“Search Plus Your World” Could Wreck Pharma’s World

Written by Michael Spitz, Ignite Health's VP of Engagement Planning

[Check out the breaking news and videos here]

Ever since Google realized that its uncontested strength of connecting people with websites paled in comparison to the infinite potential of connecting people with people, the once unstoppable company has made a concerted effort to embrace and conquer not only search, but social media. Following several missteps including the regionally popular Orkut and flat-out embarrassing Buzz, Google Plus recently entered the scene with an interface, features, and functionality in many ways rivaling or exceeding those of Facebook.

The next logical step in the evolution of search toward its inevitable integration with social media is “Search Plus Your World” rolled out this Tuesday, another line extension in Google’s unfolding and often awkward attempt at melding these two worlds and owning the online world. Simply by clicking the “show personal results” icon in the upper right hand corner of the results page users now instantly integrate their Google Plus experience with search, triggering contextually relevant links, status updates, and even photos of Google Plus friends to seamlessly integrate into the results area in a manner that profoundly personalizes search results.

The good news for Google is that it simultaneously advertises the fledgling Google Plus social network in a vital and unprecedented manner, and provides the company with an expansive bolus of data for further refining and customizing search results. The bad news is that a vast majority of search users as yet don’t participate in Google Plus, so the unique benefits of Search Plus beg the question for most folks who can’t take advantage of the functionality in the first place. But the idea makes tremendous digital sense, and is a foreshadowing of how search and social media will soon become indistinguishable from each other.

Enter the concerns of healthcare communicators in general, and pharma marketers in particular. These battle-tested communications veterans had high hopes for Google Plus in that the “Circles” features seemed a way healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers could segment their friends into discrete groupings enabling private updates, conversations, and content sharing. But what Search Plus seems to do is bust these silos wide open, openly and indiscriminately accessing all this social content and contextually mashing it up within another user’s search results.

So for example, imagine a cancer patient sharing branded treatment content and their personal observations of care with a family member or nurse within a designated and presumably private Circle on Google Plus, only to discover that the content was being potentially shared on the results pages of friends or acquaintances outside that ostensibly private group? In other words any semblance of privacy offered by Google Plus is destroyed by Search Plus, which transforms a private social domain into a public search results page. Similarly challenging issues abound for any branded content, as who knows when and how such content could be displayed.

As privacy issues become manifest Google will no doubt offer ways to tweak and control the various settings. But for healthcare communicators and pharma marketers the verdict, at least for now, is to steer clear of Google Plus when sharing any information that is private, proprietary, or subject to regulatory scrutiny. The future is clear: As search and social meld into a contiguous user experience these issues will play themselves out, presumably with our shifting boundaries of propriety and privacy. Until then, let’s wait and see how Search Plus will influence our world, before we do anything brash to wreck it.

Google Search, Plus Your World - Stories

FDA Draft Guidance & Social Media - Industry Reacts

The Ticket Store Game Launches Online

Offering a Revolutionary Approach to Parenting for a New Generation of Tech-Savvy Familie

As TED (Technology Entertainment Design) keynote speaker Jane McGonigal brought to light in her talk "Gaming Can Make a Better World," we can use desire, focus, rewards and 3 billion hours a week of experience we have with virtual gaming to impact positive changes in the real world.

The Ticket Store Game is the ultimate application of this theory to improve child behavior, introducing an online interactive game and connecting the virtual world with positive behavior changes in the real world. While the traditional board game has been successfully utilized in over 10 countries, the online game brings the concept to a modern level.

With a new generation of families with tech-savvy parents and kids, The Ticket Store Game provides a new virtual platform in which kids are comfortable interacting. As an online children’s development strategy, the game leverages a parent’s effort in behavior modification through positive reinforcement and pioneers modernized virtual relationships for better child listening and responsiveness.

Following Malcolm Gladwell’s "Outliers" formula for success, being 10,000 hours spent on an effort, and knowing kids typically spend that many hours with virtual games by the time they are 18—if even a portion of that time is applied to The Ticket Store Game, the result is "virtuosos" of good behavior.

The Ticket Store Game offers an advanced approach in making responsive and responsible acts attractive. Creating a virtual board game with animated characters and avatars, parents assign each child tasks to complete in exchange for ticketed rewards. Parents/teachers and children craft personalized game boards to provide the ultimate recompense for favorable behavior. A digital piggy bank is available to accumulate tickets and allow the child to use their savings to "cash" in for rewards. A bonus board welcomes kids to move through "Tickieville" to earn additional tickets for community service, online library reading, performing a school activity and more. The Ticket Store Game provides a world of real life experiences to improve kids behavior.

The Ticket Store Game is not just for home use. The concepts of ownership, savings, community service, anti-bullying, acts of kindness and rewards can be incorporated into a classroom, parenting group, or school district, where kids play in competition with others, often for meaningful but inexpensive rewards. Through interactive digital literacy for positive behavior modification, the game has welcomed the next generation of parents, teachers and children who are more responsive to digital stimuli.

