As online communities for medical information sharing have evolved to gain more credibility among healthcare practitioners, more than half of physicians report frequently or occasionally changing their perception of a treatment after viewing content on social media, according to a new joint survey from Sermo and LiveWorld.

Survey methods and key findings

For the survey, researchers from Sermo and LiveWorld surveyed U.S.-based physicians and pharma marketers in December 2022. Among the 206 physicians who responded to the survey, 53% were associated with group practices, 37% were employees of hospitals, academic institutions, or hospital systems, and 9% were solo practitioners.

Meanwhile, the 50 pharma marketers who responded to the survey were from pharmaceutical firms of every size with titles ranging from manager to CMO.

For the first time ever, data from the survey showed that content from social media influences practitioners' perceptions and prescribing behavior. According to Sermo and LiveWorld, 41% of doctors think social media influences prescribing behavior. Among respondents, 9% said they "frequently" change the prescriptions they write based on information from social media, 32% said they do so "occasionally," and 21% said they "never" do.

Overall, 57% of respondents said they "frequently" or "occasionally" change their perceptions of medications or treatments based on information they see on social media. Meanwhile, 28% said they "rarely" do so and 16% said they "never" do.

Notably, the researchers found an association between age and how likely a healthcare practitioner is to change their perception about a medication or treatment based on data from social media. Among physicians aged 65 to 74, respondents said they never alter their perceptions, while younger practitioners aged 35 to 44 participate in private groups on Facebook and occasionally change their views about medications and treatments.

When using social media, doctors report using both private communities like Doximity and Sermo and public social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Overall, 41% of doctors said they changed their perception of a medication based on content on Sermo and 33% based on content on Doximity. According to the survey, physicians have more trust in closed-community groups than public platforms like TikTok or Facebook.

"Social media is a serious and necessary factor in HCP marketing and promotion. Social media is being widely adopted, budgeted and planned for in 2023. Marketers have faith in its reach, persuasiveness, peer-to-peer credibility and immediacy," said LiveWorld's VP of HCP strategy and survey author, Danny Flamberg.

"Physicians are increasingly leveraging a variety of social media channels to meet different needs - both professionally and personally," said Erin Fitzgerald, chief marketing officer at Sermo. "In response, pharma marketers are investing more in their social strategy, understanding these channels have a vast potential to influence perception and behavior." (Renfrow, Fierce Pharma, 2/20; Sermo/LiveWorld press release, 2/15; Sermo/LiveWorld report, accessed 2/24)