One of the tactics used by pharmaceutical companies to influence physician and public opinion is by recruiting doctors to serve as social media influencers. — Filepic
For example, by recruiting physicians to serve as influencers, planting articles in scientific journals, coordinating conference presentations and developing continuing medical education courses. The American-Irish pharmaceutical company was forced by US courts to publish more than 1.3 million internal documents.
To many busy physicians, these messages would have appeared as trustworthy scholarship and evidence-based guidance, Prof Sismondo and Dr Bernisson explain.