An online patient community network that enlists video to weave personal accounts of the patient experience has partnered with a couple of Big Pharma companies in a bid to support interest in and recruitment for clinical trials. Healtheo360’s approach raises some interesting questions about the trajectory some companies are taking to make it easier for companies to reach their target audience. Kind of the opposite of helping people access healthcare.
Healtheo360 was founded by healthcare marketer David Duplay who serves as the CEO of the company. Although it began as a way to help patients tell their stories, it has expanded with a mobile app, which it is upgrading, and a weekly online program. That programming, sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug administration, Pfizer, and the American Cancer Society, may spotlight someone a physician talking about Lewy Body Dementia or a big pharma company talking about biosimilars.
A running theme connecting the different components of its site is something it refers to as virtual social therapy — a concept it has copyrighted.
In an interview at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, Duplay said its audience is curious about the innovative technologies under development at biotechnology companies. It will use video interviews to take some of the mystery out of these technologies, he said.
The company met with 18-19 biotech companies that are “chomping on the bit” to get in front of some of the 45-50 patient communities in its network.
“We believe at healtheo360 that we are at the intersection of precision medicine and social media.”
Healtheo360 is currently working with two Big Pharma companies to recruit for clinical trials. One is for a fibromyalgia trial and the other is for a uterine fibroids trial.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Another component of its communities are partnerships with companies inside and outside of healthcare such as car rental services Enterprise and ZipCar, senior care resource portal Care.com, telemedicine provider MDLIve, and healthcare content provider Medivizor. It has a couple more partnerships coming up this year.
Healtheo360 is one of several online patient communities: others inclide PatientsLikeMe, MyHealthTeams, and HealthUnlocked. Many of these communities have improving access to clinical trials as a short or longterm goal. Some are very upfront about how pharma companies access their data and others less so. Many of these communities have improving access to clinical trials as a short or longterm goal.
