Canadians, FaceBook and Healthcare

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A wicked social media initiative by McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Division of Johnson and Johnson)

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MSWatch.ca makes a comeback: Now within Canadian Rx-DTC guidelines

Last month, I posted an article about the removal of the MSWatch.ca online forums. Many people around the world responded to me stating that they felt it was the MS patients who had lost the most from this changed website. I agreed.

On Monday November 15 2010, I was delighted to receive another e-mail from MSWatch.ca, this time welcoming me to the new MSWatch Oasis:

Tell your friends:

There’s a place that we go to for comfort after a long day, where can help find some relieft and peace. It could be your favorite part of the couch, the smell of fresh baked cookies or a phone call with a loved one. Whenever you’re there, it’s as if you’re transported away.  Today we’re exited to announce that there’s something new on MSWatch, a place where you can help build a world of understanding and support for the MS community.

		Keep track of your treatments and help manage your appointments in a fun and engaging way.
		Perch in the tree where you can find resources in the birdhouses and check in on fellow Oasis members.
		Chirp others in the tree and check in on your buddies.
		Earn badges just by keeping up with appointmens and therapy.
		Update your profile to connect with others in the MS community. Add links to your Facebook, Twitter, blog and website.

Join in to help manage your treatments, connect with other patients and caregivers, and access learning resources and helpful tools. Help build a world of understand and support.

So I decided to take a look at their new site.  I was able to sign in with my username and password from the original MSWatch.ca online forums.  After I logged on, I had the opportunity to let the community members know how I was feeling by selecting one of several pre-written statements.  This protects the pharma company from statements that could suggest an adverse event or one that could fall outside of Rx-DTC guidelines:

Then, I was prompted to update my personal profile.  As part of the profile, I could include my blog website, Twitter username, and FaceBook page.  This is a very interesting feature because it allows members of the community to meet each other on the MSWatch Oasis and then take their conversation onto their personal networks, where they are free to discuss all aspects of their disease and treatment.  Justin Seiler, Electronic Media (Marketing) Associate at Teva Canada Innovation, told me that MSWatch wanted to act as a ‘hub’ for their MS members.  That way, they are facilitating networking amongst the members, yet forcing them to go on third party sites.  As such, Teva Canada Innovation does not hold any responsibility of the discussions held off their site.

Although direct communications between members do not occur onsite, you can see which community member is in the “Oasis”.  In fact, you can click on the person’s username to gain access to a limited portion of their personal information, including hyperlinks to their websites, Twitter and FaceBook profiles (assuming the member has updated their profile with this information):

Another very useful tool consists of the calendar which allows patients to input their treatment days as well as their appointments.  And as you can see in the pic below, community members can also ‘label’ themselves with a particular type of bird.  This is a great way to start a conversion with other community members (offsite, of course).

Although I did not find this on the site itself, I did find it as part of the ‘tour’ of the website:  badges.  It appears as though community members can earn different badges depending on what they actually do on the site.  Unfortunately, I was not able to see the range and meaning of the different badges.

Going through the website, everything looks to be within Canadian pharmaceutical promotional guidelines, including Rx-DTC (where we are only allowed to mention product name, price and quantity).  Brands mentioned under treatment options include all of the players within this category, including a link to their individual support groups.

Congratulations to Teva Canada Innovation for not giving up, and for finding a way to allow MS patients to continue to share with one another while staying within the Canadian Rx-DTC guidelines.  By maintaining the ability to help the MS patients network with one another, Teva Canada Innovation continues to achieve its strategic objective.  This is a valuable service for MS patients and I look forward to watching it grow quickly (as did the original MSWatch.ca online forums).  You have proven yourself to be a social media leader within the Canadian pharma industry!

The agency that worked on the look and feel of the MSWatch Oasis is Twist Image. This is the agency that was also involved in the redesign of MSWatch.ca that took place in 2009.

Do you think the MSWatch Oasis is an effective social networking tools for MS patients?  Why or why not?

