Can I get some help with all this health information ?

Let’s see this week we learned that more and more patients are putting up with pain in their joints because they are both afraid to spend time away from work and the pain of a knee of hip replacement, which have problems. And that more than half of healthy women who have an annual mammogram will get at least one false positive result over a 10-year period, and 7 to 9 percent will undergo a biopsy that doesn’t turn out to show cancer, and oh by the way those vitamins you’re taking don’t do anything for you and actually be harming your health. Is it any wonder that more people are spending time online to research health ?

Right now consumers are confused and befuddled by all the contrary health information that seems to appear everyday on the Internet. Where can they go to get good credible health information besides their doctor and do physicians have enough information to advise patients when they ask “should I consider knee replacement and how long will I be out of work?” or “should I get a PSA test?”

Just where the hell are consumers of healthcare supposed to get the right answer to help them make educated decisions? Sure there are sights like Yahoo Health and Web MD but nobody makes a decision based on a visit to one site; rather, it’s a journey with many stops along the way before they make a decision.

Pharma marketers have not done a good job keeping consumers up to date ont he latest health news and information and they are missing an huge opportunity to enhance their brands with their audience. A product website is not a one time do it and leave it project. You need to update it consistently with the latest information especially when the news is confusing consumers. This means that you need to stay on top of the new and ask “if I were a patient what would I want to know?” It also means that you need to speed up you medical, legal and regulatory approval to get content live. Marketers should be able to input content directly into their websites using a content management system with checks and balances that the content does not go live until it has been electronically approved by MLR teams.

Help patients cut through the clutter of misinformation and make good educated healthcare decisions based on good credible information. Don’t sell, listen and answer their concerns and questions.