Online Alcohol Intervention and Prevention Programs

by Katie Howard

Learning Objectives

This Public Health Informatics Wiki will help readers:

1. Provide a general overview of alcohol intervention web-based programs.
2. Identify the types of alcohol prevention and intervention programs that can be best conducted online.
3. Identify key components of online alcohol programs.
4. List at least three positives and three negative aspects of alcohol intervention web-based programs.

Web-based Alcohol Abuse Prevention Programs

Web-based interventions for primary and secondary prevention of alcohol abuse have become increasingly popular. These websites tend to target either high-risk groups or those who abuse alcohol. Interventions are not usually designed to address issues surrounding alcoholism or alcohol addiction since this diagnosis tends to have different and more severe consequences surrounding physical and psychosocial health (Moyer, Finney, Swearingen, & Vergun, 2001). Web-based interventions can help to identify behavioral patterns that lead to or cause alcohol abuse. These interventions are usually for people who are entering college as undergraduates or for people who have been identified as alcohol abusers.

Alcohol Abuse and College Students

College students have been identified as an at-risk group for binge drinking and alcohol abuse. Hingson, Heeren, Winter, and Wechsler (2005) randomly sampled thousands of college students to determine typical drinking behavior. The study used the typical definition of binge drinking which is five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in a single drinking session. They found that 23 percent of students had binge drank three or more times in the past two weeks. In addition, after conducting an ethnographic survey of past studies, the researchers revealed that college students may be at greater risk than other people in the same age group due to the following reasons:

• 43.2 percent of college students binge drank at least once in the following year while 39.8 percent of same-age noncollege participants.

• 31.4 percent of college students drove under the influence of alcohol in the last year while only 23.7 percent of those same-age noncollege participants did so.

Since undergraduate college students tend to exhibit higher rates of drinking, alcohol abuse, and related high-risk behavior, university and public health officials have designed and implemented interventions to prevent as well as stop alcohol abuse among college students.

Usefulness of Brief Interventions

Brief interventions have been shown to be successful among the general population. In a meta-analysis of brief interventions, which includes face-to-face contact with a health care provider or educator for people suffering from alcohol abuse, a significant positive impact was found to be present on subjects’ drinking patterns (Moyer, Finney, Swearingen, &Vergun, 2001). However, brief interventions were not more effective than controlled interventions where individuals with severe alcohol abuse problems were included and a single session of advice was not found to be useful for patients with severe drinking problems (ibid). This information is encouraging in terms of the possible success of online interventions to prevent and intervene when low to moderate alcohol abuse is present. Online interventions are brief in nature and are designed to inform the participant of the possible problem. The program can also help them identify ways to drink moderately or abstain from alcohol consumption.

The Nature of Online Alcohol Abuse Interventions

Several online interventions exist that are specifically geared towards college students. These include websites such as MyStudentBody.com and College Alc, whose effectiveness has been reviewed in peer-review journals. These programs must be bought by participating universities, and students are then given access to the websites. One advantage of this is that they are tailored specifically for college students, but they are not available to the general public.

Chiauzzi, et al. (2005) analyzed the effectiveness of www.MyStudentBody.com: Alcohol that provides primary intervention about risks associated with drinking and a self-evaluation based on the BASICS model. The self-evaluation helps to tailor the website to content so that it is appropriate for each individual. Chiauzzi, et al. (2005) found that students who came in at the pre-contemplation stage reduced their consumption of alcohol at a significantly larger proportion than low-motivation to change drinkers. This program can be used to raise awareness among college students who never considered the serious consequences of alcohol consumption or thought about how their personal consumption may be affecting their academics, health, and social interactions. At follow-up, MyStudentBody.com was shown to reduce rates of drinking are a greater rate that the control group which students visited websites that contained information about the risks of drinking once a week for four weeks (ibid).

College Alc or www.preventionstrategies.com is another website that has been tested in a semi-experimental setting. This program allows colleges to customize the website for their students. The prevention strategy focuses on identifying alcohol abuse and its consequences as well as environmental factors, like the college’s policies, and law enforcement, and social situations, that may contribute to excessive alcohol consumption. College Alc reduced participants’ self-reported rates of heavy drinking, experiences of drunkenness, and negative alcohol-related consequences in the last 30 days, but the affect was relatively small (Bersamin, Paschall, Fearnow-Kenney, & Wyrick, 2007). No effect was found on students who did not consume alcohol before entering the program (ibid).

Some websites not geared specifically towards students include a very similar pattern to these programs: a self-assessments and followed bypersonalized feedback about drinking patters. A good example of this type of website is: http://notes.camh.net/efeed.nsf/newform. This website is put together by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. After completing a self-assessment, each user is given information on how drinking impacts such as the amount money spent buying alcohol, time spent intoxicated and calories consumed over the last year. Also, the website includes a personalized estimate of the likelihood of injury and other negative consequences based on the individual’s drinking habits. Cunningham, Humphreys, Koski-Jannes and Cordingley (2005) conducted a small study on the effectiveness of this website to reduce high risk drinking. They found that alone the website did reduce high risk drinking, but in conjunction with written materials, the intervention was more successful. When colleges use online alcohol prevention and intervention programs, handing out additional materials may increase the effectiveness of the program and some programs, such as College Alc, do offer textbooks and other materials to supplement their website.

Summary of Key Components and Benefits

The Center for Addiction and Mental Health’s assessment, College Alc and MyStudentBody.com all contain key components which should be present in an alcohol abuse prevention and intervention program. These key components are:

• Assessment of individual’s current drinking patterns
• Summary or specialized feedback based on assessment
• Identification of risks associated with drinking and possible environmental influences

These can be important tools in helping students find motivation to cut back on drinking. Some advantages of online programs are that they can reach a large number of students, provide individual feedback, and have been shown to reduce drinking rates. Students also may be more likely to be honest about their drinking patterns in an anonymous, private setting than in a classroom or health care setting. These programs however are not appropriate for those who meet the clinical definition of an alcoholic and these are often the people who suffer the most serious consequences of alcohol consumption. Also, the startup cost of the individualized programs for college students can be expensive and these programs may not address the individual’s complex psychosocial reasons for abusing alcohol. Overall, these interventions seem to be important tools in helping to prevent and curb binge drinking on college campuses.

Additional Websites:

• Alcoholism/Alcohol Abuse Internet Resource Site: www.downyourdrink.org
• College Drinking: Changing the Culture by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov
• U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention: http://www.higheredcenter.org/

Academic Resources:
Bearsamin M., Paschall, M. J., Fearnow-Kenney, M., & Wyrick, D. (2007). Effectiveness of a web-based
alcohol-misuse and harm-prevention course among high- and low-risk students. Journal of American College Health. 55(4): 247-254.
Chiauzzi, E., Green, T. C., Lord, S., Thum, C., & Goldstein, M. (2005). My student body: A high-risk drinking prevention web site for college students. Journal of American College Health. 53(6): 263-274.
Cunningham, J. A., Humphreys, K., Koski-Jannes, A., & Cordingley, J. (2005). Internet and paper self-help materials for problem drinking: Is there an additive effect? Addictive Behaviors. 30(8):1517-1523. Retrieved November 20, 2007 from doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.03.003.
Hingston, R., Heeren, T., Winter, M., & Wechsler, H. (2005). Magnitude of Alcohol-Related Mortality and Morbidity
Among U.S. College Students: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health. 26:259-79.
Moyer, A., Finney, J. W., Swearingen, C. E., & Vergun, P. (2001). Brief interventions for alcohol problems: A
meta-analytic review of controlled investigations in treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking populations.
Addictions. 97: 279-292.

Teens Divulge Risky Behavior on Social Networking Sites

Teens Divulge Risky Behavior on Social Networking Sites
But e-mail intervention may spur some adolescents to change, study finds
Posted January 6, 2009

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

source: http://bit.ly/13XLz4

 

MONDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- More than half of teens who use the social networking site MySpace have posted information about sexual behavior, substance abuse or violence, new research shows.

 

The good news, according to a second study from the same research group, is that a simple intervention -- in this case, an-e-mail from a physician -- made some of the teens change their risky behaviors.

 

"I was surprised, at least to some extent, at how clearly teens were discussing behaviors that we struggle to get out of them," said Dr. Megan Moreno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

"Once we started getting the findings, we wondered, why are they doing this?" Moreno said. "Do they not get it? And, if they don't understand that this is public, can we send them a cautionary message to let them know just how public their information really is?" Moreno was working at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Research Institute at the time the studies were done.

