{"id":7065,"date":"2009-06-23T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:22:55","slug":"do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Fellow blogger Rich Meyer over at World of DTC Marketing Blog has some good advice for pharmaceutical marketers based upon a survey of physicians (see “Physicians: We’re concerned that too many people are self diagnosing<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

“Doctors,” said Rich, “were annoyed at drug company sites that offer patients a survey to determine if they need the medication. ‘My patients think that answering a few questions is the final word and they then want the medication even though more tests are often needed.'”<\/p>\n

Rich suggested, among other things, “If 10 people take a health survey on your product website and more than 50% get a recommendation to talk to their doctor about the medication than your survey is probably too general and needs to redone.”<\/p>\n

I’ve pointed out this problem in previous posts (see, for example, “You Must Score Better than 84% on Viagra’s Sexual Health Quiz to NOT Have Signs of ED<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

In that post I wondered “What is the scientific basis for this self-assessment?” Are the questions and rating structure something that Viagra marketers have just dreamed up? Or is the quiz based on an independent, medically-approved source?<\/p>\n

That leads right to another of Rich’s recommendations: “Drug companies should provide, on websites and consumers brochures, recommendations for sources of credible health information such as AMA, ADA, Mayo Clinic, Harvard Health.”<\/p>\n

Pfizer, however, does not reveal the source of it’s ED rating system. Therefore, site visitors can’t judge whether or not to trust the results. Yet they may believe the results are science-based and walk into their physician’s office with an ED “self-diagnosis” based on this quiz.<\/p>\n

Rich’s first recommendation is: “Clearly state that the information on product websites is for information\/education and that no website can diagnose a patient. It has to be done based on recommendations from the physician including the possibility of more tests.”<\/p>\n

While a statement to this effect is routinely included in every drug website, it is not sufficient on its own to absolve the drug company from certifying the scientific merit of self-diagnosis questionnaires (often called “Questions to Ask Your Physician”).<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that many drug website self-assessments are not supported by cited scientific evidence, many proponents of direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotion — online and off — claim that information provided by drug companies counteract “bad” information that consumers get from other sources. IMHO, self-assessment “quizzes” found on most drug websites are part of the problem, not the solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellow blogger Rich Meyer over at World of DTC Marketing Blog has some good advice for pharmaceutical marketers based upon a survey of physicians (see “Physicians: We’re concerned that too many people are self diagnosing“). “Doctors,” said Rich, “were annoyed at drug company sites that offer patients a survey to determine if they need the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[86,217],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fellow blogger Rich Meyer over at World of DTC Marketing Blog has some good advice for pharmaceutical marketers based upon a survey of physicians (see “Physicians: We’re concerned that too many people are self diagnosing“). “Doctors,” said Rich, “were annoyed at drug company sites that offer patients a survey to determine if they need the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-23T13:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-21T01:22:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mirror_picass_girlbefore_lg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"254\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pharma Guy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pharma Guy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/\",\"name\":\"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-23T13:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-21T01:22:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/763fc249c59c91ce203db612d81a75a1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/\",\"name\":\"Pharma Marketing Network\",\"description\":\"Pharma Marketing Network\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/763fc249c59c91ce203db612d81a75a1\",\"name\":\"Pharma Guy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87853617a5e31233716811d09cdefdf7?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87853617a5e31233716811d09cdefdf7?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Pharma Guy\"},\"description\":\"Pharmaguy\u2122 is a \u201cconstructive critic\u201d of pharma marketing and publishes commentary on the Pharma Marketing Blog and on Scoop.it.\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/author\/ehs-pharmaguy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network","og_description":"Fellow blogger Rich Meyer over at World of DTC Marketing Blog has some good advice for pharmaceutical marketers based upon a survey of physicians (see “Physicians: We’re concerned that too many people are self diagnosing“). “Doctors,” said Rich, “were annoyed at drug company sites that offer patients a survey to determine if they need the […]","og_url":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/","og_site_name":"Pharma Marketing Network","article_published_time":"2009-06-23T13:04:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-02-21T01:22:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":254,"height":320,"url":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mirror_picass_girlbefore_lg.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Pharma Guy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pharma Guy","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/","url":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/","name":"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose? - Pharma Marketing Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-23T13:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-21T01:22:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/763fc249c59c91ce203db612d81a75a1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/do-pharma-marketers-encourage-consumers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do Pharma Marketers Encourage Consumers to Self-Diagnose?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/","name":"Pharma Marketing Network","description":"Pharma Marketing Network","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/763fc249c59c91ce203db612d81a75a1","name":"Pharma Guy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87853617a5e31233716811d09cdefdf7?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87853617a5e31233716811d09cdefdf7?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Pharma Guy"},"description":"Pharmaguy\u2122 is a \u201cconstructive critic\u201d of pharma marketing and publishes commentary on the Pharma Marketing Blog and on Scoop.it.","url":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/author\/ehs-pharmaguy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9474,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065\/revisions\/9474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7065"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=7065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}