The iPad future of medicine

Jan/31/2010 06:19 Filed in: Technology & Healthcare

The introduction of the iPad last week has a lot of people divided on the future of tablet computing but make no mistake about it the tablet, whether its Apple's or another brand, is the future of computing and healthcare.

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Tags: iPad #in

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Fines: small part of doing business?

Jan/29/2010 05:57 Filed in: DTC Marketing #in

Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. paid big fines and pleaded guilty to illegal marketing of their drugs over the past year, while AstraZeneca PLC in September reached a preliminary deal to pay $520 million to settle a federal investigation into its marketing. Novartis agreed to plead guilty to violating the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and to pay a $185 million fine. At this rate we may be able to have the drug industry pay a substantial part of healthcare legislation.

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Inital reaction from physicians on iPad: No thanks

Jan/28/2010 09:11 Filed in: Future of patient medicine ?

As a tech & Apple person I was anxious to see what physicians thought of the Apple iPad yesterday, especially the possible integration with their practice as they move to electronic medical records. Here is some initial feedback.

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Tags: iPad #in

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Consumers want transparency and tust. So where is the drug industry ?

Jan/27/2010 05:24 Filed in: Trust and healthcare #in

And you thought people were just upset at government ! Consumers are now judging companies on trust, transparency and "a company I can trust". Looks like the drug industry has a long road to travel before they can earn consumers trust again.

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Tags: Edelman

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Should pharma develop Facebook pages ?

Jan/26/2010 09:17 Filed in: #socialmedia #in

In one of my previous entries I asked "should pharma Tweet?" Twitter is going through some tough times right now. Growth is stagnant, the "fail whale" appears more and more and overall people seem to be getting tired of the limitations of Twitter. On the opposite end of the spectrum thought Facebook keeps growing and developing new applications to keep users engaged. Should pharma develop Facebook pages ?
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Tags: Facebook

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Focus on customers not shareholders

Jan/25/2010 04:59 Filed in: Business of health #in

"The harder a CEO is pushed to increase shareholder value, the more the CEO will be tempted to make moves that actually hurt the shareholder"* I don't think that anyone can argue that most of the recent moves of the drug industry, acquisitions and mergers, have been more about shareholders than customers.
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Tags: Stock value vs. customers

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Lipitor co-pay card makes debut and allows patients to save money

Jan/24/2010 03:18 Filed in: DTC Marketing #in

Lipitor, the biggest blockbuster ever, is getting more aggressive with it's marketing offering a promotion that save current Lipitor users money regardless of their income. While most insurance premiums and co-pays are going up this handy card could ensure that patients on Lipitor stay on Lipitor instead of generic equivalents.
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Tags: Lipitor

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DTC marketing: Organizational change begins with Linchpins

Jan/24/2010 10:12 Filed in: Working in the drug industry #in

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Seth Godin, via his new book Linchpin, has discovered a fundamental truth about work and it applies to the drug industry in a big way. Passion is a trait that is sucked out of most DTC marketers as they try to conform to bigger matrix organizations. The challenge therefore is going to be to identify ways to contribute that nobody ever thought of, generate new ideas, and stand out for their creativity and in the process make a difference in patients lives.
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Tags: Linchpin

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Mark you calendar..Boniva tries it's hand at CRM & patient compliance

Jan/21/2010 03:44 Filed in: Compliance

How hard is it to remember to take medication once a month? With My Boniva women won't have to remember because a new program combines good CRM with monthly reminders.
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Tags: Boniva

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Should pharma Tweet ?