For more information on The Ticket Store Game visit www.ticketstoregame.com

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MEDIA CONTACT
Zakarin Martinez
Public Relations
305-372-2502

Digital Health Coalition Broadens Support With Formation of Digital Heath Scholars Group

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 02, 2011The Digital Health Coalition, a nonprofit think tank dedicated to fostering innovation in online health care, today announced the formation of a new group of industry thought leaders to further support its current Advisory Board. The Digital Health Scholars, which currently number twenty-eight, will work with the Digital Health Coalition’s recently formed Advisory Board to advance the coalition’s mission of serving as the collective voice and national forum for the discussion of the current and future issues relevant to digital and electronic marketing of healthcare products and services.

Twenty-Eight Industry Thought Leaders Join the Conversation to Move Healthcare Innovation Forward

“We are very excited to be publicly announcing the formation of the coalition’s brain trust,” said Joe Farris, Co-founder and Board President. “The addition of these twenty-eight highly regarded industry representatives is in keeping with our mission to have as many perspectives as possible represented at the table.”

The following industry thought leaders join the coalition as Digital Health Scholars, further supporting a team of leading industry executives, digital marketers, legal experts, market researchers, technologists, and medical thought leaders:

• Irene Aquino, Shire
• Brad Aronson, Entrepreneur
• Wendy Blackburn, InTouch Solutions
• Bob Brooks, WEGO Health
• Pat Choumitsky, UCB
• Elizabeth Estes, GA Communications
• Pete Dannenfelser, Targetbase
• Bill Drummy, Heartbeat Ideas
• Zoe Dunn, Hale Advisors
• Bruce Grant, Digitas Health
• Fabio Gratton, Ignite Health
• Manny Hernandez, Diabetes Hands Foundation
• Paul Ivans, Evolution Road
• John Kamp, Coalition for Healthcare Communication
• Jennifer Korch, Bayer
• Jim Lefevere, Roche Diagnostics
• Ben Lei, Genentech
• R.J. Lewis, e-Healthcare Solutions
• John Mack, VirSci
• Dan McKillen, HealthDay
• Larry Mickelberg, Havas
• Rich Meyer, WODTC
• Mary Modahl, QuantiaMD
• Eileen O'Brien, Siren Interactive
• Timothy Pantello, Tribal DDB
• Jonathan Richman, Possible
• Tina Sampath, Gilead
• Jeffrey Tangney, Doximity

About Digital Health Coalition

Launched in June 2011, the Digital Health Coalition - a nonprofit corporation - seeks to promote responsible innovation via digital marketing and communications in a connected world. The Digital Health Coalition has assembled leading entrepreneurs, industry executives, patient advocates, marketers, publishers, academics, and policy makers with the ultimate goal of recommending specific actions that will improve digital communication for the healthcare industry. Their first initiative is focused on the rapidly evolving space of social media and seeks to promote a world where patients, physicians, and brands can connect, empower, and drive positive health outcomes. Individuals and companies interested in being considered for the next round of Digital Health Scholars can visit http://www.digitalhealthcoalition.org for more information and to submit an online application.

What does the future of mHealth seem like to you?

Although the issuance of draft guidance for mobile medical applications by the FDA came as a surprise to many, experts close to the field have sensed that this summer would prove to be an important and pivotal period for the mHealth regulatory scheme. Michael Spitz discusses the implications of FDA draft guidance in his monthly mHealth Mashup. (pharmaphorum)

Blog.AIDS.gov: Mobile Health 2011

source: AIDS.gov Blog
By BJ Fogg , Executive Director, and Tanna Drapkin, Managing Editor, Mobile Health 2011

On May 4 and 5, over 400 people will gather at Stanford University to hear 45 experts share what really works in creating solutions to improve health behavior using mobile technology.

Hosted by Stanford University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mobile Health 2011 highlights real solutions for real people – practical, proven solutions. In fact, “What Really Works” is our official theme.

This is not a conference about speculation or ideas that live only in slides. That’s not helpful. This year we show what’s really working in many facets of mobile health, from early stage design to testing, from distribution to business models. And for the first time ever we’ll have a session on hacking for health (how people have used existing technologies to create quick health interventions), led by Google’s Chief Health Strategist, Dr. Roni Zeiger.

For two action-packed days, industry leaders, up-and-coming entrepreneurs, medical visionaries, and hard-working public servants will share their successes. We’ll learn from those with creative, cutting-edge approaches and from those who are working successfully within the confines of governmental security and privacy laws.

Our program features short talks, fast-paced panels, and long breaks for quality conversations. That means attendees hear from all 45 experts and get to talk with them directly. Some of the most inspiring and exciting moments of the conference happen when attendees connect. Relationships blossom, collaborations ensue, and partnerships form to continue to the critical work of providing innovative and positive health impact through the use of mobile technologies.

Mobile Health 2011 brings together grassroots, global, national, and local health organizations, health promotion professionals, mHealth solution providers, mobile vendors, innovators and researchers in mobile technology and behavior change, as well as a broad range of students and individuals doing work in this field. Our attendees are motivated and care deeply about the conference theme.

The mobile health industry continues to evolve at a dizzying pace and along with it there is the possibility to find new and different approaches to health care. At Mobile Health 2011 we highlight what is solving today’s health care problems with real results and stories. We showcase innovative and practical solutions, across a variety of sectors, which are a beacon for meaningful health care change right now. And if you're unable to attend, follow the hashtag #MH11 to see what we're up to.

