Medical Information Services in the Age of Social Media and New Customer Channels

The use of social media across the pharmaceutical industry has emerged as a new source of medical information. Although traditional methods of disseminating information such as postal mail, phone, and email remain standard options for information exchange, accessing and retrieving data in real time through social media and other new channels presents a new challenge for medical information departments. As communication and delivery of medical information continues to transform, adapting to changing technologies and understanding customers' expectations, as well as navigating the regulatory landscape and internal processes, are key areas that require insight prior to social media engagement. What do medical information departments within pharma companies need to think about when considering utilizing social media channels? In this article, we discuss the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for medical information departments. We also describe lessons from social media initiatives successfully implemented at two pharmaceutical companies, sanofi-aventis Medical Information Services and Pfizer Medical Information. These initiatives involved focusing on four key areas within drug information: medical, safety, contact center, and field medical.