Please login to the form below
How to design patient services with social media within the ABPI code guidelines
In this blog, Senior Consultant Craig Moore, from the Blue Latitude Strategy team, discusses the application of the ABPI Code, including incorporating social media into digital patient services.
In the UK, the marketing of prescription medicine to health professionals and patients is carried out under strict regulatory oversight to protect and support high quality patient care. The ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry is administered by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, and is a self-regulatory code that applies to the marketing of prescription medicines both to health professionals and the public as a whole.
When designing digital services and informational materials for prescription drugs or services, there are unique considerations that must be taken around how that information is accessed and used. In this blog, Senior Consultant Craig Moore, from the Blue Latitude Strategy team, discusses the application of the ABPI Code, including incorporating social media into digital patient services.
Do some market research to understand the customer needs: would patients be interested in the social media functionality; would they use it? Rounds of user research and user testing would highlight if this was important or not. At Blue Latitude, the aim is to solve problems for clients following a number of solution design methodologies.
Host a PMCPA (Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority) training session and take the opportunity to get feedback on early solution concepts. Understand where other companies have breached the code and where you may run the risk with your own solutions. The PMCPA’s view is absolute; any company working with or providing services for the Pharma Industry needs to know the code. (Blue Latitude’s staff have all completed the introductory PMCPA training session).
Get cross-functional teams around a meeting table to highlight social media in the organisation. The corporate communication team handles social throughout most organisations. Silos mean that the information is not always shared. The development of the website/app should not be the main focus; the main focus should be to capture any company-wide issues or concerns about using social, and highlight areas of the code that are designed to support this. Take any objections away and incorporate them into the business case for the solution.
Consider the level of patient access in the kind of website/app you want to develop. Patient access will raise some red flags, especially from the pharma-covigilance teams. The fear would be that an increased perception of patients discussing product-related issues would lead to an inundation of Adverse Events or Product Complaints (AE/PC).
Initiate some monitoring pilots related to the therapy area in general. This will help establish a reporting process; defining clear roles and responsibilities as well as outlining clear project plans, objectives, and exit strategies. Always follow the guidelines, and go beyond them.
For example, use what you report (or consider to be) an AE/PC as a metric to demonstrate that social listening will not create an undue burden on internal resources. Once the process is established, expand monitoring into competitor products – there is no need to report AE/PC for competitors – then, move on to company-owned products.
Look at the possibility of developing a solution for closed patient communities. The code explains how use of social media to discuss prescription medicines (for example, on Twitter) is seen as promotional. With closed patient communities, the challenge to the code/internal MLR compliance teams is to make sure to only allow access to prescribed patients. Canada, for example, uses product identification numbers and DIN to allow access to a patient programme or forum.
To read more about regulations which impact marketing for Pharma, read our blog from guest poster Aurelie Pols on data security and privacy.
Downloads
How to design patient services with social media within ABPI code guidelines - Blue Latitude
PDF File: 400.3 KB
21st May 2015
Downloads
How to design patient services with social media within ABPI code guidelines - Blue Latitude
PDF File: 400.3 KB
Share
Company Details
Blue Latitude Health
+44 203 328 1840
Address:
Blue Latitude Health (UK)
140 Aldersgate Street
London
EC1A 4HY
United Kingdom
Latest content on this profile
- Three strategies for managing loss of exclusivity successfully
- Consultant, Claire Taylor explains why you should be strategically planning your LOE strategy years in advance.
Blue Latitude Health
- What does the future hold for Medical Affairs?
- Lori Lush, Head of Fishawack Medical, reveals why she’s driven to tell impactful scientific stories, the benefits of cross-functional collaboration, and the trends she predicts for the next five years.
Blue Latitude Health
- Mistrust in medical research: a patient perspective
- The recent development of several COVID-19 vaccines has placed medical research firmly in the spotlight, highlighting public confusion and misinformation about clinical trials. Patient advocate, Trishna Bharadia reveals what the life sciences industry can do to rebuild trust.
Blue Latitude Health
- Real-world evidence: breaking boundaries in rare disease
- Generating data for drug launches is a challenging process. In rare diseases, with small patient populations and high unmet need, evidence generation is even more complex. Consultant Sarah Poole and Senior Consultant Craig Moore explore the benefits of using real-world evidence and the common pitfalls life science companies should avoid.
Blue Latitude Health
- The heavy toll of COVID-19 on cancer patients
- We all know that finding and treating cancer early saves lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, oncology treatments paused while cancer continued to spread. So, what has been the impact of this lost time for patients?
Blue Latitude Health
- Unpacking rare diseases in the first edition of Delta magazine
- Fishawack Health launches Delta magazine with a deep dive into rare disease commercialization
Blue Latitude Health
