Ms Wertzberger praised the use of chat rooms in the context of providing patient support as they can bring together patients to discuss and help each other with their illness. They can make a patient feel less isolated, said Ms Wertzberger. Disease and general health maintenance information can be exchanged which can be a valuable tool, in addition to product-specific information.
Chat rooms can also be problematic however as there have been instances of company representatives present to discuss unapproved uses for prescription drugs or restricted devices, swaying the nature of the chat and influencing users. Similarly Ms Wertzberger said a company representative may be present to discuss the effect of a dietary supplement or food on a disease. The FTC will object if this is not substantiated and the FDA will object if is not an approved health claim.
A final problem is that chat rooms may have links to problematic sites of which there is no control. This could be bad press for a company and should be strictly avoided.
