Saying that physicians and insurers don't see eye to eye on patient care is a bit of an understatement. In a new survey conducted on over 1,000 US physicians by the AMA, prior authorizations were condemned on multiple fronts. 

The two studies had a similar question: do prior authorizations affect patient care? If so, positively or negatively? The two groups could hardly be further apart:

While 98% of the AHIP respondents said that prior auth programs "Improve Quality/Promote Evidence-Based Care" physicians don't agree. 34% say that these programs have led to serious adverse events for patients and they get in the way of care through both delays and treatment abandonment:

While it can seem humorous on the surface, this opposition to prior authorization programs highlights a major friction point between physicians and health insurers. Anything a brand can do to mitigate these programs will likely be met with enthusiasm from prescribers.

Clarivate (was DRG, was Manhattan Research) has released Realizing the potential of telehealth: Using tech to remedy healthcare inequities. This report is an excellent read to look at the issue of race-based health disparity in the US. 

Also in the report is data from Clarivate's consumer and HCP reports about telehealth usage. 

One-quarter of Americans expect to continue using telehealth even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted:

The number of HCPs using telehealth spiked to 80% in 2020 but was still at two-thirds, 65% in 2021:

Download the report to get the full story on health access inequities. This data continues to show how "sticky" telehealth is likely to be. 

We can summarize this report from the IAB in just a few words: You think you're ready, but you're not. 

The IAB, for the second year, is trying to "wake up" complacent marketers to the end of third-party data in 2023. Our view is that marketers aren't complacent, they just don't have good options to replace the data and know they will have to pivot when the time comes. 

When asked if they felt prepared, it was the ad technology and data solutions providers who were most confident:

Across the board, marketers in 2021 are more engaged with the potential solutions for the data issues they face:

If your network uses firewalls made by Watchguard your IT folks need to be on top of this (they probably are).

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia started Thursday and most advertisers are probably on top of it. If you're not sure what to do, talk to your agency media folks, I guarantee they have recommendations for a path forward (don't use personal pronouns -Ed.).

MediaPost has a number of articles to help advertisers during this upsetting and chaotic time:

Sharablee (acquired by Comscore) has some of its data revealed in a webinar. It's not pharma-specific but it does show the depth of engagement for social users.

Social is full-funnel when it comes to users' actions:

When social users were asked what attracts them to certain posts, they answered pretty much the way social marketers would have predicted:

A new report from IQVIA looks at connected TV and how it is growing alongside traditional. The report has the usual discussions from the analytics provider, but also includes some data from Samsung, the world's largest smart TV manufacturer.

In this report the Samsung data compared ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD):

Free streaming TV is still #1 in terms of growth online, above all the video on demand (VOD) services. With those services, though, ad-supported (AVOD) is still ahead of subscription (SVOD).

An infographic from Gartner looks at digital commerce and highlights the five most prevalent industries. Healthcare makes the cut in this group, but we have to remember this will be mostly provider organizations rather than biotech and pharma. 

Healthcare is lagging (ranked fifth) in social media marketing, and it middle of the pack for "direct digital" but is leading in customer experience:

While healthcare seems to be trying its best to develop digital customer experiences, it is lagging in most of the initiatives that Gartner measured:

Comscore has released The State of Social Media report for the US in 2021. Most of the report is top 100 and top 25 lists but it has some interesting charts on brand actions as well. 

One interesting finding was that brands accrued 16% more followers even on platforms that aren't experiencing much growth in the US.

Both Facebook and Twitter outgrew Instagram in this metric though that platform still holds the lion's share of followers. 

There's essentially no healthcare information here, but social marketers may be interested in the share of voice by industry, the top 100 lists, and the top voices and posts.

A survey of mid-market companies showed how they are approaching marketing technology. Inside this report was a question on how AI might be used in the coming year. Here email ruled the roost:

TikTok released "What's Next" reports for the major regions of the world. North America had a couple of insights that health marketers should know. 

Hashtags are still important though. The Self-Care topic had these top ones:

Any marketers looking at TikTok should definitely download this report.

When you think short form video you likely think TikTok, and that makes sense. Users on that platform love the short form video that is its bread and butter. 

Surprisingly, both YouTube and Facebook beat TikTok for short form video. This is likely because of the greater penetration of those platforms but TikTok is holding its own at third place: