Background
Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies had a limited array of sources available to them to communicate with physicians - the sales force, dinner meetings, conferences, and sponsorships. But today's European physician is media savvy and interested in receiving content from a wide variety professional information and clinical news sources.

Pharmaceutical companies, accordingly, must update their relationship marketing plans to take evolving communication preferences into account when providing new product information, clinical alerts, or product updates in general.

In the absence of Direct-to-Consumer advertising in Europe, online content is critical. European consumers have been a long-neglected piece of the strategic puzzle for most marketers at health and pharmaceutical companies. Yet, signs increasingly point to the degree to which European consumers are, in fact, researching health information and treatment options, and ultimately taking action as a result of those information searches.

In this podcast, Mark Bard will summarize five emerging trends in the use of the Internet by European physicians and consumers based upon data from two multi-client research studies currently available from Manhattan Research: Cybercitizen® Health Europe and Taking the Pulse® Europe.

Mark Bard
Mark Bard is the President of Manhattan Research, a healthcare market research and services firm based in New York City. Prior to founding Manhattan Research, Mr. Bard was the Group Director of the Health Practice at Cyber Dialogue as well as a strategy consultant focused on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. His professional experience includes time with the managed care and business development division of GlaxoSmithKline.

Mr. Bard is a nationally recognized health industry expert on topics including online health, information technology trends, pharmaceutical marketing, and disease management. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters about health administration, health software, and the Internet’s impact on health. He is regularly quoted in leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, NY Times, and The Boston Globe.

Mr. Bard received an M.B.A. from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.H.A. from the School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, and a B.S. in health administration from James Madison University.

Topics/Questions covered:

• Please briefly describe the surveys Manhattan Research has done in Europe from which the trends were revealed.
• How do European physicians differ from US physicians regarding use of technology and preferences for receiving drug information via the Internet and mobile technologies.
• In the US, eDetailing has been described as being in a "persistent vegetative state." How does this compare with the situation in Europe?
• Tell us about how European consumers are using the Internet and what your thoughts are about the possibility that the EU may soon allow some form of DTC advertising by pharmaceutical companies.

Additional Resources

TBD