Building mutually beneficial relationships with key journalists requires the ability to measure influence at a granular (or topical) level. Utilizing Reputos, our influencer advocacy tool, StratInt Research developed a list of the top six pharma journalists on health equity, grouping authors into two buckets based on audience size (10K-100K followers and 1K-10K followers). In addition to a topical Influencer Score and engagement rate, SIR’s list highlights several other engagement avenues for pharma companies looking to collaborate with top journalists, including frequent connections* and recently attended pharma events.
Health Equity Influencer Scores** of Top Pharma Journalists with 10K-100K Followers (last 12 months)
Nicholas St. Fleur (STAT News) – @SciFleur – 15K followers – New York, NY
Health equity focus: Host of STAT’s Color Code podcast, which covers racial inequities in American healthcare
Topical engagement rate: 0.64%
Most frequent connections from Journalist Matthew Herper (STAT News) and Gastroenterologist Dr. Sophie Balzora
Recently attended 2023 STAT Breakthrough Summit in San Francisco
Liz Szabo (KFF Health News) – @LizSzabo – 70K followers – Washington, D.C.
Health equity focus: Regularly discusses systemic issues related to healthcare access
Topical engagement rate: 0.03%
Most frequent connections from Journalists Julie Rovner (KFF Health News) and Sarah Karlin-Smith (Pink Sheet)
Ron Leuty (SF Business Times) – @rleuty_biotech – 11K followers – San Francisco, CA
Health equity focus: Occasionally advocates for diversity in clinical trials and equitable patient recruitment
Topical engagement rate: 0.29%
Most frequent connections from freelance Journalist Donna Young and Healthcare Industry Influencer California Life Sciences
Recently attended SF Business Times’ Women Who Lead in Life Sciences event in San Francisco
Health Equity Influencer Scores of Top Pharma Journalists with 1K-10K Followers (last 12 months)
Usha Lee McFarling (STAT News) – @ushamcfarling – 5K followers – Los Angeles, CA
Health equity focus: Recent reporting has detailed racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system
Topical engagement rate: 4.05%
Most frequent connections from Journalist Nicholas St. Fleur (STAT News) and Healthcare Industry Influencer Abner Mason (SameSky Health)
Recently attended 2023 STAT Breakthrough Summit in San Francisco
Anastassia Gliadkovskaya (Fierce Healthcare) – @gliadkovskaya – 1K followers – NYC
Health equity focus: Reports on recent healthcare industry partnerships addressing health equity concerns
Topical engagement rate: 4.58% (1st)
Most frequent connections from Journalists Heather Landi (Fierce Healthcare) and Max Bayer (Fierce Biotech)
Recently attended HIMSS23 in Chicago
Celine Castronuovo (Bloomberg Law) – @cecelou18 – 1K followers – Washington, D.C.
Health equity focus: Reports on FDA efforts to improve clinical trial diversity
Topical engagement rate: 2.01%
Most frequent connections from Journalists Jeannie Baumann (Bloomberg Law) and Alex Ruoff (Bloomberg Government)
Recently attended 2023 Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In in Alexandria, VA
*Connections include any social media interactions (i.e., retweets, mentions, etc.) from pharma-relevant influencers.
**Influencer Score is a dynamic scoring methodology that accounts for all available social metrics for an influencer (followers, posts, engagement rate, etc.) and updates in real-time based on topic, peer-group comparison, and a specified time range.
