Sermo, the high-profile provider of the largest doctors-only social network in the U.S., is now in the hands of a healthcare market research firm. WorldOne bought Sermo for an undisclosed sum last week, making it murky how VCs that pumped more than $40 million into Sermo faired.
As WorldOne points out, Sermo built up a membership of 130,000 docs and a client list of 8 of the 10 largest drugmakers. Yet Sermo's pursuit to build value from the online interactions of physicians wasn't without challenges. Membership growth for the 6-year-old social network was slower in recent years than the heady early years when founder and former CEO Dr. Daniel Palestrant gained wide media attention for his platform for uniting doctors online.
Yet the size of Sermo's membership never seemed to be an issue. It turns out that the majority of U.S. doctors don't socialize with each other online as easily as people in other professions. Forbes contributor Jim Golden covered the Sermo buyout in a piece called "Physicians Aren't Social," noting that Sermo made money from paid content and other services for members with dollars from life sciences companies. He points out that a paper in JAMA about physician behavior found that docs operate mostly in their practices and it's tricky to measure how they interact in our complex healthcare system.
Pharma companies have been boosting their budgets for digital promotions, as both patients and doctors go online for health information. Yet social networking sites might only offer a fraction of information on the influence of docs. As Golden writes, entrepreneurs are now looking at large amounts data from sources such as insurance claims data, electronic health records and referral info to find out where clout resides in physician communities.
WorldOne sees an opportunity to use Sermo's network to expand its digital group launched last year that taps emerging technologies to collect insights from healthcare pros.
"Sermo fits in perfectly with our strategy to extend our digital footprint across healthcare market research and enhance our growing portfolio of innovative engagement solutions," said Peter Kirk, CEO of WorldOne, in a statement. "Sermo has proven that sustaining an active, engaged community can result in higher interest in and response to market research as well as new promotional opportunities."
- here's the WorldOne release
- see the Forbes' commentary
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