 

"We need to devise ways to teach teens and their parents to use the Internet responsibly," study senior author Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute, said in a statement.

 

Results from the two studies appear in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

 

More than 90 percent of teens in the United States have access to the Internet, according to background information from the studies. About half of all teens who use the Internet also use social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. MySpace boasts more than 200 million profiles, according to the studies, and about one-quarter of those belong to teens under 18.

 

Moreno and her colleagues randomly selected 500 MySpace profiles from people who reported their age as 18. They collected the information during the summer of 2007.

 

They found that 54 percent of the profiles contained information on risky behaviors, with 24 percent referencing sexual behaviors, 41 percent referring to substance abuse and 14 percent posting violent information.

 

Factors associated with a decreased risk of posting risky behaviors included displaying religious involvement or involvement with sports or hobbies.

 

For the second study, the researchers randomly selected 190 profiles of people between 18 and 20 who displayed risky behaviors, such as sexual information. Half were sent an e-mail from a physician that pointed out that the physician had noticed risky behavior on their profile and suggested changing the displayed information. The e-mail message also provided information on where to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

 

Almost 14 percent of those who got the e-mail deleted references to sexual behavior, compared with 5 percent of the others.

 

"This was a creative and unique way to reach kids," said Kimberly Mitchell, the author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal and a research professor at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

 

Mitchell advised parents not to try to forbid their children from using these sites altogether. "It's important for parents to understand how important these social networking sites are to kids," she said. "They're here to stay, and they're not all evil. There can be some really positive aspects to these sites. But adolescents aren't necessarily thinking 10 years ahead, when employers or college administrators may look at these sites. Teens live in the here and now, so parents need to talk to kids about the longer-term impacts and help them think through some of the repercussions."

 

Moreno suggested that parents ask teens to show them their MySpace or Facebook pages. "Teens will definitely balk, but they balk at lots of things, like curfews," she said. "Some parents feel it's a violation of privacy, like reading a diary, but it's out there, it's public."

 

Parents should use this information as a conversation starter, Moreno suggested.

Study: Social networks can have impact on health behavior

May 28, 2008 — 6:59am ET

source: Fierce Healthcare ( http://bit.ly/2ZyKMG)

 

Underscoring the results of existing studies, new research has found that social networks can have a much bigger impact on health behaviors than previously suspected. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that an individual's decision to stop smoking is strongly impacted by whether people in their social network quit--even by people they don't know personally. In fact, entire social networks of smokers appear to quit almost simultaneously, according to the researchers, medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and political scientist James Fowler of the University of California at San Diego.

Their study follows on previous research by the two suggesting that obesity too, can follow a pattern within social groups, appearing in one person and 'spreading' to another almost as though it were a virus.

The researchers used data derived records kept between 1971 and 2003 on about 5,124 people who participated in the landmark Framingham Heart Study. Because the subjects were connected to the suburb of Framingham, MA, many had social connections, allowing the researchers to study a network of about 12,000 people. When they analyzed the patterns of those who managed to quit smoking over the 32-year period, they found that the decision was highly influenced by whether someone close to them stopped; for example, someone was 67 percent more likely to quit if a spouse stopped, and 36 percent more likely if a friend did.

 

To learn more about the research:
- read this Washington Post article

Pharma's Facebook

Pharma's Facebook

Research 2.0: How drug companies are using social networks to recruit
patients for clinical research.

Sarah Kliff

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Like most social-networking sites, Inspire.com is a place where users
talk about the most intimate details of their lives. They want advice on
coping with stage III cancer or to offer encouragement to a mother
deciding about life support for her premature baby. But Inspire's nearly
100,000 users aren't just sharing with each other (and the 62 nonprofits
who partner with the site), they're also receiving targeted information
from pharmaceutical companies who use the site as a recruiting tool for
drug studies. Opening this door between patients and drugmakers has some
obvious benefits but also raises a host of ethical and medical dilemmas.

On the plus side, those grappling with serious or chronic diseases get
to hear about clinical studies and new treatments that they might not
otherwise know about. Pharmaceutical companies get easy online access to
highly engaged populations with specific medical conditions. "One day we
come to you and say, 'There's a clinical trial going on, here's some
information, now it's your decision.' It lets the patients raise their
hand and say, 'I want to participate'," says Inspire's founder, Brian
Loew. Social networks not only allow pharmaceutical companies to hone in
on extremely specific populations, but also enable them to reach
patients who live far from major medical centers and typically never
hear about studies.

Recruitment has long been a bottleneck in medical research. Of the
approximately 50,000 clinical trials currently underway in the United
States, 80 percent are delayed at least a month because of low
enrollment. One problem: potential trial participants are often
skeptical and worried about safety. "There's an increasing wariness
about the pharmaceutical industry and the clinical trial process," says
Ken Kaitlin, director of the Center for the Study of Drug Development at
Tufts University in Boston. "It's not uncommon to hear about drugs taken
off the market because of major safety problems ... that makes the
public a little more concerned." Pharmaceuticals hope they can overcome
such fears by building partnerships with social networks that they can
mine for potential volunteers.

Loew launched Inspire in 2005, and spent the first three years building
up members in partnership with nonprofits, including The Lung Cancer
Alliance and National Organization for Rare Disorders. Now, with a core
group of users on the site, two major pharmaceuticals have begun
recruiting for clinical trials, one in the lung-cancer community and one
in arthritis. Inspire has partnerships with two other major
pharmaceuticals in the works. The drug companies pay Inspire a flat fee
for the recruiting service; the Web site's compensation does not hinge
on meeting a particular recruiting goal.

Three of the four pharmaceuticals working with Inspire declined to
discuss their interest in social networks, or even reveal their names.
The fourth, Merck, declined multiple requests for an interview but did
issue a brief statement on their commitment to "rapid and effective
enrollment of appropriate patients into trials" as to allow for "timely
development of innovative medicines."

Novartis, one of the first drugmakers to engage research participants
through a social network, partnered with PatientsLikeMe.com to recruit
clinical-trial subjects for a multiple-sclerosis drug in 2008. "[Social
networking] hadn't been applied to clinical trials," saysTrevor Mundel,
head of exploratory clinical development at Novartis. "At the time, we
were having a lot of difficulty enrolling patients."

In May 2008, the site sent out a message to the 8,000 members of their
multiple-sclerosis community, alerting them to the Novartis trial. From
that e-mail, nearly 1,500 members visited the Novartis Web site. After
recruiting through PatientsLikeMe.com, Novartis saw a boost in
registrations for the study, although they did not track which or how
many individuals enrolled because of the campaign-due to patient privacy
concerns. "The registration did start to pick up," says Mundel. "We
don't have the tracking, but I've got to believe some of it was
generated by the e-mails."

Nonprofits and government agencies remain hesitant about recruiting on
social networks because they see them as a relatively untested medium.
TrialCheck, a database of both private and public cancer studies, is
interested in using social networks, but is holding off until they have
more information. "Cancer patients should know all of their treatment
options, not just a select few trials that are promoted," says Dianne
Colaizzi, spokesperson for the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups.
"Another issue is how do patients discern the quality of the information
they find on social-networking sites? Many of the sites lack high
quality medical information from trusted sources."

Another problem: the reliability of data that comes from trials where
the participants may be communicating with each other. That doesn't
usually happen in medical studies. But if your study subjects are on the
same social-networking group, what's to stop people from swapping enough
information to figure out which of them is on the real medication vs.
the placebo, essentially "unblinding" the study?

"If you know what to expect because you're going online and seeing
what's happening [with other patients], the result is that the data
could come out biased," says Paul Bleicher, the CEO of a health-tech
startup in Cambridge, Mass., who has written on the role of social
networks in medicine. He doesn't think that pharmaceutical companies
have yet thought through these issues. Novartis's Mundel admits they
haven't figured it all out yet. "It's something which hasn't been worked
through, how [social networks] might worsen the accuracy of
adverse-event reporting," he says. "That's one concern we have to think
about and still don't totally understand."

Despite these drawbacks, clinical-trial recruitment on social networks
is expected to increase. Inspire says that it is signing up 100 new
members a week. As Bleicher writes in a recent article in Applied
Clinical Research, "Technology is here to stay, and it will bring
changes in communication and interactivity that we can't even
anticipate, along with many opportunities and some risk."

