In the last two years, companies like Acurian, a patient recruitment firm that supplies clinical trials with participants, have discovered an inexpensive way to find new patients with social network ads. Their methods are not at all nefarious -- they're not scanning users' status updates or monitoring the links they post.
Instead, the Horshan, Penn.-based company buys demographic placements that match the requirements of the medical studies it is looking to fill. From there, coincidence, curiosity, and a hunger for cures has compelled millions of Facebook users to click-through the ad and fill out a qualifying questionnaire.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Pharma using Facebook to find human guinea pigs
Fortune reports:
