Russell Traynor, Platform Strategy Director with Envision Technology Solutions, explains how routes of access to medical information and consumption of content has shifted to multimedia channels.

Recorded 6 July 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

As the consumption of journal articles and publications becomes ever more digital, the distribution, awareness building and impact assessment of content needs to keep pace and adapt.

The way we access information has changed hugely over the past 20 years, with a shift to multi-media channels. While the emergence of medical/scientific data into the world will usually still involve the traditional route, through an initial abstract and poster, through to journal publication and PubMed, this will now be supplemented by social media presence and online news distribution. On the downside, most resources that are accessed will tend to be non-journal, and often unregulated. On the positive side, Wikipedia views can give a good ballpark metric of the level of interest in a new drug or therapy area.

Many journals now offer a wide selection of options for extending content reach and visibility – including open access, social media alerts, and associated videos, animations and infographics. PLOS ONE has shown that social media activity has a considerable impact on article views and downloads. Some journals now request a 120-character summary that can be used on Twitter. As might be expected, sustained levels of social media activity across the year are indicative of journals that are more likely to create ‘social buzz’ when new articles are published.

The conventional metrics of journal impact and article citations are outmoded in the digital age. Altmetrics can provide a more immediate indicator of the impact of an article, and work nicely alongside more traditional metrics, such as citations.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com/event_060717.html

Russell’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/traynor_060717_01.pdf

Russell’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-traynor-7879a22/

More about Envision Pharma Group can be found at http://www.envisionpharmagroup.com/

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]