Medical Marketing

eDetailing is all about the experience

A saturated pharmaceutical sales force is pushing eDetailing from the margins into the mainstream. While a handful of service providers clamor for attention, smart marketers recognize that successful eDetailing hinges on a good user experience, not the technology platform. Viewed from this perspective, every eDetailing initiative needs an interactive architect.

A decade ago, adding a pharmaceutical sales representative to your sales force yielded 750 physician visits per year. By 2000, the number dropped to just 17 visits per year. Today, more than 90,000 drug reps compete for the attention of 768,500 doctors. This influx of sales reps has produced diminishing returns. For every 100 visits only 8 reps succeed in speaking to a physician and being remembered.

Against this backdrop electronic detailing or eDetailing has emerged as an increasingly popular alternative. When Forrester looked at eDetailing’s influence on doctors it found that 31% of physicians participated in eDetailing in the past year.

Manhattan basically agreed, finding that the number of  U.S. physicians participating in electronic detailing has nearly doubled in the past 3 years, to 246,000 in 2005 (or 32% of active AMA physicians). More impressively eDetailing usage peaks among high prescribers. Some 48% of physicians who write more than 100 scripts a week have been eDetailed.

Not surprisingly a number of eDetailing vendors have emerged, including Aptilon Health, Group DCA, iQLearning, Lathian Systems, Medsite, and Physicians Interactive. It reminds me of the early days of content management systems. Vendors are busy comparing the features of their technology, when the user experience is what matters.

The best eDetails are short, available 24 hours a day, contain fresh content, interactive and self-guided, and include an incentive. In other words it’s not the tool, but how you use it. What physicians want from an eDetail is a great user experience. And one thing I’ve learned after 8 years at the helm of an interactive agency is that great user experiences don’t happen by accident, they happen by design.

Make your brand relevant in mobile medicine

Virtually everyone owns a cell phone. Nearly half of doctors own a PDA. As the two devices converge physician use will proliferate. Now is the time for pharmaceutical marketers to stake a claim. Medical brands that want to remain relevant cannot afford to ignore this new world of mobile medicine.

The U.S. is home to 196 million 14 to 65 year olds, and perhaps not coincidentally 196 million wireless subscribers, making cell phones officially ubiquitous. While personal digital assistants (PDAs) have been around since the Apple Newton, consumers have been slower to adopt them. On the other hand some 45% of doctors own a PDA. Increasingly the two devices are becoming one smartphone. While Europe leads the way, the Palm Treo is helping to ignite the U.S. market.

The majority of America’s nearly 800,000 active doctors are U.S. educated (74.7%), male (73.4%), and work in office based practices (67.2%). Despite this apparent homogeneity doctors are not created equal. Forrester’s wired physicians compared younger and older doctors. Younger doctors (those under 43) are twice as likely to own a PDA (62% vs. 31%), more than twice as likely to have broadband at work (61% vs. 27%), and nearly twice as likely to have broadband at home (53% vs. 30%). Translation: younger doctors are half as likely to be with one of your sales reps right now.

Two companies capitalizing on the migration towards mobile medicine are Epocrates and Skyscape. One in four physicians subscribe to Epocrates. Pharmaceutical companies pay for some 10% of subscriptions. Its Mobile CME system has delivered 100,000 CME certificates to over 30,000 healthcare professionals in the last six months.

Competitor Skyscape provides PDA access to over 270 medical and consumer health references. It claims over 400,000 medical professionals use its products. It also makes tools like Archimedes Medical Calculator which is a popular download.

Increasingly the best way to spend time with a physician will be on his PDA or smartphone. The time is ripe for pharmaceutical marketers to pilot campaigns with companies like Epocrates and Skyscape. Looking ahead, brands need to innovate medically relevant ways to reach physicians on their mobile devices.

Physician’s use of the Internet continues to surge

The Internet is reinventing medicine, health care delivery and physician communication

It is no secret that more physicians and medical professionals are using the Internet more than ever before.  Uses range from administrative needs like claims submissions and insurance eligibility and  ordering supplies  to continued education by physicians themselves.  The American Medical Association (AMA) reports that the health care industry is expected to exceed $400 billion in e-commerce spending during 2005.  Physician offices, using the Internet to reduce the cost of operations, will represent 14 percent of the spending.

Since 1996, the perception of the Internet as a valuable resource has steadily increased among physicians, according to the same AMA study.  The acceptance physicians have gained for the Internet over the last few years is in line with a 50 percent spike in usage by physicians.  Medical professionals are finding new ways to leverage the enormity and flexibility of the Internet to reduce costs and increase professional education.

