A complete list of yesterday's tweets. Thanks for following. If you would like to follow, go to http://www.twitter.com/skypen.
source: The Cleveland Leader, Via GossipGirl
Though the Catholic Church is steeped in thousands of years of tradition, it doesn't mean they aren't keeping up with the modern world. The Vatican is now taking new technologically savvy steps to bring its messages to social networking sites and smartphones through new Facebook and iPhone applications available through the new Pope2You web portal.
Launched Thursday, the Facebook app allows web users to send virtual postcards of Pope Benedict XVI to their Facebook friends. The Pope2You portal - located at www.pope2you.net - will even allow you to follow the Pope's travels using an iPhone. The iPhone app also works with iPod Touch, and gives surfers video and audio news on the pope's travels and speeches, as well as Catholic events around tehw orld.
On just its first day of operation, the Pope2You portal acquired 45,000 contacts and 500,000 pageviews, and the new Facebook app was used about 10,000 times.
The introduction of the iPhone and Facebook apps are just the latest efforts in the Vatican's efforts to reach young people and broaden the pope's audience. This past January, the Pope got his own YouTube channel (which is now linked on the Pope2You portal).
The Pope2You portal is run by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications. It is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
A complete list of yesterday's tweets. Thanks for following. If you would like to follow, go to http://www.twitter.com/skypen.
Shawnee Mission Medical Center to Supplement Live Surgery Video With Live Twitter Updates
(Event took place May 21, 2009 at 6 CDT; this is SMMC's Second Live Broadcast Featuring a Twitter Feed)
MERRIAM, KS--(Marketwire - May 21, 2009) - Millions of Americans suffer from the discomfort of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, or GERD. Now, a minimally invasive procedure called Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication is helping ease the pain for people living with reflux. On Thursday, May 21, you can watch Joseph B. Petelin, MD, FACS, an internationally renowned expert in minimally invasive surgery, perform a Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication, live, during a one-hour Webcast from Shawnee Mission Medical Center.
Gastroesophageal reflux is caused by a backflow of stomach acid which can irritate or damage the lining of the esophagus. People with reflux disease often have frequent heartburn, difficulty swallowing, and regurgitation of gastric acid into the mouth. During the surgery, a new "valve" is constructed between the esophagus and the stomach by wrapping the upper portion of the stomach around the lowest part of the esophagus, preventing the reflux.
The live surgery broadcast will be moderated by Glenn A. Deyo, MD, FACS, who will also be Tweeting during the broadcast, providing more engaging experience to those viewing the broadcast, and reaching the broader Twitter community. You can view the Twitter feed by accessing the webcast, or you can follow the Twitter feed at twitter.com/ORLive, or by using the #SMMC Twitter hash tag.
About Shawnee Mission Medical Center:
Shawnee Mission Medical Center (SMMC) is a 383-bed facility with nearly 20,000 inpatient admissions and more than 200,000 outpatient admissions annually. SMMC has the busiest emergency department in Johnson County, the area's first accredited Chest Pain Emergency Center, a nationally recognized Center for Women's Health and delivers more babies each year than any other hospital in the metropolitan area. SMMC employs more than 2,700 local residents and supports an exceptional staff of 700 physicians representing 50 medical specialties, the largest medical staff in Kansas City. Visit us on the Web at ShawneeMission.org.
About ORLive
ORLive is the world's leading surgical broadcasting company. Working collaboratively with hospitals and device manufacturers, ORLive produces customized, interactive, video programs that demonstrate the latest surgical techniques and product innovations. The ORLive broadcasting network provides an intimate look at over 650 live and on-demand surgeries to a global audience, streaming over 45,000 hours of programming each month. The ORLive network can be found on-line at www.OR-Live.com.
This is not a joke. Read below and then check it out for yourself:
DNArgus is a world-class biopharmaceutical and health services company specializing in the development and commercialization of life extension therapies. Our flagship cryobooth, AICryogenesis II, is the safest and most well-studied product of its kind in the world. We believe in uncovering the mysteries of the human machine.
News
by Michael Lara, MD
Source: BrainTwits of Michael Lara, MD
Will Twitter change the way physicians practice medicine?
Probably not.
