For over a decade, as evidence mounted that Big Pharma influence can lead to all sorts of stupid decisions and harmful outcomes, regulators and medical societies have been reigning in the amazing ways pharmaceutical companiesmarket to doctors.
Nearly gone are the days when drug reps would parade around exam rooms with fancy new pill bottles, when doctors would be flown to Hawaii for medical conferences, and when pens and pads emblazoned with industry logos would be spread around hospitals and clinics.
But, according to a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the pharmaceutical industry has simply moved out of clinic and into digital world for much more covert and insidious forms of marketing.
Vox has a summary.
While doctors report that visits from sales representatives have fallen from 77 percent in 2008 to 55 percent last year, drug companies have invested about a quarter of their marketing dollars into digital technologies.
"We do know from traditional marketing tools that their impact can be harmful," said article lead author Dr. Christopher Manz, who works at the department of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "But this digital marketing today has much more breadth and depth than the previous kinds of marketing. Now it's like having a sales rep in the exam room with you."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @08:05PM
Up until the end where you failed to explain or give one example of what the "more covert and insidious forms of marketing" were. Something online apparently. Pop-ups? I'll bet it was pop-ups. Those are the most insidious marketing tools I know.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Friday November 14 2014, @09:18PM
Up until the end where you failed to explain or give one example of what the "more covert and insidious forms of marketing" were. Something online apparently. Pop-ups? I'll bet it was pop-ups. Those are the most insidious marketing tools I know.
the correct answer is "free" software targeted at doctors.
so perhaps we need some free software for doctors that isnt made with an agenda.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @09:39PM
"so perhaps we need some free software for doctors that isnt made with an agenda."
And who is going to write that?
Get over it, corporations set "free" software's agendas now.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Friday November 14 2014, @09:59PM
It seems like a lot of free* software is written because someone wants it for themselves.
*with no ulterior motives or ads
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Saturday November 15 2014, @01:42AM
That's not going to be epocrates. Their drug interaction software, for instance, requires ongoing research into new medications as they become available, possible contraindications, etc. as well as keeping up with research on any current medications. The money to pay for all that research has to come from somewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @02:35AM
Seems like the thing that an association of doctors or even hospitals could pay for up front with money rather than selling out their professional credibility by letting advertisers interject themselves into the process. Pay for a subscription to get access to the data and that subscription funds ongoing development. Set up something so that doctors doing charitable work get free access too, maybe even provide free and open world-wide access to interaction data that's older than 2-3 years.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fadrian on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:36PM
Their drug interaction software, for instance, requires ongoing research into new medications as they become available, possible contraindications, etc. as well as keeping up with research on any current medications.
Uh... They don't do that.
First, all of the drug data vendors get their data from government agency or clinical research done outside of the companies that disseminate it. Ninety percent of drug data is syndicated wither through Hearst (via its First DataBank division - full disclosure: I worked for them during the 1990's), and MediSpan (previously bought by FDB in the late 1990's and forced to divest itself of the same as a monopoly by the FTC two years later), owned by Kluwer Academic. This data is sold to anyone who can pay the price and is purchased by EMR vendors (such as epocrates) who then integrate it into their EMR/pharmacy/whatever systems.
Yes, this data takes money to convert into special form and folks like FDB and MediSpan are useful for building useful ontologies and vocabularies, but the actual research that goes into this? It's pretty much paid for by you and me via the government or by the drug companies doing clinical trials - not by these vendors.
That is all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @10:04PM
Great post up until you started the first sentence in the subject line.
Move out of that glass house before you start pitching stones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @10:48PM
OL
(Score: 1) by Anonoob on Saturday November 15 2014, @08:00PM
+1 funny
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @05:03AM
Gee, and yet, my post is the parent of the substantive discussion, because others feel as I do that the summary came up short. Not unlike your dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:17AM
By that logic your response to my post is an endorsement of my point.
The substantive discussion started with Gravis - he actually added content. All you added was whining.
(Score: 2) by MozeeToby on Friday November 14 2014, @10:21PM
Marketing to doctors is, in my opinion, barely a blip compared to marketing to patients directly. At least doctors in theory have the tools and knowledge to evaluate the options they are given, very few people sitting in their living room watching wheel of fortune do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @11:36PM
Sure doctors are experts, compared to the average patient. But they aren't experts in protecting themselves from manipulation. If this was all about advertising that seeks solely to inform rather than to manipulate, I would totally agree with you. But of course that's not, and never has been, the way big pharma targets doctors. For the last 20 years nearly all drug reps that visited doctors offices were model-quality young women - and that wasn't because models are experts on drug indications.
The reason we even have prescriptions in the first place is because doctors are supposed to prevent the uneducated from harming themselves with the wrong drugs. Targeting doctors is so much more effective because manipulating one doctor can affect thousands of individual prescriptions and there is no oversight of any consequence. Targeting the hoi polloi means big pharma must rely on the doctor agreeing with the brainwashed patient. Either way you still have to brainwash the doctor.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday November 14 2014, @10:00PM
A small startup called DoctorDirectory was just purhcased for $65 million by Everyday Health Inc. They're involved in this sector. It's a private company bought by another private company, so it's not making the news. (And it's a sustainable, profitable business so you know Wired and those guys are ignoring the story.) But you don't drop $65mm on a company for nothing in return.
Here's an article about it:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/everyday-health-reports-third-quarter-2014-financial-results-282320901.html [prnewswire.com]
"The acquisition of DoctorDirectory will significantly expand Everyday Health's reach among healthcare professionals, and enable the combined entity to offer an expanded suite of content and tools to this large audience. In addition, DoctorDirectory's expertise in utilizing data and analytics for pharmaceutical marketing programs that generate prescription lift is expected to expand Everyday Health's customer set and strengthen the Company's ability to offer innovative marketing solutions that achieve optimal results. "
Small companies, big data!
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by fadrian on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:27PM
Next time I work on an EMR system form, I'm putting Google Ads on that puppy!
For the ininitiated (EMR = Electronic Medical Record).
That is all.