Digital Communications - a future of possibilities
The theme of the second HCA Forum, held in London on June 4, was the utilisation of digital media by the pharmaceutical industry - namely the contentious issues, barriers to greater use and potential opportunities.
Kai Gait (GlaxoSmithKline) challenged the assembled audience to reassess how they view digital media, especially for their healthcare professional customers: “We are all consumers, whether at work or at home”. He added that we often expect healthcare professionals to behave differently to other consumers and in many product campaigns digital media is often an afterthought. However, the majority of consumers use the Internet to search for product information. Marketers therefore need to go to where their potential customers are and join in existing conversations, rather than trying to develop new communities.
The meeting attendees identified the most significant current barriers to greater use of digital media as pharmacovigilance issues (including privacy and intellectual property), the need for pharma to relinquish control over certain forms of communication, fear of the unknown, and managing expectations. Conversely, the benefits of digital media were identified as the greater speed of communication, the potential for reaching existing receptive audiences, the opportunity of enhancing the reputation of pharma and the ability to enhance patient safety by increasing awareness of potential issues, e.g. adverse events. Ways in which digital media can be used immediately by pharma include research to find out hot topics among healthcare professionals, including any gaps in their knowledge, and where these customers go to hold their conversations and find information. Ideally, digital media would enable “The right to have a 2-way conversation with customers” rather than the current didactic approach.
Digital communications is clearly a high priority for the HCA membership and this meeting served to kick start the whole debate.  Chair, Sarah Matthew, stated that the HCA now aims to bring the many issues relating to digital communications to the forefront.  The first step will be the formation of a new HCA working group charged with helping the membership to navigate the digital landscape and, where possible, to provide some practical advice and tools.  In addition, the HCA will be collaborating with the Pharmaceutical Marketing Society in their submission to the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority on digital communications and the ABPI Code of Practice.