Early Thoughts on Proposed ACO Rules

Written by Eric Dishman (3/31/11)
Source: Intel Blog

Hear ye, hear ye, read all about it! For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath (you know who you are!), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has just published the proposed rules and guidelines for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and the Medicare Shared Savings Program (SSP). You can download the 428-page document here and see the official press release here. Though, unless you are a policy or healthcare reform geek (which I guess I am becoming, frighteningly enough), you might want to wait for the inevitable summaries to be done by various consulting firms, non-profits, and individuals. I will post some of the good ones here when I see them.

These rule-makings around ACOs are a major component of the Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama last March, though most citizens and press outside of the healthcare industry have no clue what this is all about. ACOs are the primary mechanism for beginning to shift the American healthcare system from a volume-driven to a value-driven paradigm. In other words, today, the majority of healthcare is paid based on the volume of face-to-face visits, labwork, and prescriptions generated more than the value of the care provided. And these payments occur regardless of whether the treatments given (and charged for) are effective or helpful. The strategic intent of the health reform bill is to shift to a mode of payment that focuses much more on rewarding the quality of care over the volume of care.

There are three primary aims of these reform efforts (sometimes referred to as "the triple aims" or as "Berwick's triple aims" named for Don Berwick, the current Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). First, the goal is to provide better care for individuals. Second is to improve care for populations. And third is to lower the growth in healthcare costs and expenditures. ACOs are one of many tools to achieve these three aims, and healthcare providers and companies have been eager to see what the Secretary would propose as the specific requirements for becoming an ACO.

Basically, an ACO is a group of care providers--usually centered around primary care physicians--who commit, according to the proposed rules released today, for a minimum of three years to manage the overall care and costs of at least 5000 Medicare patients. And the ACO has to have a legal structure (though they are very flexible on the different kinds of structures permissible) that allows the organization to receive and distribute payments to all its care providers in the management of the care.

So imagine, for example, several physician practices, a hospital, and a home care agency within a particular town coming together to form an ACO to care for at least 5000 Medicare beneficiaries in that community. They would be paid what is often referred to as a "bundled" or "global payment" annually to care for all of the health needs of those patients, and they could participate in the Shared Savings Program by which they could get bonuses based on helping to reduce healthcare expenditures while boosting quality. Lest you think these providers would just ignore the needs of the sickest patients to keep their costs low and leave more shared savings in their pockets (and I should say that I have never met any clinicians in our 10+ years of fieldwork who would be so inclined--the majority are good people who went into medicine to help people), there are clear rules and data-driven quality measurement mechanisms that prevent that from happening.

I am particularly heartened to see some of the following language in the proposed rules:

• The ACO shall define processes to promote evidence-based medicine andpatient engagement, report on quality and cost measures, and coordinate care, such as through the use of telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and other such enabling technologies (p.17)

• The ACO shall demonstrate to the Secretary that it meets patient-centerednesscriteria specified by the Secretary, such as the use of patient and caregiver assessments or the use of individualized care plans (p.17)

• An ACO will manage resources carefully and respectfully. It will ensure continual waste reduction, and that every step in care adds value to the beneficiary. An ACO will be able to make investments where investments count, and move resources to meet beneficiaries' needs. Because of its capabilities with respect to prevention and anticipation, especially for chronically ill people, an ACO will be able to continually reduce its dependence on inpatient care. Instead, its patients will more likely be able to be home, where they often want to be, and, during a hospital admission, they receive assurance that their discharges will be well coordinated, and that they will not return due to avoidable complications (p. 25)

• An ACO will be proactive by reaching out to patients with reminders andadvice that can help them stay healthy and let them know when it is time for a checkup or a test (p.25)

• An ACO will collect, evaluate, and use data on health care processes andoutcomes sufficiently to measure what it achieves for beneficiaries and communities over time and use such data to improve care delivery and patient outcomes (p. 25)

• An ACO will be innovative in the service of the three-part aim of better care forindividuals, better health for populations, and lower growth in expenditures. It will draw upon the best, most advanced models of care, using modern technologies, including telehealth and electronic health records, and other tools to continually reinvent care in the modern age. It will monitor and compare its performance to other ACOs, identify and examine new processes for care improvement, and adopt those approaches that are demonstrated to be effective (p.25)

While I have several hundred more pages to go, my initial read shows some very promising directions. The rules feel very innovation-friendly and leave lots of flexibility and experimentation for communities to try different approaches to setting up ACOs. The focus on "patient engagement" shows a much-needed momentum around providing tools and expectations for patients to be a more proactive and responsible party in our own care. The explicit references to the use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring and the calling out of the need to move care to the home shows that CMS "gets it" in terms of the need to "place-shift" (a topic I bring up frequently in this blog) where care occurs away from more expensive settings like hospitals. And the requirements for incorporating and using data-driven, evidence-based tools to drive best practice care and continuous innovation/improvement will help us finally achieve a 21st century healthcare infrastructure that is scalable and competitive, internationally.

The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer Survey

Source: Edelman

The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer is the firm’s 11th annual trust and credibility survey.

The survey was produced by research frm Strategy One and consisted of 30-minute telephone interviews conducted from October 11-November 28, 2010, with the exception of France and Germany, felded January 3-13, 2011.

Click here to download the 28-page report (PDF)

The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer survey sampled 5,075 informed publics intwo age groups (25-34 and 35-64) in 23 countries. All informed publics met the following criteria: college-educated; household income in the top quartile for their age in their country; read or watch business/news media at least severaltimes a week; follow public policy issues in the news at least several times a week.

