by Sven Larsen (@svenplarsen)

Got $2000 to spare?

Never mind, I think I already know the answer.

In this “do more with less” decade, the idea of “spare budget” or discretionary funds is pretty much non-existent. And companies that are continually slashing sales forces and other key parts of their organization aren’t normally inclined to shell out a lot of cash for their employees’ professional development.

Unfortunately, no one seems to have told the Pharma conference organizers this.

Now we’re not trying to cut off our noses to spite our faces here. Pixels & Pills is well known for our conference coverage and we couldn’t bring you the videos and other helpful content we do without the strong support of companies like EXL, IXI, and BDI or folks like Kevin Kruse or Shwen Gwee. We see the best (and the worst) conference content that’s offered every year. And it pains us to realize  that when there’s a really standout presentation from someone like Tom Goetz or Ceci Zak only a very limited amount of the Pharma community are going to see it. Worse, our current “pay for play” model means that small startups who have great ideas but limited budgets aren’t even a part of the conversation. It doesn’t have to be that way and it hurts growth and innovation in our business.

One of the best conferences we attended over the last year was the PSFK conference in New York City. This conference, focused on innovation and the latest technologies is relatively cheap to attend (under $400) but full of the kind of people you want to hear from. Artists and entrepeeurs, technologists and designers, the people who are shaping our future before we even know it. Past speakers at the conference have included Shepard Fairey, Andy Spade, Dernnis Crowley (founder of FourSquare) and Richard Fine. Yes, only one of those speakers is directly related to healthcare but the mix of different disciplines and individuals is what gives conferences like the PSFK event, TED and SXSW the opportunity to identify what’s coming before it reaches the mainstream. And that’s something we’re sorely lacking in Pharma conference programming.

The low admission price also ensures that attendees are not just senior personnel from attending companies. Your organization could send five people to a PSFK conference for the same price as a ticket to an average Pharma event. That means you could take along that bright young junior manager or even that intern who shows such promise. The kind of people who might really embrace some of the new ideas being discussed and figure out how to apply them to your business.

There are alternatives of course. TEDMED and the main TED conference have created a terrific model for sharing highly educational content online. And free events like New York’s upcoming Social Media Week (with it’s Health and Wellness hub) provide a valuable alternative to traditional Pharma conferences. But ultimately we need to democratize both the speaker and attendee process for our industries major events. Conferences were never meant to be about spending thousands of dollars to hear paid speeches by big Pharma companies. They were meant to be an opportunity for the best and the brightest in our industry to come together and share ideas and best practices.

And that’s a model we need to return to.

What do you think? What would you do to make Pharma conferences better?

We’ve been writing a lot about the case for mobile in healthcare over the past couple of years. And we’re going to keep writing about it. With one quarter of US adults turning to their mobiles for healthcare information, it’s important that the industry keeps pushing forward with innovative sites, apps and tools that will keep us at the top of our game and, in the end, be useful to the community at large.

To that end, exploring how to better accomplish this is always something we’re interested in. Which is why, on Thursday, January 26^th, some of the crew from Pixels & Pills will be at the BDI Mobile Healthcare Communications 2012 Case Studies and Roundtables.

About the Event:
Consumers and professionals are increasingly using their mobile devices for healthcare information. They are also interacting with healthcare providers and colleagues on their mobile phones. This conference will demonstrate the best case studies of how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications.

Speakers and Roundtable Moderators:
Meighan Berberich, Vice President, Marketing, BlogTalkRadio
Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
Scott Hopkins, Executive Vice President, Anderson Direct Marketing
Monique Levy, Vice President, Research, Manhattan Research
Dr. Katherine Malbon, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital
Talya Miron-Shatz, PhD, Marketing Department, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
Jenna Mons, Consumer Product Manager for LAP-BAND®, Allergan
Mario Nacinovich, Jr., Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Communication in Healthcare; Managing Director, AXON
Xavier Petit, Shire
John Vieira, Daiichi-Sankyo
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Place: The Graduate Center of The City University of NY; 365 5th Ave; NY, NY 10016

For additional information, including registration, please click here to visit the event website. Use promo code P&P for a discounted rate of $175.

Hotel Sponsor: Hotel 373 is the official hotel of BDI’s events. Click here to receive a discounted rate

Sponsors:
PR Newswire; Within3; Anderson Direct Marketing; BioCrowd ; Cinchcast; Journal of Communication in Healthcare; Manhattan Research; New York University; Pixels and Pills; Public Relations Society of America – New York Chapter; Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development

We’ve entered conference season and there are a lot of great ones on the horizon in the next few weeks. Our friend John Mack has a fairly comprehensive list over on his website, but he’s missing one that we’re particularly excited about.

The Life Sciences Innovation Forum, from Microsoft and our friends at ExL Pharma, promises to addresses how to excel in this shifting global climate, with the rise of the emerging technologies in the healthcare and pharma world, along with globalization and shifts in demographics, we’re seeing a change from the traditional model – and doors being opened to previously unthought of opportunities.

This is the first time this forum is being held and we’re happy that we’ll be there, interviewing attendees and speakers alike, bringing in as much information and content that we can, for you, our readers.

The forum will address questions like:

• What is the role of eHealth in clinical research?

• FDA is encouraging technology solutions to capture source data electronically – what does eSource really mean?

• How can we enhance collaboration by having the ability to access, share and analyze data more efficiently?

