Technology is a big motivator for change and Google has been doing some very exciting things that cannot help but impact on healthcare communications (as well as most other industries). Google Wave and real-time results are the latest headline-makers. So what is all the hype about?
Google Wave is one that all the tech kids have been jumping up and down about. For businesses, it could become the norm for meeting online and sharing a wide range of multimedia content. So it could be a big threat to WebEx and other online conference providers since you can quickly upload photos, videos and (in the future) documents to comment on and update online. The genius is that you can rewind the ‘wave’ so you can replay the meeting again at any time. At the moment it is in an early-stage format and users have to be invited to use it.
Google also announced that it is exploring developing a ‘real time results’ section of its regular search so users can see the very latest messages from Twitter and breaking online news as it happens. This could be invaluable for finding out who is saying what about a particular issue or brand and for pharma, it makes online conversations even more visible, making previously closed or less accessible discussions loud and clear for all to hear. This is yet another reason why pharma regulations desperately need to catch up with technology, and why our industry needs to be increasingly forward thinking to allow developments to be an advantage, not a nightmare.
Tags: digital pharma, Google, Google Wave, pharma online