Profit motives? Who is profiting? It just got harder to keep the players straight when it comes to medical marketing after online collaborations between Pfizer and Sermo – a free social networking site targeted at U.S. physicians – were announced last week (read: Pfizer Press Release – Oct 15 2007). This will be a highly-visible public collaboration sure to raise issues of patient confidentiality, physician credibility, ethical prescribing behavior and the ever-present profit motive. 30,000 physicians have already enrolled.
On Oct 15 2007, WSJ Health Blogger, Jake Goldstein, wrote about this pair-up – read about it here – where you can also view a promotional video about this partnership.
Following is an excerpt from the “About Sermo” page and a screenshot:
“Sermo, founded in September 2006 in Cambridge, Mass., provides a forum for doctors to seek diagnostic advice from peers. The site earns money by letting clients such as hedge funds monitor doctors’ anonymous conversations and thus gain insight into, say, the popularity of certain treatments. Sermo rewards physicians whose input is highly ranked by other members and soon will offer to pay doctors for participating in its clients’ surveys”.
(Screenshot credit: http://www.sermo.com)
- Here is a link to Pfizer’s webpage for Health Professionals which also describes the Sermo “Know More, Know Earlier” connection.
- And lastly, read what WSJ reporter, Avery Johnson, wrote about this web collaboration in the Oct 15, 2007 Wall Street Journal edition: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119239937318658576.html?mod=sphere_ts
Any comments from blog readers?
1 response so far ↓
Creaky // October 18, 2007 at 11:37 PM
And Nicholas G. Carr weighs in on the Pfizer/Sermo collaboration on his blog, Rough Type, on Oct 14 2007, read it here:
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/10/pfizer_teams_wi.php?referer=sphere_related_content