Something new is coming I have now been writing this blog for many years and during that time I have not updated or re-branded this website. This was partially because for many years it served its purpose as was - somewhere to host my blog posts - but recently that...

Last weekend, after nearly 9 years of living in Switzerland, I finally made it to Zermatt to see the famous Matterhorn.  It was of course stunning, but it also got me thinking how life is a bit like a mountain. At first it seems like this huge insurmountable obstacle,...

In June my long-term contract with Boehringer Ingelheim comes to an end so I have started actively looking for a new role.  In case you are not aware job hunting really sucks!  One of the main reasons for this, IMHO, is the incredibly painful online systems most...

I am currently at Intelligent Health's AI conference in Basel so thought I should write a blog post on the topic.  I first got really interested in AI at SXSW a few years ago when I saw the applications of AI in chatbots for patient groups with limited access to care,...

Today I gave a presentation on Key Online Influencers (KOI) to my reverse mentoring group and one comment I got was “why on earth aren’t we doing this?!”. Great question. While many other industries have embraced the age of the online influencer pharma has not. Now we...

Back in June I read an article on the BBC about influencers and the potential backlash against them.  It is fascinating to see the rise of the influencers on social media and the impact they are now having on people's lives.  It is a sign of our times that some of...

The other day I saw this video from Mashable about a new UV patch from L'Oreal that is meant to make applying sunscreen more fun.  Essentially the patch is a stretchable skin sensor designed to monitor UV exposure and can be scanned.  An accompanying app then tells...

I recently had a conversation with a friend about what good looks like in social media, driven by a positive article about Allergan's US Restasis Facebook page.  The article talks about the Restasis brand's foray into social media through this page and what great...

This time next week I will be in Austin Texas enjoying day 2 of SXSW.   If previous years are anything to go by I will be having an amazing time, but may be sporting a mild hangover. My first year at SXSW was a real life changing experience but sadly my second year,...

This weekend I had the pleasure of doing a long weekend in Morocco with my boyfriend.  He is driving down from Zurich to Cape Town and back in his Landrover and I flew over to join him for this part of his trip.  It was truly spectacular from the picturesque Riads in...

This week I was giving a lesson on the basics of social media and I noticed that Tinder was included in Fred Cavazza's awesome social media inforgraphic.  I have to admit that this surprised me - I've been using Tinder for years but I never thought of it as a social...

Over the years I have often been asked what good looks like when it comes to digital in pharma.  I have been asked for benchmarks and examples from other pharma.  Who does digital best is another popular question.  My answer to this is there is no single answer. There...

I had a rather unpleasant surprise today when I found out that one of my "friends" had shared some of my personal Facebook posts with my current boss.  Given the privacy settings of my posts I presume this was done by the said person physically showing their screen....

Being passionate about social media and the latest technology I felt obliged last year to have a look at Snapchat and sign up for it.  I had a couple of friends who are using it and raved about it and it was “the” latest trend so I just had to join the craze.  So I...

Following the post-Christmas trend I too find myself coming down with a nasty cold.  Just like my parents and friends I have that horrid sore throat, chesty cough and dratted runny nose.  I can also add fatigue and dizziness to the list - yawn .... (you still there?)....

Another great reminder of why ignoring social media is no longer an option. The conversation is happening with or without you but at least by participating you can participate in the conversation and potentially prevent an issue turning into a crisis.

Yesterday Microsoft announced the launch of its shiny new toys including the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface book.  I have eagerly been awaiting this announcement as I need to buy myself a new "laptop".  As luck would have it I heard about this announcement (thank you...

The other week I shared a very interesting article about a study looking to use wearables in Alzheimer's disease. This is a disease that takes a huge toll not only out of the patients but also on family and carers (often the same thing).  As a person deteriorates the...

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a friend in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, staying in the non-touristy Itapua on the outskirts of Salvador.  One of the benefits of staying with a local was that I got to see a part of Brazil few tourists really get to experience,...

I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of corporate rebranding. In theory a rebrand should go deeper than just the corporate logo and colours but should also include a change in direction and culture for a brand.  Of course very often though the result is...

I have recently started to look for new opportunities and one area I am extremely interested in working in is patient advocacy, especially within a pharma company.  As such I have now come across a few job postings and a couple of things stood out as being glaringly...

A few weeks ago I presented at the SMI #pharmasocialmedia conference around the power of social media.  Having uploaded my presentation to slideshare and done an interview about the subject I thought it was about time I actually write a blog post about what I spoke...

As anyone who follows me on Twitter may have noticed I was extremely active these last few days tweeting from the SMI #pharmasocialmedia and the Digital #pharmaconf conferences. I had the pleasure of chairing day one and presenting at the SMI conference, as well...

I popped back to Suffolk, in the UK, this weekend to visit my parents.  I was very interested to hear that my mother would be wearing a device to monitor her heart for 24 hours.  This is part of a barrage of tests to check her health and try to help diagnose various...

As you will have seen my last few blogs were about a rescue mission to save 60 dogs in Romanian who were losing their shelter and faced death on the streets as a result.  I have been working flat out on this on Facebook and consequently have had not time for blogging...