But as with all things Web, when things go right, the power of
connecting people is formidable. Take Susan Love's Army of Women, a site
that launched in November 2008 to solicit volunteers for preventative
breast-cancer research. The site capitalized on the
grassroots-organizing powers of the Internet and, largely through
members inviting friends, has amassed more than a quarter million
members that researchers can recruit for research exploring potential
risk factors for breast cancer.

The site is not a social network (although that may come soon), but does
take advantage of many innovative Web 2.0 tools, like blogs written by
researchers describing their study and how Army of Women members are
having an impact. But even if Army of Women does become a social
network, they're operating to collect information for prevention, not
testing the effectiveness of drugs on various conditions, so they're
less likely to run into problems where data is compromised by the
interaction of patients.

Perhaps most important, this site has been able to reach hard-to-find
but willing research participants including Theresa Passerelli. The
60-year-old hospital accountant lives in Warm Springs, a tiny town in
central Georgia with no stoplights or grocery stores. She's 70 miles
from a major medical center, but is participating in important
breast-cancer research on sisters of women with breast cancer. "You have
the walkathons, but those don't advance science," says Passerelli. "When
I saw the Army of Women, I was more than willing to give them my body
and let them do whatever, if there's a possibility there will be some
kind of breakthrough."

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/187882

Nielsen: Social Nets Overtake E-mail

Nielsen: Social Nets Overtake E-mail

As online paradigm shifts, advertisers must find a way to add value,
rather than follow the 'push' model

March 9, 2009

-By Brian Morrissey
<http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/mailto:bmorrissey
@adweek.com>

NEW YORK Social networking has overtaken e-mail as the most popular
Internet activity, according to a new study
<http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_
globalfaces_mar09.pdf> released by Nielsen.

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as "member communities" now exceeds
e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent. What's more, the reach
of social networking and blogging venues is growing at twice the rate of
other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search.

Nielsen, which is the parent company of Adweek, concluded that the shift
to social activity online would have profound effects on marketers and
publishers. For publishers, social networks are eating into time spent
with other online activities, according to Nielsen. For advertisers, the
phenomenon at this stage represents mostly unfulfilled promise for a
deeper connection with consumers who are more difficult to reach in
social environments.

The rise of social media coincides with the decline of portals. Social
networking appears to be snatching away users' online time formerly
spent with e-mail, traditionally a large draw to portals. Such
fragmentation is decreasing portals' importance to advertisers. In a
separate report, top digital shop Razorfish said its spending at portals
declined from 24 percent in 2006 to 16 percent in 2008.

Nielsen found that two-thirds of the world's Internet users visited a
social networking site in 2008. All told, social media now accounts for
almost 10 percent of Internet time. Facebook is leading the pack
worldwide, with monthly visits by three out of 10 Internet users in nine
global markets, per Nielsen.

The growth in social media is not confined to the U.S. Nielsen charted
comparable or higher growth for Australia, Spain, Italy and the United
Kingdom.

Yet for now, user growth at social sites is outpacing advertising
increases, per Nielsen. This will likely change, Nielsen said, as models
shift to value engagement over exposure.

"As the online industry matures and the value of online real estate is
increasingly measured by time spent, rather than pages viewed, a
significant shift in advertising revenue from 'traditional' online media
towards social media could be realized -- if the successful ad model can
be found," the report stated.

The search for a workable ad model is even more urgent now that social
media has broken out of the youth demographic, Nielsen found. For
example, Facebook's greatest growth has come from 35-49-year-olds, and
it has added twice as many 50-64-year-olds as those under 18.

Yet advertising and social media to date have mixed like oil and water.
Part of that is a function of social media's communications role --
advertising has typically performed poorly in chat and e-mail. The
larger challenge for advertising is to move from an interruptive role to
joining conversations. That means advertisers need to find ways to add
value to users' experiences, Nielsen found.

"Whatever the successful ad model turns out to be, the messaging will
have to be authentic and humble, and built on the principle of two-way
conversation -- not a push model -- that adds value to the consumer,"
the report said.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_g
lobalfaces_mar09.pdf

Web Users Shaping Consumer Opinion

Web Users Shaping Consumer Opinion

source: media post

According to a new report from Netpop Research,  "Media Shifts to Social," the percent of time people spend communicating online has increased 18% since 2006, while time spent on entertainment has declined 29%. The Executive Summary says that Online entertainment is shifting to a small, powerful proportion of social media contributors fueling Web activity through blogs micro-blogs, social media, video and photo sharing.

 Key Findings from the study include data such as:

• 105 million Americans contribute to social media
• Social networking has grown 93% since 2006
• 7 million Americans are "heavy" social media contributors (6+ activities) who connect with 248 people on a ‘one to many' basis in a typical week
• 54% of micro-bloggers post or "tweet" daily
• 72% of micro-bloggers under age 18 post or "tweet" daily

The report concludes that market trends and customer opinion are being shaped by end users more rapidly and with greater impact on business than ever before as an entirely new form of leisure develops around talking and sharing, providing opinions and perspectives... and suggests that Websites need to connect directly with users or the users will create their own venues that are harder for companies to track and participate with effectively.

The study includes the differences in use and frequency among younger users, teens and college students, and light, medium and heavy social media users to understand usage habits and motivations. It also describes photo-sharing, video-sharing, micro-blogging, social networking, tagging, wikis, etc. among 20 online communication and social media channels.

Please visit here to access the full report from Netpop Research and view a slide preview

 

Follow JDRF at the White House on Twitter!

Follow JDRF at the White House on Twitter! 

President Barack Obama will be signing an Executive Order lifting the federal ban on embryonic stem cell research on Monday in a ceremony at the White House.  A few JDRF volunteers and staff will be at the White House to represent the Foundation.

This is a special moment for everyone that has worked so hard over the past decade.  JDRF wants to make sure that, even though everyone that made this moment possible can’t be at the White House, we can get you as close as possible to the Oval Office!

Follow Each Moment on Twitter
We will do this through a website called Twitter.  Twitter is a website that lets you update your friends and family on what you’re up to.  You can also follow others to find out what’s new with them.  JDRF has set-up a Twitter account (JDRFAdvocacy) so you can follow what we’re up to everyday.  You can find out more about how the site works at http://www.twitter.com. 

Signing-up for a Twitter account is very easy.  Once you’ve provided just a few pieces of information, your personal Twitter page will be all set. 

To follow updates from JDRF’s Larry Soler directly from the White House through our new Twitter account, follow these simple steps:

1. Visit http://www.twitter.com/JDRFAdvocacy and click ‘Join Now’.
2. Provide a few pieces of information for your Twitter page.
3. You’re all set!  Larry’s updates will begin in the morning before the event begins, during the event, and through the post-event receptions.
4. Forward this to a friend.

Thank you again.  See you from the Oval Office!

 

 

Breaking News: Merck to Buy Schering-Plough in $41.1 Billion Cash, Stock Deal

Breaking News: Merck to Buy Schering-Plough in $41.1 Billion Cash, Stock Deal

By KEVIN KINGSBURY

New Jersey-based drug makers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. announced plans to combine in a $41.1 billion cash-and-stock deal that comes six weeks after rivals Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth unveiled their engagement.

The announcements come as the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies face a litany of pressures -- from product pipelines that likely won't be able to offset companies' blockbusters that will lose patent protection in the coming years to the potential of increased government pressure to lower prices. Merck and Schering-Plough already had a relationship through their cholesterol-drug joint venture, which has seen its sales slump.

"The combined company will benefit from a formidable research and development pipeline, a significantly broader portfolio of medicines and an expanded presence in key international markets, particularly in high-growth emerging markets," Merck Chairman and Chief Executive Richard T. Clark said in a joint press release. (Read the companies' statement.)

In discussing Merck's quarterly earnings last month, Mr. Clark had said the drug maker was open to buying a big rival, signaling a shift for a company that long maintained its research prowess was enough to keep it growing.

Mr. Clark would oversee the combined company, which will retain the Merck name. Three Schering-Plough board members would join Merck's board. Schering-Plough Chairman and Chief Executive Fred Hassan said he "intends to participate in the integration planning until the close."

In an interview, Mr. Clark said the integration is expected to result in a work-force reduction of about 15%, with a high percentage of the job eliminations happening outside the U.S.

Merck, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., has about 55,200 employees world-wide, with 28,000 in the U.S., according to a regulatory filing. Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering-Plough has about 51,000 global employees, with just 15,000 in the U.S.

