If you want to elicit eye-rolling, mention Social Media to a health economist. Reducing something to 140 characters is not in our DNA, unless its an Excel formula cavorting behind the scenes in a budget impact model. Nevertheless, the importance and benefits of integrating social media into your HEOR (health economics and outcomes research) strategy should be considered. Not convinced? Read on. (First, a limitation: Yes, I know that if you work within this highly regulated space, you are limited to what can be said that can be construed as product-specific or corporate promotion. This blog posting is intended to reflect those situations that do not fall under this regulatory banner. You know what they are.) Lets start with the seminal inquiry for any topic, and that is from what perspective is this question being asked? That is, who is your audience for social media? The answer to this will define all that follows. The primary audiences for HEOR include the payer (health insurer, Health Technology Assessment [HTA] body), regulatory agency, provider (medical professional, caregiver), and the patient. It could also be a client (if you are an HEOR consultant). Lets just focus on the payer, and think specifically about a health insurance company in the United States, for this blog post. So, how can you, HEOR Researcher, use social media to communicate your message? Lets sing our ABCs. A: ASK As I tell my children who are in training so that they dont appear to be raised by wolves when in social situations, If you dont know what to say to someone, ask them a question about themselves. Yes, use social media to Ask a Question. An important part of any relationship is a genuine interest in the other. If you are an HEOR Researcher practicing as a consultant or working within biopharma, I bet you have a dozen questions youd like to ask your payer audience. So do it! For example, you might ask payers to rank order their concerns in a disease state or to give feedback on the payers area of focus as a company and service provider. Read their website, Facebook page, and tweets to see what they are promoting. Does your company have something better? You might present two scenarios and get feedback. Of course, these arent generalizable or valid responses to use for research design or a budget decision, but what youve done is initiated a conversation. Youve probably begun to find out with whom to talk internally at the payer to get better information. And, youve engaged your audience. Quickly, simply, cheaply, and without getting on an airplane. B: BORROW Borrow your customers terminology. Borrow their focus. Borrow their priorities. If its a priority to them, and you have a solution, youll have an audience. Borrow their tweets and their Facebook posts and their resources. But, you must absolutely give credit. Retweet, dont just grab and re-post as if the tweet was your own. Share a post on Facebook, and give credit where its due. Expand the audience for the resource, but acknowledge the original author and where you got it. Heres a real-life example. Wellpoints Twitter feed (@WellPoint) included these tweets: IBM Watson _@IBMWatson 1.6M new cases of cancer this year, rate of costs climbing 3X, need to capitalize on rapidly changing info @IBMWatson can help and _WellPoint's Dr. Sam Nussbaum: We have an opportunity to take big data and create personalized care. #ibmwatson #TransformingHealthCare. Borrow this focus by WellPoint, and use it as a springboard to initiate a conversation. Is your company involved in oncology and cost analysis? Is there a chance that your goals can align with WellPoints goals? C: CONTINUE Continue the conversation. Continue your presence on social media. Continue to use your regular channels of communication. Social media is not a stand-alone communication method or marketing tool. It is a cog in the wheel, and it must be integrated with your other methods in a cohesive, thoughtful way. But it is an important method to engage and establish a relationship. And business opportunities expand when you strengthen the relationship. What say you, HEOR community? Do you feel like your relationship with payers is where it needs to be, or could you benefit from a more comprehensive relationship? A tweet will not make a relationship, but it can be a knock on the door. What have you got to lose? Its just 140 characters.

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