Nine in ten RNs, NPs and PAs visit product websites 

Registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs) will all play increasingly important roles in health care during the coming years, because of a shortage of primary care physicians. That’s what Manhattan Research’s Taking the Pulse Nurses Study predicted recently.

PAs and NPs are especially important audiences for pharmaceutical companies because they can write prescriptions in all 50 states.

This continues a pattern observed in last year’s Manhattan Research study of nurses, which we discussed previously. But there are some unique insights to be gained from this year’s report. Read More

Truth is usually more powerful than fiction so why fake it? 

Sara Baker’s Facebook profile includes a wedding picture, photos of her adorable twins and comments about her son’s painful ear infection. But it turns out that Sara isn’t a real person.  She’s a persona created by MEDSEEK as a “sort of ‘everyman’ of health care, representing web-savvy people across the country who are ready to interact with their healthcare providers the same way they interact with their banks, travel agencies and retail merchants.”

In theory it sounds okay, but in practice on Facebook it’s weird to see people congratulating this persona on the birth of the twins and commenting on the nursery décor. It doesn’t appear that the company was attempting to trick anyone, but is this an effective way to connect with people on Facebook and communicate ideas? Instead of thinking about this brand or online health, I’m wondering about the real woman in this photo and her story.
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talking to diseases instead of the people that have them is a communication killer, a conversation stopper. 

Linda Martens, Content Strategist at Siren Interactive, contributes this post:

During my time as a hospital social worker, I spent my days talking to people with all types of illnesses – chronic and acute, minor and serious, treatable and terminal. I learned that there are many ways people relate to and cope with their diseases. But I can’t recall ever talking to anyone who thought they WERE their disease.

Since it’s the people — not the diseases — we’re creating websites for, it’s important to keep this difference in mind. Addressing the disease, not the person who has it, can lead to all sorts of communication failures.

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Since patients are continually going online for information and support, marketers have the opportunity to effectively connect with them through this channel. 

There is only one internet. And regardless of who is posting information to it or where the information is being posted, there is an ongoing debate around most disease states. Ultimately, everyone who participates in this debate wins, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Whatever you write for public consumption on the internet needs to be written to the entire community – and ideally, the entire community has a role and responsibility to participate in these discussions.

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