Patients’ Week 2011: The power of the Internet to improve patient outcomes

Elisa Cascade, vice president of Mediguard, on how to connect patients to better health outcomes by connecting them to online platforms



 

Harnessing the potential of social media and the Internet is a strategic priority, but how to engage with the masses of patients seeking health information is an enigma to most in the biopharmaceutical industry. 

Although methods for engaging with online patient pools are still evolving, organizations taking the traditional, conservative path of waiting for proof of commercial success before investing will be at significant risk of being left behind.

The rapid increase in Internet access in the home, at work, and through new technologies (iPads, smartphones) has enabled patients to take a more active role in their own care by seeking health information online. 

In the US, UK, and France, for example, between 40% (UK) and 60% (US) of adults seek prescription drug and other medical information on the Internet.

This change in focus toward a more empowered patient is a feature of the New Health trend that presents an opportunity to improve health outcomes.  

In a recent survey of physicians, for example, two-thirds of respondents indicated that patients who are better informed about their health achieve better outcomes. (For more on Health 2.0, see Patients’ Week 2011: How Health 2.0 helps patients put a doctor in their pocket.)

Informed and empowered patients

With respect to medication in particular, informed and empowered patients are more likely to request a specific treatments, ask to have their medication switched due to lack of efficacy or tolerability, and adhere to their treatment.

As a result, biopharmaceutical companies looking to drive new starts and product adherence should be exploring methods for communicating directly with patients. 

Although patient preferences for adherence support vary slightly across conditions, most patients are looking for information on indications, potential side effects, and possible interactions.

But building an excellent service/program is only part of the formula for success. 

What we have learned in growing our MediGuard service to over 2.5 million members in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia is that creating adherence programs is not as simple as ‘if you build it, they will come’. 

Rather, there is a need to actively reach out to patients to introduce the new service and the need to provide them something of value to entice them to enrol in the program.

Most of our biopharmaceutical clients believe in the value of adherence programs, but companies outside the US in particular have been slow to invest, often due to their legal department’s conservative interpretation of regulations on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, which is ironic given that patients can easily find what they are looking for on websites that are visible across country borders. 

Innovative companies looking to leverage the power of social media are already exploring the grey area to find ways to deliver adherence programs despite the prohibition of DTC marketing. 

Recognizing that the online space has evolved and will continue to evolve rapidly in the next three to five years, companies that have not yet begun to work directly with patients are missing out on current and potentially future opportunities to further a product’s commercial success. 

Elisa Cascade is vice president of Mediguard.

For more information on Patients’ Week and to sign up for a free webinar on Monday 19th September, go to Patients' Week 2011.

For everything patient-related, join the sector’s other key players atPatient Adherence, Communication and Engagement (PACE) USA on October 24-25 in Philadelphia. Download the full PACE agenda and speaker line-up here.  Want to know more? Contactlaura@eyeforpharma.com.

To read our Patients’ Week stories from 2010, see Patients’ Week 2010.

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