Both companies had been laying off employees even before the acquisition deal was struck. Like other major drug makers, they have been contending with lackluster sales growth, hurt by competition from generic drug makers and now the economic downturn.

"Of course when the market is in a mood of desolation, this is often the best time to effect a merger or acquisition," said David Buik of BGC Partners. He added the deal "seems to make huge sense with a cost-cutting exercise imperative, with the Obama administration hell bent on giving the drug companies a very hard time, offering the generic operators a brilliant opportunity."

Some $3.5 billion a year in cost savings are anticipated beyond 2011. Schering-Plough is expected to "modestly" add to Merck's earnings, excluding charges related to the deal, in the first year after its completion and "significantly" thereafter.

Under the deal, Schering-Plough shareholders would get 0.5767 share of Merck and $10.50 in cash for each share they own. That values Schering-Plough at $23.61 a share, a 34% premium to Friday's closing price. Merck shareholders would own 68% of the combined company.

In premarket trading, Schering-Plough jumped 18% to $20.80 while Merck fell 4.4% to $21.75. Mr. Buik noted that Schering-Plough shares advanced nearly 10% in a Friday afternoon rally.

Some 44% of the deal will be cash, with $9.8 billion coming from existing balances and $8.5 billion from committed financing from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Merck said its board is committed to keeping its dividend at current levels, which is triple the payment Schering-Plough holders now get. Merck's vow contrasts with Pfizer, which will halve its dividend, the yield of which had been the highest of the major drug makers.

Pfizer's deal for Wyeth, valued at $68 billion when it was unveiled in January, represents the largest takeover in the pharmaceutical sector since Glaxo Wellcome PLC acquired SmithKline Beecham PLC for $76 billion in 2000.

The two companies' cholesterol-drug joint venture has been under pressure for a year following an early 2008 study raised questions about the effectiveness of Zetia. The results sent prescriptions of Zetia and sister drug Vytorin, which combines Zetia with Merck's Zocor, plummeting.

Mr. Hassan took over Schering-Plough six years ago as chairman and CEO at a time when the company has dealt with manufacturing troubles which led to a $500 million fine. At the time, it was said taking over Schering-Plough would test his mettle as a turnaround expert.

Now while the company is in stronger financial shape, its stock sits at the same level it did when Mr. Hassan took charge amid 50% price drop the past 18 months.

Write to Kevin Kingsbury at kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com

Yahoo! News - Live coverage boosts access to federal courtrooms by AP: Yahoo! Tech

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090306/ap_on_hi_te/courtroom_tweets

Facebook redesign is good news for brands

Facebook redesign is good news for brands

Facebook has announced the redesign of its Facebook "pages" and other product updates features, giving brands more freedom. Under the new design, Facebook pages will look and function more like a typical user's profile. Brand pages will also move from within segregated areas of Facebook to within users' social graphs. These changes will enable marketers to gain more control over the content in their brand profile and communicate more freely with "friends."

Doctors try to prevent patients from writing online reviews

Doctors try to prevent patients from writing online reviews

Some physicians have started asking patients to sign agreements barring them from posting negative comments on physician ratings Web sites, reports the AP/Contra Costa Times. The physicians say they are taking this measure because of concerns about the fairness of the anonymous online reports. A company called Medical Justice will provide physicians with a standardized patient waiver agreement for a fee. The company advises physicians to ask all patients to sign the agreement and refuse care to those who will not. John Swapceinski, cofounder of RateMDs.com, said he opposes such waivers because they force patients to choose between healthcare and free speech.

Brand-name antidepressant and sleep aid sales up in 2008

Brand-name antidepressant and sleep aid sales up in 2008

Prescriptions for brand-name sleep aids jumped 7% despite experiencing cutbacks in marketing efforts, according to IMS Health. Brand-name antidepressant sales are also up 15%, although marketing costs aren't as clear. Experts say the economy is to blame for the rise of sleeping pill sales, with 31% of respondents in a National Sleep Foundation poll reporting they are losing sleep over the economy and their personal finances. Increased sleep aid sales are especially notable because of the drastic decrease in marketing spend. According to TNS Media Intelligence, Ambien CR spending fell from $190 million in 2007 to $150 million in 2008. Lunesta spending also dropped from $271 in 2007 to $107 in 2008.

Google branches into expandable ads :: BtoB Magazine

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090306/FREE/903069984/1078/newsletter011

Health Reform Watch: The Life Cycle of Objectionable Drug Marketing Practices

http://healthreformwatch.blogspot.com/2009/03/life-cycle-of-objectionable-drug.html

Supreme Court Rejects Preemption

Fard Johnmar writes: "In a much anticipated decision, the Supreme Court
today held that individuals have the right to sue pharmaceutical
companies for harm even if the Food and Drug Administration certifies
that a medication as safe and effective."

Click below for more.

http://www.healthcarevox.com/2009/03/supreme_court_rejects_preempti.html

Abbott Labs Fires Agency That Screwed Up Humira Ads

Abbott Labs Fires Agency That Screwed Up Humira Ads
By Jim Edwards March 5th, 2009 @ 11:10 am

source: http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10001138/abbott-labs-fires-agency-that-screwed-up-humira-ads/

Abbott Labs has put its $70 million Humira ad account in review. The review follows a warning letter from the FDA about Humira’s advertising, which the government called “misleading.” The incumbent agency on the business is Harrison & Star, according to Adweek. The shop has had Humira since 2005, per Pharma Exec.

When drug agencies are fired after a high-profile screwup, the temptation is to figure out who to blame. Was it the agency that made the ad? Or the client, whose compliance department no doubt signed off on it before it ran? In this case, Abbott appears to have decided that H&S is at fault.

Link to ad:
http://i.bnet.com/blogs/humira.jpg

The ad in question is a doozy. It ran in a trade journal for the American Academy of Dermatology. See a closeup here. It featured a closeup of diseased body under the headline, “Now approved for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.”

That turns out not to be true. Humira is technically approved for “the treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy, and when other systemic therapies are medically less appropriate.”

With the FDA, the devil is in the details.

You’ll notice that the safety information at the bottom of the ad is almost unreadable unless you magnify it by more than 100 percent. The FDA didn’t like that at all:

… the presentation of the complete indication is written in white text on a pink background in an extremely small font size, rendering this information nearly illegible, while the broad, misleading statement of the indication and the accompanying graphic of the patient are presented very prominently and can be easily seen by viewers of the advertisement.

Bottom line: Agencies pitching this account should assume that Abbott is now hypersensitive to FDA review, and thus you’ll need a creative strategy that fits well within the regulatory lines.

ePharma Summit: Thoughts, Themes, and Takeaways, Part 1

Excerpt from Shwen's blog on ePharma 2009:

(source: http://www.med20.com/blog/2009/03/epharma-summit-thoughts-themes-and-takeaways-part-1/)

"Seeing that this conference covered all aspects of eMarketing in Pharma, a variety of topics were covered, from reaching MDs online to online media mix to market research. Of course, there were also panels that covered Social Media — which was a recurring theme that was brought up throughout the conference — including Josh Bernoff’s great keynote on leveraging Groundswell, with some new and interesting data on health/pharma topics. By the way, this is another good example of where the organizers have thought outside the traditional box and invited a non-pharma KOL in social media.

Of all the sessions, however, I do think that the best discussion of the conference had to be the panel on “Driving Policy/Guidelines Around the Use of Social Media in Pharma“, which featured an esteemed panel consisting of: Robert Goldberg (moderator), Marc Monseau, Fabio Gratton, and Fard Johnmar. You can read more about it at the ePharma Summit blog and I also recorded the session, but will need to check with all parties involved before being able to publish it, so let’s hope.

So, if I had to narrow it down to three key takeaways from the meeting, here’s what they would be…"

Cick here for the full article:

http://www.med20.com/blog/2009/03/epharma-summit-thoughts-themes-and-takeaways-part-1/

Diabetes online community contest opens

Diabetes online community contest opens

Online diabetes community DiabetesMine announced the opening of its 2009 DiabetesMine Design Challenge, a competition created to promote innovation and encourage new tools to improve the lives of diabetics. The Web-based competition is underwritten by the California HealthCare Foundation and endorsed by Medgadget.com, the Internet journal of emerging medical technologies. The grand prize is $10,000, with total prizes awarded equaling $17,000. Sanofi-aventis advertises its drug Apidra on diabetesmine.com.