Does Twitter have any practical uses in the late-adopting tribe that is modern medicine?
Maybe.
As an early-adopter with all things technical, I've found Twitter to be a useful adjunct to my private medical practice. Along the way, I've stumbled upon a few practical, time-saving techniques for integrating Twitter into an office-based medical practice.
Generally speaking, Twitter use falls under three categories:
As a Tool For Information Collection:
By Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
I have been involved in DTC since 1996 and it still puzzles me why the drug ads get such a visceral negative reaction from critics. I ran across a blog from George Parker, a former adman who writes blogs on a site called Adscam. He wrote a contributor blog on May 12 for PFSK.com which blasted DTC in a way that illustrates the ire it causes. Let me quote a few lines from George.
DTC he says “is considered insane and outlawed in every other country in the world.” Allowing DTC, he continues, "has resulted in some of the crappiest advertising known to man.” DTC promotes products for illnesses “such as restless leg syndrome that didn't exist.” The good news for agencies says Parker is that “the giant tit is not going away.” He is referring to the pot of large media dollars for future DTC ads.
Ok so George hates drug ads. I refer to his blog because it represents a fairly broad consensus among critics. Why does DTC provoke such anger? I assume it is because critics feel DTC is something that interferes with a doctor's objective decisions on drug prescribing leading to inappropriate use for expensive brands. I remind critics that no one in our health care system is objective and all information a consumer gets is biased. In an imperfect world we need a whole bunch of imperfect competing information to arrive at our own conclusions about product value.
Is the doctor objective? They used to be before managed care, capitated drug coverage and physician owned diagnostic centers. Is our health insurance company objective? They never were since their goal has always been reducing cost of care. Our employer wants us well enough to work, but really does not want to fund more than the minimum to keep us at our desk. Is our government objective? They want acceptable affordable care for the broadest population, not premium care. So in our system all opinions must be heard about a health care service or product before an intelligent decision can be made about value.
DTC is one source of biased information. If we banned it, do we really think doctors would make the best drug decision while under the thumb of insurance companies, PBM's, government and employers? So like it or not, we need this “crappiest advertising known to man.” DTC may not be the most creative of ad categories but I am sure mankind has seen crappier categories. Look at some financial advertising!
The drug marketers are doing what they must in a biased world of health care special interest groups. I would love to have an objective bureau tell us the “truth” about branded drugs. Such a place does not exist. Consumers need to hear many points of view to see if a branded drug is best for them. DTC is an easy and accessible source of imperfect information. That is just one piece in the health information puzzle in our data rich society. I also remind critics that FDA looks at every syllable of DTC ads, something they do not do for alternative medicines. So George, I am afraid you will see the “crappiest advertising known to man” for many more years.
Another recent blog on the Huffington Post (May 20) by Brian Ross brings up another myth. That one is that drug ads cost so much that they increase consumer cost. The fact is drug ads spending is about 1% of total sales revenue. Banning ads will not noticeably reduce drug cost even if all of it was refunded to consumers. The critics always say drug companies spend more on promotion than R&D. This is true when you add the sales force salaries, sampling and medical meetings to the promotion cost. One could argue that these are as much educational as promotional. If one looks at advertising alone, costs are well below R&D.
Our PhRMA lobbying group needs to provide politicians the real data on promotion and explain which part is advertising and which is educational. This idea that drug companies are just big marketing machines needs to be countered more effectively. The visceral attacks will continue, and be fueled by an anti-profit mentality now growing in Washington. I'll admit once again drug companies have a significant bias to sell what they make, but banning commercial speech will not make it better for consumers.
A complete list of yesterday's tweets. Thanks for following. If you would like to follow, go to http://www.twitter.com/skypen.
Many thanks to @danielpink and @davidrosenman for bringing this to my attention. Amazing. I strongly recommend you watch this full screen.
Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.
by Ann Engelland MD
Original Post: Health World Web Blog
Talking about using social media in the healthcare industry and actually doing something with social media that makes a difference are two totally different things. Ann Engelland MD clearly understands the power of social media and her 4000 newsletter recipients are clearly glad she does.
