People who work in healthcare occasionally become a little insular, forgetting sometimes to take a step outside of their own sector. Likewise, those of us who work in pharmaceuticals tend to think of solutions and outcomes in pharmaceutical terms, despite the fact that – as we like to remind the wider world – they are only a small proportion of healthcare costs.

I therefore found this blogpost rather interesting as well as entertaining. It was written by Scott Adams, – author of the ‘Dilbert’ cartoon strip. He speculates on some of the other things that are changing and may change how healthcare is delivered in the future, and how difficult it is to predict the future. As an outsider, he sees developments through a different prism. Sending digital photographs from patient to clinician was not something I had thought about

This was also linked to the theme of a conference I attend this week, entitled ‘Digital Pharma Europe’. Participants were looking at how the industry’s use of Social Media was likely to take shape. The industry has realized that this is a phenomenon that will substantially change the healthcare landscape, but so far it’s not clear how. One message that I took away was that Europe is far behind the US in coming to terms with Social Media in healthcare;’ the FDA have held hearings on the topic.

In Europe – as afar as I can tell -, there are little or now guidelines on what should and should not be permitted in this space; an uncertainty exacerbated by developments such as the recent Damgaard ruling. There is a pressing need for clarity, and it may be that the industry here in Europe could consider being proactive in setting out a framework for what is, and is not, acceptable.

That said, to create effective guidelines for something which is as rapidly developing as Social Media effectively means predicting the future. Yet – as the aforementioned Scott Adams blog points out – the only thing that we can predict accurately about the future is its unpredictability…