Insightful articles, opinion and commentary about mobile and web.

Who do people trust when it comes to health information? The recently released Edelman Health Barometer surveyed more than 15,000 people in 12 countries, and when they asked people how credible different types of people were in terms of providing health-related information, not surprisingly, doctors topped the list at 88%.

They were followed closely by pharmacists, nurses and nutritionists/dieticians. However, what is surprising is that some of the most credible information sources were ‘ordinary’ people - someone living with a disease or condition, and friends and family members.

I think this is a reflection of the rise of social media and the increasing emphasis on recommendations from trusted contacts and a decline in the reliance on traditional advertising when making lifestyle decisions.

However in healthcare, healthcare professionals are still the most trusted sources of information, particularly in Australia, where regulations restrict discussions between pharmaceutical companies and consumers.

Traditionally, the most common method of getting doctors exposed to new therapies is sending pharmaceutical reps out on the road to call on doctors. But today, digital tools are being used to make rep contacts more effective, and to aid the process in other ways.

Product familiarisation programs, where doctors are able to prescribe a new therapy to a limited number of patients before the medication is available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, are one area where digital solutions are having an impact.

Online program registration provides reps and management with a real-time view of how the program is tracking, while also making it easy for doctors to enroll and providing them with resources about the medication at their fingertips.

A lot has been written about the explosion in medical apps for consumers and healthcare professionals. But when it comes to product familiarisation, the most powerful way that apps can function is as tools that reps can use to provide doctors directly with important information about a new medication.

One of the biggest developments in digital healthcare marketing has been the rise of e-detailing, where reps use mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, rather than static, complicated, expensive, hard copy sales kits to discuss the therapeutic action of a new medication.

Bill Drummy, writing in Medical Marketing & Media, commented on the explosion in use of iPads (and it is almost exclusively iPads at this stage) by pharmaceutical sales teams in an industry that has traditionally been slow to adopt technology.

“In contrast to all earlier waves that washed over the business landscape, pharma doesn’t appear to be following its ‘follower’ instincts – ie, waiting to see if the platform proves out before jumping on board,” he wrote.

In the US, half of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies are using tablets to aid their product familiarisation programs, which is pretty impressive when you consider that the iPad has only been available for about 18 months and its Android competitors are six months old or less.

Drummy writes that there are five aspects of tablets that have led to its quick uptake: 1) the fact that it’s instantly available; 2) you can control it with your fingers to create an involving experience; 3) it’s easy to move between different media; 4) GPS and Accelerometer technology can provide location-based information and respond to movement; and 5) its size brings the rep in close with the doctor.

Many pharmaceutical sales forces in Australia are now employing iPads in their presentations to doctors, but I think most companies are still in the ‘gee-whiz’ phase, where they create a PDF version of their current sales kit and everyone ‘oohs and ahhs’ as the rep sweeps from one page to the next with their fingers.

There is a lot more that can and should be done, such as showing animations of mode of action, playing videos and even using the iPad’s camera to conduct live video conversations.

Over the next few years, apps developed for tablet computers will quickly evolve into ways that will help doctors to understand much more fully how new medical treatments can change the lives of patients.

Simon van Wyk, Founder of HotHouse  talks to Ray Welling from Vivacity Health about the rise of digital and mobile in pharmaceutical marketing. Many pharmaceutical sales forces in Australia are now employing iPads while medical apps developed for tablets are helping doctors to understand much more fully how new medical treatments can change their patients’ lives. At the same time healthcare apps are successfully supporting patients to manage their illnesses.

Ray-Welling-discussion

Globally, more than half of the billions of prescriptions that are filled each year are not taken correctly. Roughly one-third of patients take all their medicine as prescribed, while one-third only take some of their medicine, and the other third don’t even bother filling the prescription in the first place.

In Australia, patients stay on chronic anti-hypertensive therapy for less than two years on average, while 38% of patients younger than 40 years don’t even bother to collect their second prescription.

Patient compliance (AKA adherence or persistence) is a big problem for patients, the health system, and the industry. US studies show that 10% of all hospital admissions and 25% of nursing home admissions are due to poor adherence to prescribed therapy. This results in more than 100,000 deaths annually and trillions of dollars in avoidable costs to healthcare systems around the world, not to mention the revenue effect on medication sales.

From selling to helping

So why are we so bad at sticking to our medication? A study by Harris Interactive revealed that the top five reasons are:

• “I forgot to take it”
• “I had an unpleasant side effect”
• “It’s too expensive”
• “I don’t care what the doctor says – I don’t need to take it”
• “It’s hard to get it or take it”

The good news is that digital has emerged as an incredibly effective way to increase patient compliance. It’s all part of the changing pharmaceutical marketing landscape, which like many other industries is being transformed by digital developments and social media.

The pharmaceutical marketing model is moving from a product focus to a customer focus. That means, instead of expending their marketing effort in telling healthcare professionals and patients about their products, pharma companies are focusing on providing services for customers, building a portfolio of customer-focused services around a product. These patient-centred services help patients understand the importance of staying on their therapy and increase compliance.

As Pfizer US marketing VP Joe Shields said at this year’s ePharma Summit in New York, “We are no longer in the manufacturing business; we are in the behaviour modification business.”

Digital patient support programs and tools, either working on their own or in concert with offline patient support efforts, help increase compliance in a number of ways:

• They offer credible information about a condition (in contrast to what patients find when they do their own search), including the best ways of treating it and why it’s important to continue with their therapy.
• They use multimedia such as video to deliver the message in several ways to appeal to different learning styles.
• They offer interactivity, via email communications, SMS, web apps, etc. that meets patients at their point of need.
• They can offer a community where patients can share with others who are dealing with the same condition and support each other.

Information with feeling

One of the most powerful ways digital patient support tools can increase compliance is to give patients tangible data that encourages them to do what their doctor tells them.

Wired magazine editor Thomas Goetsz calls this “information with feeling”. He cites research that shows that fear campaigns such as anti-smoking advertising do not get people to change their behaviour; the most effective driver to compliance is efficacy, starting out with the belief that you will stick with a program or therapy.

In other words, it needs to be easy to obtain information that will encourage you to stay with your therapy. Specific, personalized information helps create a connection that shows a patient why it’s important to stay compliant and what will happen if they do (or don’t).

This is where digital tools such as blood glucose monitors that plug into a smartphone, or weight loss apps that use the sensors in an iPhone to track a patient’s progress can make a significant difference to a patient’s behaviour.

When digital helps this to happen, everybody wins – patients stay healthier, the health system carries a lighter burden, and the pressure to develop new, expensive therapies is lessened as more value is extracted from existing treatments.