ePharma Summit Day 2

Here is the agenda for today’s sessions, with a list of all speakers/details (so I don’t have to reproduce it and risk carpal tunnel syndrome). You can also see a running list of Twitter posts on Shwen Gwee‘s Med 2.0 blog.

Thought Leader forum – Integration, Scale, ROI – What Really Matters? (by title, this sounds like a real grab-bag!) Moderator: Paul Ivans, Evolution Road

(I’ll just list out interesting and salient points and factoids as they come up).

• New patient starts, and refills, are improving (attributed to marketing efforts – is that a valid conclusion? -SW)
• “Digital is the Connective Tissue of our lives” – beyond basic browsing to addressable advertising through multiple digital channels
• Move from product-centric approach to bigger emphasis on health info/support/services
• Ex: digital pill dispensing devices
• Ex: FitBit – mini device (Wi-fi) that tracks your exercise, sleep, etc.
• Ex: AT&T Telehealth – tie together various monitoring devices, connected to home medical gateway/doctor
• Think BIG – look for ways to drive business with e-apps. Get into the game with emerging media.
• Buzz: Personal and Environmental Sustainability
• Buzz: DTC beyond TV (talk to your doctor is not a call to action anymore)
• Buzz: Branded Engagement. Originality + The Perfect Fit = Purpose
• “Content at the point of consumption is the new pink” Static websites are dead
• The marketing funnel is now a maze. No longer a linear process. Customers now control the brand equity.
• Web 3.0 and mobile location based services will change the game for search and advertising
• We will go from audiences of millions to millions of audiences (from David Kramer, Digitas Health)
• The New Commercial model will require new sets of skills in Health Economics, Managed Care Mkting, etc.
• The third marketing channel – social influence marketing
• The power of social is to get to the “influencer”
• Dynamic of social media space fundamentally different from earlier web approaches
• Baby steps and persistence need for social media approaches right now
• Try to introduce med/reg/legal people to social media acc. to their interests outside of pharma
• Maybe not have marketing lead the social media discussion internally – med/legal types will be cynical by the brand message folks. Get a broader group to lead the initiative.

Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research Inc., Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

• Social trend – people use technologies to get what they need from each other, not traditional institutions. You cannot control it – but you need to participate.
• Not surprisingly, the Motrin Mom kerfuffle, and the Twitterstorm that raged.
• The Google search for Motrin – enduring impact of Motrin Mom incident. Not just a weekend storm.
• People decide on their own who you are, and what you stand for.
• 4 step approach to social involvement POST – People (assess customers’ social activities) Objectives (what do you want to accomplish) Strategy (plan for how relationships with customers will change) Technology (what will you use)
• The Social Ladder (from top to bottom) Creators / Critics / Collectors / Joiners / Spectators / Inactives
• Age is the main predictor of level of participation. Much more participation at younger age.
• Those who research medical/drug stuff on-line are much higher on the participation scale
• Drugs with the most social patients – Flovent, Prozac, Lunesta, Lotrel. Why? Unknown
• Most social participation by disease: Mood disorder (other than depr), Least – osteoporosis
• Many medical professionals are Spectators
• Research > Listening
• Marketing > Talking/Listening
• Sales > Energizing
• MD Anderson teamed with Communispace to listen to concerns/issues re: cancer patients. E.g. – waiting for treatment was a real problem (time is precious). Learned they need to reach out more pro-actively to primary care physicians
• Talking (2-way) vs. Shouting
• Case studies: P&G Tampons, Sermo/Vyvanse.
• Energizing – helping your best customers recruit others. Gardasil Facebook application. Spread public awareness. Controlled messaging, video, post your support on the wall, use icon/background
• Supporting – enabling customers to support each other.  AstraZeneca’s Arimidex. Create your own avatar – invite your friends to send messages of support (“Celebration chain”)
• Embracing – involving your customers. My Starbucks idea. 50,000 suggestions received; 40 implemented.
• Educate executives/legal; find your innovators; engage Legal early; start with limited scope project (1 specific area and audience); include separate resources for internal/external interfacing; partner with third parties with established solutions.