Last week I had the immense pleasure of chairing the SMI conference on social media in the pharmaceutical industry.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed chairing, despite some minor hiccup with some of the name pronunciations (for which I do apologise!). On the...

I like to think that most people in the pharma industry now accept that digital is an important channel that they need to think about and include in their marketing plans.  Marketeers now include digital in their brand plans and the number of dedicated digital...

I was recently in a department store and was struck by the amount of effort consumer goods companies put into packaging.  The product packaging can make or break a purchase decision so it is clearly an area that warrants attention for FMCG companies - but what about...

This year I had the pleasure of not only attending Digipharm but also of chairing part of the event, including a round table discussion on engaging with stakeholders. As with many of these conferences the most enjoyable part is the networking and catching up with...

In my last blog post I summed up some of the discussion points at the Fleming eMarketing conference in Barcelona.  One of the speakers, Nicolas Pokorny, talked about emotions and behaviours and this really inspired me and resonated with me.  I also believe it is an...

Last week I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Fleming eMarketing conference in Barcelona.  It turned out to be a very interesting and fun conference - great insights, great presenters, fabulous location and social focus! First let's start with a...

I have just finished my slides for a presentation I am giving in September at the Pharma eMarketing Congress in Barcelona http://pharma.flemingeurope.com/pharma-emarketing-congress.  I will be talking about global and local social media.  A tricky subject but one...

Following on from my dreadful experience with the Spanish endocrinologist I am now preparing to see a British endocrinologist at the local Nuffield Hospital near my parents house.  Naturally this preparation involves going online, checking with UK patient associations...

The other day I had what was, without a doubt, the worst medical experience of my life.  The occurred when I went for an appointment with my Sanitas endocrinologist, here in Barcelona.  This was actually my second experience with a Sanitas endocrinologist  - the first...

I recently experienced first hand the not-so-new model of customer support via forum - now quite a popular method of dealing with customer support using social media.  Great idea - the company not only gets experts to support them and customers, empowering their...

This week I had the pleasure of talking to John Mack, aka @pharmaguy, on his blog talk radio about the need for senior executives to understand social media.  There has been a great deal of talk about the need for pharmaceutical companies to get involved in social...

Searching the internet for health information is no longer even remotely new, and indeed it is something that many of us take for granted.  In fact it is a tool that we often use merely as a support to professional medical services, for example prior or post a doctors...

I am fortunate enough to be spending my Christmas in India, a lovely and complex country which I have had the pleasure of visiting numerous times.  What is fascinating is the juxtaposition of ancient and new, rich and poor. On the one hand here is a country that...

It is that time of year when all the summaries of the year and predictions for the following year start to appear.   In terms of digital and social media for the healthcare industry 2012 definitely saw progress.  The attitudes have changed from last year, with...

When I lived in the UK it was hard to forget that Christmas was coming - from as early as August some shops start selling Christmas products and as Christmas approaches one can get dangerously close to Christmas over-load.  Living in Switzerland however it is slightly...

Like many people today I have been avidly following the events in the US and the path of destruction as Sandy stormed across the East coast.  The constant stream of live tweets on the BBC and regular video posts enables people across the globe to follow events as they...

This year I had the honour of being asked  to take part in one of the panels at Digipharm around the effective implementation of digital strategy.  Having only arrived straight from the airport 30 minutes before and with very little idea of what I was meant to be...

I often hear people talk about doing a social media campaign.  On the one hand I understand that this language is embedded in our marketing speak and is based around traditional marketing lingo - and old habits are hard to break.  On the other hand it makes me...

Those of us that work in digital and social media in the pharmaceutical industry often bemoan the fact that pharma does not get social media and that it could do with learning a thing or two from the FMGC market.  Then again top consumer product brands do not always...

Yes I work for a pharmaceutical company.  And yes I work in social media.  And yes the two can go together.  In fact I feel very strongly about pharma and social media and I can get quite angry by those who say pharma should not be using social media - be it because...

This Friday I asked the question during the #HCSMEU tweetup of whether governments should be doing more to teach the elderly how to use technology, including social media, to help improve their care.  My inspiration behind this question was the fact that I had just...

Pharma social media bashing has become quite a popular sport (including by me) - pharma companies have been notoriously slow (and generally bad) at participating in social media.  There are plenty of examples of poor use of social media and tons of articles on how...

Today I had the pleasure of spending close to 15 minutes on the telephone trying to book a doctors appointment as well as a nurses appointment.  The reason it took so long was that I ideally wanted them to be next to each other to save me having to make two trips to...

  I was taught as a child to always stop, look and listen before crossing a road.  This simple rule could also be applied to the pharmaceutical industry - with the road being the first step to developing a social media presence.   Stop  The first action...

 Last year I spent quite a bit of effort in setting up my first pharmaguapa website.  I built the site myself using Moonfruit and was very proud of the result.  I wrote quite a few posts - some of which I was told were really interesting.  Then as so often happens...

As I sat trying to decide what to write for my first "new" blog post it struck me that this in itself is a topic - the growing profusion of resources and issues in the digital space. I was further inspired to start with this topic by one of the myriad infographics...