For more information, visit http://www.edelman.com/trust or call 212.704.4530.

2011 TRUST BAROMETER FINDINGS VIDEO: UNITED STATES EXCERPT

The YouTube Cure: How Social Media Shapes Medical Practice

Source: Scientific American

Popular demand for an unproved surgical treatment for multiple sclerosis shows the growing power of social media to shape medical practice—for good and ill

By Katie Moisse | Tuesday, February 8, 2011

When vascular surgeon Paolo Zamboni reported in December 2009 that inflating a tiny balloon inside twisted veins in the neck provided relief from multiple sclerosis, he created quite a stir. The idea that surgically straightening crooked veins could somehow benefit a degenerative nerve problem was astounding. Physicians were skeptical. Zamboni himself concluded that his findings should be subjected to more rigorous testing. Regardless, many people with MS, which affects at least 250,000 people in the U.S., immediately began clamoring for the unproved treatment. Their demands, amplified through a wide range of social-networking platforms, soon proved impossible to resist. In the past year, for instance, hospitals in California, New York, Italy and Poland have offered the Zamboni treatment—at a cost of $10,000 or more because it is not covered by insurance.

Doctors found themselves playing catch-up every step of the way. Even before Zamboni published his results in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, a post on Patients¬LikeMe.com (an online patient community) boasted news of his research, useful links and a dedicated Facebook URL. Community networks traded contact information detailing who would offer the procedure and where. Before-and-after videos were posted on YouTube. Like AIDS activists of 30 years ago but armed with much more powerful communications tools, patients challenged researchers and medical centers to explain why it was taking so long to offer Zamboni’s approach. Yet most MS experts believe that undergoing the procedure at the moment is a very risky proposition.

This episode highlights a growing challenge for patients: how to temper enthusiasm for experimental therapies, now widely and effectively marketed through personal testimonials posted online, until evidence shows that the treatments are likely to do more good than harm. “You can never blame people for being excited about something that sounds like good news, especially when they have a serious disease,” says Aaron Miller, a professor of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and chief medical officer for the National MS Society. “I think these social-media sites can have a positive function in that they allow patients to discuss research and share their experiences.” But, he adds, “they have a very major risk in leading patients to embark on therapeutic courses that are not necessarily appropriate for them or haven’t been established as being scientifically valid.”

A Dangerous Game

In the case of Zamboni’s work, it is easy to see how patients might be tempted to jump the gun and seek a treatment that initially sounds exciting. After all, the study findings came from a reputable surgeon (though not an MS researcher) publishing in a respected journal. As Daniel Simon, an interventional radiologist in Edison, N.J., says of the work: “It wasn’t Bob’s Journal of MS and Autobody Repair; it was the premier journal of vascular surgery.”

It is also easy to see why racing to get treatment can be a dangerous game to play. In the first place, one study, even a well-done one, does not show that a therapy is ready for prime time. Often in medicine, early positive findings wash away later. And Zamboni himself pointed out that the study had limitations. The small trial was not randomized, double-blinded or placebo-controlled—the combination of which is considered the gold standard in clinical research. Participants also continued to take immune system–modulating therapies known to reduce symptoms.

In the case of MS, as with some other disorders, the difficulty of knowing whether a treatment that seemed to work really did have an effect in a study is compounded by the erratic nature of the disease. The most common form—relapse-remitting MS—has a variable course marked by flare-ups amid symptom-free periods. So it is difficult to know if a certain treatment actually works or was simply taken during a naturally occurring remission. Patients taking placebo have often reported substantial improvements, according to Mount Sinai’s Miller.

Furthermore, the ultimate cause of the disease remains obscure, which makes it hard to gauge the appropriateness of an intervention. Everyone agrees that MS destroys the fatty myelin sheath that enwraps many nerve fibers. Stripped of their insulation, the wires of the nervous system lose their ability to transmit the electrical signals needed for movement, sensation and vision. Most researchers assume some kind of autoimmune response, in which a person’s own defense system attacks rather than ignores the body’s own tissues, is at work.

Given that current MS treatments are a far cry from a cure and do not work for everyone, some people with MS feel there is no harm in trying something that might improve their quality of life. The answer, of course, is that it could also make their quality of life much, much worse. Any surgery carries the risk of infection, and the procedure itself can actually damage the blood vessels, making them more vulnerable to clots and aneurysms.

Without more rigorous clinical trials, it is almost impossible to weigh accurately the potential costs and benefits. The operation to straighten out and puff up crooked and collapsed veins, called venoplasty, is almost identical to cardiac angioplasty—a common treatment for diseased coronary arteries. (Side effects for both include blood clots, infections and severe internal bleeding.) After piercing through a vein in the pelvis, a spaghetti-size catheter is threaded up through a vein near the spine and into the neck, where a balloon on the catheter’s tip is inflated to pop the neck vein back to its normal shape—just like squatting in jeans that have shrunk in the wash stretches them, Simon explains.

But veins, which are more pliable than arteries, often regain their tortuous shape within months after venoplasty, requiring multiple procedures. One MS patient in the U.S. reportedly died from a brain hemorrhage while recovering, and another needed emergency surgery after a stent implanted to permanently straighten a vein dislodged and migrated to the heart.

Ready for Testing

One thing in favor of Zamboni’s approach is it has a reasonable scientific rationale, which not all potential therapies touted on the Internet have. A close look at the characteristic plaques of scar tissue that lend the disease its name shows that they typically cluster around blood vessels. And that, Zamboni says, is key. Veins are flexible and can get twisted, slowing the rate of blood flow and potentially leaving waste and compounds such as iron to accumulate in the brain. Isn’t it possible, he wonders, the buildup triggers an inflammatory response? And if the inflammation lasted long enough, it could eventually end up targeting the myelin wrapping of the nerves. A similar mechanism had been linked to myelopathies, degenerative conditions of the spinal cord, which bear a pathological semblance to MS.

That is a lot of “if’s.” But some physicians consider Zamboni’s hypothesis and treatment plausible enough to test. And the National MS Society and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada have pledged $2.4 million over the next two years to examine the role that problems with venous circulation might play in multiple sclerosis. “There is little doubt that the intense interest in [venoplasty for MS] played a role in the decisions by the National MS Society and the Canadian MS Society to fund further research,” Miller says. Still, it is just too soon, he believes, to offer the procedure unless it is a part of a clinical trial.

A lesson from this episode, Miller says, is that it is important for neurologists and other physicians to be aware of what patients are seeing and reading online. “We can’t bury ourselves in an ivory tower and function as though [social-media sites] don’t exist,” he notes. “What our patients are thinking, we need to address. We have to be aware of it and be prepared to discuss it with them logically.” Miller says his patients almost invariably have been able to engage with him. After he explains the lack of certainty about venoplasty for MS, he observes, they usually agree with his advice to wait. Just how long they will continue to do so, however, may depend a lot on what social media push next.

New Facebook Page Format has Implications for Pharma

authored by

Ross Fetterolf, SVP Digital Strategy

Jeremy Franz, Digital Strategy Coordinator

As if having a movie about his life nominated for an Oscar wasn’t enough excitement for 2011, Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook gang have decided to evolve their platform once again, and the updates may leave those of us in the Pharma marketing world having to do some major updates to get our pages in compliance before this forced format change occurs on March 10^th, 2011.

To help provide some visual support for these changes, we went ahead and converted the Ignite Health Digital Strategy page to the new format, and dissected these updates below. We’ll describe the changes and talk briefly about the implications for Pharma Facebook efforts from a compliance perspective or potential increased marketing opportunity.

1. Photo Strip moves above Wall
1. DESCRIPTION: This means that the most recent photos added by your page will be pulled into a prominent placement above the wall (similar to the recently redesigned user profile)
2. IMPLICATION: There is now an increased importance of having photos be part of our page efforts, as they will occupy a very central area of the page. Typically Pharma pages have very few photos included outside their profile picture, everyone get your cameras out. One unique opportunity is for companies to use this strip creatively. For examples of what we mean, check out some of these interesting examples posted on mashable.

2. Tabs Move from top panel to under Profile Picture
1. DESCRIPTION: Tabs now move from a central navigation area under the page name, to the left area under the profile picture, with the visible number set to six
2. IMPLICATION: This could impact how the order of safety information appears (a careful consideration for branded pages), and will also likely decrease interactions with tabs other than what appears as the primary tab for the page

3. Profile Picture Size Reduced
1. DESCRIPTION: The size of the profile picture used for a group have been cut down by 80 pixels (from 200 X 600 to 180 X 540)
2. IMPLICATION: Could impact those pages that used a snippet of safety info as part of their picture to suggest that additional balanced information is available on page (a potential strategy to promote some degree of safety if posts are viewed outside of facebook.com, on a mobile device perhaps)

4. Pages can Like other Pages
1. DESCRIPTION: Pages can now officially “like” other pages, not just follow them or include them in their links
2. IMPLICATION: This presents an opportunity for a page to express specific affiliation with other pages (similar to a call-out on a website). Branded to un-branded linkage debates may soon be coming to Facebook…

5. Official Page Owners
1. DESCRIPTION: Previously, no-one knew who was responsible for creating and maintain your page, this new update provides the ability to feature page owners
2. IMPLICATIONS: We now have the opportunity to assign a human face to brand/company efforts. Who’s your official face of social media?

The following items don’t specifically impact the page layout, but are additional regulations surrounding pages that should be noted.

6. E-mail Notifications for User Posts/Comments
1. DESCRIPTION: While the idea that I am notified when someone posts on my wall is common practice on individual pages, this did not occur for group pages until this update
2. IMPLICATIONS: This update (combined with number 7 below) now opens up the potential for open comments to occur on pages, as page administrators can now be notified immediately when a user posts on the page wall or mentions a page that they like in their status update

7. Proactively Moderate Content Posted on Page

a. DESCRIPTION: Pages can now create a “moderation blacklist” of keywords to ensure that these terms don’t appear on comments posted on your page

b. IMPLICATIONS: While there is only one current example (Psoriasis360) of open wall conversations taking place on Pharma pages, this update has the ability to make this concept feasible. Your branded page could include a “moderation blacklist” of disease terms and adverse event language to ensure that any user post would be within guidelines. Could this bring us one step closer to Pharma actually engaging in true social media?