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Get on Social Media if you want your Rx Drug on British Columbia formulary

I just read a press release by the British Columbia, Ministry of Health Services stating that “patients can now have their voices heard on specific drug reviews, thanks to a website launched by the Ministry of Health Services”.  Wow!!  The prescription drugs that are currently on the list:  Uromax by Purdue Pharma, and Silkis by Galderma.  The following is an excerpt from the “BC PharmaCare wants to hear your Voice” website:

Who can give input?

If you are a BC resident and answer yes to any of the following three questions for a drug listed in the table below, you can give your input:

1. Do you have the medical condition for which the drug would be used?
2. Are you a caregiver to someone who has that medical condition?
3. Does your organization represent patients who have that medical condition?

I am not an expert in market access.  But I vividly recall spending hours and hours with the market access team discussing ways to keep the PPI that I used to manage listed on the British Columbia formulary.  The decision taken by British Columbia resulted in a substantial loss of market share and revenue for the brand.  If only this new process were in place back then.  This would have given us one more medium to motivate patients and caregivers to help keep the brand listed:  social media !!!  This is a great medium to network and engage with a targeted audience.  I am not recommending that a pharma company only uses social media to tackle their market access objectives, but rather to consider it as a complimentary tactic along with the other traditional tactics.

Let’s not forget that in Canada, direct to consumer (DTC) advertising of Schedule F Rx products is very restricted.  You can only mention product name, price and quantity.  You  might find the following articles helpful to better understand Canadian regulations affecting the promotion of Schedule F Rx products on social media:

• Social Media Marketing in Pharma: What Works in Canada
• PAAB Guidance on Social Media Marketing (61 slides). Enable audio on your computer as each slide has audio.

Pharma companies are probably already working with patient medical associations to reach out to Canadian patients.  These organizations have more flexibility in dicussing Rx products with patients.  Many of these organizations are already well established on social media.  This is important because it takes time to build a network of targeted followers.  Moreover, you would not meet a new person and ask for a favor right away.  Same holds true on social media.  You have to provide value in a consistent fashion before you can ask for something in return.  If you set up your social media account just at the time that you need something, your followers may not appreciate it very much.

Because of our restrictive DTC regulations, some marketers say that they cannot use social media in Canada.  Here is a case that proves that this is not true – social media is not just for marketing purposes.  It can be helpful for multiple functions within an organization.

I do not know if Purdue or Galderma are already taken action on social media, but if they are, please send me a note as this would make for an excellent case study to share with other Canadian pharma marketers.

Also, do you think Canadian pharma companies will start to look at social media more seriously if they see a potential for greater market access success?  Leave me a comment with your thoughts on this.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Telus social media case study: “Like to Give” campaign

Every once in a while, an organization stands out from the rest as a good corporate citizen.  For the past couple of years, I have been watching the good deeds by Telus which are positively influencing healthcare in Canada.  In fact, they are a sponsor of one of my favorite children non-profit organizations, Upopolis.  Here is a statement that is found on the Info tab of their FaceBook page:

We give where we live. TELUS supports local communities and charities across the country.

This week, I saw the following sponsored ad on my personal FaceBook profile:

When you click on the “Telus” link, you are brought to the “Like to give” tab on the Telus FaceBook page.

Update November 26 2010:  Pic with all 12 charities that were included in “Like to Give” Telus campaign

 

Telus allows comments to be added to their FaceBook posts, but they do not allow wall posts to be initiated by others.  I sent them a note on Twitter asking why this was the case, but 24+ hours later,  I still had  not heard anything from them.  My personal guess is that they do not allow others to initiate posts because they want to avoid negative dicussions being initiated by consumers on their page.  This seems to be an issue on the Telus YouTube channel.  Based on my research, Telus appears to get their fair share of negative comments on social networks by consumers, so if they want to avoid similar issues that Nestle had with their FaceBook page, they probably made the right choice by not allowing others to iniative wall posts.  Keep in mind though that the biggest issue with the Nestle case was the way that they handled the situation. However, Telus is allowing consumers to have a voice as as those who ‘like’ the Telus FaceBook page can add comments to posts initiated by Telus themselves.

