- Broadcast and print media will be banned by law from providing information on prescription medicines (though there is a caveat to this below)

- Healthcare professionals will not publicly be able to give any information on prescription drugs to patients unless they declare links with pharmaceutical companies.

Importantly, the new legislation still enables the provision of “objective information on a drug’s characteristics and the treated disease or condition” according to MEPs, but firmly rooted in the principle that this information is only provided when a patient seeks it, not through unsolicited marketing or advertising on behalf of a pharma company. In essence, this means that it is acceptable to conduct legitimate, balanced communications that are ‘educational’ and ‘informative’ – rather than promotional – as we believe it should be. For example, new scientific data for a licensed medicine may be communicated to the media along these lines.  In most cases, the educational and non- promotional model already operates since EU regulations and the ABPI Code rightly restrict pharma from promoting medicines directly to patients. So, in the words of Brian Ager, director general of the EU pharma body EFPIA, the new legislation is more about providing a “viable legal framework” that “should build on existing best practice within the EU”.

As per the recent amendments to the ABPI Code in the UK, transparency is central for pharma companies to earn trust, whether communications are with healthcare professionals or non-medical audiences. Quite understandably, many people may be cautious of a pharma company providing information to patients and for every negative industry exposé story in the media, this caution only increases. However, we firmly believe there are times when balanced information is provided by the industry in a responsible and relevant manner can make a huge difference in healthcare, both to patients and healthcare professionals. Anything that might help this process should be welcomed, even if they may be viewed as ‘restrictions’. Rather, restrictions should be viewed as providing more focus on what is best practice and not seen as creating limits.

Brands like Starbucks reward fans who ‘like’ the page with customer discounts. Many brand Twitter feeds do the same. While this is not permissible in most healthcare scenarios, the concept of ‘giving something back’ fosters loyalty and encourages communities to form. So it’s something any healthcare Facebook page should keep in mind (although the application of the concept will obviously vary).

So how does a brand update its status on the Facebook wall? A brand can hardly say the same things a person would. But Skittles manage to come up with the funniest and charming updates which invoke curious people looking in to respond. Fond examples are ‘High fives should always be followed by guitar solos’, ‘Shark Week is pretty awesome, but Shaolin Ferret Week is even better’ and our favourite, ‘Belly button, eh? I just call it a Skittles holster’. Give a brand a personality, and people engage with the personality, and as a result, the brand.

You might ask ‘This is all very well, but what about healthcare Facebook pages?’ If you haven’t yet done so, Jonathan Richman’s Dose of Digital page has the best three Facebook healthcare pages listed (as voted in the Dosie Awards). One example is The Coalition To Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis, an unbranded page by Sanofi-Aventis in the US. It does not allow comments on products, which could easily be done in the UK, but it does motivate an entire community of people who have been touched by the condition. It reflects the personality of those in the community itself – one of determination, motivation and an urgency to do more for people affected by DVT.

Clearly the motto is meaningful engagement is key.

On a simple level, we believe that the pharma industry should be able to provide information to patients when appropriate. This is comparable to other industries. For example, when buying a car most people will initially develop a shortlist based on the brand’s advertising that most closely reflects their own values (such as safety, reliability or status). But because buying a car is a major investment it’s likely that the purchaser will also look to other sources for confirmation that the decision is the right one. When the claims the manufacturer makes are also backed up by Jeremy Clarkson and What Car? the brand and environmental messages are congruent and a purchase is more likely to occur.

While healthcare is very different, the principle is similar. In the same way that a car manufacturer knows more about their cars than anyone else, a pharma company knows more about its drugs than anyone else. Therefore, a pharma company should be able to share information about medicines with healthcare professionals and patient groups if appropriate of course always complying with regulatory obligations. We are not talking about direct to consumer advertising or direct communications with patients – this is something we’re more than happy we do not have in the UK. We are simply talking about the pharma industry providing balanced information in an appropriate manner to complement the information provided to patients by patient groups and healthcare professionals, such that patients are able to make well informed choices about their healthcare.

The point here is that the knowledge pharmaceutical companies have about their medicines should not be kept locked away, but communicated to healthcare professionals, and in some cases patients, in an appropriate and responsible way. If initiatives funded by a pharmaceutical company enable greater insights into the management of a condition, this can obviously benefit patients. In our opinion, it is not a question of whether pharma should be able to provide information to healthcare professionals and patients when appropriate, it is how they do it and what the information is.

The idea of customising viral videos to individual users is not new. MySpace ran a video in which your MySpace or Facebook profile picture becomes a framed picture Alisha Keys sings love songs to, or that 50 cent places on his wall. It was a big internet hit.

The return on investment for Old Spice will be phenomenal. Although we might be talking about a completely different setup for healthcare, there is still potential here. It’s all about thinking a bit laterally, being brave enough to become slightly detached from brand and product and create positive perceptions about an idea or subject.  More please…

Whether patients want ‘choice’ or not, they will become increasingly immersed into a healthcare culture which says they should. They are being promised an ‘information revolution’ to give greater control of medical records and access doctors online, as well as the services of HealthWatch, a new agency to handle patient complaints and champion the views of the public across health and social care.

