Since the beginning of October, the medical world has been rocked by revelations that pain injections developed by the New England Compounding Center were tainted with fungal meningitis. Public health officials, physicians and regulators have been on full alert since the crisis erupted, working hard to find, treat and reassure people who may have been prescribed the contaminated pain medications.
When crises such as these erupt, many have three questions:
Since the beginning of October, the medical world has been rocked by revelations that pain injections developed by the New England Compounding Center were tainted with fungal meningitis. Public health officials, physicians and regulators have been on full alert since the crisis erupted, working hard to find, treat and reassure people who may have been prescribed the contaminated pain medications.
When crises such as these erupt, many have three questions:
1. What happened?
2. Who is affected?
3. How are people reacting?
Because we launched digihealth pulse, our ongoing tracking study of active digital health consumers just prior to the emergence of the meningitis outbreak, we are able to shed light on the third question.
The data outlined in the infographic above represents the first time information has been gathered on how people reacted to online health content about a major public health crisis immediately after it was read. We found that although a pharmaceutical company did not manufacture the tainted medications, the news raised concerns about the overall safety of prescription medications and injections.
Those interested in learning more about the research can read a report we developed on the initial study results by clicking here. (We continue to collect data related to the meningitis crisis.)
Learn more about how you can uncover and deliver information like this to your health organization: check out enmoebius bronze, a new syndicated market research and insights service.