Because of the high level of negative comments, I think it is wise that Telus’ Twitter strategy is to have a Twitter profile that is focused on marketing messages (@Telus) and one that focuses on providing consumers with support on Telus services (@TelusSupport).  This allows @Telus to remain focused on their positive marketing messages, whereas the @TelusSupport deals with all the questions and complaints.  However, I do find that the general @Telus account engages too little with the audience.  I did a quick monitoring check and noticed that several people have posted about Telus’ ‘Like to give’ campaign with a mention of @Telus.  This means that Telus does not even have to monitor to be aware of the mention – these public mentions can be found right there in their Twitter profile.  However, I have yet to see a ‘thanks’ sent out to any of those people, including myself.  This is not the end of the world, but it would be a courteous act which would humanize the organization in the eyes of consumers.

I would like to wish Telus and their chosen non-profit organizations the best of luck in reaching their goals with the ‘Like to give’ campaign.  I am not a client of Telus, but their acts of generosity certainly catch my attention.  If ever I am in the market to switch, Telus will at least be top of mind as part of my research.

What else would you like to see Telus do to promote their ‘Like to give’ campaign on social networks?

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

MS Online Community Closed due to Canadian Regulations

According to the MS Society, an estimated 55,000 – 75,000 Canadians have Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Some of these MS patients may feel a bit lonely these days when online, as the popular MS online forum MSWatch.ca by Teva Canada Innovation closed on October 15 2010.

On Friday October 15th, just a bit before lunchtime, I received an e-mail from an MSWatch.ca e-mail address with the title “The MSWatch Website is Changing“.  I was eager to read the e-mail because I assumed there would be some exciting features added to the site.  To the contrary, it was an announcement that the MS online community forum within the website would be removed effective October 15 2010.

The e-mail read as follows.  Note that I took the liberty to bold portions of the statement that I felt were relevant to this post.  There were no bolded or highlighted statements in the original document:

The MS Watch Website is Changing

Dear MS Watch member,

We have, since 2002, grown and changed with the multiple sclerosis community, who learn, share and cheer each other on every day. We’ve changed the look and feel of MSWatch.ca, we’ve added resources regularly and we’ve adapted when you reached out to tell us what you want from the website. It’s been a delightful and inspiring journey, one that we hope to keep going for years to come.

Part of that growth and change has included the MS Watch forum, where community members exchange ideas, information and personal messages. It is with deep regret that we must announce that on October 15th 2010, the MS Watch forum will be closed. This was an extremely difficult decision to make, with personal implications for everyone who has read or shared their thoughts and feelings in a forum post.

Because the forum grew over time into a popular place to discuss Multiple Sclerosis, patients naturally gathered together to discuss their individual treatments which included both the good and bad that may have impacted themselves and their MS. Unfortunately, for any pharmaceutical company sponsored website, the company is responsible to ensure that the content conforms to the requirements of the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations. Teva Canada Innovation is responsible for all content that might be on the site regardless of whether it is mentioned in a community forum. We believe that your discussion of your therapy is an integral part of your discussion of the issues you face with MS. As a result, we felt that it would be inappropriate for us to monitor, edit and/or remove any posts that could be misleading or promotional about any individual therapy.

This has left us with the difficult decision to close the forum element of the website as of October 15th. This is not a decision that Teva Canada Innovation takes lightly. We know how much the forum conversations mean to everyone in the MS Community – us included – and it is difficult for us to make this announcement. When you come back on October 18th, you’ll still be able to log in as always and see all of the great content of the site, but the Community Forum will no longer be there.

The connections all of you have made with each other and the support you consistently offer are truly inspiring. We encourage you to take that spirit of camaraderie and extend it to other spaces for the MS community. We are now and will remain available to community members by email at info@mswatch.ca or by phone to Shared Solutions at 1-800-283-0034.

It is our privilege to play a role in this very special community. Our sincerest thanks go to the members who were always posting, following up and keeping the conversation going. It’s our hope that you’ll continue to consider MS Watch a valuable destination for MS information.

Sincerely,
The whole team at MSWatch.ca

So what was the issue with the site? It was a regulatory issue.  Since the MSWatch.ca community was non-gated, anybody could become a member quite easily.  As a result Health Canada views the site as open to the public.  Forum postings by the members were not restricted to product name, quantity and price.  In Canada, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of Schedule F prescription products is highly restricted in that only the name, price and quantity can be discussed.

The content included in the site by Teva Canada Innovation themselves appeared to be within the regulatory guidelines.  The problem was that the members were discussing various MS treatments in the community forums beyond what is allowed by Health Canada (name, price, quantity).  According to the “Social Media Marketing in Pharma: What Works in Canada” conference, a pharmaceutical company is responsible for all content within their site, regardless of who posted it.  So when MS patients were sharing information with each other about their treatments on the MSWatch.ca forums, Teva Canada Innovation held full liability for this content.

The following pics demonstrate how the online forums were promoted on the site, and what they looked like as well:

Here are some of the most notable changes within the website as of October 18th 2010:

Could the MSWatch.ca forums have been modified in order to comply with the Canadia regulatory guidelines (DTC)? Teva Canada Innovation could have allowed members to continue to use the forum if the company would have taken the responsibility to edit or remove content that fell outside of the Canadian guidelines.  As MSWatch.ca is a very popular site (10,490 members as of October 15 2010), and the forums were very active, monitoring, editing and removing content would have resulted in a substantial effort o behalf of the company.  Moreover, it would have completely changed the context of some discussions, and some of the site members might have been upset about this.

How does this compare with the American versio, MSWatch.com? MSWatch.com, does not host an online community.  Rather, they link to the U.S. National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s online forums.  This gives them much greater flexibility.

Does the Canadian MS Society hosts its own online communities? Yes.  In fact, they host four separate online forums.  The first three are aimed at various members of the family: MSforKids.com, MSforTeens.com, and MSforParents.com .  All of these forums were launched in 2004.  In 2006, a fourth forum focused on general discussions was launched; MSDiscuss.com .

Is there an opportunity for an organization like Teva Canada Innovation to sponsor the MS Society’s online forums? Unfortunately not.  At the moment, the MS Society is not open to this type of partnership.  On October 19th, I spoke with Darrel Hominuk, Director of Client Services of the MS Society, and openly asked him if the MS Society would consider accepting an at-arm’s-length sponsorship of their online forums by a pharmaceutical company.  He mentioned that the society would like to maintain their independence at the moment.

But at least this is an alternative option for MS patients and their families to participate online with a group of like-minded individuals all sharing experiences and concerns of living with MS.

In conclusion, Teva Canada Innovation was a leader within the pharma industry by adopting social media principles and giving members free range to talk about anything that they wanted to talk about.  This is ideal and would be acceptable in many other industries, but unfortunately not in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry.  We have guidelines set by Health Canada that we need to abide to, whether we like these guidelines or not.  If following the guidelines means that your tactic no longer meets your strategic objective, then maybe it is best to put that tactic aside and try something different, something that does work within our guidelines.  I wish our DTC rules were much more relaxed, but at the moment, they are rigid.  Perhaps a debate to hold for a future post.

Note that I am not an expert in Canadian regulatory issues.  I am merely providing my opinion based on the guidelines as I understand them.

I hope this real Canadian healthcare social media case study is helpful.  Tell me what you think by leaving a comment.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Social Media Used by Pharmacy to Respond to Criticism

Last week, I posted about Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix’ latest promotion, where consumers who purchased a certain value of goods at the drugstore would receive a free gift certificate for McDonald’s fast food restaurant.  I have no issue with the individual organizations themselves.  However, in my opinion, it is inappropriate for a healthcare-focused organization to be promoting fast food.

Objective of this follow-up post:  I wanted to see if other Canadian consumers had used social media to voice their opinion about the promotion, and if so, how did Shoppers Drug Mart respond to the online chatter.

It turns out that other people also wrote online criticisms about the Shoppers-McDonald’s promotion, but many more people actually spoke about the giveaway in either a neutral or positive tone.  According to socialmention* (a free online tool that monitors and analyzes social media mentions), the sentiment ratio for mentions that include all keywords “shoppers”, “drugmart” and “mcdonald’s” (from October 10 to October 16 2010) was generally more positive than negative.