Jan/20/2010 05:28 Filed in: Social Media #in

One thing I learned while attending law school was to "look at the facts of a case" before forming an opinion or argument. So while the debate rages on about whether drug companies should use Twitter let's look at the facts of the case.
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Tags: Twitter

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3,500 neurosurgeons to receive iPod touch at medical convention in May

Jan/18/2010 09:33 Filed in: Electronics continue move into medical marketing

When they register at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting, the doctors will be given iPod touches already loaded with everything they'll need, including the program (165 pages last year), summaries of research presented at the meeting, advertising and information from exhibitors. Doctors will be able to use the iPods for messaging and for interacting with presenters during meetings.
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Tags: iPod

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Want to know why the number of prescriptions are going down ? Try higher prices and higher co-pay

Jan/16/2010 03:12 Filed in: Cost of healthcare

Physicians today are pretty open to telling you what's on their mind when it comes to healthcare and consumers . I had a chance to spend some time with some physicians recently and asked them how things were going with drug reps, the drug industry and patients. It seems that even with new healthcare legislation a lot is changing already.
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Tags: Patient compliance

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Thought on compliance from reader

Jan/15/2010 09:50 Filed in: Compliance

Dear Mr Meyer, I saw your presentation on slideshare. I absolutely agree with you. Big Pharma lost trust among patients and now, due to the fact that information is much more symmetric, Big Pharma is fencing a big problem: It is not trusted any more.
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Tags: Compliance

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Here come the lawyers again

Jan/15/2010 06:48 Filed in: Lawyers vs. Pharma

"Just when I thought it was over they pull me back in again". The first lawsuit against Pfizer has been filed and the plaintiff is stating that Pfizer knew about the horrible side effects of Chantix before they were required to put the additional warnings on the label.
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Tags: Chantix

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By 2015 we'll see a completely different landscape of drug companies

Jan/13/2010 02:50 Filed in: Strategic Pharma Business Outlook

Mergers and acquisitions within the drug industry were supposed to lead to better efficiencies but they may actually have the opposite effect requiring a lot more drugs to maintain growth at a time when new drugs are harder to come by and cost a lot more to develop.
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Tags: 2011 and beyond

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Congratulations ! You're promoted now go find a job !

Jan/13/2010 11:39 Filed in: Working in the drug industry

If any business is to survive and thrive they, above all, they have to find a way to hold onto their talented people.
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Tags: Employment

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Treating patients means more than writing an Rx

Jan/13/2010 06:25 Filed in: Treating the patient & the disease

"The intent isn't to replace primary care but to supplement and enhance what the physician is doing." This is a quote from Walgreens as they get ready to launch a pilot program to have personal consultations with Type 2 diabetics in certain markets. With physicians treating the condition rather than the patient because of time and financial pressure this might just work.
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Tags: Walgreens

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If we are to cut health care costs than patient compliance programs have to get a lot better

Jan/11/2010 04:51 Filed in: Patient Compliance

Encouraging more patients to continue taking their prescribed cholesterol drugs would stave off twice as many stroke and heart attack deaths as giving the drugs to a wider range of people, scientists said on Tuesday.
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Tags: Compliance

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2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers: Health care is a consumer market

Jan/11/2010 12:22 Filed in: DTC Environment

The 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers, conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, is Deloitte’s second- annual study of health care consumers’ attitudes, behaviors and unmet needs. Among the key findings is what a lof of us have known for a long time; patients are becoming consumers of healthcare.
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Tags: Health Care Survey

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Personalized patient education: how it could work

Jan/11/2010 10:45 Filed in: Patient Education & Working with Physicians

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Physicians use the Internet but who can bring it all together ?

Jan/11/2010 06:53 Filed in: Future of patient medicine ?

86% of physicians use Internet to access health information and most primary care doctors, 65%, search the Web more than once a day. Physicians say the information available has made their jobs easier. A third of doctors have changed a patient's treatment as a result of an Internet search.

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Tags: Google , HCP Marketing

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I'm your customer. Are you listening to me ? Do you care about me ?

Jan/10/2010 06:50 Filed in: DTC Environment

I am an empowered patient. I am a real human being who has needs and wants, hopes and ambitions, and wants to do what is right to get through this week. For way too long you have bombarded me with TV ads on drugs even though I don't trust you. You continue to group me into market segments and treat me as a number but because of the Internet I can learn everything I need to know about you and your product and listen in to what others are saying about your "mild side effects".
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Tags: Segmentation

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Some great DTC Marketing Fairytales

Jan/10/2010 05:22 Filed in: Search Marketing & Pharma

Those of us who worked in healthcare marketing understand one underlying basic principle: it's a business that is driven by the financial sheet. This is even more true today with all the pressures the drug industry is facing from pricing pressures to increased costs of product development which in turn means that pharma has to cut costs to stay a viable business. Can you be a business, however, that is customer focused and still satisfy investors and the Street? Yes, you can but DTC marketing has to change and evolve or it will become even more irrelevant.

