patient influencer

Both patient groups and patient influencers can have an impact on healthcare decisions. However, patient influencers are growing in popularity. How can #bigpharma work with both, patient organizations and patient influencers?

Similarities between patient groups and patient influencers?

Both aim to raise awareness
Both have the knowledge or experience the condition and can provide information on what it is like to live with that condition
Both can present patient challenges
Both exchange insight for future research
Both address unmet needs of patients
Both are looked to as a most trusted source of information

Difference between patient groups and patient influencers?

Patient groups:

Patient groups are well known non-profit organizations or NGOs experts in their field
Have an excellent grassroots approach
Networking is through face to face approach
Have a more structured hierarchy of an organization, for example, president and board members and approval processes in place

Patient influencer:

Is a person
Has a lot of followers and engages online
Creates and shares content on social media platforms
Provides information and insights online
Has a broader reach of audience

Why the growing popularity of patient influencers?

People are online
Mobile technology
The internet and social media
Social media has made it easy to find and research information

How to better connect and reach audiences through both patient organizations and patient influencers?

Find patient organizations and patient influencers and build a relationship with both
For patient influencers know which platforms they are on and learn more about their audiences
Define expectations – both can be involved in different sectors of your marketing or research plan
Integrate and coordinate offline and online strategies that link both

Once referred to as e-patients. Today is known as patient leaders or patient influencers. The internet is making it easy for people to share information. This means patients can easily reach out to other patients. Is #bigpharma working with patient influencers?

Who are the patient influencers?

They are educated, aware and engaged patients
They are real people
They are trusted by their followers
They deliver value to their followers
They are influential with their followers
They are considered a credible and reliable source
Patient influencers build relationships with followers through engagement, providing information, sharing information

Where can you find patient influencers?

They can be found on different social media platforms
Most patient influencers are active on Twitter and Facebook
Patient influencers also blog
Great resource to find patient influencers is symplur
What kind of information do they share?
Information about their condition
Coping and support with illnesses
Conference updates
Clinical trial updates
Treatment options
Experiences
Resources

Do they drive conversations with other patients and healthcare professionals?

Yes
Tweet chats are an excellent means of bringing together patients, physicians and other healthcare professionals discussing important topics (check out symplur healthcare hashtags tweet chats)

How can #bigpharma work with patient influencers?

First and foremost you need to build a relationship with them
Treat patient influencers as real people with real value
Identify those where you can find a shared value
Listening to what patient influencers are saying online
Invite patient influencers to your events
Create patient influencer-generated content
Do not treat patient influencers like testimonials – this not about advertising

patient groups and patient influencers for #bigpharma