Doctors and the Power of Social Media
Social media is a connection between people. Whether you are using Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn or FaceBook, the main attraction of these websites are the connections people make on a daily basis. How many people log into their personal social media accounts every day just to check on the people they are connected with and what they have posted? Here in lies the brilliance of social media and the relationships doctor’s have with their patients.
For Ann Engelland MD, for instance, specializing in adolescent medicine means treating people in the social media age group. These patients talk more with the connections they have on social media websites than they do with their parents, so medical questions and problems are often left to the doctor’s office. With tools like blogging, newsletters and websites, doctors can answer some of the questions parents have in a more open setting so, potentially; millions of viewers have access to the questions they are seeking answers for.
Times are changing and so are the demands of the patient. Soon, patients will not only have the expectation of more education but the social media connections to fulfill those expectations. Limitless information, limitless knowledge and a connection on a whole new level is the true power of the healthcare / social medical relationship.
source: ePharma5
GameStop has teamed with the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) for a new Web site to inspire women to be active and healthy. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, women now represent 40% of the gaming community in the United States.
The site, http://www.gamestop.com/fitatanyage, includes five health and fitness tips specific to women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s provided by the NWHRC. Within each decade, there is a listing of important health screenings, immunizations, and questions women should ask their physicians as they age. The new site also includes conversations with women celebrities representing each of these decades.
Pollen.com Launches Allergy Alert iPhone and iPod Touch Application
Top Allergy Web Site Also Receives HON Certification
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pollen.com, the most visited allergy site on the Web, announces the availability of Allergy Alert, an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The alert provides one-day alerts and four-day forecasts for four different conditions: allergy (pollen), asthma, cold and cough, and ultraviolet sensitivity.
Available for free at the iPhone App Store, the Pollen.com Allergy Alert application allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch user interface.
“The iPhone application provides users with greater access to information that they’ve come to rely on from Pollen.com,” said Glenn Connery, associate director of the application development/Web group for SDI, the company behind Pollen.com. “Having this instant, portable access for their conditions helps users plan their day or week ahead.”
Features of the Pollen.com Allergy Alert iPhone application include:
* One-day alerts and four-day forecasts for four different conditions: allergy (pollen), asthma, cold and cough, and ultraviolet sensitivity - customized down to individual ZIP codes
* Indexes indicating severity for each condition ranging from 0.0 to 12.0
* Easy-to-read user interface with color coding for easy focus
* Access to the Allergy Alert application support page on Pollen.com
Compatible with any iPhone or iPod Touch with operating system version 2.2.1, the application was designed by SDI’s Pollen.com development team.
Pollen.com recently received the Health On the Net Foundation’s Code of Conduct certification (HONcode©), identifying Pollen.com as an internationally reliable source of health information. Certification by HON, the most widely accepted reference for online health and medical publishers, denotes that Pollen.com provides sound, authoritative information; data confidentiality and privacy; proper attribution of sources; and transparency, such as a clear delineation of advertising and editorial content.
SDI developed Pollen.com’s proprietary forecasts and also manufactures Rotorod®, the leading tool for pollen count measurement. For more than 10 years, SDI has helped to set the standards by which scientists, researchers, and doctors operate their samplers, and by which they analyze their pollen samples to obtain accurate and consistent counts.
About SDI
Since 1982, SDI has been delivering innovative healthcare data products and analytic services to the pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, medical device, financial services, and consumer packaged goods industries. SDI is the leading provider of de-identified patient-level data analytics and offers a broad array of solutions and insights across the continuum of care. These include custom and syndicated patient-level data studies; localized disease and treatment surveillance and projection; market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care offerings; clinical trial optimization; direct-to-patient pharmacy programs; marketing effectiveness; sales targeting and compensation products; data integration, warehousing, and mining; list services; and direct marketing services. Its current roster includes the top 50 pharmaceutical/biotech companies. For more information, visit www.sdihealth.com or call 610.834.0800.
