Envisioning 2.0

Update: Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, recently posted about a chat he had with an exec who says vendors are urging pharma to blog. He reports that Pfizer is too scared to blog because of fear of regulation. Shel: The next time you’re talking with a pharma exec, please direct them to the essay below. I think it may help to alleviate any fears pharma has of the blogosphere.

Original Post: Recently, I have been conducting research for a report I am developing on blogging in healthcare. Shahid Shah, a healthcare IT expert and a corporate blogging evangelist, graciously agreed to be interviewed for the report.

Shahid is well-known in healthcare blogging circles and beyond. He was recently interviewed by Backbone Media about healthcare blogging. Shahid runs the HITSphere blog aggregator as well as his own Healthcare IT Guy blog. He was also featured in DataMations magazine’s recent Blogging Your Way Up the Career Ladder article.

Given Shahid’s expertise on this subject, I decided to invite him to talk with a little more specificity about pharmaceutical and regulated products blogging. His article appears below.

Corporate blogging is certainly not new but it hasn’t really taken off because executives are always nervous about public statements they make, especially if they run a public company. Until now only small firms, who have much to gain with direct 2-way contact with their customers, have really engaged their clients through blogs. Now, however, even the big companies as different as McDonalds and Microsoft have become corporate bloggers with different degrees of success.

The pharmaceutical industry is certainly one group of companies that could use increased goodwill that comes from direct contact with their customers. If anyone should be blogging from a corporate perspective it should be big pharma because what it does directly touches the lives of its customers in a way very few other industries do. The level of importance people give to their health and the way that they bond with their healthcare providers (and by extension the drugs they take) is very important. Most pharma companies are worried about the FDA and cite that as a big concern about why they don’t blog. But, I think that’s a mistake.

Pharma shouldn’t worry too much about what the FDA has to say specifically for blogs. Blogging does not impact anything that wouldn’t already be public anyway. For example, if a pharmaceutical firm has a call center where they answer questions about their drugs’ on-label use, a blog would be no different. In fact, drug firms can improve customer service by providing tips, tools, and guidance on how best to use their drugs. I would recommend that firms start to create blogs that start to tell stories of why scientists (in their own words) are focusing on certain diseases, how far technology has come along, how exactly drugs go from an idea to discovery to production. All these would bring customers closer to them, not alienate them. And, the FDA won’t complain about anything that doesn’t cause off-label use. Fard and I spoke with an FDA counsel this week and they basically said the same thing (without providing specific or official legal guidance). Anything that’s covered by existing guidance would apply to blogs, too.

If a drug vendor starts a blog or discussion forum about its products and doesn’t mis-communicate about efficacy of its products or fitness for a particular purpose it shouldn’t get into trouble. Companies won’t have problems with regulators if they stick to the truth about their products and improve the way customers interact with them. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be careful about what they say — but that goes for anything a company says. It’s not something special to blogging but blogging does make it easy for people to say whatever they want (like folks do in an email).

So, if you’re not blogging today don’t blame the feds. If you’re not creating corporate blogs, it’s due to a lack of vision and innovation and perhaps a lack of respect of your customers, not the FDA. Guys like me and Fard can help you devise an appropriate strategy to allow direct communication, improved customer service, and who knows in a few years people may stop thinking of big pharma in a poor light like they do now.

Oh, and by the way, don’t think that just because you’re not blogging about your own products that nobody else is. Nature abhors a vacuum but so does the blogging community. Third parties are already talking about your drugs and company in their own blogs and forums. Why not take the initiative and help navigate people to the “official” word about your drugs?

Michael Moore has issued an appeal to HMO workers, pharmaceutical company executives and others involved or impacted by the healthcare industry to relate their experiences to him. This appeal, which was posted yesterday on his Web site, is titled, “Send Me Your Health Care Horror Stories.”

Rumors have been swirling for months that Moore was going to focus his documentary on the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, some suggested that he would show up at medical meetings — with camera crew in tow — ready to film interactions between physicians and pharmaceutical representatives.

It is possible that he may still decide to do this, his Web site indicates that he is going to focus his ire on the HMO industry. However, knowing Moore, no area of the healthcare industry is safe.

Healthcare crisis communicators and issues managers start your engines. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride.