Let’s face it – at this stage, many of these corporate efforts – particularly in the healthcare field — don’t quite match what you or I do when we use Facebook or Twitter or engage with others online… While I would argue that what is being done is a good start, it nonetheless begs the question – why not more?

Take the case of what we had to think through as we developed THIS little ‘ole blog.

In addition to our well-known consumer products, Johnson & Johnson also sells prescription medicines and medical devices — which are highly regulated products. That’s where things become complex. Among the many considerations we had to take into account as we tried to move from simply broadcasting messages to engaging in conversations, we had to sort out how we would handle comments that could include reports of adverse events (which legally must be reported to the FDA — something we routinely do) – and could include a discussion of so-called “off-label” or unapproved uses of our products, which we do not support or encourage.

Ultimately, the decision was reached, right or wrong, to create a comments policy that would encourage comments that would be “on topic” – as well as to not allow comments that could get us into legal or regulatory trouble…

Clearly there need to be some measures put into place to mitigate the risk of legal or regulatory liability. However, the more hurdles that are put into place, the less credible, useful or open those online efforts become, and in the end you may be left with something that could be criticized as being more akin to a traditional, one-way communications effort.

And so what we have ended up doing in many cases is take some small steps to get more comfortable with getting involved. We are also making sure we have processes in place to handle adverse event reports and that we have responsible people involved who can respond quickly to questions.

At the same time, projects like JNJBTW and the Johnson & Johnson health channel on YouTube are giving us some great experience.

I think Marc has really said it perfectly, in terms of where we are today with the adoption of social media in the healthcare industry (you can read my response to Marc at the bottom of the post here).

It’s a real conflict of interest, as this industry tries to engage in a conversation with it’s customers — both consumer and professional — without overstepping the gray boundaries that it is regulated by. But as more and more companies in the industry start to push forward with new social media initiatives (such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter), the momentum will build, we’ll get more, and ultimately establish better boundaries and processes for operating in this space.

As for right now, like Marc says, we’ll take small steps and get great experience — the most important thing, is that we need to at least try!

As Sermo continues to grow and gain popularity among (verified) physicians, they have continued to expand their list of services to include things like CME, publications access (e.g. Nature and AMA), and even clinical trial recruitment. However, from my personal understanding of their business, they have no intention to stray away from their core competency; namely the physician-only market.

Hence, it’s with no surprise that others looking at Sermo’s success have tried to model this closed, vertical approach towards healthcare professionals (HCPs), such as Medscape’s Physician Connect.

And in similar fashion, Clinician 1 — a social networking community website — officially launched last week with a focus on Nurse Practiioners (NPs) and Physicians Assistants (PAs). Here’s an excerpt from the PharmaExec.com article:

Clinician 1 is a Facebook-style social networking site targeted to the 200,000 physician and nurse practitioners that prescribe drugs in all 50 states. It features personal information pages, medical education, and areas to facilitate two-way conversations between like-minded clinicians.

“We found that as we looked at ways to serve the informational and social needs of both these professions, a social network/community was needed,” said Dave Mittman, physician assistant and co-founder of Clinician 1… The site highlights different categories based on medical specialties and interests. Everything from retail clinicians, parenting issues, and military PAs are represented on the site. Also, much like you can pick friends in Facebook or Myspace, you can choose colleagues on Clinician 1. The site also includes about 50 hours of free continuing medical education, a repository of articles, and streaming news feeds.

This makes a lot of sense as market demand (read: pharma) extends to non-physician HCPs as well, so one can now potentially tap into this group of HCPs in a similar manner to Sermo, though I am not sure of their business model just yet (and I don’t think they do either). The article goes on to say…

Knowing that PAs and NAs are some of the top drug prescribers in the industry, pharma would do well to pay close attention for future opportunities. Clinician 1 does not currently have any pharma sponsors, but Mittman and Falk are looking at the possibility of sponsorship.
Obviously, social networks have been a sticking point with pharma companies.

“At this point, we are unsure as to what pharma wants to do and what the FDA wants to do with social community sites that have people possible speaking about unapproved indications and adverse reactions,” Mittman said. As of now, FDA has issued no regulations as to how pharma should proceed in regards to either establishing or taking part in a social network.

The other interesting thing about Clinician 1 is that it’s exclusive to NPs and PAs only — no physician allowed. Based on my interactions with physicians and other HCPs over the years, and particularly from my experience in a Continuing Medical Education (CME) agency, I can understand why the founders made it this way… I think it is definitely the right choice. Here’s what was said about this:

Most importantly, Mittman and his partner Spencer Falk believed that the site should not have physicians on it. To enroll in the site, potential members must include their state license number and sign a digital affidavit swearing to their identity as a PA or NA.

“Nurse practitioners and PAs have their own special needs regarding things like running a clinic in rural areas, barriers to practice, hospital privileges—many of the things that physicians take for granted and wouldn’t see any merit in reading,” Mittman said. “PAs and NAs tend to feel invisible within the healthcare system.”

It will be interesting to follow the growth of Clinician 1 and what business models they decide to adopt in order to sustain their growing network. Furthermore, I wonder if they could potentially be snapped up by a larger organization (Medscape?) in due time. Whatever happens, it’s great to see growth in this vertical social network area within medicine!

So, it’s official: There’s a new king of consumer health sites in town!

On OCT 3rd, Revolution Health and Everyday Health (along with their respective network of health-related websites) officially announced a merger. The merging of these networks — which are currently ranked #2 and #3 for consumer health-related web destinations — will lead to a combined audience size that will overshadow the long-time leader in this landscape, WebMD, making this new entity (called Waterfront Media) the #1 player in terms of sheer numbers.

Here’s a couple of quotes from their news release:

Waterfront Media, the largest private online health company, and Revolution Health Network, another leading online health information company, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge that will create a new powerhouse in the online health space. With this merger, the Everyday Health Network, which is operated by Waterfront Media, will now include RevolutionHealth.com and all the online properties associated with the Revolution Health Network, forming the most comprehensive online destination designed to enable consumers to live healthier lives every day. Both companies’ boards of directors unanimously approved the merger…

The combined company is projected to have more than 20 million unique users* and, according to a comScore Plan Metrix custom report for the month of June, will be the market leader in audience reach for 23 health conditions.

Personally, I’ve felt for a while now that WebMD has invested too much in branding and not enough in really innovating in a way that makes them more appealing or engaging. I think they’ve been too reliant and over confident about their market dominance, which they used to leverage advertising sales, while offering relatively little in return to clients — i.e. pharma — probably because they could; so this might be a nice wake-up call for them to know that they are no longer the biggest player in town.

Anyway, Joshua Seidman over at The Health Care Blog (THCB) has an interesting perspective and commentary about this merger, particularly from an information therapy (Ix) point of view (which is a new concept to me, but sounds very interesting):

There’s no doubt that they will get a lot of consumer traffic to their network of sites. One of the things that remains unclear for both Waterfront and WebMD is to what extent they will serve primarily as reference sources versus playing a greater role in consumers’ own health management. The answer may very well lie in the degree to which they provide information therapy (Ix), not just health information…

From the Ix perspective, accurate and comprehensive health information is only one third of the equation: the right information to the right person at the right time. Proactively delivering (or prescribing) that information “just in time” or at the particular moment in care that someone needs it to make an informed decision or support a healthy behavior requires another level of functionality. Similarly, tailoring that information to the particular needs of a diverse population in a way that is actually understandable, meaningful, engaging and actionable requires considerably more sophistication than the science and technology that supported a 1.0 world.

Definitely check out Joshua’s blog post for more details and also read the interesting discussion that takes place in the comments section at the end of the post.

ZocDoc — a web based appointment scheduler for doctors and dentists (currently only in NY) — recently announced two new high profile investors in the form of Jeff Bezos (of Amazon.com fame) and Mark Benioff (of SalesForce.com fame); both well respected and well established players in the internet business space.

When it was founded, ZocDoc was being run by three people with a big idea in a little East Village apartment. One year later, we’ve got a real team, a real office, and real support from some of the biggest names in business.

We’re proud to announce the two newest investors in ZocDoc, Marc Benioff (founder and CEO of Salesforce.com), and Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon).

We have had an amazing first year, and the support we have received only encourages us to continue growing. Now offering six specialties, we look forward to providing more services in more areas in the months and years ahead!

For more info, you can read their news releases or more about this story on Mashable.