Digital marketing in pharmaceutical industry has a strong influence on changes in clinical practice of the physicians.

JawaidM and team has conducted a survey to evaluate different aspects of the social media by the physicians and the current role of pharmaceutical digital marketing, and its impact on the change in clinical practice.

The survey was a cross-sectional study, which included 718 physicians who have at least five years of clinical experience. The physicians were surveyed about the usageof digital tools to assess theknowledge of digital marketing tools, medical information,their digital presence, the type and frequency of social media use, and also the impact of digital media on their clinical practice.

The study revealed that social media applications like WhatsApp was most frequently used per week for health-related information. Webinars/webcasts had the highest duration of use per week but were attended by only a few physicians.WhatsApp, informative health websites, and mobile applications were more frequently used when compared to e-detailing, webinars/webcasts, tele-detailing, self-directed web-detailing, and marketing emails.

The study concluded thateven though the webinars/webcastsare used less frequently they have highest influence for changes in clinical practice, followed by websites, mobile applications, WhatsApp, and self-directed web-detailing.

Reference:

Jawaid M, Ahmed SJ. Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing and Its Impact on Healthcare Physicians of Pakistan: A National Survey. Cureus. 2018;10(6):e2789. Published 2018 Jun 12.