Pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research released a new research report, “Pharmaceutical Search Engine Marketing” that explores how to leverage health topic searching behavior to fulfill brand goals amidst the new FDA regulations. The report also looks at emerging trends and technologies like mobile search, personalization, and real-time search.

Key questions that are answered in the report include:

• How is the use of search engines for health information evolving?
• What role does search play in the online health and pharmaceutical landscape and how does pharmaceutical information searching vary by demographics and different points in the treatment continuum?

On the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Anna Wilde Mathews wrote an interesting post about health insurers’ slow entry into social media:

Lots of companies are starting to track social-networking tools like Twitter and Facebook to keep an eye on negative comments, put out their own happier spin and interact with consumers.

But in the health-care business, there are some special challenges because of privacy concerns — notably the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, aka HIPAA. Insurers, hospitals and other entities can’t say much publicly about what they’ve done for patients.

Jonathan Richman has a great post at iMedia Connection 6 Steps to Getting Your Healthcare Social Media Idea Approved that offers sage advice on what to consider to get the best chance of approval for a social media effort:

“Every company in this industry has a team of lawyers and regulatory folks whose sole responsibility is to ensure that the company isn’t getting into trouble with regulators. Many of these internal folks are charged specifically with making sure marketing teams aren’t putting the company at risk with a program that violates regulations.”

Advertising Age recently posted a good article on digital marketing for the pharmaceutical industry worth a read. It speculates what implications regulatory issues will have with pharma companies that participate on the social web.

“No question social media is the hot topic in pharmaceutical marketing. Some companies are taking a few baby steps, but everyone is worried about FDA regulations — or lack thereof, because there aren’t any specific to social media.”

“The FDA will continue to maintain the position that it’s the message, not the medium. In other words, the same rules apply whether it’s social media or a print piece. So accept that and move on. You don’t have to stop using social media, but you might have to take a some risks.”