Back in 2011 social media was thriving, yet pharma had yet to take advantage of the new platforms available. The industry had rarely engaged with communities directly and feared the consequences of such a bold evolution of communications.

Research indicated that many patients with psoriasis were undertreated and that patient expectations of treatment success are low. We needed to re-inspire patients and give HCPs the tools to assess the emotional and physical severity of psoriasis via clinically validated tools.

The key driver for the campaign was to activate patients to take control of their disease and encourage them to have informed discussions with their healthcare professional about the extent that psoriasis impacts their life and push for better treatment options. We developed a website to educate users with balanced disease and treatment information. YouTube and Twitter encouraged further patient engagement: broadcasting patient testimonials, tweeting valuable insights and driving traffic to the website.

Psoriasis 360 was the first pharmaceutical-company sponsored true social media campaign, with the Facebook page to allow post-moderated comments, truly facilitating open patient discussion and peer support. The intuitive design, functionality and technology of the smartphone and desktop applications enable patients and healthcare professionals to quickly and efficiently assess their disease severity. The usually cumbersome and complex handwritten PASI calculations became effortless and are a key feature of the application.

By providing valuable tools, balanced disease information and a community to interact with, we empowered patients to take control of their disease and seek better treatment options. The website has had over 82,000 unique visits, over 11,500 patients have used the severity calculator, and 2,000 patients have downloaded the ‘Talk to your Doctor’ checklist. The Facebook page has been viewed over 85,000 times across 20 countries and the iPhone and iPad applications have been downloaded over 12,500 times across 53 countries, with an average time spent on these apps of over 10 minutes.