, be transparent about the company their work for and their intentions on participating in the forum. They need to dedicate time on reading up on the history and getting to know the active members. Companies should participate in existent threads and share insight on many topics (not just the temporary scope of their business). The opportunities are there and welcomed! Creating a face and personality to a corporation is unquantifiable. Patients will better trust the brand and companies will better understand the needs of their customers.

Several examples of successful corporate partnerships were mentioned. Once such case is that of PriCara, a division of Ortho McNeil-Janssen that sponsored the creation of a website addressing Pain, LetsTalkPain.org.

The company provided the funds to a third party who created a platform for communication between patients and physicians. The company does not prescribe advice to any individual and does not mention or market their products. Jenni Prokopy admitted to using the site for months before realizing the logo and its corporate affiliation. The company’s intention was simply to provide and outlet for communication and a reliable source for medical information.

More research needs to be conducted as to how patients would like to be contacted online. There appears to be a desire, and a definite need for credible medical information, but how to bring the two together is still unclear.