There is no denying that internet technology is reinventing health care and medical education.  From the consumer to the physicians, health information is the most frequently searched topic on the web, including searches by more than 80 percent of all Internet users.  And at a time when, according to a study released by Manhattan Research, 90 percent of all U.S. practicing physicians are using online resources, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device companies must leverage an integrated approach to provide increased value. 

It is interesting to note that 87 percent of online physicians surveyed in the same study revealed the internet as a critical resource for information on prescription drugs and other treatment options.  And 79 percent responded favorably to the idea of physician-targeted ‘customer service portals’ offered by pharma/biotech companies, with almost one-third expecting online education.

Additionally, the Manhattan Research study indicates that while many of the industry-leaders conduct at least some physician communication online, those who have not adopted the idea risk losing out to more visionary competitors.  Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Medical Device companies must embrace the ability to offer an integrated set of relationship management and educational tools for speaker’s materials, meeting supplementation and interactive content.

The key is to provide a valuable resource that is easy to use while creating a sense of exclusivity around a specific brand to increase awareness, advocacy and ultimately scripts and sales; which, at the end of the day is what this is all about.

Online DTC Blog Entry Two: A Framework, Good Web Sites and Good Reading

In our continuing discussion about direct to consumer (DTC) marketing within the medical device industry, there are a number of areas in which we will focus. Among them is getting a better understanding about the health seekers—or consumers—who frequently search the Internet for medical information. Appreciating the search habits and preferences of these individuals is useful information for device manufacturers who are attempting to create an effective web presence targeting the consumer audience.

Unlike health professionals—whose spiking web usage we will discuss in a later blog-- online health seekers, according to a recent Pew Internet project, were very satisfied with informative, fast, interactive sites that conveyed a ‘seal of approval’ image and offered helpful links to educate them more on the disorder they were researching.  Adversely, health seekers turned away from sites that were too commercial, and that lacked the endorsement of a trusted independent organization. Likewise if they appeared unprofessional, or if you could not determine the source of information or tell when the information was last updated, these features proved equally discouraging to consumers.  In short, when health seekers felt the sites were not trustworthy, they abandoned these sources.  Some interesting recent statistics have revealed that 55% of these health seekers conduct their own online medical research before visiting their physicians, and, upon diagnosis, 41% say they will be involved in treatment. 

One aspect of an effective online DTC campaign that device companies must consider as part of its overall Internet marketing effort is how to establish an educational, ‘trustworthy’ and ‘approved’ presence. There are a number of steps marketers must take, among them creating compelling graphics for pre-launch non-branded, or ‘condition’, web sites as well as forging partnerships with consumer health sites and insurance providers.

And while we plan to go into much more detail about these topics and the myriad other components to a comprehensive DTC campaign on the Internet, for now, read on for suggestions of a framework for your online DTC campaign.

The starting point of a well-integrated online DTC marketing campaign involves planning in three general areas: positioning, educational content and outreach. At this point, your marketing team also has to decide on the best web-based tools and software required to drive the online program, ideally a software package that establishes a unified theme that gets pushed out to the consumer.

The positioning phase is the earliest phase of activity. Positioning is viewed as a creative undertaking, in which all collateral is also made available in a web environment. It is the integration of traditional work products, such as messaging, design, and logo, within the web campaign.  Marketers and interactive technicians need to generate messaging, choose key words that they will promote for search engine optimization, design and produce banner ads, and basically put a fair amount of image-related, online media in place for use throughout the life of the campaign.

Perhaps the most extensive phase is the development of educational content, or the point at which the marketing team is actually building the patient education components, such as product and condition web sites; virtual product catalogs; medical animations; syndicated content (which usually includes animations), clinical outcomes, demonstrations, information sheets and talk-to-your-doctor guides, as well as a range of web-based physician tools. 

Again, the level of sophistication of the web-based software is critical, and it is vitally important to research the people and programs that can provide the best service and support for developing robust graphic illustrations and animations; integrating themes and data; and for measuring progress.

The outreach phase of the program includes a variety of tasks more like traditional public relations activity. This involves a checklist of items such as determining the electronic commercial ad buys on a consumer health sites, search engine optimization—which is a means of associating key search words with links to your disease management or product site-- and posting electronic news and media materials to the product web site.

It also includes utilizing web-based tools in place for program measurement and metrics. It is important to have built an online program with software components that allow the marketing team to measure its success. While the metrics may not be a reflection of how many devices are sold—that is, the traditional ROI model-- they can reveal how many consumers are printing out product data (presumably for their doctor), the number of web tools being used and how many informational resources are being completed.

As for affiliations with top shelf consumer health web sites, which, in essence, afford device companies the important ‘seal of approval’ they seek, following are a number of excellent web sites worth researching. 

