A clear theme of the ePharma Summit in Philly last week was that social media is here to stay and that pharma engagement is no longer optional. Joe Shields, Pfizer Program Director and ePharma Co-Chair, was perhaps the most-compelling voice in this regard. He, along with others, suggests that expecting unambiguous guidelines from FDA/DDMAC anytime soon (or ever for that matter) is a fool's game and the prudent way forward is to decide at the company level what makes sense based on the organization's tolerance for risk and to set internal standards and guidelines... and just get started.

As more and more physicians embrace the Internet more and more often, pharma clearly has a strong interest in cracking the code on how to be present in the medium while staying on the safe side of regulatory constraints. The good news is that there are simple ways to engage physicians online with little risk of running afoul of the FDA. As I wrote in a previous post, it is not necessary to actually engage directly in conversations with physicians... just being there is sometimes enough. That said, I believe there is tremendous value to be had for both parties in fostering a more-robust and collaborative online relationship between pharma and physicians. We're beginning to see more and more of this and I suspect we'll see much a lot more in the near future.