DIA 2011 SPOTLIGHTS Promise & Problems of Social Media
Although new digital media nd networking technologies seem to change the electronic landscape of the
pharmaceutical, medical device,
biotech, and related industries
almost daily, one underlying premise
remains unchanged: Social media –
more specifically, the use of social
media by these health care industries
and communities – is here to stay. To
help navigate this landscape, the DIA
2011 Annual Meeting Product
Advertising & Communications
Track will present a special
discussion forum on The Problems
and Promise of Using Social Media to
Improve Patient Care on Wednesday,
June 22. Through these discussions,
marketing professionals will describe
industry efforts to reach patients,
caregivers, and doctors through
various digital and social media.
From their related perspective, legal
and regulatory experts will overview
the evolving social media regulatory
environment including FDA policy,
plus public and private legal concerns
raised by the public, the plaintiffs’
bar, and state and federal law
enforcement agencies.
M. Schroeder (HealthCentral) will
serve as the forum’s special speaker.
After his remarks, each panelist
will make their own presentation;
the session will conclude with
questions from the audience. While
preparing for this discussion forum,
Christopher and John shared their
perspectives on these topics with the
Global Forum.
take matter and have impact. This,
in my view, is the real revolution in
health: We are all co-pilots when
it comes to our health care, with
medical professionals and with each
other.
As CEO and a member of its
board, may we ask you to
introduce and overview
HealthCentral.com for our readers
who may be unfamiliar?
Participants come from
literally every skill/
discipline and management level,
from industry and academia and
regulatory agencies, and from
every region of the world, to attend
our Annual Meeting. What
messages do you hope to deliver to
these professionals through your
special forum presentation?
DIA 2011
This panel will be chaired by John
F. Kamp, JD, PhD (Coalition for
Healthcare Communication), and
will feature Sharon Callahan (The
Vue Group, LLNS), Stuart P. Ingis,
JD (Venable LLP), and Mike Myers,
MBA (Palio, an inVentiv Health
Company) as panelists. Christopher
CS: HealthCentral empowers
people to improve and take control
of their health and well-being
through more than 35 condition-and wellness-specific interactive
health experiences, where people
who have been through a health
situation can share their stories and
counsel others. While clinical and
medical resources and exchanges
remain important, by far the most
important revolve around how we
live our lives on a day-to-day basis
as spouses, parents, loved ones,
friends, employees, and so on. As
we know, we all rely on medical
professionals to help us with critical
medical treatment and advice in the
off-line world, but it’s loved ones and
folks who have “been there” that not
only help us get through or rise to
a circumstance, but help us to feel
empowered and that the actions we
CS: To be the patient that they seek
and, at some point in their life, are.
So often we all desire –for very good
and thoughtful reasons – to control
how our organizations participate in
health care. However, we now live in
a world where other conversations
are happening among hundreds of
thousands and millions of patients
all comparing notes and experiences
and ideas to become more healthy.
That genie will never go back in the
bottle. All of us are using technology
for these purposes ourselves! The key
is for all of us to ask, “How would
WE feel if our personal engagement
with a given organization was this
way?” This seems very simple, but
it is very hard. Being the patient
that we ourselves seek provides the
perfect “gut check” for determining if
the way our organizations enter these
