Social Media and Health Care

I believe the most important question today is whether social media is going to break the chains of the big-pharma industry ? I have learned from social media that Pfizer has invested only 5% of its overall budget into cancer research while 30-35 % of chronic diseases are related to cancer. The reason behind that is a cancer patient survives for 7 years on average, whereas a heart patient survives around 20 years. To a patient suffering from a heart problem Pfizer can sell drugs for a significantly longer time. Why should Pfizer bother and invest more in oncology ?

The transparency of the social media is helping us to see behind advertisements. That is good.

The second question is whether patient to patient conversation adds another dimension in disease understanding and communication ?

I believe, classical doctor-patient relation ship is enriched. On social media patients are not alone they know that there are others with the same problem.

Diseases are social events now and "social science" is helping patients.