Centers for Disease control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
Health finder (www.healthfinder.gov)
Health Web www.healthweb.org)
HIV InSite (www.hivinsite.ucsf.edu)
MayoClinic (www.mayoclinic.com)
Medem (www.medem.com)
MEDLINEplus (www.medlineplus.gov)
National Women’s Health Information Center (www.4women.gov)
NOAH: New York Online Access to Health (www.noah-helath.org)
Oncolink®: a University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Resource (www.oncolink.upenn.edu)

For more interesting health seeker data, following are two superior reports worth reviewing:

Susannah Fox and Lee Rainie, “Vital Decisions: How Internet users Decide What Information to Trust When They or Their Loved Ones Are Sick.” Pew Internet American Life Project, May 22, 2002

Joseph Turow, “Discussions of Health Web Sites in Medical and Popular Media.” Annenberg School for communications, University of Pennsylvania. A Report to Consumer Web Watch, May 2003.

Direct to Consumer (DTC) Marketing within the Medical Device Industry

Realizing Consumer Demand for Medical Devices Using Online Media

Medical device product managers are looking at exciting times what with the thirst of online consumers – more than 73 million in the U.S. — who are looking for clinical knowledge about medical topics, many of which deal the with medical devices they are selling.  Put another way, the marketing environment for medical device companies is beginning to mirror that of the pharmaceutical industry’s, and the consumer, not the medical professional, is at the heart of the equation, thanks to the Internet.

For medical device marketing managers, there is an enormous opportunity to market to online consumers, also known in Internet speak as ‘health seekers.’ Of the more than 73 million health seekers searching the Internet for health information, it is important to note that most, according to recent research, turn away from sites that appear to be selling something and are instead seeking credible, non-commercial information.  The health seeker is web-savvy, educated and hungry for reliable diagnostic information, and it is the product marketer’s job to play right into this demand with great skill, and the right interactive, web-based strategy.

About $1.5 billion advertising dollars are spent annually by the medical device industry in specialized trade journals that target physicians and other healthcare professionals, and it is forecasted that the industry plans on spending another $50 million in the next year on consumer advertising.  Now would be the time to redirect budgets, at a fraction of the cost, to launch a widespread online campaign based on education and interactive tools for consumers that illustrate the value of your product while also providing essential, clinical information in non-branded, trustworthy web-driven environments.

Enhancing Relationships with Medical Thought Leaders

Healthcare Thought Leaders are critical to marketing success throughout the product lifecycle.

Pharmaceutical companies are realizing now, more than ever, the impact of thought leaders during the entire lifecycle of a brand.  From compound research to post-market management, thought leaders act as a compass to guide a product through the pipeline or as an indicator to determine a drug’s potential success in the market and sort through market feedback.  As the importance of physician advocacy heightens, pharmaceutical companies are recruiting thought leaders as early as Phase I clinical trials, with 52 percent using thought leaders before a drug makes it to market and 48 percent after a product launch, according to Best Practices, LLC.

It is now apparent that pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies must constantly work to develop and maintain win-win relationships with thought leaders to identify unmet medical needs, shape clinical studies, launch products and understand critical lifecycle issues.  In fact, a major pharmaceutical company recently recruited a physician board to review Direct-to-Consumer advertising before launching one of the most successful marketing campaigns to date.  Leading companies are developing new ways to gather the knowledge of thought leaders and leverage their experience to influence the market.

Developing relationships are at the core of thought leader recruitment.  Securing thought leader involvement is much more difficult than it once was, as 8 out of 10 requests for participation are turned down.  As a result, field-based medical programs have come to the forefront.  While traditional sales reps still dominate the field, Medical Science Liaisons (MSL) have assumed a pivotal role interfacing between pharmaceutical companies and opinion leaders.  MSLs, most with advanced medical or science degrees offer thought leaders the credibility and sophistication of a peer, but also provide insider’s knowledge about the company and products they represent.

To ensure success, pharmaceutical companies must provide their MSLs with every available resource while using an integrated approach to optimize thought leader relationships.  Considering that physicians are using the Internet more than ever before, the idea of building online communities focused on a specific brand might be just what the doctor ordered.  In fact, many leading brands have already taken steps to mange key relationships in a virtual environment.  Online communities present a number a benefits when used in conjunction with traditional best practices.  These include improved communications channels, 24/7 access from anywhere in the world, regulatory tracking and moderation, asset sharing, and consolidation of expert commentary.

Moving forward, as more pharmaceutical and medical device companies recruit more and more thought leaders even earlier in the product lifecycle, online relationship management is becoming absolutely vital.  By building a virtual community, an organization can disseminate critical information to key constituents to increase their knowledge and influence while soliciting valuable feedback from medical specialists to shape clinical trials and ensure market success.  All of this adds value and credibility to a thought leader program with minimal investment relative to the millions spent each year on relationship management. 