Michael Roizen, Chief Wellness Officer, Cleveland Clinic: Everything YOU need to know about interacting with patients

• Two revolutions coming in medicine – Genomics and Stem cells (personalized medicine)
• Genomics (parsing your particular makeup) will soon be standard practice, to help with targeted treatment
• Growing your own spare parts via stem cells
• Getting patients “emotionally involved” with their bodies – awareness.
• Prevention is different from wellness. Maintain higher quality of life as you age (wellness).
• Type 2 diabetes – you age 1.5 years (equiv) for every 1 year of life if not well controlled. Controlled – only +1 yr.
• “Food, physical activity, and meds are your friends”
• You get to change your family history.
• 60% lower risk of heart attacks by eating 6 half walnuts a day in a study
• Aspirin group major benefit over placebo for colo-rectal cancer
• (Dr Roizen wrote the Real Age and You… books, co-founded RealAge.com)
• You get to control which of your genes are on/off to a large degree. You control your genetic inheritance.
• San Francisco is built on 3 fault lines, and has appropriate building codes. We have to put in the proper codes for our genes.
• Changing 1 food group (broccoli) make change in gene expression, toward cancer prevention
• Need a smart patient; less emphasis on sick-cure
• Belly fat vs. hip-area fat. Belly fat hormonally active and self-replicating, affects insulin.
• Glycosylation – addition of glucose molecules to proteins where they don’t belong. Weakens binding between cells. Leads to athersclerosis LDL build-up).
• Tim Russert was not a smart patient. Accumulation of belly fat, poor eating habits.
• Prescription of various pills all should take
• Wish there had been a specific tie-in to ePharma, eHealth…good stuff, but medical talk  only. Not really ePharma-specific.

Panel: Motivating Healthy Behavior to Engage Consumers and Physicians

• This is kinda sounding like a “RealAge” commercial.
• Voices of Mammosite. RealAge NovoSure (Novashore?) program. Support groups/mentoring/ambassadors to help new patients.
• Will e-enabled on-line communities help with compliance/persistency?
• Some good info in this panel on general lifestyle/health management, but off-topic from ePharma. Too much reference of RealAge, which is a major sponsor of the conference.

Christopher Schroeder, CEO/President, The Health Central Network – Embracing Risk-taking and Innovation

• The world we’re in is “new” – not going back cyclically. Great new enterprises will arise (there will be New winners, and Old losers)
• Delusion: we’ll “get through this” and be back to where we were. No.
• Regulation is “cool” again.
• This is a web-savvy administration.
• Where people learn from each other is where you find active recruits. Treatment happens in a context.
• People speak in their own words. Real people think of health in terms of their day-to-day lives. Not clinical abstractions.
• Camaraderie – best compliance people in dialogue with peers.
• Multi-word, long-tail searches – dramatic impact on search results. Much more active people.
• Pop culture impact on searches: “Sopranos + Lexapro” Lessen stigma
• Addressing wives via social media after Tim Russert death – health concerns

Driving Policy/Guidelines around the use of Social Media in Pharma (panel discussion – Marc Monseau, Fabio Gratton, Fard Johnmar, Robert Goldberg)

• MM – putting a series of internal policies in place for J&J social media usage
• FG – formulate overall governance early, with cross-section of stakeholders
• MM – don’t make policies too detailed, as technologies/approaches change rapidly.
• MM – conversations are already happening “out there” – you’re either in the game, or not.
• FG – why are we NOT in front of our communities?????
• FJ – what does company leadership want in the realm of communicating with patients
• FG – the COMMITMENT required to build social relationships on-line. Long-term mentality. YES! (I’ll be reinforcing this tomorrow in our soc. med. panel discussion at 8:30 am)
• FG – Do the right thing, and let results follow.
• MM – very little actual usage of social media tools by executive/legal teams in pharma
• The risk of NOT using social media to build communications/relationships

John Mangano, Senior Director, comScore – Benchmarks for the Pharma Industry

• Measuring success for pharma clients; using experience to create industry norms
• 30 studies, 20 brands, over 5 years, consumers only, control
• Survey methodology; and Rx database match
• Almost 12-point lift (patient starts) for those who visited a brand.com site. 25-point lift for existing patients compliance.
• Cumulative effect of multiple components of marketing mix
• Display ad latent effects up to 3 weeks after end of campaign

Panel discussion: Medscape, Microsoft, Omnimedix – Health 3.0 coming?

• Coming semantic web (3.o) – large database with rich information store
• Is eHealth good medicine for Pharma? Can be. Price pressures, but potentially far better usage
• 80% of US patients want e-mail access with physicians; only 9% of physicians do this
• The Personal Health Record dog will wag the Electronic Medical Records tail.
• Self-diagnosis via Google! Web search + Machine  learning -> collective worldwide experience pool.
• TrialX.org – search for possible clinical trials using your Personal Health Record (either MS HealthVault or Google)

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The Power of Social Networking

I’ve written often on this blog about my commitment to social networking. And much of what I’ve emphasized is the business side.

But my investment in blogging, Twittering, and building a web of relationships has a very human side as well.

Read this and understand why (having met David Armano in person, I had no hesitation contributing). Here’s the backstory and an update. All this in way less than 24 hours. Awesome.

