Using proprietary CIC text-mining tools, each edition of the report focuses on a different disease/treatment area, with the first targeting oncology. The study reveals China internet users generated almost 1.5 million pharmaceutical and healthcare related messages between July and September 2006, primarily on blogs and bulletin boards.
“Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in particular need to pay attention to these unsolicited online discussions,” said Helen Yan, director of healthcare / pharmaceutical communications at Edelman China.
“They provide an opportunity to gauge levels of understanding about important disease and treatment areas.”