The largest clump of negative mentions seemed to be on the Shoppers Drug Mart FaceBook page,.  These were posted as comments to Shoppers Drug Mart’s announcement of the giveaway:

Here is what Shoppers Drug Mart did so far to counteract the negative comments:

Shoppers Drug Mart used their FaceBook page to address the negative feedback.  Their statement suggests that this promotion may not be right for everybody, but at no point do they hint at the fact that they made an error in judgement when they agreed to this fast food promotion.

Shoppers Drug Mart is committed to delivering value through our promotional events, so we’ve partnered with Canada’s top businesses to provide you with a range of offers. Your comments help us better understand what you value. The McDonald’s gift card promotion may not be the right fit for you, but we hope you’ll conti…nue to tell us what you want (or don’t want), so we can give you what you need in the future.

As of October 17th mid afternoon, there were 36 ‘likes’ and 37 comments to the above statement, most of which consisted of followers providing promotional ideas for future campaigns:

It appears as though Shoppers Drug Mart was using their FaceBook page as their main platform to respond to the critiques.  They are even redirecting people within other networks onto their FaceBook fan page.  I noticed this when they responded to my Twitter post about my dislike of their current campaign by redirecting me to their FaceBook page.  Since there is no URL for the post itself, but rather for the entire page, I had to scroll down until I found their statement.  As new posts are added to the wall, this statement will disappear under “older posts’.

Here are a few benefits of using FaceBook as the platform to respond to negative mentions:

1) you can quickly respond to the critiques and existing fans will have access to this information quickly,

2) you can easily engage your followers and get them to provide their insights, and

3) the statement will quickly disappear as it scrolls down, thus will rarely be seen unless somebody looks at older posts.

There is a downside though.  If somebody who critiques the campaign was not a member of FaceBook, they would  have difficulty accessing the organization’s response.  But considering there are over 16 million Canadians on FaceBook, I think this is  a reasonable platform to reach a Canadian audience.  I would suggest that Shoppers Drug Mart also post their statement as a comment below the ‘giveaway announcement’ post which contains all the negative mentions.  That way, everybody who wrote a negative mention would be notified that Shoppers had indeed responded to the issue.

My personal opinion is that this was a very bad marketing idea which got lucky because it did not get the public backlash that I expected it would get.  Considering the fact that the online mood was mostly neutral/positive, I don’t blame the PR folks for writing a ‘light’ response to the issue.  I do give them credit though for addressing the issue, and for asking the public for input for future campaigns.  Now hopefully they will listen to the feedback.

Do you believe that Shoppers Drug Mart did a good job in responding to their upset clients?  Tell us if you would have done anything differently:

Canadian Pharmacy Promotes McDonald’s … This is not a Joke

I was perusing some websites this morning as part of my research for an upcoming blog post on Canadian pharmacies, and I was stunned to see the following on my screen:

 

Canadian pharmacy promotes eating at a McDonalds restaurant.

 

That’s right: Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix , Canadian pharmacies that promote healthcare, are holding a McDonald’s restaurant promotion.  Sounds absurd, but it is true.  Shop and buy a certain value of goods in order to receive gift certificates to the fast food restaurant.  Note that Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is the licensor of full-service retail drug stores operating under the name Shoppers Drug Mart^® (Pharmaprix^®in Québec).

Details on the promotion are found below:

The promotion also shows up on their ‘Contact us’ page.  Ironically, right underneath the McDonald’s promotion, there is a link to a guide to health and wellness during the cold and flu season as well as the Motherisk program for pregnant women (on the home page) and a promotion for Tree of Life in support of women’s health (on the ‘Contact us’ page).

I have never ranted on my blog before, nor have I ever intentionally pointed out poor marketing tactics.  No marketer is perfect, but this is just too unreal to disregard.  How can reputable drugstores like Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix talk about healthcare on one hand and then help promote eating at a fast food restaurant afterwards.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I eat at fast food restaurants on occasion, so this is not an anti fast food post, although I would certainly not promote it.