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Tags: Twitter

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See our ad in Redbook

Jan/08/2010 06:07 Filed in: DTC Marketing

See our ad in Redbook. No, I don't want to see your ad in Redbook and I'm not going to buy a magazine because of a drug ad.

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Tags: Print marketing

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GSK: We're gonna make a movie, but it's not for promotional purposes.

Jan/07/2010 07:16 Filed in: DTC Marketing

Glaxo, the pharmaceutical giant behind Alli, an over-the-counter weight-loss product, has decided that a good way to educate Americans about obesity — and increase sales of Alli — is to finance a “hard-hitting” documentary about eating. This won’t be a marketing tool at all,” said Robin Bronk, the Creative Coalition’s executive director, adding that working with Glaxo on the project is “a natural progression of our mission to develop educational projects.” Now is there anyone in their right mind who believes this ?
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Tags: GSK Alli

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How tablet computers will revolutionize drug sales people

Jan/06/2010 05:38 Filed in: HCP Marketing

In Part-1 I of my post on tablet computers I talked a little bit about how it can help physicians and patients connect with one other for better healthcare. The other side of the story is that the table could also drastically change the relationship between the drug rep and physicians. Here's a glimpse into the future of a sales call with tablet computing.
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Tags: Tablet PC

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How tablet computing will revolutionize healthcare

Jan/06/2010 10:14 Filed in: Future of patient medicine ?

Microsoft today is announcing their version of a tablet PC and Apple is expected to debut theirs to the world later this month. Perhaps no other device could have as much of an impact on patient care as tablet computing. Here is what an ideal world of healthcare may look like with integrated electronic healthcare.
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Tags: Tablet PC

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DTC Marketing & Oncology: A perfect match for social media ?

Jan/06/2010 06:57 Filed in: DTC Marketing

There is some good news in the war against cancer; deaths from various types of cancer are declining. The decline is attributed to early detection and new drugs that are being introduced by the drug industry which is looking to treat cancer in new ways. I don't think there is any diagnosis is a bad for patients as the "c" word. There are a lot of things that go through a patients head when they learn they have cancer but perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing patients and caregivers who have been diagnosed with cancer is "how to sort through ALL the information on the Internet and determine what's credible and what's not.
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Tags: Oncology

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As interest in social media starts to wane DTC marketers and the FDA still trying to decide "is it a good channel for drug marketing?"

Jan/04/2010 04:41 Filed in: #socialmedia

It's started already. Some websites are starting to appear to help people permanently terminate their relationships with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Those that have been using social media for most of 2009 are using it less and less and Twitter is having a hard time attracting new users. Surprised? You shouldn't be it's just the product going through it's lifecycle and people realizing that being connected 24/7 can be a real pain in the ass.
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Tags: Hype vs. reality

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Fair Balance: Consumers want better disclosure. Another action item for the FDA

Jan/03/2010 07:45 Filed in: Fair Balance (Oxymoron)

More than four in 10 (41%) US consumers pay little or no attention to risk information presented by pharmaceutical companies in their TV commercials, and only half (50%) pay attention to such disclosures in print ads, according to a study by ORC Guideline, which attributes the problem to information overload. So then you have to wonder why the FDA is so obsessed with fair balance in paid search and in other DTC ads ?
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Tags: FDA Guidelines

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Prescription supplements: Will insurers cover them and will doctors write them ?

Jan/02/2010 04:52 Filed in: New DTC Campaigns & Drugs

I came across a full page ad for Lovaza in Time magazine today. Lovaza is fish oil that is being marketed by GSK to lower triglycerides. Now forget that Lovaza costs a small fortune when compared to OTC fish oil the key question is will doctors write it and will patients pay the hefty fee to get a prescription supplement ?

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Tags: DTC Marketing

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