So how can healthcare communications support patients and bring value to this new NHS? In many ways. But here are just a few ideas to start with:

- Patients are likely to be confused about what they are being promised and what it actually means when it comes to their specific condition and healthcare needs. Pharma partnerships with trusted third parties could provide guidance on how to make the most of the services out there.

- Engagement programmes could teach patients how to make the most of their personal healthcare budgets supporting websites and social networks which allow the exchange of information about specific services would provide useful feedback and insights.

- Working with patient groups to obtain feedback on local services and if appropriate, assisting in lobbying activities could make positive changes to the new system, while building  trust.

- Holding many small scale patient or healthcare professional feedback events, with Twitter feeds around the events to inform the outside world, could tap into opinion and generate advocacy around healthcare issues.

However, like all agencies winning well deserved awards, we did not get where we are today by ourselves and thank those we have worked with, clients and supplier partners, particularly for their support and input. The spotlight on our industry (and all industries) is bigger and brighter than ever before. Most importantly, healthcare communications can make a real difference to enhancing the reputation of our industry, advocating informed choice and ultimately delivering real improvements in healthcare. All of those awarded by Communiqué in 2010, and many of those who were not, are doing just this.

Visit our new website www.virgohealth.com

Some believe they are, but they certainly won’t become extinct. Rather, they will evolve to be a different beast altogether in the next ten years (if not earlier). The reason most newspapers suffer is that so many duplicate the same content. In other words, three newspapers reporting on the same football game in one city cannot profit. But if one newspaper has exclusive content the others don’t, then game on. This is exactly why regional papers have suffered so much – they need strong hyper-local content, otherwise they are just competing with other news sources when it comes to things like sports news and film reviews. Niche interest is therefore the name of the game. So newspapers are getting thinner, and those that do survive this exodus of readers will serve highly specific roles and have a super-strong editorial focus. Yes, they will survive and probably across multiple formats (apps, websites and some in print), but the content and audience will be very different.

This leads us to a perhaps familiar conclusion for healthcare communications. We really must all become accustomed to non-traditional PR tactics and opportunities. Yes, think Twitter, Facebook, SEO and social media. To think of a media campaign without these is cutting out a huge audience, and also drastically reducing your ‘opportunities to see’.

If you’re interested in the latest developments in the media and digital space, why not start by reading our latest edition of Core.

To enroll, willing Parkinson’s patients pay a small fee to show they are committed. They then receive a test kit which they spit into and return for analysis, along with a lifestyle questionnaire. Google technology will then look for patterns in the data.

Research in Parkinson’s, and most diseases, has historically been limited to small groups of patients to test a hypothesis. But collecting evidence and analysing it through complex algorithms will unveil all kinds of new insights. Sergey Brin explained it in more detail in a recent interview with Wired Magazine.

This is definitely one to watch. Not least because Google are famous for developing innovative new software (think Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Buzz, Google Wave, etc.) So one day when you ‘Google’ a condition, it might not just be articles you receive, but analysis of all the evidence to help you guide the clinical development pathways of new drugs. Even if such a big project does not come to fruition, Brin’s approach could be replicated for other conditions, which would surely have significant implications on both the patient and the healthcare industry.

Last month, Bristol PCT was the first NHS trust to release an app with the ability to pinpoint local NHS services (through GPS), issue GP appointment reminders and even provide a ‘panic’ button in case the user experiences an emergency.  This is just one of many apps appearing to enable us to live better and healthier lifestyles. Last week, the Mail released their top ten health apps to ‘keep the doctor away’. The list includes a body mass index calculator, first aid guide from St John’s Ambulance, symptom checker and diagnosis gizmo, hypnotherapy smoking cessation tool and even a ‘period’ diary to track the menstruation cycle of women trying to get pregnant. In the US, ‘AirStrip technologies’ are going that little bit further with an app that enables hospital doctors to check patients’ blood results from the lab, monitor bedside ECGs (in real-time) from anywhere in the world and view any data anomalies.

It is with no doubt that healthcare is being propelled into the digital sphere. It makes perfect sense too as whether you live in the UK or abroad, distance and expense is a major barrier to health education, service provision or access to treatments. Having instant, hand-held and remote access to information and services breaks down these barriers. With all these new applications being released, we might see less patients coming through the doors of our GP surgeries and pharmacies (potentially with job losses?). On the other hand, perhaps we’ll see a huge influx of the paranoid worried-well. Only time will tell. One thing is for sure, this emerging technology is providing PR professionals with new and exciting ways to engage, communicate and interact with doctors and patients.

In any issue, speed and clarity are paramount. Minutes later a statement was written and distributed on our website, Twitter, Facebook and blog. Despite the initial excitement (every PR professional secretly loves an issue – at least on the odd occasion!) the situation was neutralised quickly. Yes, we took a few angry calls and abusive emails but we reassured people we were not connected to Virgo Healthcare in any way, and offered to direct callers to the Derbyshire Police.

It’s vaguely flattering that somebody would want to use the good name we’ve spent years building up in this way. However, having an evil twin is in no way one of our business objectives for 2010. On the plus side, we now have our very own issues management case study to talk about, but more importantly, we hope justice will be done for those poor people who have suffered at the hands of these cruel imposters.

Finally, a big thank you for the understanding and moral support shown by our clients. One short response we received simply read “You’re more Vogue Traders than Rogue Traders…” We like to think so anyway!