Making an Impact in the Era of Disinformation

Michelle Bridenbaker, RN, MBA, chief operating officer, Unbiased Science

Biopharmaceutical propositions are becoming increasingly ambitious and complex. This is presenting a growing challenge for the industry as it strives to communicate its value to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients, amid deafening and progressively more confusing and contradictory market noise.

When trying to reach overstretched HCPs today, life sciences companies and health communicators are competing for the scarcest amount of time to engage and educate. To reach patients and their families, meanwhile, brands must also compete with an ocean of disinformation being spread daily across the internet and social media, not least by self-declared “health influencers.” Effectively delivering targeted and credible messaging that hits its mark is by no means easy in this “attention economy,” where an audience’s attention is hard won and must be earned.

MATCHING CHANNELS AND FORMATS WITH AUDIENCES AND THEIR HABITS

There has been significant emphasis on so-called “omnichannel” communications strategies in recent years, as communicators have sought to reach the different stakeholder groups (regulators, investors, payers, HCPs, and patients) with messaging that resonates, is in an appropriate format, and is distributed across the optimum combination of channels.

Too often, however, such campaigns have been approached from with a “cover-all-bases” mentality. Messaging has not been joined up, and there has not been enough thought about meeting HCPs, or patients and caregivers, where they are. In a strictly regulated environment, which imposes limits on the claims or information that can be conveyed and how, the omnichannel obsession can be a distraction from what’s really needed. A multichannel approach may well be advisable, but the greater priority should be to use the target channels appropriately; in other words, to get the right information out there, educate the market, and engage audiences with science—in a consumable way.

This requires agility as much as anything: the ability to respond swiftly to themes or concerns that are trending online or in the news, for instance. It also requires skill in communicating the facts: the evidence-based science. And all of this starts with thoughtful engagement, based on a richer understanding of who the various customer stakeholders are and what exactly they need (and in what context).

PINPOINTING WHERE AUDIENCES GO, WHEN, AND WHY

Consider the life of a doctor in the 2020s. Indeed, the vast majority of HCPs around the world today are time-starved and highly stressed. A 2022 survey from the AMA, Mayo Clinic, and Stanford Medicine found 63% of physicians had experienced symptoms of burnout in 2021,¹ up from 38% the previous year—a legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic that has not really gone away. Other studies suggest that more than half are on the verge of leaving the profession.

Although doctors are fully aware of the need to keep up-to-date with the latest scientific developments and medicinal breakthroughs, volumes of information are now doubling at least every 73 days,² and the time and attention to absorb new information is already scarce. There is no capacity for learning about new products during a busy shift; the chance to engage is more often limited to snatched hours of personal downtime at home.³

It makes sense to “meet” them there, then, via constructive use of social media, and/or targeted use of the online forums and educational sources they trust—such as Sermo, a social network for doctors; Medscape; PubMed; the National Institutes of Health; and the World Health Organization. Other discovery options include Consensus, an AI-based search app that scans research papers.

Currently, compared to other intensely competitive markets such as retail, the pharma industry is behind the curve when it comes to meeting “customers” where they are. Although 82% of HCPs consider global independent medical websites a very important or critical source of scientific content, for instance, less than 50% of pharma communicators recognize this.⁴ Where the pharma industry still looks for face-to-face time with clinicians, HCPs are stating preferences for more convenient digital engagement, particularly in the post-lockdown era.⁵

FOLLOWING THE EVIDENCE: LET THE DATA DETERMINE WHAT DOES AND DOESN’T WORK

Having identified where physicians go, the next challenge is to determine how best to engage them there. One of the advantages of digital channels is the ability to track engagement levels; usage data will show which content, delivered in which format, when, and via what means, is enjoying the most traction.

The same applies to patients and their families or caregivers. Reliable data analytics are important to understand where audiences go for their information, and the kinds of content they engage with (and share) most readily. These insights are important to inform targeted content decisions. For every scare story or factually-inaccurate groundswell of opinion that spreads on social media, there needs to be a reliable counterpoint—a reassuring base of scientific reason that the public can return to.

MEANINGFUL SNAPSHOTS FOR THE TIME-POOR

When audiences are time-poor and being bombarded by conflicting information, often the greatest need is for quick clarity. In a public health context, that might be best served by a carefully-crafted infographic, or an authoritative podcast, setting out the scientific facts (with source references) in a readily digestible way—for example, to counter vaccine hesitancy, or boost treatment or diet plan adherence. For an overstretched physician, evidence-based summaries or peer preferences can be more powerful than advertising brochures or in-depth clinical papers for capturing initial attention.

Organizationally and culturally, the call for more sophisticated communications strategies requires a rethink internally within pharma companies. Target audiences typically are not aware or will not care whether the information they are consuming is coming from medical affairs or from commercial teams; they just want to be assured that the message is consistent, consumable, and meets their needs.

Adding new or additional skills to communicators’ toolkits will be important, too. Relevant capabilities should include a good overview social media and how to monitor and optimize its impact, as well as knowledge of how to harness artificial intelligence capabilities to fuel innovation and dynamism. That might be by freeing up more time for teams to be creative, for instance, or by quickly identifying when and in what ways to pivot strategies toward the campaigns, formats, and delivery routes that are proving most effective.

Michelle Bridenbaker, RN, MBA, is chief operating officer of Unbiased Science, a Vital Statistics Consulting company.

References

1. Physician Burnout Rate Spikes to New Height. American Medical Association. September 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/physician-burnout-rate-spikes-new-height

2. Challenges and Opportunities Facing Medical Education. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association/National Library of Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3116346/

3. Studies by Medical Information Leaders in Europe (MILE) Have Looked at When Doctors Most Often Perform Content Searches, e.g. of Scientific Response Documents, to Understand More About Specific Medicines. Datapharm. May 29, 2024. https://www.datapharm.com/resource-hub/mile-case-study-answering-hcps-questions-medical-information-teams-scientific-response-documents/

4. The Gaps Between HCP Demand and Pharma Supply of Medical Information, EPG Health. November 2021. https://epghealth.com/reports/the-gaps-between-hcp-demand-and-pharma-supply-of-medical-information/

5. HCPs Either Dissatisfied with or, at Best, Neutral About Biopharma’s Digital Efforts, the State of Omnichannel Customer Engagement in Biopharma, 2023 Global Trends Report. Across Health. https://www.across.health/2023-state-of-omnichannel-customer-engagement-biopharma