How Social Media would enhance customer experience in the Medical Devices Industry?

(Image source: www.healthcareos.com)

(The article was also published in 'The Write Treatment' Newsletter for October

The current paradigm in the Medical Devices Industry

Medical devices firms have been slow to adopt social media, when compared to their peers in the pharmaceuticals and health care industries. The reasons for this range from lack of corporate policy on social media usage for brand development and a lack of clear guidelines from the FDA as to what is acceptable to be hosted on social media.

However, as clients and collaborators of the medical devices firms, such as physicians and end users, adopt social media, medical devices firms cannot afford to stay behind. More and more physicians have taken their research related discussions online. To gain insights into the latest developments, it helps if medical devices firms too are on the same platform so that they can seek to develop products that meet the upcoming requirements. Connecting with users of medical devices, such as physicians as well as lay persons, is important in ensuring repeat purchases and gaining brand loyalty. Their feedback on aspects such as usability, stability and price, can help a firm develop better products by focusing on improving design, streamlining manufacturing processes and passing on the cost reduction to its consumers.

According to a research report by Forrester’s Interactive Advertising Models, companies in the US are increasingly moving from traditional advertising to more interactive mediums. The market for interactive marketing in the US is set to touch $55 billion by 2014. Social media, valued at $935 million today, is set to see spends of $3.1 billion in 2014.
(Forrester’s Interactive Advertising Models US Only)


The Medical Devices Industry today is undergoing a paradigm shift. According to a report by GBI Research, most Device manufacturers are grappling with issues like Pricing Pressure, Regulatory Change, Falling demand in Core Markets and Working to and shaping new business models. This has led to a lot of the firms looking at new models to engage customers and also news markets to sell their products. (GBI Research: Global Medical Devices Industry Outlook to 2010: Marketing and Sales Strategies and the Impact of Recession and Recovery)

Until 2009, there were few medical devices firms with a social media presence. In recent times, these numbers have improved, thanks to some firms demonstrating the benefits of getting savvy with social media.
Companies started by posting information on their products and mirroring their collateral on TV and print. This has given way to exclusive social media campaigns such as the Johnson & Johnson BTW campaign.


Current Trends in Social Media usage in the Industry

Today strategies have evolved to include opportunities for collaboration via social media. An example is Sermo.com, one of the prominent sites that are geared towards physicians. Sites like these may wish to approach a manufacturer and invite that manufacturer to participate in some way, either directly by having, for example, a medical director participate in conversations with physician users through the site, or indirectly by purchasing information from the site about what physicians are saying with respect to practice patterns and the like.

The challenges
According to Ms Coleen Klasmeier, Partner and Head of Sidley’s FDA Regulatory practice,
“The biggest obstacle confronting companies who may have an interest in exploring this brave new world of Web 2.0 is just the lack of guidance from FDA on what the rules and expectations are. FDA has been fond of saying, ever since the Internet became accessible to the average user while the same rules that apply to conventional promotional materials fully apply to the Internet. That may be true, but it’s not adequate to give manufacturers information on what, if anything, they can do to talk to physicians and talk to patients through these new, increasingly important communication mechanisms.”
(Medical Devices Today: The Social Media and the Life Sciences Industry)

The challenge from the regulatory practice that the FDA has established when it comes to promotional labeling which, might extend to the social media as well. But in social media all opinions expressed are individual which the Device manufacturer may not have any control on. Also in case of clinical trials the integrity might get compromised if the participants connected on some social medium and exchanged notes on treatment and adverse events which is again against FDA norms.

Also most Device firm do not consider Social Media as an important part of their marketing mix. In a survey done on Medical Device Companies 63% said that they use social media for job-related activities, and out of that only (16%), use social media to communicate with Customers and prospects. Of the FDA-regulated companies that use social media to communicate with customers and prospects, most have been using social media for less than six months. They are still in the early stages and are testing multiple social media venues.
(Social Media and Medical Device Industry, Medicomm Consultants Inc)



Some key areas in the Medical Devices Industry value chain where social media can be used.

New Product Development and Device Enhancement
By analyzing the analytical data from social media tools like forums, wikis, blogging, etc., the product reputation and the penetration into the market can be realized. The analyzed data inputs can be a feeder to the continual research of the product. The product can be modified according to the needs of the end client. Also engaging with the end patients rather than care providers can give Device companies the edge in new product development.

Manufacturing
The analytical data from Social media when weaved with CRM tools like Salesforce.com and others gives an elaborative view to the planning of the product. This can save on the total cost of the product which can be passed on to the End Customer.

Marketing
With the synchronization of social media tools and collaborative partnerships there will be a focus on promotional activities and internal knowledge sharing. This would save on the promotional activities cost, enrich and retain the knowledge within the organization.

But the future implications of Social Media in Devices Industry are tremendous. Below are some of the scenarios that can happen in the industry.
Scenario 1- The opportunity to speak directly to patients and physicians and to learn from them about their experiences, not just with respect to particular products, but with respect to how health conditions affect quality of life, what kinds of aspects of a particular patient’s experiences on a product are relevant to evaluating whether that product is something that should stay in armamentarium as is or needs to be tweaked in terms of dosage form or duration of effect—all of that stuff is obviously attractive for manufacturers looking at how to talk to patients and understand what their experiences are.

Scenario 2 - In the age of cut throat competition, firms should try and evolve a set of policies/ guidelines for social media, rather than, merely wait for the FDA to come up with one.

A case in point is Johnson & Johnson which has a has a 26-page social media policy guide discussing the internal SM protocol

Some of the key pillars of the policy include

• Identify one person within the organization as the “owner” of each SM activity
• Review/moderation process for all external information
• Incorporate SM policies with traditional media protocol
• Start small and prove the concept; obtain buy-in from senior management
(Source: The J&J approach, according to Marc Monseau, Director Corporate Communications and Social Media (Healthcare Social Communications Breakfast, New York University)

In conclusion it is better for Medical Device Marketers to create a business case for Social Media usage. This will help ensure that marketers have the senior leadership support and will also help them ratify against the current media policies. Also it is important that Social Media is used in sync with other marketing channels, and the process is well established under the Integrated Marketing Communication framework.


Dr Vikram Venkateswaran is a marketing professional with more than 10 years of experience in Healthcare, Life Sciences and Information technology industries. He is a blogger who blogs at www.doctersoccer.blogspot.com. He can also be followed on Twitter @drvikram. The views expressed here are his personal views and not of his organization.
Mahesh BC is a consultant with more than 10 years of experience in Healthcare, Medical Devices and IT.