How-To: Leveraging 2009's Top Digital Trends - MarketingVOX

http://www.marketingvox.com/how-to-leveraging-2009s-top-digital-trends-043393/

48% of Millennials Enlist on Brand/Fan Pages; Here's Why - MarketingVOX

http://www.marketingvox.com/48-of-millennials-enlist-on-brandfan-pages-heres-why-043395/

SocNet Use Quadruples among US Adults; 35% Have Profiles - MarketingVOX

http://www.marketingvox.com/socnet-use-quadruples-among-us-adults-35-have-profiles-042988/

Senior Females Storm Facebook, Older Users Fuel Growth - MarketingVOX

http://www.marketingvox.com/senior-females-storm-facebook-older-users-fuel-growth-043137/

MS&L Launches Proprietary Social Activism Marketing Offering to Leverage New Age of Cause Marketing

MS&L Launches Proprietary Social Activism Marketing Offering to Leverage
New Age of Cause Marketing

BOSTON, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- MS&L, one of the world's leading
communications firms, today announced the launch of its Social Activism
Marketing specialty, a bold approach that blends the power of corporate
social responsibility and cause marketing with the penetration of
digital tools to spawn social movements that move messages, product and
profit on behalf of companies and brands.

The new specialty will be launched at an evening event in Boston on
February 26 featuring cause marketing experts who will explore the power
of social activism. Attending the event will be Thomas Gensemer,
managing partner of Blue State Digital, which spearheaded Obama for
America's extensive online fundraising and peer-to-peer networking
initiatives, and Eleanor Dowling, editorial and community leader of
changeagents.com and a key player in the success of Timberland's
Earthkeeper Heroes Program. Gensemer and Dowling will join MS&L's CSR
and marketing experts to explore the renewed focus on cause marketing in
the context of President Obama's spotlight on community service and the
increased corporate interest in connecting to a higher purpose.

MS&L's proprietary Social Activism Marketing (SAM) Optimization process
includes four stages of social movement that corporations can utilize to
develop unique cause programs. The SAM process takes into account the
current economic environment, research on the relationship between
corporations and service, and the power of relationship management via
digital tools. MS&L will help clients identify the intersection of
corporate social responsibility and cause marketing to facilitate social
movements, drive influence and maximize the reach of a particular
program.

"We consider 2009 the year when values and activism will come together
to transform communications and marketing," said Scott Beaudoin, senior
vice president and director of cause marketing at MS&L. "Our methodology
for Social Activism Marketing pinpoints the best ways to hyper-engage
consumers and influencers in support of a powerfully relevant cause,
producing maximum business results and social impacts for the sponsor."

A unique relationship between corporate values, activism and reputation
has emerged, influencing the launch of MS&L's SAM specialty. Proprietary
research from the MS&L Worldwide Global Values study, conducted in May
2008 in partnership with GfK Roper Public Affairs, underscores the ripe
opportunity for companies and brands to leverage consumer activism on
social issues and their unprecedented access to information about
corporate behavior.

The study of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that:

* 72 percent believe a company or organization can have "values"
just the way people do;
* 85 percent believe a company can be financially successful by
behaving in "a responsible way;"
* 56 percent of describe it as "very important" to them to know
about the values of the companies with whom they do business;
* 77 percent almost always or sometimes pay attention to company's
values when deciding whether to give it their business; and
* 59 percent said they can a lot or some about an organization's
"real values" through online information.

"It's clear that the concepts of value and values are rapidly merging in
the minds of consumers," said Jim Tsokanos, president of MS&L, North
America. "People want to be engaged with companies that share their
values. Our Social Activism Marketing specialty will help organizations
capitalize on the growing expectation that profit should be pursued in a
responsible way locally, nationally and globally."

The launch of this new specialty builds on MS&L's innovative CSR work in
the consumer, corporate and healthcare areas. In 2008, MS&L was honored
as the top agency in CSR by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine;
won Cause-Related Campaign of the Year from PRWeek in 2007 and Best Use
of the Internet honors from PRWeek in 2006 and 2007; and is currently a
PRWeek finalist for Cause-Related Campaign of the Year. MS&L works with
companies such as Sunkist Growers and Procter & Gamble on
ground-breaking cause programs that empower individuals to contribute to
social causes in their communities and around the world.

About MS&L

MS&L is a leading global communications firm and part of MS&L Worldwide,
a network of communications brands and consultancies with 54 offices in
North America, Latin America, EMEA and Asia, as well as an extensive
affiliate network. The agency specializes in using research, insights
and technology to create and execute powerful communications strategies
that are critical to client success. With a unique combination of
advice, advocacy and action, MS&L delivers measurable business results
for many of the world's largest companies and most successful brands.

MS&L Worldwide (mslworldwide.com <http://www.mslworldwide.com/> ) is a
member of the Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris: FR0000130577), the
world's fourth largest communications group, and a global leader in
digital and online advertising, media consulting, and healthcare
communications. With some 45,000 professionals in 104 countries, the
Groupe's activities cover advertising through three global advertising
networks: Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as through
its two multi-hub networks Fallon Worldwide and 49%-owned Bartle Bogle
Hegarty; media agencies with two worldwide networks ZenithOptimedia and
Starcom MediaVest Group; and marketing services, including digital and
interactive communications through Digitas, relationship and direct
marketing, public and media relations, corporate and financial
communications, multicultural communications, and event communications.
The Groupe is also the world leader in healthcare communications. Web
site: www.publicisgroupe.com <http://www.publicisgroupe.com/> .

CONTACT: Sara Donaldson
MS&L
(212) 468-3893
sara.donaldson@mslworldwide.com

MS&L Launches Proprietary Social Activism Marketing Offering to Leverage New Age of Cause Marketing

MS&L Launches Proprietary Social Activism Marketing Offering to Leverage New Age of Cause Marketing

A Revolutionary Time for Ad Agency New Business

A Revolutionary Time for Ad Agency New Business
<http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2008/07/18/a-revolutionary-time-for-ad-ag
ency-new-business/>

History is in the making with the socialization of media and
information. This is our Industrial Revolution.

A Communications Revolution.

This revolution is already impacting ad agency new business practices.
There is definitely a revolution taking place in the way agency new
business is acquired. The new business paradigm shift that is taking
place requires agencies to position themselves where they can be found
by their prospective clients. This will require the use and greater
dependence upon Web 2.0 tools.

Agencies must practice what they preach and participate in the use of
these tools for themselves to have credibility. They also will be forced
to identify their best target audience and be positioned as having the
kind of expertise and leadership that makes them irresistibly appealing.

In this new era of agency new business prospective clients will actually
let you know when they are ready to engage by initiating the call. And
when they call, the conversation is a longer way down the road. They are
ready to do business. You won't have to woo them.

In any revolution you have those that are sitting on the sidelines
waiting to see what is going to happen. You have those that are
followers. But then you have those thought provoking leaders out in
front of us all. Brian Solis <http://www.briansolis.com/> , Principal of
FutureWork <http://www.future-works.com/> , an award winning PR and New
Media agency is one of those emerging new leaders. Encouraging his
industry to arise to the challenges of this new era. Brian recently
wrote,

"Media is experiencing a textbook Darwinian definition of survival of
the fittest ... Media will re-emerge as a more dynamic, nimble, and
innovative medium.

In the era of Socialized Media, relationships are the new currency and
participation and collaboration are emerging as the new information
exchange.

Mainstay brands will persevere, but the cost of their education to learn
how to compete for the future will be great. Some will wait until it's
too late only to awaken to a daunting challenge of creating and earning
presence and relevance in a new economy."

Times are definitely changing and the mood of a large number of small
and midsize agencies is somberness instead of an excitement for this new
media revolution. They haven't kept up with the changes and find
themselves behind in by a lack of knowledge of social media and how to
use it correctly for themselves and for their clients.

My encouragement is to get involved now. Experience it for yourself to
know the many great opportunities it provides. Learn the use of new
media to engage your prospective client community. It takes time and
effort to have a working understanding of this new technology, but you
will be amazed at how quickly it will provide benefits to your agency
and allow you to utilize these new tools for your clients. Experience
truly is the best teacher.

The cost of your education is going to be great but if you don't invest
in your education now it will be costlier later.

