We covered this story last week as well where we highlighted how HCPs react to pharma ads (better than expected) but this content deserves a second place in the spotlight. Specifically, we're highlighting how HCPs communicate.

The top two communications channels, email and conferences, put the HCP in the driver's seat (stop with the music references -Ed.). Once control is removed from the channel, such as in-office visits, the preference number drops.

As with other audiences, the email device of choice is the smartphone. For this affluent audience that will mostly be an iPhone, though this isn't in the report.

When asked what they want in their emails, and other materials, product updates and CME top the list. Third is patient materials. And don't kid yourself (tone! -Ed.) when HCPs say CME they mean accredited CME, not a talking head, though peer reviews would likely be welcome.

It's a testament to this 17-page report that we covered it twice and there are still more stats in there to keep pharma marketers' attention. We give this report the Klick Wire Must Download award so grab your own today.

The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) convened a select group of 55 leading policymakers, scientists, healthcare providers, ethicists, AI developers, and patient advocates for a closed-door workshop in May 2024. The full story talks about the meeting but we're covering two informal polls of the group.

With 55 people attending we can assume that each vote is just about two percentage points. Almost 58% of attendees, or likely 32 people, said that AI could run autonomously but only with the right safeguards in place.

The question was "For healthcare AI, should there be a 'human in the loop'?"

When asked how to achieve effective governance of AI, the current regulatory frameworks were mostly deemed adequate but in need of substantial changes.

Hearst Magazines and the Ad Council surveyed 4,003 US citizens to determine their perspectives on mental health messaging in advertising. The researchers combined a standard online survey with two days of interaction in a discussion board to get both quantitative and qualitative insights.

Even the older Boomer demographic is mostly ok. When asked if they perceive this messaging as positive when supplied by a company, most said yes (chart below). The report implies that most of the rest are simply neutral rather than opposed.

Perhaps surprisingly, Health and Wellness content was slightly below beauty and fashion in acceptance, but all industries were relatively accepted.

When it comes to who delivers the mental health message the data is clear, it needs to be someone relevant. HCPs topped the list, followed by actual patients. Your patient advocacy program fits well here.

The bottom four seem to be pointing to a consideration of motivations. All four of them would be expected to be paid spokespeople while the top three are not.

Be supportive and authentic is the message here. The report highlights to avoid making light of mental health issues but this is a nuanced area. Klick has experience with just this type of messaging and it can resonate with audiences, but it has to be done with an authentic voice.

The report includes examples of three core messages and three framings of content with detailed discussions of what the audience thought of them. The copy editors in the audience will appreciate this depth.

Worldcom has released its fourth report on corporate PR in the pharma industry since 2018. The company seems to be seeing interest from this industry and highlights what we see which is more competition (bring it -Ed.).

The company charted out platform usage for 25 of the largest pharma companies globally. They are reporting on actual active usage, not just having an account so if the social numbers seem low that would be why. 

Looking at this chart of usage since 2018 it seems to drop considerably. This isn't what we see anecdotally in our personal feeds but it's an interesting finding from Worldcom. LinkedIn usage in particular seems odd as that platform has been seeing an uptick in corporate usage.

For example, Klick has been tracking pharma corporate, branded, and unbranded properties on different social channels since 2012. Our Facebook list currently has 1,024 properties in it. While we don't track activity this would indicate that, at least for brands, the social platforms remain critically important.

For folks interested in corporate PR this report is worth a look. Just don't confuse global corporate usage with brand usage.

The FDA has released a draft guidance, Addressing Misinformation About Medical Devices and Prescription Drugs Questions and Answers Guidance for Industry. This is an update to the 2014 Guidance that talked about the same topic.

Here are some of the updates to the new guidance:

This guidance is particularly interesting for social media planners who are designing response matrices for their properties and who want to include more proactive activities.

In many surveys we find that people find health information from "family and friends." But we don't have data on the opposite side of this equation which is "what do you talk about with family and friends?"

Pew Research to the rescue! Here is a list of topics that family and friends actually talk about. Sure enough, health is number four.

Healthcare costs traditionally exceed the inflation rate in the US and a new report from PwC looks at this trend. The report is a good way to get the macro picture of economic forces in healthcare.

Even high general inflation doesn't keep up with the rise in healthcare costs for both group and individual insurance plans.

These costs lie against a backdrop of generally low or negative profit margins at healthcare providers which will further put upward pressure on costs.

Financial deals remain strong though down from the highs of 2021.

Take a look at this report to get your macroeconomic fix on the US health insurance and provider markets.

The title of this article is "Can AI Anticipate a Crisis?" but the article doesn't actually answer the question. So we'll take that as a "no" for now.

What this article does do is get expert opinions on how AI for PR professionals can be used to combat AI misinformation.

Myriam Khan, head of comms at Hitachi Rail, made an important point about detecting PR crises.

Syeda Hasnain-Mohammed, head of communications (UKIE healthcare) at Merck talked about how to best combat recurring PR issues. 

A report from Emarketer on the retail path to purchase for consumers has some data on discovery and research. Interestingly, there are different tactics that work best for different demographics.

For these social contacts video is the most popular content type. Again, we see that influencers and celebrities skew younger for this content. 

This story from Emarketer piqued our interest because it shows the health industry (separated from beauty) and compares it for conversion rates and cost per acquisition (CPA). 

Conversion rates vary widely by industry but health is relatively good.

CPAs show less variation but here health is lower in the rankings. Retail health at least (not necessarily Rx pharma) is in a favorable position for digital advertising.

A new report from Philips is based on a substantial survey of 2,800 healthcare leaders, 200 in each of 14 countries. The report looks at staffing, insights, and sustainability but we're going to focus on operations.

AI in provider operations has many use cases. Providers are already using AI in large numbers and most are at least planning usage in the next three years.

This usage belies a financial issue at most of these provider organizations. They are strapped for cash.

This chart directly shows how financial issues are keeping providers from rolling out money saving solutions. This could mean that your HCPs are frustrated with their internal systems. Anything a brand can do to make an HCP's life easier would be particularly appreciated now (opportunistic, but I like it -Ed.).

The third top topic on TikTok is "Wellbeing and fitness." Full-on health topics aren't included in the list but this is the closest GenZ topic to those.

Instagram and Google aren't as dominant for this topic. If this corresponds to health (which is not guaranteed) then TikTok may be an even more important platform for health than we think.