Great point on how would ensure a mix of positive experiences and negative experiences. You certainly could do some outreach in your CRM program to encourage those who are satisfied to leave a review. I do go back however to product reviews in other areas. People who are completely happy with what they bought (i.e., solved their problem) leave most of the reviews out there. This is true even for OTC medications, where there is a correlation to pharma. Where these drugs are working, people still leave comments.

The moderating issue is a tricky one if you aren’t consistent and clear up front on the policy. If done appropriately, I don’t think it’s an issue. People expect their comments on blogs and news sites to be moderated (but are usually posted), so the moderating itself isn’t an issue. The danger, as you point out, is if someone can’t resist the temptation to censor a negative product review that is otherwise appropriate.

Thanks for commenting.
Jonathan

Lets say your an individual on a systemic therapy that is doing its job…whats the tipping point that gets that person to comment? Often times even if the drug is working perfectly, there is not something to remind you of that on a daily basis (similar to why there are so many compliance and adherence issues with certain types of therapies). On the other hand, one negative experience, drug related or not, and you have a very motivated consumer.

One other note… not sure I buy the notion that a pharma company would ever be able to get away with moderating comments (for anything outside of abusive language), even with a clear policy, its a slippery slope for sure.

As a related aside, in the current issue of The Atlantic, there is a great piece on “Reviews” as the future “big web trend.”