This is what it’s all about. Helping people.

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Pharma Marketing this week

Blogging – according to Fard Johnmar, no longer niche.

The 2008 Patient Adherence Update – chock full of stats, charts, and other good stuff on a very important topic. From MedAd News.

Are free drug samples the last best hope for sales reps? An interesting take from a recent conference (though I have questions about the relative authority of the speakers). From John Mack’s Pharma Marketing blog.

Also from John Mack, Prescriptions and Recession.

Allergan: great marketing, less PhRMA code? What about that Botox marketing…?

On-line video growing in popularity among physicians. From Shwen Gwee.

Marc Monseau (from the J&J blog JNJ BTW) with some thoughts on pharma and social media. From Shwen Gwee.

Various Web 2.0/pharma thoughts and resources from Shwen Gwee.

An interview with Mark Senak, the EyeonFDA blogger.

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Digital Pharma Conf. Thurs. Morning 8

Live blogging the eXL Digital Pharma conference, from Princeton, NJ. This second day will focus on the Regulatory environment.

Craig Audet, VP, US Regulatory Affairs Marketed Products, Sanofi-Aventis: Laying the Groundwork for Engagement in Social Media

- Pharma needs to engage – more. 87% of people using Wikipedia to search for health info think it is reliable. Media professionals are looking for story leads.

- Those who have dared – some of the unbranded excursions into Social Media. J&J. Pfizer. Filtered/vetted  comments.

- We’ve been here before – early DTC. 14 years from first broadcast to formal DTC guidance.

- Adverse event and Off-label discussions on websites are 2 key problem areas. Details about what that means: 4 specific criteria for adverse events – Identifiable patient [what is the due diligence between identified, and identifiable?]; etc.

- Questions company must ask selves: Whether corporate culture is social-media friendly; how company interprets FDA regs; tolerance for uncertainty.

- How will you handle negative commentary?

- Ready to be the market leader?

- How will you resource (note: lots of ongoing monitoring work – can’t just launch-and-leave -SW)

- Maybe start with advertising on soc med websites as a toe in the water.

:: You WILL engage in social media at some point. Wade in and test the waters to start.

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Digital Pharma Wed. Morning 1

This will be a stream-of-bullet-points (with some related commentary) on this conference on the use of digital technologies in pharma marketing. Session #1-

Joe Natale, VP, New Media, J&J, (Diabetes). Social Networks in Healthcare: Forgetting what you Know is the First Step in Driving the Most Effective Marketing Campaign

- people who network socially tend to trust peers more than professionals

- people will share incredible levels of detail on networks

- “the patient will see you now”: consumers are much more savvy, and prepared; changing the patient-physician relationship. “Consumerism”

- ex: uptick in sales by changing the color of a device!

- childrenwithdiabetes.com (huge page views via search)

- more patients now actively managing their health; involved and seeking more information; early adopters

- social media provides far better targeting; display advertising not so much

- patient wants an on-line dialogue, not a broadcast message. Need direct response incorporated

- Market research: Old – buy data. New – listen

- Public Relations: Old – press releases, old media. New – blogging

- Sales: Old – Detail by sales reps. New – customer evangelists

- (Lots of examples on medical devices, but not convinced that there can be a 1-for-1 with drugs).

- Product ratings and reviews very powerful (but this is a real regulatory issue for pharma/drugs).

:: Don’t bring the broadcast mentality to social networks

:: Be ready to increase your risk continuum

:: Give opportunities to connect (list of methods, but the devil is in the details)

:: Put the same (approved) content in multiple places

:: Analytics – blah, blah, blah (need to get real tangible here about goals and measures)

:: Support helps drive patient optimism. Worthy goal.

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Be Prepared – like, right now!

Perhaps you’ve never been a Boy Scout. Whether you have or not, the Scout motto – Be Prepared – is a good one to consider right now.

You’ve read about all the recent layoffs in our industry. You’ve heard about, or been part of, one or more of the many mergers in recent years. There is simply no more certainty in corporate America. Your future is in your hands, and you need to be prepared to take the reins at any time. In fact, even if you are gainfully employed, you need to take the reins right now. Let me suggest one simple word for each of us:

NETWORK!

The time to build a network – a professional and social web of contacts who can help out when needs arise – is now. It is very likely that your next career move (horizontally) or advancement (vertically) will come about because of pre-existing relationships. While you can post a resume on-line that the world can (theoretically) see, so can a few billion other people. Doors are opened by people who listen to the recommendations and referrals of other people.