Original Post: eMarketer Kids today still play baseball and cut out paper dolls. But increasingly they are playing online—in virtual worlds. Altogether in 2008, an estimated 8 million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a regular basis, and eMarketer projects that number will grow to over 15 million by 2013. Virtual world usage among children in the US is already quite strong and getting stronger. eMarketer estimates that 37% of online children ages 3 to 11 use virtual worlds at least once a month. By 2013, 54% will. But things are turning out differently for virtual worlds aimed specifically at the youth audience. According to Virtual Worlds Management, as of January 2009 112 virtual worlds aimed at children under 18 were already up and running worldwide, and another 81 were in development. “The rate of development in virtual worlds targeted to the youth audience will slow as economic pressures mean less money for venture capital and for advertising to support new worlds,” says Ms. Williamson. “But there is no denying that creating avatars and exploring virtual worlds are growing activities for many children and teens.” Virtual worlds reside in a sweet spot between online games (which are intensely popular among children) and social networking (similarly popular among teens). While the vast majority of virtual world users are children and teens, adult users are more likely to be parents monitoring their children’s use of virtual worlds. According to a late-2008 survey by Accenture, 9% of adults said they spent at least 1 hour per week in a virtual world. But Forrester Research found in 2008 that only about 3% of adults engaged with virtual worlds at all. Currently, virtual world advertising is a small business, but it has interesting growth potential. “Advertising in virtual worlds gives marketers new insights into how consumers perceive and interact with their brands,” says Ms. Williamson. To explore the engagement opportunities that branded worlds themed to real-world products offer, find out more about the new eMarketer report (Note: Interactive Report—available only to Total Access subscribers), Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual.
May 21, 2009
Whe-e-e-ere are you? 
A complete list of yesterday's tweets. Thanks for following. If you would like to follow, go to http://www.twitter.com/skypen.
Information Technology Is Hard For Older Members Of The Profession To Incorporate Into Their Daily Routines
by Charles Cooper
Original Post: CNET Tech News
(CNET) During the course of a normal business day, Gregg Feinerman likes to send out Twitter updates. He's just like tens of millions of folks around the country.
But there's a difference: Feinerman is a Lasik eye surgeon.
"All the people working in our office are doing it, anyway, and I said, 'Why not also do it for patients?'" Feinerman said.
Feinerman's tweeting obviously is a rarity for those in his profession. More than a decade after the Internet went mainstream, only an estimated 17 percent of physicians have electronic health record systems.
The big trade associations representing the medical establishment, such as the American Medical Association and the Medical Group Management Association, can't estimate how many of their members use the microblogging service, or for that matter, how many of them deploy consumer-facing technologies in their daily interactions with patients. But if anecdotal evidence is a fair barometer, assume the following: Doctors who grew up in an earlier era are likely to cling to their notepads and pens until the day they retire their stethoscopes. For their younger colleagues, by contrast, consumer technology is just another way to connect with patients.
In its Orange County, Calif., offices, the Feinerman Vision Center staff has set up a Mac notebook in the waiting room with a private Twitter account. As an eye operation concludes, updates go out that enable a patient's friends and family to read how the procedure has gone.
"It's just a different way to do outreach," Feinerman said.
So why aren't more doctors early adopters of services like Twitter? As soon as a new MRI machine or microscope comes out, they tend to be all over it. But practitioners say information technology is hard for older members of the profession to incorporate into their daily routines.
In part, that may be because there are few applications in health care that actually delight doctors. There are still no medical equivalents to Apple's iTunes or iPhone. And like the rest of us, doctors are creatures of habit. But change is happening. With each graduating class of doctors, more physicians feel comfortable with technology.
A survey published in December by Vanderbilt University Medical Center hinted at this trend, though from a different perspective. The survey focused on doctors, mostly on the younger side of the spectrum, trained in IT-rich environments. Of the doctors who wound up working at offices with more rudimentary systems, the vast majority expressed unease about their ability to offer proper care to patients.
A medical generation gap, if you will, is coming into fuller view. In fact, it's something I first saw a few years ago, when I was rushed to the hospital after a hard fall that cracked my head open.
Upon my arrival at the emergency room, the thirtysomething physician who attended to me took notes on a tablet computer. He could then transfer the data from the consultation to a central server over a wireless network. (He also had a high-end smartphone hanging from his belt, just in case.)
As a technology reporter, all this intrigued me more than learning what was going on with my badly smacked noggin.
The doctor told me that age--usually the 40th birthday--often defines a physician's predisposition toward incorporating high tech into his or her daily interactions with patients.
