Recently, I saw one of my sons blithely dipping a chip into salsa, happily munching away while multi-tasking at something else – not a care in the world about his food.It brought a smile to my face – but there was a touch of sadness with it.You see, my work has brought me into contact with a number of PWDs (People With Diabetes) who are active on-line. And as I’ve ...
Steve Woodruff
How business will affect pharmaceutical reps
There’s been a lot of talk in the past year about how we need to re-think the role and profile of the pharmaceutical/biotech sales rep.This dialogue needs to happen, given the trends that are rapidly shrinking the size of sales forces. Of course, when you poll the doctors, they are going to focus on the need for greater depth of clinical knowledge. ...
Why the female Viagra quest is fundamentally misguided
One recent news item in the world of pharma is the less-than-enthusiastic response of an FDA panel to Boehringer-Ingelheim’s experimental “sexual desire for women” pill, flibanserin.I believe the quest for a “female Viagra” (an inaccurate parallel, by the way) is fundamentally misguided. Here’s why.There’s a big difference between sexual function and sexual desire. Viagra does something that a pill can, in fact, do – impacts a physiological process. Erectile dysfunction is, ...
How drug information fine print fails to communicate
As someone deeply immersed in pharma communications, and especially the newer realm of social networking, I’ve been closely following the ongoing process of the industry/FDA dance, trying to figure out how social media/web 2.0 approaches “fit” with pharmaceutical manufacturers and their various audiences.And I keep wondering if we’re going about the whole thing the wrong way.Think about the fine print PI (Product Information) you see in a magazine, accompanying a ...
Get help if you think you have depression
I’m a happy man. I wake up with peace in my heart, and hope for the future. Most days, anyway!It was not always so.For many years – decades – I lived under a dark cloud. Depression was a constant companion, so woven into my experience that I did not even know how bad off I was. I was so used to coping and managing around it, that most others had ...
Twitter habits of pharmaceutical companies
As more and more pharmaceutical companies dip their toes into social media, one of the issues that surfaces regularly is this: do you put someONE in charge of a blog and/or Twitter account, or do you make it more anonymous? Or something else?I’ve always advocated that pharma companies should use social networks to humanize their companies, which means employing human faces and voices – having real, authentic, and effective communicators ...
Apple’s iPad health impact for doctors and hospitals
Apple just yesterday introduced the iPad, essentially an iPhone on steroids that bridges the gap between smartphones and small computers.
Will this be the platform that accelerates eHealthcare on the provider side (hospitals, doctors, medical education, etc.)?I say yes. Here’s why:First of all, the pace at which doctors are using smartphones as part of their practice (and especially iPhone/iPod Touch) ...
How Google Sidewiki will impact drug company websites
Take a look at the screen shot below, from Pfizer’s homepage. Believe it or not, I, or anyone else, can now leave comments “on” any website (such as Pfizer.com) using a new tool (currently in beta) from Google, called Sidewiki.
Game-changer? You bet.While the use of Google’s Sidewiki has ramifications across the entire web, for every type of site or industry, I’m going ...
Drug company ethics and the pharmaceutical industry’s pursuit of profit
Ghostwritten clinical papers. Off-label marketing. Channel-stuffing. Hiding of negative data.Pharma companies have earned a hefty percentage of the opprobrium heaped on them by a skeptical public. And it's mainly because of a failure to heed the Golden Rule. We all know the "classical" Golden Rule: Treat others the way you’d wish to be treated. But in so many cases, drug manufacturers seem to adhere to a different version: the Gold-in ...
