Pharma Gazette's Gloria Gamat

Gloria Gamat, author of the Pharma Gazette blog and one of the few but growing numbers of women (a Filipina at that!) pharma bloggers, has just returned from vacation in the Phillipines (Rizal Beach Resort, I assume).

Here she is with her children on their way to nearby island for a "close encounter with whalesharks."

How do I know all this? Gloria tells us this in a recent post to her blog ("Of Summer Beach, Whalesharks and Spiderman 3").

This is a rare glimpse into the personal life of a blogger. Some other bloggers have also offered personal glimpses into their private lives -- The Group Guy, for example, is an avid fisherman (see "Get Off My Back! I Love Sally!").

Unfortunately, I could never do that -- I have no personal life! Just kiddin' (I have to say that otherwise some idiot reading this -- not you, that guy in Scotland or wherever -- might take me seriously).

First, my wife doesn't want her name associated with my blog, especially when I get into a tirade about erectile dysfunction (ED) and when I participate in ED focus groups to get some background for a story (see "My Sojourn as Market Research Subject for Levitra").

Second, and more important, the jerks at Cafe Pharma and that guy from Scotland might start calling my wife a "turd." Then I'd have to get really nasty!

So, I keep my personal life private. But, I am always interested in the personal lives of other bloggers and love to meet them at meetings, such as the Healthcare Blogging Summit (see posts about that here and here).

Some day I hope to meet Gloria in person.

Pharma Giles Goes Super Nova: One Final Violation of Rule #4

Pharma Giles has signed off the blogosphere and in the process spews forth Cafe Pharma potty-speak remarks against me and this blog.

What have I done to deserve being called a "turd?"

Giles hates me because I wrote a post about Jack Friday, playfully trying to profile him. Giles thought I wasn't respecting Jack's right to remain anonymous. As if I had access to any more information than any one else can easily find on PharmaGossip!

It always amazes me how those who suggest ethics and good manners are the first to violate their own moral values.

Notes from the Healthcare Blogging Summit: Marketing Panel

This panel's full title is "Using New Media to Market (or Motivate?) Behavioral Change -- Practical Lessons from High-Profile Cases." Participants include:

• Fabio Gratton, Ignite Health
• Adam Pellegrini, American Cancer Society
• Debbie Donovan, Conceptus
• Moderator: Nedra Weinreich, Weinreich Communications

Nedra noted that the concept of "social marketing" predates it's use to describe marketing via social media. Her company uses social marketing to persuade individuals to take action for health or social change by addressing the values, needs and desires that motivate them. She works through non-profit organizations.

Fabio discussed how his company has leveraged blogs. He has built a series of blog networks in specific disease states. www.HepB.tv is a pharmaceutical company sponsored patient video blog that Fabio created. Fabio has some interesting ideas and has done some creative things online. I hope to interview him soon in an upcoming Pharma Marketing Talk podcast. Stay tuned for that!

Fabio learned that self-esteem and ego were powerful drivers that motivate bloggers, more so than accumulating points that can be redeemed for music downloads.

Debbie Donovan blogs in the medical device space -- "Diary of a Decision: The Essure Procedure." Her company created a persona, "Judy", so that visitors can "Ask Judy" questions. This simple device dramatically increased the number of questions submitted daily. Patient stories on her site are there to help women see what other woman who have undergone the procedure are saying and feeling.

Adam Pellegrini talked about ACS's "Relay for Life" website, which hosts 8,000 bloggers. "Your really don't know what your users want, unless you know who your users are," said Adam. Metrics are important. Go ask Jim Edwards -- BrandweekNRX continues to poll its users. ACS will never replace its editorial content, which is well-trusted, with user-generated content. But it is working on integrating the two sources of content.

Notes from the Healthcare Blogging Summit: Open Healthcare Panel

It's 10:30 AM and only 25 people are in the room -- approximately half of them are presenters. It seems that blogging is an East Coast phenom!

The first panel in the morning addressed open healthcare issues for corporations. The panel participants included:

• Matthew Holt, The Healthcare Blog
• Nicholas Jacobs, Windber Medical Center and Research Institute
• Elisa Cooper, Whistleblower, formerly with Kaiser Permanente (see "Kaiser Permanente sues blogger over patient information")
  
• Bob Coffield, Flaherty, Sensbaugh & Bonasso
• Moderator: Dmitriry Kruglyak, TrustedMD

I guess this is about how corporations cab manage and minimize crises created by blogs, like Question Authority vs. Astrazeneca.

Bob of the Health Care Law Blog summarized some of the legal issues.

Lawyers love the brave new world of blogging and open healthcare, said Bob.

Blogger Law 101
What bloggers should be aware of. Includes copyright and use of trademarks; asserting and defending defamation (libel/slander); can you be held liable for comments published on your blog? liability for publishing private facts with no legitimate public purpose (especially important in healthcare); employees rights to blog (public employees have more rights); "whistle-blogging (protecting employees who reveal illegal acts by employers); blogging the violates company policy (blogging policies are becoming more prevalent).

Corporate approach to blogging: should be treated similar to email; protect business secrets, "be nice."

Role Playing Exercise
A blogger breaks news that is potentially damaging to a hospital -- Lisa will play that role. How would a hospital CEO respond, general counsel. Dmitriry is a reporter.

How does the CEO feel about it? because of regulation, healthcare companies try to "stay under the radar" rather than deal with issues with candor and full disclosure (ie, transparency).

Note: Several panel members suggested scenarios involving Matthew Holt as in "suppose Matthew is a disgruntled employee and decides to..." or "suppose Matthew is ripping off your copyright material ..."

Elisa suggested that someone may become an "aggressive" blogger because they don't have access to lawyers and other resources that the corporation has at its disposal. But sometimes, bloggers (eg, Peter Rost) has access to both blogs and lawyers. It's an issue that may involve the "digital divide" that Jay Bernhardt discussed. As more disenfranchised people gain access to blogging, there may be a lot more bloggers that are aggressive towards the corporate healthcare industry, especially patients who were "wronged" or employees that see their organizations engaged in questionable, if not illegal, practices.

Journalism vs. Blogging
"From a reporter's perspective," said Dmitriry, "blogs are a great source for stories." He used Lisa' blog attacks against Kaiser Permanente as an example. He suggested the truism: Don't do anything that would not want to see reported in the Wall Street Journal. I would change that these days to: don't do anything you would like to see in the blogosphere! Astrazeneca's Zubillaga Affair is an excellent example. It was Peter Rost who "broke" the story, not the WSJ. And Astrazeneca had to react to his revelations, not a story in the WSJ.

The press has "buckets of ink," said Jacobs, "we don't go after them or write letters to the Editor." But bloggers don't need no stinkin' ink! They have "buckets of bits" and access to Youtube as well!

Moderation
Bob suggested that the less moderation of comments you do, the less liable you are, legally even though the law has recently changed to give the same rights to bloggers as ISPs with regard to comments. Dmitriry suggests that you moderate comments, you should have a policy that explains how comments are moderated in every case.

My panel is next (I will talk about the Pharma Blogosphere Survey). So, I won't be able to blog about that in real time.