SUMMARY: Patient influencers trust social media groups more than pharma websites for health information, according to a survey from Wego Health. Imagine a survey like this from a company that specializes in patient influencers.
Research
- Random marketing data via social media may not be applicable for your product/health condition.
- Marketers need to ask “why?” and “what does this include?”
- Perfect example is the latest health data from Rock Health. It doesn’t differentiate between health apps and fitness apps.
- DTC marketers need to conduct their own research and validate it with follow up research.
- Physicians do spend time online, but their number one site is still Medscape.
- They don’t have the time to connect with patients with social media and don’t see the value.
- Drug company studies are a good source of information, but they want to “know more”.
- Patients are “rarely’ coming to them asking for advertised drugs.
The results from an online quantitative survey reveal what patients REALLY think of mobile health and they do not align with the current “buzz” around the channel. n=1774
KEY TAKEAWAY: I was invited to attend a focus group panel on health care in Weston, Florida and was not prepared for the anger and frustration I heard from the range of people of all ages, demographics and backgrounds. It’s clear our health care system is very broken and that “empowered patients” is more of a buzzword than reality.
KEY TAKEAWAY: There is still a lot of frustration in the search for online health information among all demographic segments. While pharma sites were seen as adding some value the majority of users still felt the need to search deeper to get both more information and views of current treatment options available.