Source:
http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2008/07/18/a-revolutionary-time-for-ad-age
ncy-new-business/
<http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2008/07/18/a-revolutionary-time-for-ad-ag
ency-new-business/>

Site provides info, videos about age-related macular degeneration

Nothing special ... but thought I would pass this along:

Site provides info, videos about age-related macular degeneration

Nutraceutical company EyeScience Labs has launched www.EyeScience.com to
provide consumers with information and education about age-related
macular degeneration (AMD) using online video. The site teaches users
about eye anatomy, screening and diagnosis, risk factors, signs and
symptoms, and treatments for AMD. The site also features more than 20
videos about eye anatomy, AMD symptoms, and other issues. An FAQ section
contains expert answers to more than 30 questions about AMD, and an "Ask
the Doctor" section allows consumers to submit their questions to
EyeScience medical experts, who will answer their questions privately
and for free.

Rebel Physicians Talk Smack on Pharma

More physicians are generating negative word of mouth about pharma

The percentage of U.S. physicians who are deeply dissatisfied with pharma and actively generate negative word of mouth has risen from 12% to 19% in the past year. That's according to new TNS Healthcare research about more than 1,500 general practitioners. The five major European markets--United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain--also show a high proportion of doctors actively creating negative word of mouth, ranging from a low of 19% in Italy to a high of 27% in the United Kingdom. These negative talkers are labeled "rebels," and according to TNS, companies should have no more than 15% of their customer base fall into this category. When rebels make up more than 15%, it becomes more difficult to overcome the negative buzz and promote successfully.

RE: Breaking News: FDA Approves Pfizer's Depressent Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful

Where can Jennie get some? ;)

From: Gratton, Fabio
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:14 PM
To: Everyone at Ignite
Cc: skypen.ignitehealth@blogger.com
Subject: Breaking News: FDA Approves Pfizer's Depressent Drug for the
Annoyingly Cheerful

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fda_approves_depressant_drug_for

Breaking News: FDA Approves Pfizer's Depressent Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fda_approves_depressant_drug_for

How the CDC used blogs, social networks, virtual worlds, Twitter, eCards, mobile-ready Web sites, and other new media technologies to educate about Flu Vaccines

Health Marketing Musings

from Jay M. Bernhardt, PhD, MPH
Director, National Center for Health Marketing
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Getting Viral for Flu Vaccination

I got my flu vaccination. Have you gotten yours? If you haven't, it's
not too late to prevent getting the flu. In fact, that's the main
message of National Influenza Vaccination Week, which is I got my flu
vaccination. Have you gotten yours? If you haven't, it's not too late to
prevent getting the flu. In fact, that's the main message of National
Influenza Vaccination Week, which is taking place this week, December
8-14, 2008. While flu season in the United States generally runs from
October through May, people who get vaccinated in December or later can
still protect themselves and others from the flu. Most of the time
influenza activity peaks in January. Although the CDC has long promoted
annual influenza vaccination as the single most important thing one can
do to prevent catching the flu, far too many people still do not take
this preventive action. Each year, on average in the United States, more
than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications and about
36,000 people die.

So how can we more effectively spread the message and increase its
impact? By combining the research-based traditional (vertical)
strategies of expert-based communication, mass media messages, and state
and local outreach with new media (horizontal) strategies using
interactive, participatory, and peer-to-peer engagement. For the third
straight year, the CDC National Center for Health Marketing is
collaborating with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory
Diseases on the annual Seasonal Flu Vaccination campaign. This year we
are reaching out through blogs, social networks, virtual worlds,
Twitter, eCards, mobile-ready Web sites, and other interactive, new
media technologies to provide information and to motivate people to "Get
Vaccinated."

The products featured below are being promoted to partners and the
public, but we also count on you to help promote the important message
of seasonal flu vaccination. Please help us support this campaign by
participating in the following activities:

CDC Get Vaccinated Graphical Button for placement on an organization's
Web site. A button is a graphic element used to promote campaigns and
causes online. Buttons remind Web site users to get vaccinated. To add
an English or Spanish language button to your page, please visit
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/NIVW/help.htm and follow the directions posted
there.

CDC "I Got My Flu Vaccine. Have You?" Badge for social networking sites.
CDC's MySpace page will feature messages and a social networking badge
for friends. To add this badge to an organization or individual's social
network site, visit CDC's MySpace page
<http://www.myspace.com/cdc_ehealth> and copy and paste the html code
into your site.

Add a link to CDC's Get Vaccinated Health-e-Cards to a Web site or blog.
Available in several different designs, the e-Cards include flu
vaccination messages for moms and health care providers. The flu e-Cards
link to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/ for more information, and also offer a
space for inserting a personal message.

Add one of the following Widgets to a Web site (all available from
www.cdc.gov/widgets/)

RSS Reader. This widget will read content from CDC RSS feeds and updated
CDC content, including seasonal flu. Content will be displayed in the
CDC RSS widget automatically.

Flu Map. Updated weekly, the CDC flu map widget will display a current
map of reported flu cases throughout the United States.

Visit http://m.cdc.gov <http://m.cdc.gov/> on your Mobile Phone to
access mobile-ready Web content on seasonal flu.

Follow us on Twitter (CDCFlu) for seasonal influenza messages throughout
flu season.

CDC is also reaching out to partners and the public through other
interactive media avenues. We are seeking partners to participate in a
CDC.gov Content Syndication pilot of content from the Seasonal Flu
<http://www.cdc.gov/flu/> Web site. Content syndication allows CDC to
share timely and relevant content that is automatically and seamlessly
updated on partners' Web sites. The display of the content will be
consistent with the partners' look and feel of their own sites. Once
code is posted, no maintenance is required.

Last week, CDC conducted two Bloginars. The bloginar for mommy bloggers
addressed the importance of vaccination, vaccine safety and
communication messages. The bloginar for healthcare bloggers discussed
ways to encourage colleagues to get vaccinated, to respond to questions
about vaccine effectiveness, and to share other clinical updates.

CDC and Whyville, a popular Virtual World for "tweens," (children ages
eight through eleven), will collaborate for a third year on an in-world
activity to engage them and their grandparents in vaccination
activities.

Many of these tools would not be effective without the help of our
partners in public health. We would like to thank the National Public
Health Information Coalition (NPHIC), WebMD, MayoClinic.com,
HealthCentral.com, and QuantiaMD for their help in promoting the annual
Seasonal Flu Vaccination campaign. As we work to use the tools of health
marketing to promote flu vaccination, please join us in spreading the
word. You can get more information on these efforts at
nchminteractivemedia@cdc.gov.

Help spread the word, not the flu.

Generics Going Viral -- a Definite Must Watch

Look, I'm not saying it's original ... but it's amusing and extremely
relevant in our industry right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIty1lW2q58&e

Marketers Adapt as Social Networks Attract Older Users

Marketers Adapt as Social Networks Attract Older Users

Increasingly Popular With the 35-Plus Set, Facebook, MySpace Become
Mainstream Marketing Vehicles

by Michael Learmonth <mailto:mlearmonth@adage.com>
Published: February 23, 2009
<http://adage.com/results?endeca=1&return=endeca&search_offset=0&search_
order_by=score&search_phrase=02/23/2009>

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Sometime in 2007, the recent grads that made up
the core of Facebook came to a doleful realization: Yup, mom and all her
friends are on Facebook. The following year it got worse: The
once-exclusive club of the young was completely infiltrated by
colleagues, bosses, neighbors and others who might not be amused when
little Johnny gets tagged in a photo getting totally ripped with his
pals.

Social networking is no longer a youth phenomenon. As Facebook marches
toward 52 million U.S. users (170 million worldwide), the site is
beginning to look like, well, America. Which is to say, it looks a lot
older. As of January, more than 50% of Facebook users and 44% of MySpace
users in the U.S. were over 35 years old, according to ComScore
estimates. The single biggest age demographic in the U.S. on both
Facebook and MySpace is now between 35 and 44. Indeed, Facebook says its
fastest-growing demo is 55-plus.

That's to be expected, and largely due to the fact that both Facebook
and MySpace don't have a lot of growing room left among the younger set.
According to Pew Internet and American Life data, 75% of online adults
18-24 already have a profile on a social network. "For those to grow,
they'd have to have aged," said Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer. "It's from
growth and expansion to ubiquity."

Generally, somewhere between growth and ubiquity is when uncool usually
starts to set in. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg backpedaled fast over a
privacy flap last week
<http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=134673> , but the story,
which broke on the Consumerist blog, made the NBC Nightly News, a sure
sign that Facebook's niche status is over.

With the cool kids
So far, Facebook's aging demos haven't turned off the college set: It's
the most popular website on campus above Google and Yahoo, according to
an Anderson Analytics poll of college students last fall. MySpace has
taken a bit of a tumble in the eyes of college students, falling to No.
4 this year from No. 2 last year school year and No. 1 during the
2006-2007 school year.