How do you build a wider professional network? Let me suggest a few straightforward steps:

1. Embrace networking as a high priority, and determine to do it. Yep, it starts with an act of the will. Maybe you’re not a native schmoozer (I’m not). Maybe you’re introvert-ish (I am). Maybe you think, “I can never build relationships like so-and-so.” Actually, you can. You might not have the same ease as some, but believe me, you can do it, and even become good at it.

2. Help others. That’s right, don’t start with your immediate or future needs. The best way to build a network marked by mutual help and sympathy is to help others. You may have been schooled in the “me-first” ladder-climbing corporate mentality. Drop that like a bad transmission. When you pro-actively offer to help people, you’ll be shocked at how popular you become.

3. Focus on one drop at a time. You can’t just turn the spigot and gush out a flood of networked contacts. But you can greet one new person a day. You can help out one co-worker today. You can reach out to someone in a similar professional role with a question. Networking should be seen as incremental and cumulative – it becomes a lifestyle, not a one-time act.

4. Attend meetings. Not the kind that clog your daily calendar (well, I guess you should attend those, too)! Go to national conferences, join local chapters of professional societies, expand your network beyond the next few cubicles. New opportunities may open up from unexpected directions.

5. Cultivate healthy vendor relationships. Vendors and consultants often know “what’s going on” outside your four walls, and may be able to facilitate new contacts for you. Weed out the sharks, and find those people who are genuine, service-oriented, and personable (this goes for recruiters as well). If they do good work for you, recommend them to others. That will definitely increase your bank account of good will!

6. Take advantage of the web-based networking platforms. I highly recommend LinkedIn (see graphic) for helping expand your network through electronic means. Facebook is usually for more personal/social contacts but can also be valuable. Create a very robust professional profile and don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations and new links with others. “Social media” can be helpful in many different ways.

7. Cultivate a limited circle of influential, wise, discreet professional colleagues. These are the trusted advisers you can turn to when you see storm clouds on the horizon – your early-warning safety net. These are your serious allies who will go the extra mile for you when the ground starts to shake.

8. Be “findable.” Who will rise to the top these days, when there is information overload? Those who can be quickly found (especially on-line), and who make a professional and interesting self-presentation before the need ever arises. If you have the drive and the ability to write, create a blog around your interests. If you can engage in electronic discussions, jump into Twitter. Put your talent and creativity and accomplishments out there. When people Google you, they should find you, AND be impressed.

For those in the pharma sales training community for whom this strikes a chord, I can see you at the upcoming SPBT conference, or you can shoot me an e-mail at any time. I’m happy to help you get started.

(Image credit)

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Training Stuff 3_17

From Pharma Exec online – extensive article on Trends in Learning and Development depts. Despite multimillion-dollar budgets and some of the best technology money can buy, the pharma industry has yet to propel its own superstar into the limelight. The problem could be that pharma companies still haven’t concentrated on measuring—and publicizing—their success. But that might be changing. Training departments are starting to take a high-profile role at many pharma, biotech, and medical device organizations.

A group of on-line documents you can peruse as resources – most focus on eLearning (from Jay Cross’ blog).

A series of helpful articles from ASTD’s Learning Circuits site:

Learning Games, going beyond the fun

Rising Tide of Saas (Software as a Service)

Designing outside the Box

Also, a white paper from Cisco on Multi-modal learning. Free .pdf download. In-depth stuff!

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Portal Update

Pageflakes has recently updated their portal software, and the interface is cleaner and slicker now. If you haven’t visited lately, take a fresh look at the portals we created to give you fingertip access to leading blogs, all in one place:

Pharmacentral (over 30 pharma bloggers, including news, training/marketing, gossip, and more)

Training Bloggers (over 50 blogs in the training/eLearning/Gaming/education realm)

Marketing Bloggers (over 100 marketing bloggers – marketing, branding, social media, technology, and more)

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Get your Top 100 Healthcare Blogs here!

Actually, here.

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Pharma News 8_3

A minor comeback for Novartis’ Zelnorm.

Avandia gets a reprieve, of sorts…to remain on the market, but undoubtedly with a raft of warnings and cautions. Meanwhile, more encouraging data on Actos, which appears to avoid the Avandia effect. And was that data “covered up” earlier??

J&J to cut 4% of its workforce. Sanofi announces that its U.S. sales force has steadily declined, by 11%, over the past 2 years.

Bristol and ImClone to push oncology treatment Erbitux into expanded trials.

Combo pills – some fly high (Vytorin), others have a hard time getting off the ground.

The current figurehead for pharma whistleblowing, Dr. Peter Rost, gets a new assignment as a blogging journalist at Brandweek NRx.

Class action lawsuit against Novartis for bias against female employees will proceed.

Very cool – electrical stimulation device in brain “re-awakens” man in a minimally conscious state.

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