HealthBlawg

David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog

    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS
    • Email
  • About
  • Archives
  • Podcast
  • Press
  • Awards/Reviews
  • HIPAA
  • HCSM

FDA and social media … again … still …. Thoughts and today’s presentation at MassMEDIC

May 13, 2011

Meet the love child of the FDA and the pharma and medical device industries: The Pushmi Pullyu.  ACOs and unicorns, step aside; the is the Pushmi Pullyu's day to shine.  (It is now a commonplace that an Accountable Care Organization — a creature of the Affordable Care Act — is like a unicorn: everyone can describe it, but no one has ever seen one.)

It's been 18 months since the FDA listening session on the use of social media in marketing drugs and devices, and after many months of thinking that some sort of guidance was just around the corner, the FDA decided to release for public comment a description of some research studies it would like to conduct before actually reaching a decision point about guidance for the use of social media in marketing drugs and medical devices.  As others have noted, this will take a while.  The studies, as described, are also not likely to yield useful, actionable data, in large part because they are hyper-focused on the web of today and the way people use it, and the online activities of the future (including the near future, say two years from now — optimistically — when the studies are complete and guidance is issued) will be different.  The agency has to be willing to articulate general principles, but it seems paralyzed on that front.

On another front, the Pew Research Center has just released a very useful report: The Social Life of Health Information, 2011, by Susannah Fox (with whom I have the honor to occasionally share space with on the e-patients.net blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine).  This study captures a snapshot of the the way we use the internet to solve health problems — and many, if not most, of us are doing that one way or another.  Research conducted by Susannah and the Pew Internet & American Life Project can help folks tailor messages and tactics to be used in the deployment of health care social media — both in the realm of health care and in the realm of pharma and devices.  Perhaps some day (soon!), the FDA will call on resources such as the Pew Research Center to turn around some illuminating studies within a short timeframe.  Until then, we're stuck with the pushmi pullyu approach to social media in the FDA-regulated space –regulators and the regulated community looking away from each other and not.  (Another aspect of this approach: the FDA uses social media on its own account, yet is uncomfortable with establishing parameters for tis use by the refualted community.)

Even in this ambiguous environment, folks can use social media for some purposes in the world of pharma and medical devices — carefully, within some safe zones, following some clear locally-developed policies and procedures.  I'm speaking on the subject this morning at MassMEDIC.  Please let me know what you think:

FDA and health care social media (presentation)

David Harlow
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting

 

Filed Under: FDA, Health care policy, Health Law

you might also like:

  1. #FDAsm – FDA Releases Draft Social Media Guidance Five Years After Public Hearing

  2. FDA and social media: The regulated community's current obsession overlooks off-label promotions by the advocacy community

  3. FDA Social Media Guidance – Hangout on Air

« Facebook misstep costs RI physician fine, job
Is the ACO DOA? Reasonable Minds Can Improve the Draft Regulations »

Follow me on Twitter

David Harlow πŸ’‰πŸ˜· Follow 43,216 17,538

Mastodon @healthblawg@c.im #HealthCare #MedDevice #Compliance #Privacy @MyOmnipod #HIPAA #digitalhealth #HarlowOnHC #pinksocks Tweets are tweets No more no less

healthblawg
healthblawg avatar; David Harlow πŸ’‰πŸ˜· @healthblawg ·
43m 1639727201053491204

The Harlow #Healthcare #Innovation Daily https://paper.li/healthblawg/1489156253?share_id=4a12ea20-cb4c-11ed-a6d0-fa163e65ae25 #digitalhealth #hcldr #HarlowOnHC Thanks to @techguy @db_digest #digitalhealth #healthtech

Reply on Twitter 1639727201053491204 Retweet on Twitter 1639727201053491204 0 Like on Twitter 1639727201053491204 0 Twitter 1639727201053491204
healthblawg avatar; David Harlow πŸ’‰πŸ˜· @healthblawg ·
6h 1639640904406544391

ICYMI> David Sand, CMO of ZeOmega, an #AI-infused engine for β€œpayviders” β€” Harlow on Healthcare https://healthblawg.com/2022/10/david-sand-zeomega.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost #digitalhealth #hcldr #hitsm

Image for the Tweet beginning: ICYMI>  David Sand, CMO Twitter feed image.
Reply on Twitter 1639640904406544391 Retweet on Twitter 1639640904406544391 1 Like on Twitter 1639640904406544391 0 Twitter 1639640904406544391
healthblawg avatar; David Harlow πŸ’‰πŸ˜· @healthblawg ·
7h 1639630885497769985

The latest Harlow On Health Care Daily #HarlowOnHC #digitalhealth #healthcare #innovation #privacy #hcldr Thx: @rwneilljr @chidambara09 @SarahClarkBDM #digitalhealth #ai

Image for twitter card

AI's growing impact on echocardiography

cardiovascularbusiness.com Cardiology has the second largest number of FDA-cleared AI algorithms, and many of them are ...

paper.li

Reply on Twitter 1639630885497769985 Retweet on Twitter 1639630885497769985 0 Like on Twitter 1639630885497769985 0 Twitter 1639630885497769985
Load More
Follow me on Mastodon

HIPAAtools

Hipaatools

The HIPAA Compliance Toolkit

The Walking Gallery

The Walking Gallery

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Categories
  • Archives
  • Podcast Interviews
  • HIPAAtools
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Health Care Social Media
  • Speaking
  • In the Press
  • Blogroll

David Harlow

David Harlow

HealthcareNOW Radio

Connect with David

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Email
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Book Me: Speaking
  • About
  • The Harlow Group LLC
Copyright © 2006–2023
HealthBlawg is a publication of The Harlow Group LLC. See Copyright notice and disclaimer.
Fair use with attribution and a link is encouraged. Click for more on David Harlow.
[footer_backtotop text="Back to top" href="#"]