8. Interact Throughout Facebook as your Page

2. DESCRIPTION: Previously pages could only communicate on their own page (through their wall), but could not communicate as a page throughout Facebook
3. IMPLICATIONS: Theoretically, this opens up the potential for Pharma pages to communicate directly with other pages, and users interacting on those pages (i.e., adding to user comments). Imagine offering up product advice (as a brand page) to users who are commenting on a disease focused page

9. No More Non-Official “Wall” Usage

4. DESCRIPTION: Facebook is taking ownership of the term “wall” when used on their site, and will no longer allow users to have any application/tab that uses this language (Facebook branding policy)
5. IMPLICATIONS: To deal with the unique implications of doing Pharma marketing on Facebook, some companies have created custom wall applications (see “our wall” on the Latisse Facebook Page) so that they could imbed safety information at the bottom of the page, technically not possible within the confines of Facebook’s official “wall.”

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of the impact that the new Facebook pages updates will have on Pharma social media efforts, it highlights a larger challenge of executing social media in our space. Simply put, we are at the mercy of Facebook and other platforms, which consistently make changes to improve the user experience or functionality, often with little or no notice to marketers who have carefully designed their experiences based on existing guidelines.

If these changes have significant impact on your Pharma Facebook page, and I suspect they might, the countdown clock starts ticking to March 10^th. Can we rush to understand and process these guidelines, adjust social media policies/standards, develop solutions, get them approved through med/legal and deploy them in 4 weeks time?

Let us know your thoughts on how these changes are going to affect you, and stay tuned for some more in-depth analysis on what these updates mean for our industry.

ePharma Summit: ePharma 2011: This is the year of mobile

ePharma Summit: ePharma 2011: This is the year of mobile: "Search: Tried, Trusted and True—Now Tell Me What's New! • Maryann Belliveau, Google • Ann Cowan, Google Google continues to focus on sear..."

ePharma Tweets of the Week: 12-21-2010

Review our weekly update to catch the tweets that interested and inspired us.

Compiled by: Jeremy Franz, Digital Strategy Coordinator at Ignite Health (@eHealthStrat)

Its Official – FDA Delaying Social Media Guidance Until at Least Q1 2011 - (via @eyeonfda)

http://ow.ly/3st9I

The news that many in the industry were expecting.

I wish more people would think about this when they think about what they're doing with Social Media: (via @mitchjoel)

http://bit.ly/if5PMn

This post explains how social media can sometimes alienate those who join “in the middle of the movie.” Mitch offers some good tips on how to get late comers brought up to speed on your conversation.

Our holiday gift, from @foursquare to you: photos and comments! (via @foursquare)

http://bit.ly/efKYEU

These long requested features make foursquare a much more social platform, but will they be enough to hold off the likely geo-transplatation to Facebook Places?

Google Explores the Human Body With HTML5 (via @mashable)

http://on.mash.to/ijo4eg

This incredible atlas of the human body showcases the possibilities of HTML5.

Drug Companies Take Their Pitch to Social Media (via @L2_Pharma)

http://bit.ly/eo5hlL

A great write up on the complexity of social media and Pharma originally published on Time magazine’s online destination. The article profiles Novo Novardisk’s RaceWithInsulin campaign.

Report: 70 percent want access to #mHealth 200M apps in use today, 600M by 2012 (via @mobilehealth)

http://t.co/dk5zO9R

Statistics in the category have been volatile to date,this report investigates patient motivation and barriers to adoption of mHealth.

GR8 READ! "To Friend or Not" - new report by Deloitte explores SOCIAL MEDIA in life science industry: (via @skypen)

http://bit.ly/g1GQ6P

Deloitte’s in-depth study provides insight into the reasons why some life science companies are exploring and adopting social media when others are still on the outside looking in.

The Top Six Innovation Ideas of 2011 (via @HarvardBiz)

http://s.hbr.org/hhgXUo

Harvard Business Review predicts the key sources of innovation to come in 2011 – and invents the word, “contestification” in the process…

New Poll Reveals Holiday Shoppers Empowered By the Mobile Internet

Approximately Half of U.S. Consumers with Smart Phones Used Them to Locate Stores, Find Products and Compare Prices

Source of Article: Integrated Solutions for Retailers

The Line Between Online and In-Store Shopping is Blurring

Findings from a new GfK Roper Poll, conducted on behalf of SapientNitro, part of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), demonstrate that American consumers are increasingly empowered by their mobile devices when it comes to researching products and finding the best prices while holiday shopping.

The national survey found that of the three in ten Americans who own a "smart phone" — e.g., an iPhone, Blackberry, Android-based phone, or other type of Internet and application-enabled mobile phone — many are using it to their advantage while shopping for the holidays.

As shoppers are increasingly empowered by their mobile Internet devices this holiday season, this trend has implications for brick-and-mortar retailers. For example, of consumers with a smart phone:

• Three in ten (30%) say that, while at a store looking at a product, they tried to find a better deal elsewhere on their phone
• One in three (33%) say that while out shopping, they e-mailed or texted someone to tell them about an experience at a store — such as finding a great deal or a great gift
• One in five (19%) used their phone to post something on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or other social networking sites about their holiday shopping experience
• In addition, half or nearly half used their smart phones to find a store location (52%), research specific products they were thinking of purchasing (48%), browse for products (44%), and/or compare prices (40%). About one in three looked for discounts, deals, coupons, or discount codes (35%) on their mobile phones, or checked product availability at retail stores or websites (34%).