A few hours later, I was in the recovery room when another ward doctor approached me. As he took out a pen to scribble into a notebook binder, I just had to ask.
"You don't like tablet computers?"
He gave me a hard look and mumbled something about how it wasn't his cup of tea. I'd say he was at least in his mid-50s. That was all I needed to know.
"If you don't use tech, per se, in your daily life, at all levels, and you're not comfortable with it, then it's unlikely that you're going to be as speedy (to embrace) technology," noted Dr. Todd Rothenhaus, senior vice president and chief information officer of Caritas Christi Health Care, the second-largest provider in Massachusetts. "If you're not a touch typist...or if you never use a mouse or are accustomed to using a PC as part of your daily activity, then there's going to be an enormous barrier."
Rothenhaus may be right. The hope within the Obama administration is that many of those barriers will crumble in the aftermath of the passage of the $787 billion economic-stimulus package, which includes $19 billion for health information technology and another $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health.
Clearly, the U.S. population is behind a concerted effort to digitize medical records, according to a recent poll (PDF) conducted by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health:
"Fully three in four say it is important for their health care providers to use electronic medical records (EMR). A large proportion of the public also sees benefits to nationwide adoption of this technology. Majorities say that if the United States adopted greater use of an EMR system, their own doctors would do a better job coordinating their care (72 percent say this is at least somewhat likely), that the overall quality of care in the country would be improved (67 percent), and that fewer people would get unnecessary medical care (58 percent.) Just over half (53 percent) say there would be fewer medical errors."
In theory, that sounds like a slam dunk. But life usually turns out to be a bit more complicated. Consider the experience of James Dom Dera. An assistant professor of family medicine at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, his practice made the decision to become a "paperless office" two years ago. However, the transition to electronic records proved more difficult than he envisioned.
Dom Dera, who was accustomed to quickly jotting down notes taken during patient visits and flipping through papers, says that only in the past year has he gotten his typing groove back.
"I'm actually starting to see the benefits of a class I took in high school: typing," said Dom Dera, who, at 37, is relatively young. "I've gotten pretty good at typing and clicking while still maintaining eye contact. At the same time, I'm cognizant that sometimes it's more appropriate for me to stop typing, close my laptop, and just listen. I guess that's the art versus the science of medicine."
Dom Dera and his colleagues, including the nursing staff, now use tablet PCs connected to a wireless network. Nothing is stored locally, and the data gets transmitted in real time without the need for a Save button, he said.
That doesn't sound anything like my doctor; he's terrific but definitely old-school. Getting back up to speed when it comes to using a keyboard only hints at the challenges older physicians face in trying to adapt to a world in which new technologies regularly proliferate throughout the larger society.
"That's exactly it," said Lasik surgeon Feinerman, who is 42. "I grew up in the computer age. This is just my generation. I still feel old when I come to the office, and most of the staff is in (its) 20s and 30s. But I'm trying to use tech and have a proactive attitude to make our practice fun and keep people in touch."
See bottom of post for information on the "Twitter Power Tools for Health Activists*" Webinar to be held on June 3, 2009.
A brief look at these statistics and trends in health care on the social web should help organizations understand the impact of engaging with social media tools to help in spreading their message. It does not matter if you are a pharma company trying to connect with patients, or if you are a medical education provider looking for ways to utilize social bookmarking.
This video is helping to advertise the Health Care New Media Conference in mid June. I have pulled many of the statistics about social media trends in health care from the video and included them below for easier reading and comparison.
Feel free to add more stastistics and social media trends, especially for healthcare, in the comments. I will also see if I can find the sources for these statistics in the future.
By Jacob Goldstein
Original post: WSJ Health Blog
In the latest sign that drug marketers continue to struggle with advertising rules in the online world, the FDA sent this warning letter to J&J, advising the company that an online video for its pain drug Ultram ER “omits and minimzed the serious risks of the drug.”
The letter also says the video claims benefits for the drug “that have not been demonstrated” and calls on the company to “immediately cease dissemination” of the video, which appeared on the Web site painawareness.org.
J&J is reviewing the letter and will respond to the FDA, a spokesman told the WSJ. “The video in question has been removed; it’s no longer available to the public,” the spokesman said.
