The Voice of Drug Consumers! It’s Time to Act

In today’s world, the internet has become a large pool of content where huge volumes of data are being generated worldwide. As Bill Gates once rightly said, “The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” Similarly, when it comes to healthcare-related content, information about medicines is widely available on the internet which acts as a potential source of vital information.[1] The public is increasingly turning to the internet for information regarding drugs and their adverse effects.[2] Drug reviews that are posted online can possibly be an important source of information for both consumers and patients.[3] Understanding the true voice of drug consumers and patients is of great significance to pharmaceutical manufacturers,[4] health professionals, and regulatory bodies. Reviews reflect consumers’ true thoughts because users participate voluntarily. Furthermore, online reviews are updated in real time, which gives us a dynamic data on drug reviews.[4] Few well-informed and educated patients turn to online platforms and drug review sites to share their experiences about the drug. Unfortunately, this important piece of information goes unnoticed. This should be taken into account the most because it comes directly from the patients. It is practically not feasible for the clinicians to be aware of all possible adverse effects that the patients could face.[2,5] Websites such as WebMD, AskAPatient, Drugs.com etc., provide a public forum for consumers to post ratings and reviews on their drug experiences. Web-based reviews can be used to assess drug performance on a worldwide scale across a wide range of illness conditions. Web-based reviews can have the ability to give a quick and easy source of drug information.[2] Thus, when it comes to a dynamic country like India, an exclusive patient-centric drug reaction reporting website becomes the need of the hour. It should be a user-friendly screen surface, where patients feel addressed and are willing to report.[6] Patient-reported outcomes will get more and more accepted by the scientific community and drug regulators. Safety issues count certainly among the most important outcomes. This will act as an aid to pharmacovigilance where patients will be comfortable in writing detailed reviews. This information will update not only the healthcare fraternity but also the pharmaceutical companies to pay attention to missed out side effects which shall be stressed upon. As Hasford J et al. quotes: “Patient reporting adds new information, and perspective about ADRs in a way otherwise unavailable.”[6] Web-based reviews can be considered as an unbiased source of information for consumers, clinicians, and drug producers when evaluating a drug’s performance.[7] In conclusion, patients are using social media and other internet-based applications (e.g., online review sites, discussion forums) to express their experiences with the drugs in Western countries. These reviews contain a wealth of useful information regarding the efficacy, the adverse effects experienced, the overall effect on the quality of life, etc., with the medication they are receiving. However, the reliability on patient reviews needs to be discussed. As the public increasingly uses the internet as a source of medical information, it is crucial to determine the credibility of the information.[2] One should be cautious when relying only on patients’ reviews, as evaluations can be heavily influenced by the patient experience.[7] On the other hand, it needs to be thought that why will the patients’ post biased reviews as they have no incentive to be gained unlike the stakeholders in healthcare. Rather, when anonymity will be maintained on the drug review websites, the patients will voice their opinions and describe their side effects in detail. This information is unbiased and genuine as it is coming directly from the patient who do not play a direct role in the marketing of the drug. There is an urgent need to develop a user-friendly online drug review system that is accessible not only to manufacturing companies but also to the public and healthcare professionals. Such a system would help everyone stay informed and assist in determining the best course of treatment for the patients. Data availability Please contact the corresponding author for any data required. Author contribution All authors contributed equally to reviewing the literature, analysis, interpretation of data and drafting the article. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.