"Portability is a game-changer in transforming the way that people shop," said Chris Davey, worldwide head of commerce at SapientNitro. "Technology is causing some of the biggest shifts in human behavior that we've seen in years, and consumers are more informed and empowered than ever. This has a major impact not only on the way that consumers shop but also on the way that retailers need to market to consumers this holiday season."

"Mobile assets play an important role in making it easier for customers to find and order gifts for the holiday season," said Brian Tilzer, vice president of Ecommerce and business development at Staples. "Mobile technology offers us new ways to make it even easier for customers to research, shop and buy the products and services we offer. Given the rapid adoption of smart phones, we see great possibilities over time in putting even more power in the hands of our many customers using these devices."

The survey also found that the Internet, in general, is forging a new inter-connectedness between traditional and online stores. Of those Americans who have already started their holiday shopping:

• About half (53%) say they purchased a product in a physical retail store after researching the product online
• Nearly half (44%) purchased a product online after shopping for a similar item in a physical store

Consumers are finding a number of online tools helpful when choosing products to purchase this holiday season, the SapientNitro survey finds. Of those who have made an online purchase this holiday season:

• Seven in ten (69%) say online customer ratings or reviews (such as on Amazon or Yelp) very or somewhat valuable
• About half find e-mail promotions (50%) or online videos of product features/reviews (53%) valuable

How the survey was conducted

The survey was conducted December 3-5, 2010 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. This telephone poll was based on a nationally representative probability (random digit dial) sample of 1,004 general population adults age 18 or older. The data was weighted to account for probabilities of selection, as well as age, sex, education and race, using targets from the March 2009 supplement of the Current Population Survey.

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples.

About GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, a division of GfK Custom Research North America (www.gfkamerica.com), is one of the most trusted names in public opinion and marketing research. The Roper legacy dates back to 1933 and today is known for its work in public relations, brand building, consumer advocacy, social policy and corporate communications, serving clients across sectors and around the world. Whether it's a Fortune 500 corporation or a non-profit organization, a major media company or an online start-up, a university, think-tank or public relations firm, a local government or private philanthropy, GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications delivers intelligence vital to their strategic objectives. GfK Custom Research North America is part of the GfK Group.

About SapientNitro SapientNitroSM, part of Sapient®, is one of the world's largest integrated marketing and technology services firms. We create and engineer highly relevant experiences that accelerate business growth and fuel brand advocacy for our clients. By combining multi-channel marketing, multi-channel commerce, and the technology that binds them, we influence customer behavior across the spectrum of content, communication and commerce channels, resulting in deeper, more meaningful relationships between customers and brands. SapientNitro services global leaders such as Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Mars, Singapore Airlines, Target, and Vodafone through our operations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.sapientnitro.com or follow us on Twitter @sapientnitro.

SOURCE: SapientNitro

Big Pharma's small voice

Out of fear of federal regulation, drug companies shun social media

Written by Jonathan Starkey (The News Journal)

Source: Delaware Online

It's all too common these days to wake up in the morning, fire off a tweet about some piece of news, then log onto Facebook to drone on about one thing or another.

For most, it's all pretty simple, and safe.

Not for Big Pharma.

Executives at pharmaceutical companies are all tied in knots about what they can and can't say through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and other popular Web forums where patients and doctors congregate.

They worry that one wrong move will land them in the penalty box with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, their federal regulator.

A recent survey from audit and consulting firm Deloitte found that 35 percent of companies surveyed had no interest in social media, a striking number given that the general public seems enamored with such 21st century pleasures as Tweeting on Twitter and Friending on Facebook. Many firms see the new media as a gold mine for customer engagement.

But more than half of firms surveyed by Deloitte said confusion about what regulators believe is appropriate communication over social networks gives them heartburn about participating.

Promoting a branded drug over Twitter, for example, is virtually unheard of. Even observing conversations at more private forums like Sermo.com, a professional networking site for doctors, has its dangers.

"Our concern is particularly around what the FDA is going to think about social media and the fact that you're really at times limited in what you can communicate," said Fritz Bittenbender, a spokesman for Frazer, Pa.-based Cephalon, which makes the sleep-disorder drug Provigil.

Cephalon recently issued a set of new media guidelines to its employees that cautioned them against promoting products through their personal accounts.

"The FDA could see that as an official corporate message," Bittenbender warned.

Pharmaceutical companies have become masters at pitching their products in old media outlets. Think of those fancy Viagra ads on TV. Or full-page spreads in mass-market magazines hawking the latest and greatest cholesterol pill.

In 1997, the FDA issued rules allowing those direct-to-consumer ads, so long as the drugmaker also discussed the corresponding risks and side effects of the medicines.

It's the lack of similar rules for social media -- where room for messaging is often more limited -- that has made big pharmaceutical players sheepish about entering the space.

Many in the industry believe the Food and Drug Administration is dragging its feet on issuing guidelines for social media use, according to consultants who coach pharma types on using new media tools.

Regulators held a two-day meeting on the topic last November, but have remained mostly silent about guidelines since.

FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said the agency still plans to issue a set of social media guidelines before year's end.

"I think there's a lot of pessimism because it's taken them a year to do something," said Phil Charron, a senior director at Conshohocken, Pa.-based Think Brownstone, which consults with pharma companies.

Meanwhile, the regulator's delay in issuing guidance hasn't kept it from reacting strongly to pharmaceutical companies it believes are using social media networks inappropriately.