According to the FDA letter, the video included six minutes of testimonials from a doctor and a patient. The final minute of the video contained risk information, but it was presented in “a telescript format, with rapidly scrolling text in small type font, and with no accompanying audio presentation,” the FDA letter said. The letter was brought to our attention by this report from Dow Jones Newswires.
J&J was one of 14 drug makers that received FDA warning letters earlier this year regarding text ads the companies bought to accompany certain Google searches.
And last year, an online ad for J&J’s painkiller Motrin caused a bit of a stir — not with the FDA, but with moms who didn’t like the ad’s take on wearing babies in a sling (watch the ad here). J&J took down the ad and apologized.
Written by: Dmitriy Kruglyak
source: TrustedMD
Is social media supplanting traditional PR? That was my impression from the annual conference of PRSA's health section.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the 20th Annual PRSA Health Academy conference in Washington DC.
The conference delivered on its title "Leveraging Social Media in Health Care Public Relations" offering a great overview of how social media can, is and will be used by healthcare communicators. Having presented at the same conference in 2007 and 2008 I have been blown away by the progress made in adopting social media by one of the most risk averse industries in existence.
What are my key observations from the conference?
Social media is taking over traditional PR! To think about it the jobs of PR professionals and social media marketers are not that dissimilar. You craft your message. You get it out there targeting the influencers and the public. You monitor the reaction and keep following up. Whether the format is a press release, a blog post, a YouTube video or a Twitter message, the drill is the same. Whether you are targeting traditional journalists, bloggers covering your niche or general public frequenting social networks, the techniques of persuasion are very similar.
If things seem to be the same, what is really the change?
The change is that a great number of healthcare PR professionals are no longer afraid of new tools and are starting to embrace them. Two years ago at the same conference I have been getting a lot of questions on what social media is and whether it might be of any importance. A year ago most questions were about best ways to dip your toes in the water. This year, I have not been getting many questions and instead saw lots of opinions, angles and case studies. Believe it or not, now everyone is an expert. Congratulations, social media has arrived in healthcare PR!
Now, why would I say that social media is "replacing" traditional PR?
If we define "traditional" PR as getting your story to appear in traditional media (print, TV, radio) and consider the depth of crisis the traditional media is going through (is your local paper still in business?), it is pretty clear PR business simply cannot go on as it once was. While traditional publications still command impressive share of eyeballs and are key to getting the widest audience possible, they are not the fastest or easiest way to get your story out. They themselves are undergoing transformation with digital channels taking over. If you want to stick to non-digital, non-social PR soon there would not be any place to go.
What are the long term consequences of PR going "digital-only"?
To be sure, there are many implications and opinions. Sure, we have ease of publishing, democratization of media, openness and all these things we keep hearing about. But in my view these are not the biggest or most important changes. Going digital means anything and everything can be tracked and measured. Having accurate metrics leads to ability to analyze what is working and what is not - down to clicks and pennies. Availability of such analysis will lead to serious implications of how marketing dollars, not just advertising but also PR, will be spent. Understanding and applying digital performance metrics will be the formula for success. Ignoring measurable facts and going by opinions ("the gut") will be career limiting.
Digital performance metrics were the focus of my presentation. If you want to explore how to use them in your business, give me a buzz.
Eularis Releases Comprehensive Report on Effective and Measurable Pharmaceutical eMarketing Using Social Media
[Table of Contents at the Bottom of this Post, along with information on how to pre-order]
NEW YORK and LONDON, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Eularis is announcing the release of an update to its report "Pharmaceutical eMarketing: Building Brands, Relationships & Business Through Web 2.0 and Beyond." The comprehensive report has been created to demystify the world of eMarketing and Social Media to provide Pharmaceutical marketers with a competitive edge and the latest information on how to use these emerging tools.
"As market growth slows, the bottom line return for brands is under increased scrutiny, and every marketing dollar must count," said the author of the report, Dr. Andree K. Bates, President of Eularis. "The emerging social media tools are inexpensive to implement, highly effective for gaining prescriptions when implemented as part of a cohesive strategy, and measurement of the financial impact of using them, using analytics, is certainly possible for justification to management."