Even as Facebook ages, users are still exposed to the activities of
their friends, and Facebook has added features such as Facebook Connect
to encourage users to take those connections with them as they move on
to other sites. "Social networking is so engrained into the lifestyle of
college students that it wouldn't be any less cool because their parents
and grandparents are there," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho
Williamson.

So what does it mean for marketers that social networking is getting
older? For Facebook, the upside is they're now being considered for a
wider array of marketing budgets. "A year ago, they thought about it as
a place to reach people in college or high school; now we're talking
about moms, or reaching families looking to go on vacation," said Kevin
Barenblat, CEO of ContextOptional, which has implemented Facebook
campaigns for Guinness, Microsoft and the Los Angeles Times.

Because of its entertainment focus, marketers still see MySpace as
primarily a youth play. Facebook has more users with incomes above
$60,000 than MySpace, indicating an older, wealthier audience, according
to research from Hitwise. "MySpace has evolved into an entertainment
portal with a social-networking component to it," said Scott Symonds,
executive media director at AKQA.

But as social networking becomes more ubiquitous, age demographics
become a less important filter than stated interests and other factors.
"We don't care if a person is 42 or 24; if they are friends with a band
I am sponsoring, that's an opportunity," Mr. Symonds said.

Just as social networks become more of a mainstream marketing vehicle,
marketers are watching to see if the phenomenon ebbs, particularly with
the young. "There are too many examples of things that were totally
cool, became commercial, and then became totally uncool," said Chad
Ciecel, president of WhittmanHart Interactive.

CPC's desperate need for a makeover - iMediaConnection.com

Today's cost-per-click pricing models cannot maintain growth in their current state. Here are the important changes that need to be made.

View >>

Study: Information-seeking patients more likely to receive latest treatments

Study: Information-seeking patients more likely to receive latest treatments

Cancer patients who seek out health information from the Internet and media are more likely to be aware of and receive the latest treatments, according to a study in the April 1, 2009, issue of CANCER, a journal of the American Cancer Society. Researchers found that information-seeking patients were more likely to have higher awareness of and receive treatment using target therapies. Patients who sought information about treatments were 2.83 times more likely to have heard about targeted therapies and 3.22 times more likely to have received targeted therapies. The study examined the relationship of information-seeking in 633 colorectal cancer patients and the use of novel new agents for the disease.

Yahoo! introduces image- and video-capable search ads

Yahoo! introduces image- and video-capable search ads

Yahoo! is introducing a new type of search advertising, called Rich Ads in Search, that integrates images and video in paid listings. The company said it has tested the offering with companies such as Pedigree, Staples, Pepsi, and Home Depot. A Yahoo! search for dog food company Pedigree, for example, will result in a light-blue box at the top of the search page containing an image from a Pedigree commercial, which plays when clicked. A Rich Ad in Search can also include a search box asking the searcher to enter his or her ZIP code, which will take him or her to the section of the geographically relevant advertiser's Web site. Yahoo! is charging a monthly fee for the service and is not using the auction-based pricing like most search advertising. The company said some advertisers in the pilot program saw an improvement of as much as 25% in click-through rates.

Pharma Strategy Blog

I found this fascinating quote today:

What would happen if an enlightened medical, new product or marketing team took the same RSS links and fed them into Twitterfeed and hence to a Twitter or Friendfeed account and aggregated numerous sources of interesting data?  Would that be education or promotion?  Or suppose there was also a blog with lovely widgets and chicklets saying Add Me to your RSS Reader or Email Me when a new post goes up or Share This with others via StumbleUpon, Digg, Mixx, Facebook etc.Sally Church, Pharma Strategy Blog, Feb 2009

You should read the whole article.

Wii Attracting Young Boys, Older Women in Droves - Nielsen

Wii Attracting Young Boys, Older Women in Droves – Nielsen

New usage data from Nielsen confirms what many of us have observed: Wii is attracting a new audience, but that audience isn't playing very often compared to PS3 and 360 gamers.

by James Brightman on Tuesday, February 17, 2009

With all the talk of Nintendo expanding the video game audience, it should come as little surprise that new data from Nielsen Media Research suggests that Wii fares best with young boys and older women. The metered usage data, which covers last year's all-important fourth quarter (October – December), shows that Nintendo's console does a good job attracting boys age 6-11 and women age 25-34.

Furthermore, usage of the Wii by women over 35 is much higher than with the Xbox 360 and PS3. Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were cited as products that have been particularly enticing for older females. While the Wii has certainly brought in a new audience, the more traditional 18-24 age group (often looked at as the hardcore gamer demographic) has engaged in much less Wii usage – for both genders in this age range.

As for the other consoles, Nielsen found the PS3 to skew the oldest of the three platforms, possibly because of consumer brand loyalty and since Sony dominated the market with the PS One in 1994 and PS2 in 2000. "Gamers who owned one or both of these consoles in their youth may have 'graduated' to the PS3 in their assumed adulthood. For both males and females, the highest usage came from the 18-24 age group," Nielsen noted. Microsoft's Xbox 360, meanwhile, seemed to find the middle ground between Wii and PS3. Among males, the largest percentage of usage was found in the 12-17 age group, older than Wii, but younger than PS3. For females, the 25-34 age group had the highest percentage of usage.

Overall, however, while the Wii was the least used console on average, the Xbox 360 saw males using the Xbox 360 on nearly twice as many days per month as females (10.2 vs. 5.4 in December). On the PS3 and Wii, usage breakdown by gender was much more balanced.

"All three of the consoles have their fans, and sales of consoles and games have been some of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak retail environment," said Bradley Raczka, Marketing Manager for Nielsen Games. "It will be interesting to watch the continued migration to the current generation consoles in 2009, and see how releases of titles such as Halo Wars, Resident Evil 5, MadWorld, Killzone 2 and Street Fighter IV impact usage trends in the first half of the year."

 

Plugging in to Social Networkers' Behavior

Plugging in to Social Networkers’ Behavior

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Brands do best by helping users do what they like

In the social media arena, marketers know that traffic is high and increasing, but social networks have yet to find a solid revenue stream.

The disparity between usage and advertising is striking.

In 2009, more than 44% of Internet users will visit a social network at least once per month, according to eMarketer. But social network advertising represents just 5% of overall online ad dollars.

It’s no wonder that traditional online ad formats, such as display, are not terribly successful. Social networkers are preoccupied.

A November 2008 JPMorgan survey showed that 78% of online social networkers were there to keep in touch with friends. One-half of respondents said they wanted to connect with old friends. Many more were engaged with content, such as sharing photographs or music.

Marketers will get more leverage with consumers by providing widgets and other applications to help people chat and create and share content, as Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of ad agency Deep Focus, told eMarketer.

“Social networking is not just about the display advertising, it’s about the other things that you can do with it,” he said. “For example, if my audience is active on Facebook, I want to be sure that I am making it very easy for someone to share whatever content they’re creating or consuming with all their friends.”

Capturing and making sense of all the activity on social sites is daunting for marketers, admitted Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.

But there are a number of methods for marketers to tap into these sites.

“Social networks are where consumers feel comfortable expressing their feelings—good or bad—about companies, products and services,” Ms. Williamson said. “Marketers, retailers and social networks have an opportunity to tap into this stream of information-sharing.”

Both MySpace and Facebook are exploring e-commerce initiatives that incorporate users into the process. For instance, at MySpace Music users can purchase downloads of songs on friends’ playlists. MySpace and Facebook have classified ads where friends can sell to other friends.

“These offerings are only the beginning,” Ms. Williamson said.

Wii's Secret To Success: Young Boys And Old Women

Wii's Secret To Success: Young Boys And Old Women

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FDA Uses Social Media, But You Can&#8217;t

FDA Uses Social Media, But You Can’t

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Gaming To Save Healthcare Marketing

Gaming To Save Healthcare Marketing

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Novartis, Boehringer Start Using Twitter Accounts

Novartis, Boehringer Start Using Twitter Accounts

 

source: http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10001062/novartis-boehringer-start-using-twitter-accounts/

 

 

Great read! Social Media Marketing Is A Multicultural World

Social Media Marketing Is A Multicultural World

By Felipe Korzenny Thursday, February 19, 2009 (Mediapost)

Social media is now ubiquitous. Usage of blogs, social networks, and video sharing sites is increasing rapidly, and millions of people now look to social media sites as their primary source of news, opinion, and entertainment. As we witness this dramatic shift from traditional to social media, we believe it's important to examine its cultural dimensions - that is, who is driving this shift, what are the cultural factors behind it, and what are the implications for marketers seeking to reach specific ethnic/cultural groups via social media?