In a letter sent in August, and posted to its website, the FDA dinged Swiss drug giant Novartis for its use of a Facebook-sharing widget on a website for its leukemia drug Tasigna.

The widget was a button that allowed the site's visitors to share the drug's information with their friends on Facebook.

Problem was, the FDA, said, the information that carried over to Facebook -- descriptive metadata stored in the page's code -- didn't contain any mention of the drug's risks.

"The shared content is misleading because it makes representations about the efficacy of Tasigna but fails to communicate any risk information associated with the use of this drug," the FDA wrote in its letter, ordering the company to "immediately cease the dissemination of violative promotional materials."

Consultants say this presents one of the most perplexing issues for pharmaceutical companies looking to engage on social networks: How do you communicate risk in limited space, like the 140 characters allowed by Twitter for a single message?

Charron said most hope the FDA will allow companies to place the risk warnings "one click away." But the default position for now, without that guidance? Companies avoid promoting branded products through new media.

Representatives of pharma companies also are often advised to steer clear of doctor and patient forums like Sermo.com, where their participation may be helpful, but raises the risk of regulatory run-ins, consultants say.

"At what point does something that's said around the performance of a product suddenly become a reportable event," said Terry Hisey, head of the U.S. life sciences practice at Deloitte. Hisey said companies remain uncertain about the answer to that question.

Charron, from Think Brownstone, says all of this means less information on the Web. And that's a big deal, considering that 61 percent of American adults look online for information about health care topics, according to a 2009 study from the Pew Research Center.

British drugmaker AstraZeneca, which has its U.S. headquarters and 4,000 employees in Delaware, has a strong presence on networking sites like Twitter, but keeps its accounts mostly focused on industry trends, or news that's non-controversial by any measure.

AstraZeneca's U.S. tweeters -- @AstraZenecaUS -- recently told their 4,134 followers that the company had received a "Community Partner of the Year," award, for example. It ignored news that the company's most important new drug, the blood thinner Brilinta, had failed to win regulatory approval.

In a memo to the FDA in February-- when the regulator was publicly studying the social media issue -- AstraZeneca said its participation on social networking sites was "intentionally quite limited."

"Without guidance, our activities are limited in a manner that we believe is not in the best interests of informed health care decision making," the drugmaker said. "In our absence, consumers will turn to information sources that are not regulated and not always well-informed."

ePharma Tweets of the Week: 11-29-2010

Review our weekly update to catch the tweets that interested and inspired us.

Compiled by: Jeremy Franz, Digital Strategy Coordinator at Ignite Health (@eHealthStrat)

Did you read that WSJ article about marketers "scraping" online conversation? I decided I needed to respond: (via @leighhouse)

http://ow.ly/3eulu

Leigh Householder's provides a compelling argument in response to criticism of Pharma's "scraping" online conversation. Saying, "I believe it’s part of my job (as a responsible marketer) to listen to the real people we serve and elevate their collective voice."

Social Media Is Not for Advertising Pharma Brands (via @jonmrich)

http://bit.ly/ead8r2

Jonathon Richman argues that social media is not for advertising pharma brands primarily because healthcare decisions are a private matter, and there are no benefits to sharing medical information publicly.

A reminder that your Twitter (or Facebook) is not my Twitter (or Facebook): (via @mitchjoel)

http://bit.ly/grTsIX

"It's a welcomed reminder that Social Media is not a fixed piece of software. It is (and it should be) many different things to many different people. Some will use it to game the system, while others will use it to change the world."

RT @RecognitionA “@LizzieGeorgescu: Who’s Responsible for Tweets About a Drug? (via @Gingerpug9405)

http://on.wsj.com/fivFzv

The “social” part of social media means that third parties — bloggers, commenters, Twitter users — are also part of the message. (Kanye West tweeted this summer that “clothes are my drug,” but what if he’d instead said that Lipitor was his drug? Should the FDA pay any attention to that? What if he or another celebrity were paid for the tweet?)

Diabetes Time Bomb: New Report Shows Half the Country Could Have Diabetes by 2020 (via @Hall_MediaMaven)

http://bit.ly/gXvCyr

More than 50 percent of Americans could have diabetes or prediabetes by 2020 at a cost of $3.35 trillion over the next decade if current trends continue.

Healthcare is No. 3 Sector for iPad Adoption (via @L2_Pharma)

http://l2pharma.posterous.com/healthcare-is-no-3-sector-for-ipad-adoption

Healthcare is one of the top three industries using Apple's hot-selling iPad tablet, behind only the financial and technology sectors, according to data from mobility service provider Good Technology.

Study: Why Are the Rich So Good at the Internet? (via @fastcompany)

http://bit.ly/ggxlHF

Pew Internet has released a report finding that income is the strongest predictor of whether, how often, and in what ways Americans use the web.

GREAT crowd sourcing project @OpenIDEO Agenda Concepts Could read these all night brought to my attn via @anjelikadeo (via @JaeSelle)

http://bit.ly/hQ1mBQ

What global challenge do you think innovation leaders should work to right now? Post your idea or cast your vote at openideo.com

NASA, White House, and PETA Top L2’s Latest Public Sector Digital IQ Study: The first annual Digital IQ Index® (via @L2_ThinkTank)

http://bit.ly/fK0GbM

L2 Think Tank ranks the digital competence of organizations in the public sector. The AARP and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are the only two health related organizations to crack the top 30.