Many pharma companies still flounder when it comes to justifying online marketing and can still be stumped by how to use the plethora of emerging social media tools now available. This challenge can be troublesome enough to prompt some companies & marketers to sit it out completely, or to half-heartedly engage in some online activities - like blogs, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook - without a real plan. New initiatives are started & neglected, or focused entirely on the wrong things. As a result, companies miss out and waste time, money and opportunity.
However, this report shows how an eMarketing campaign that is built on strategy & a deep knowledge of an audience can be powerful. The report examines specific tools in the social media age, observing how patients, physicians and companies use blogs, social networking, Twitter, YouTube and other new media tools... and develop best practices for their use. Finally, we tie it all together, examining key case studies of eMarketing campaigns, giving instructions on first steps for your own campaign, and taking a close look at measurement.
eMarketing can be a challenge. However, with some company initiative, firm goals and the insider knowledge provided by this report, marketers can also find eMarketing to be an empowering opportunity for their brands.
To purchase this report, please visit: http://www.epharmaroi.com/
About Eularis
Eularis provides sophisticated Pharmaceutical analytics that provide data-driven insight into the financial impact of corporate and marketing decisions. Unlike traditional analytics approaches, which are lengthy and whose reliance on historical or analogue data reduces their accuracy, Eularis' proprietary 94.8 Analytics Process is based on the current market situation. This proven approach helps Pharmaceutical marketing teams to quickly plan, measure, validate and optimize their sales and marketing performance, knowing where to focus, and how to budget, for maximum financial return. Co-headquartered in London and New York City, the company has developed significant experience in the global Pharmaceutical market through client engagements with AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer and many others. For more information, visit www.eularis.com.
This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(R), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM REPORT:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SECTION 1: Internet, e-Marketing, and Brand-Building Basics
Source: IAB
Click here to Download the Social Advertising Best Practices.
Social media is big and getting bigger, providing marketers with a combination of reach, relationships, and relevance:
Original Post: Pharmaceutical Processing
Social media is all the rage. From familiar websites such as Facebook and MySpace to the newest darling of the social media scene – Twitter – it seems that if you are not "tweeting", well, you are just not on the "bleeding" edge of technology.
While I will never claim to be on the bleeding edge of anything - I have been "tweeting" for the last month or so as PharmProEditor (www.twitter.com/PharmProEditor) and have found it both immensely interesting and incredibly frustrating.
The best feature of Twitter is that you are able to "listen" in on what the hottest topics of discussion are – in the pharma world this can range from the latest industry news to what bloggers are saying about every imaginable healthcare topic.
The problem with Twitter is filtering out all the extraneous "noise". On Twitter you "follow" people and have "followers" and its not considered "polite" to "tune out" those who are following you who may not be in your main area of interest.
The big question on everyone's mind regarding Twitter specifically, and social media in general, is how big pharma and the industry will use this new-fangled marketing tool.
The inherent problem lies in the way Twitter is evolving. At its conception it was viewed simply as a means for people to tell each other what they were doing. Now, it has morphed into a marketing juggernaut, able to reach thousands of people in an instant.
How will the pharma industry harness this new tool? And, perhaps even more importantly, who will regulate what the marketing people say?
Currently, the FDA has very strict rules regarding Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) advertising and marketing. If nothing else, Twitter is probably the fastest DTC outlet there is - the potential to reach new customers is enormous.
Is Twitter ready for prime time? Is the pharma industry?
Click here to add a comment.
source: John Mack's Pharma Marketing Talk
Arnold Friede, Counsel to the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP, talks about organizing a collective response from representatives of the pharma industry to FDA's recent enforcement initiative on the use of sponsored links in search ads and more generally, on FDA's overall approach to regulating social media and the Internet.
Arnold I. Friede is counsel to the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in its Washington, D.C. office. Arnie is a member of the Firm's Health Law Department. Arnold I. Friede is a widely respected food and drug law counselor and advocate with significant advertising law, health care law, First Amendment, environmental, and commercial and transactional experience. He has a long history of direct involvement in successfully representing clients in FDA-regulated matters beginning as an Associate Chief Counsel in the FDA Chief Counsel's Office, as well as a broad spectrum of senior in-house legal experience across multiple FDA-regulated industries.