We recently conducted an analysis of newly collected data to examine the patterns of social media behaviors of different ethnic/cultural groups in the U.S. The data come from the Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication with the support of DMS Research from a national online sample of nearly 2,500 people with approximately 500 cases in each of the following cultural groups: Hispanics who prefer English, Hispanics who prefer Spanish, Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, and Asians in the United States.

We aggregated information to find out what ethnic/cultural groups are more likely to visit social networking sites. We found broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that emerging minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.

Percent of respondents who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics,36%
Asians, 34%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 27%
African Americans, 26%
Non-Hispanic whites,18%

We then broke out the data for leading social networks, MySpace and Facebook, to see if there are any groups leading usage of the most popular social networking sites - again, minorities lead the way, with English-preferring Hispanics being twice as likely to visit MySpace regularly than non-Hispanic whites. The relative importance of emerging minorities as compared with the traditional majority points to a major shift in social influence.

Percent of respondents who visit MySpace or Facebook "regularly":

English-preferring Hispanics,44% (MySpace) 18% (Facebook)
Spanish-preferring Hispanics,35% and 13%
Asians, 31% and 18%
African Americans, 29% and 12%
Non-Hispanic whites,22% and 7%

These data are interesting, but in order for these findings to be useful and actionable for us as marketers, we need to determine the reason for the strong representation of ethnic minorities on social networking sites and how to best engage with this audience. We believe that there is a mix of cultural, demographic and market factors that make social media particularly appealing to emerging minorities.

Demographically, ethnic minorities are younger than non-Hispanic whites. It's no secret that younger people in general are more likely to adopt new technologies, particularly technologies that enable communication and provide social connectivity. This age gap between minorities and non-Hispanics only partially explains the gap in social media involvement.

In order to analyze the influence of age on social media behavior, we divided respondents into two segments, those 35 years of age and younger and those 36 years of age and older. The following shows that people 35 and younger of all cultural backgrounds are more likely to use social media, with Hispanics who prefer to communicate in Spanish lagging behind. Young Spanish-preferring Hispanics may lag because they are likely to be newer to the Internet, and also because their friends and relatives are less likely to be online due to economic and access factors. While Hispanics in general are aggressively getting online, those less acculturated are still somewhat less represented in the digital realm today.

Percent of respondents 35 and younger who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics, 58%
Asians, 58%
Non-Hispanic whites, 57%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 33%
African Americans, 33%

When examining the usage of social networking sites among those 36 and older, we find that older Hispanics, regardless of language preference, are more active, especially when compared non-Hispanic whites within the same age group.

Percent of respondents 36 and older who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics, 24%
Asians, 24%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 23%
African Americans, 17%
Non-Hispanic whites, 13%

This substantiates the notion that age is only a partial explanation for the higher usage of social media among Hispanics and other ethnic minorities. Culture and market factors also play an important role in promoting online social connectivity among these groups.

Culturally, ethnic minorities tend to be drawn to collectivistic values and often look to one another to help guide decisions and opinions. In addition, ethnic minorities are more likely to leverage social networks to communicate with groups of family and friends who are geographically dispersed. Social media facilitates such collective sharing of information and communication.

In addition, market forces are driving ethnic minorities to use social media. There is a dearth of culturally relevant and in-language content available online. As a result, ethnic minorities tend to be proactive and create and share their own content and social networks are ideal platforms for publishing and distributing such original content.

Social networking services allow people to organize and enhance their relationships online, but regardless of technology, culture is still the glue that bonds people together. Marketers seeking to reach ethnic minorities through social media must reinforce and connect with the culture of their target audience if they seek to strengthen their clients' brands on social networks - doing so requires a strategic long term approach that should include the following elements:

Define your objectives

Using social media can accomplish a number of business objectives. Do you want to advertise a new product? Gather research? Provide customer service and build goodwill? Knowing what you're looking for will make it much easier to find.

Understand your audience and be strategic

A successful social media strategy requires a clear definition of objectives, understanding o your audience and a strategy for engaging them. Consider the cultural motivations that are driving your target audience to social media. Are they there to talk about music? Are they keeping in touch with relatives overseas? Are they there to connect and share their collective culture? What language are they using? They may be doing all of these things and more, but if you can determine what's drawing your audience to social media in the first place, you'll have a better chance of engaging them when you join their conversations. Building and maintaining conversations with a target audience requires research, careful planning and a strategic approach.

Dedicate resources to proactively engage your audience with timely and relevant content

Ethnic minorities are turning to social networks to express themselves, connect with their culture and communicate with each other. To be successful, marketers must be open to engaging audiences with timely and relevant content that stimulates feedback and sharing. Engaging in meaningful conversations is the goal of social media marketing and doing so requires a deep understanding of needs, openness to negative commentary and dedicated resources. A social media presence is worthless if it lies dormant.

The time is now

Few marketers are proactively targeting ethnic minorities online and even fewer are leveraging social media to do so. A first mover advantage is available for those that devote the time and resources to engage these critical audiences in ways that they find meaningful. The fact is that we now have an unprecedented ability to reach and interact with ethnic minorities; and companies that deliver value to this segment today will be rewarded with the long-term loyalty of this market.

Brief note on the author: Felipe Korzenny is the director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University and senior strategy consultant at Captura Group. He has over 30 years of Hispanic marketing experience and has published six books, nearly 100 publications on communication and culture and is a prominent nationwide speaker. Email him at: fkorzenny@fsu.edu.

Site lets advertisers target users based on poll answers

Site lets advertisers target users based on poll answers

Social media site Sodahead.com is allowing advertisers to target users based on their answers to poll questions. The site, which has more than 1 million registered users, lets users pose questions to others, ranging from whether users like President Obama to whether a college degree is important. Sodahead.com is letting advertisers put these answers to good use. For example, people who answered yes to the question "Are the Jonas Brothers the new Beatles?" received a Kohl's promotion, reports ClickZ. Young women were the targeted audience for Kohl's campaign and were also most likely to answer yes. Sodahead.com also says companies use its customized poll widget to better engage their audience.

Everyday Health continues to make gains in online consumer health space

Everyday Health continues to make gains in online consumer health space

Citing comScore Media Metrix rankings, Everyday Health reports that it was the most visited online consumer health network for the last three months of 2008 and January 2009. It was also one of the top five gaining U.S. properties for 2008, according to comScore's 2008 Digital Year in Review. For the past four months, the Everyday Health Network says it has attracted more than 25 million unique monthly visitors to its 24 sites. Its advertisers include Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline

Online ratings service lets users update Facebook page with reviews

Online ratings service lets users update Facebook page with reviews

Kudzu.com, a Web site that helps consumers find and rate services, including doctors, now has a Facebook presence. Users can share recommendations with their Facebook friends whenever they write a review on Kudzu.com, thanks to Facebook Connect. Kudzu.com users can log in to the local online business directory with their Facebook ID and password. Users will see their Facebook friends on their personal My Kudzu page and can post reviews to their Facebook Mini Feeds without leaving Kudzu.com.

Interesting...

Project launches beta technology platform for healthcare community

The Medpedia Project has publicly launched the beta version of a technology platform for the worldwide health community. The long-term project aims to create a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health through a free, easy-to-understand online technology platform. The Medpedia Platform includes three services: a collaborative knowledge base, a professional network and directory for health professionals and organizations, and communities of interest in which users can share information about conditions, treatments, lifestyle choices. This free resource is available today at medpedia.com. Since the announcement of the project in July 2008, more than 110 organizations have contributed or pledged more than 7,000 pages of content to the knowledge base, and thousands of people have become a part of the community.

Web-based services get Merck high marks among U.S. physicians

Web-based services get Merck high marks among U.S. physicians

Strong ratings among doctors for Merck's Web-based physician services and patient information programs garnered the company the top spot among physicians for effectively delivering sales and service activities. Physicians in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Italy gave that distinction to Novartis, according to TNS Healthcare research. Merck tied with Novartis in the United Kingdom and Germany. In 2008, Merck and Novartis tied for the top spot in the United States. The report shows that in the United States, companies score well on reps' knowledge, as well as new service elements such as Web-based services, educational programs, and patient support.