What I am upset about is the fact that a trusted Canadian healthcare organization is actively promoting an activity that is clearly not a healthy choice.  There is a substantial disconnect between Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix’  message and their current fast food promotion.  The pharmacy is sending out the wrong message to its consumers, and in my opinion, it risks losing credibility as a result, at least for the short-term.

Tsk tsk Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix!  In your “About us” page, you talk about “accoutability”.  You didn’t live up to this promise with your current McDonald’s promotion.  Please consider cancelling this promotion and stay focused on helping Canadians improve their health. We would all like to live a little longer and a little healthier, and we need healthcare organizations like yours to remind us and motivate us to do the right things to be healthy.

What do you think Pharmaprix should do as their next step?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Nominate the Best Canadian eHealth Initiative

As part of the Canadian Eye for Pharma eMarketing conference taking place in Toronto on November 1st and 2nd 2010, Eye for Pharma is launching a new awards program recognizing and rewarding the best eHealth initiatives created for the Canadian market. If you know of a great eHealth initiative, go ahead and nominate it. Details can be found here.  I’m sure there are a lot of hidden treasures out there that we should be recognizing and rewarding for their valuable contributions.

Deadling for nominations:  Thursday October 14th 2010

Do Canadians talk about healthcare online? Do you want to join the conversation? Check out #hcsmca

If you are on Twitter, you know that hashtags have a powerful way of uniting people with common interests.  For months now, I have been following and participating in discussions with the hashtags #hcsm and #hcsmeu.  I even subscribe to their paper.li daily e-newsletters here and here.

But now, we have our very own Canadian healthcare social media hashtag, #hcsmca, thanks to the initiative by Colleen Young, who is also known as @sharingstrength on Twitter. Colleen manages Sharing Strength, a Canadian online resource and community for women with breast cancer.  She describes herself as a “plain language writer and e-patient advocate”.

Yesterday marked the very first #hcsmca Twitter chat.  Although I was only able to attend the first few minutes of the session (such is the life of a work-at-home Mom with a teething baby and active preschooler), I took the time afterwards to review the tweets that were posted as part of this Twitter chat.  From what I saw, there was a diverse mix of participants; e-patients, healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, health 2.0 enthusiasts and consultants and others.  In fact, there were a total of 75 tweeps who used the hashtag #hcsmca yesterday.  That is  very impressive for a first time event.  You can see the transcript of today’s discussion on Twitter here.  The discussions included introductions of participants, questions about how to use Twitter more effectively, exchange of ideas of how to manage social media for one’s own organization, and more.

Here is the link for the daily #hcsmca e-newsletter.  This will include articles that people on Twitter have posted along with the #hcsmca hashtag.  These posts are not all necessarily related to the #hcsmca Twitter chats, but rather articles that people thought other Canadian healthcare social media enthusiasts might find valuable.

Not on Twitter? Well, I would like to convince you to join Twitter because it is such an effective tool for meeting and talking with people with common  interests, but that is an entirely separate dicussion (but if you want to ask me questions about why and how to use Twitter, send me a note – I’m a big fan of this network).   You can view the discussions happening on Twitter that are related to #hcsmca.  Just check out the links I posted above.  They are available to anybody who uses the Internet.  The only thing is that you won’t be able to participate in the discussion, you’ll just be a listener.  Maybe once you see the quality of some of the discussions, you’ll see the benefit of joining Twitter (again, feel free to send me a note and I would be happy to help).  It also looks as though Colleen will set up a FaceBook page as well as a LinkedIn group, so you will be able to join in the discussion on those networks if you are a member there.  Once I get the links to the new FaceBook page and LinkedIn group, I will share them with you.

UPDATE: FaceBook page and LinkedIn group are now live. Join us!

Congratulations to Colleen for starting a great initiative which will allow Canadians with an interest in healthcare to connect and exchange ideas on the topic.  And who knows, maybe we can help improve Canadian healthcare one tweet at a time.

Do you talk about healthcare topics online?  If so, what do you get out of these discussions?  If not, is there something holding you back?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.