My company Estco Medical helps life science companies with online marketing initiatives, community development and understanding how the Internet affects the lifecycle of a brand. Our product Medigent Thought Leader has been built to meet the market’s need for a powerful online thought leader management tool.

Consumer generated content creates new brand management challenges for life science companies

Consumer written content including blogs, bulletin-boards, and chats can create a substantial risk for life science companies concerned with maintaining their brand and providing accurate information to the market.

Brand management and the consistent delivery of timely factual information to the marketplace has always been a challenge for life science companies. Adding a layer of complexity to this issue has been the intense regulations and approval process for generating and distributing new information.

In the past however, the information that did get to the marketplace, including physicians and consumers was typically through more controlled and professional channels. Information was distributed through sales representatives, trade shows, analysts, professionals in the industry, and established media such as newspapers, magazines, or television.

Blogs and other informal consumer generated content are creating a new avenue. Consumers have been able to participate in web chats, bulletin boards and other Internet communication vehicles for several years. The recent hyper growth of blogs has made the proliferation of consumer written health content occur at a remarkably fast pace.

Life science companies need to account for the onslaught of information that consumers are generating on the Internet and be prepared with a strategy to respond and even correct information that can quickly deteriorate the brand they have spent so much to build. 

Many hoax emails have been propagated over the past several years that have threatened brands. Companies must be ready to respond to hoaxes, spam and other Internet content that contains their brand and products. Pfizer has responded to the spam problem by adding a section to their Viagra site about how to "Buy real VIAGRA". Failing to respond to these threats and hoping they'll "blow over" can create long lasting and even irreparable damage.

Blogs pose another risk for companies. Consumers can effectively elevate themselves to guru or expert status overnight by creating a blog with content that is appealing to others. Often the content does not have to be factual, and in particular with consumers that are sick, the content merely needs to be comforting. Consumers will often accept or want to believe information that gives them hope when they are sick.  Bloggers that post damning or harmful information about life science brands can quickly cause significant harm to a life science company, regardless of the accuracy of the information. Blogs also can help promulgate anecdotal medicine, that can quickly be misinterpreted as scientific evidence and cause nightmares for life science companies, physicians and patients.

Life science companies must create rapid response mechanisms and internal procedures to react to this information.

Jupiter Research released a recent report titled, Online Health Support Groups and Consumer-Created Health Content.

My company Estco Medical helps life science companies with online marketing initiatives and understanding how the Internet affects their brand management.

Healthcare IT spending set to grow again in 2005

Capgemini recently reported that the healthcare industry information technology spend will grow once again in 2005, "unprecedented growth" is predicted.  This is not surprising considering what can only be heralded as a great year for Healthcare IT acceptance and adoption.  Much of the success in the industry can be recognized through HHS creation of an IT office and the new fame and influence of Dr. Brailer.

So, what's important for us marketers?  The opportunity to convey the vision of personalized care and better treatment and outcomes. 

Technology in healtchare (electronic medical records, e-prescribing, imaging on demand, etc) utlimately leads to more information in the clinicians hands at the point of treatment, and that leads to better care. The opportunity for crystalizing not only the vision behind technology adoption, but the impact and process of realizing that vision is a valuable one. 

5 years down the road, integrated technologies will drive the information access across every facet of patient (our) care.  Things we think of us "innovative" will be common-place, much like the adoption of cell phones - the vast majority of our population will have a portable electronic medical record that is accessable throughout the nation.  Think of the power of that, think of the work involved to make it happen!

As marketers we get to explain all of this to everyone, to the doctors who will use the technology, to the decision makers who buy the technology, to the patients who benefit from the technology.  It's complex stuff, there are hundreds of vendors all claiming to have the "complete" solution, and there are thousands of skeptics who think it will never happen.  More importantly, there are millions of people who have no idea what's going on - and thats where we come in.

When coupled with the innovations in the medical device industry, and the advent of personalized healthcare (I'll cover these in other posts), the vision is not only revolutionary, its overwhelming for most.  Personally, I look forward to the challenge of bringing it all together... that is, until it all becomes so common-place that we don't even have to think about it!

Welcome to the Medical Marketing Blog!

Welcome to the Estco Medical - Medical Marketing Blog!

My goal here is to distill the overwhelming amount of information regarding the use of technology in healthcare into a manageable data source for industry marketing executives.

This Medical Marketing Blog is provided by Estco Medical (www.estcomedical.com) to track the trends and data relevant to interactive medical marketing.  Issues also relate to healthcare IT adoption, medical education, and market research.

I welcome any and all feedback,

-j