There will be presentations from Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Microsoft Health and Life Sciences, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and more.

Will we see you there?

Date: January 26 & 27, 2012
Location: Marriott Forrestal Village Conference Center, Princeton, NJ
Website: http://www.lsinnovation.com/
Discount Code: C210PPS

Here at Pixels & Pills, we like to push the envelope (or, better, encourage all of you to push it) when it comes to innovation in the healthcare space. That’s why we were so excited to have the opportunity to cover the Life Sciences Innovation Forum, produced by our friends at ExL Pharma in a partnership with Microsoft.

From the website:

The Life Science business environment and model is in a state of accelerating change. More drug approvals occurred in 2011 than any other year in the past decade. This brings some very exciting new opportunities to our industry. The traditional operating model separating Payers, Providers, and Government Health Agencies is under increasing pressures from globalization, healthcare reform, demographic shifts, and emerging healthcare technologies. The Life Sciences Innovation Forum addresses how to excel in this shifting global climate.

There is untapped potential for Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biotechnology companies to reap the benefits of the post-reform healthcare market. From discovery to product marketing, from manufacturing and distribution to patients, there are enormous opportunities to better leverage technology to create new business models, further differentiate your organization, and thrive in this dynamic environment.

At the upcoming LS Innovation Forum we are enlisting industry recognized experts and thought leaders to lead engaging sessions that provide you with strategic information to help you achieve goals in areas including:

• Patient Engagement
• Leveraging Enterprise Content
• Global Regulatory Collaboration
• Innovation Networks
• Leveraging Health Information Technology

Please take this opportunity to participate in the dialogue and be part of the exciting changes that our industry will experience in the coming months and years.

Register today for this exciting new event.

Date: January 26 & 27, 2012
Location: Marriott Forrestal Village Conference Center, Princeton, NJ
Website: http://www.lsinnovation.com/
Discount Code: C210PPS

by Briana Campbell (@MsMatchGirl)

“If it’s not mobile, it won’t work in 2012 and beyond,” Jason Falls is quoted as saying in Awareness Networks 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions. “We’re a marketplace conditioned to look down on our screen first. It’s not a B2C vs. B2B thing. If your users are people, you’re going to need to be mobile.”

We’ve been talking about the importance of thinking mobile not just for pharma and healthcare marketing, but to provide much needed health services in the developing world for a while now. We feel strongly that including a mobile strategy in your plans will not only help you stay in business, it will help push innovation in healthcare to the next level.

With people turning more and more to the “second screen,” it’s important for us to think on how that screen can be best utilized. From The Department of Health & Human Services Health Data Initiative, which encouraged competitors to innovate around open data available from the government to make smartphone apps to improve health, to the insights shared by Jonathan Richman in his 2011 SXSWi presentation, “Your Computer is the Next Wonder Drug,” digital innovation is what is moving the world of healthcare forward. And pharma needs to keep pace.

Some quick facts for your consideration:

By 2015, 500 million people will be using mobile healthcare applications. [source]

Smartphones will offer the best opportunities for mobile health by 2015. [source]

17% of cell phone owners, or 15% of adults, have used their phone to look up health or medical information. [source]

Later this month, we’ll be at the Mobile Healthcare Communications 2012: Case Studies and Roundtables, taking place January 26, 2012 in NYC. This half-day conference will present case studies demonstrating how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications. Case studies will be presented by representatives from Allergen, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center – New York, Daiichi-Sankyo, and more. Interactive roundtables will follow the presentations. We’re looking forward to learning more about what companies have been successfully doing with mobile in the healthcare space, and talking about how we can keep innovating.

Use promo code P&P for a discounted rate of $175.

Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Location: The Graduate Center of The City University of NY
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), Conference Level C, New York, New York 10016
Website: http://www.bdionline.com/mobilehealthcare2012.html
Discount Code: P&P

We had to include this powerful interview in our Year In Review. From E-Patient Connections 2011, renowned Soprano, Charity Tilleman-Dick shares her inspiring story with Pixels and Pills.

If you’ve seen it already, it’s definitely worth watching again.

We’re always pleased to cover BDI’s Case Studies and Roundtables. With more and more consumers turning to their phones for interactions once reserved for in-person consultations and visits to the pharmacy counter or doctor’s office, the Mobile Healthcare Communications 2012 Case Studies & Roundtables is perfectly positioned to inform pharma and healthcare marketers about the possibilities that can open up for them, if they embrace this technology.

While pharma companies have been reticent to embrace social networks and unproven (read: new) platforms to get their message across, the time has come to figure it out. The latest Pew Internet Study on The State of Social Media: 2011 reveals that 35% of US adults own and smartphone. Out of those smartphone owners, one in four say that they mostly go online using their phone. That’s a whole lot of people that marketers are missing out on reaching if they stay away from mobile platforms.

Not convinced? Perhaps a morning of case study presentations, with successful healthcare campaigns, and a chance to network with others – who are doing it and have been doing it right – will help you wrap your head around the best way to approach mobile healthcare communications moving forward.

Mobile Healthcare Communications 2012: Case Studies and Roundtables is taking place January 26, 2012 in NYC. This half-day conference will present case studies demonstrating how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications. Case studies will be presented by representatives from Allergen, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center – New York, Daiichi-Sankyo, and more. Interactive roundtables will follow the presentations. Use promo code P&P for a discounted rate of $175.

Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Location: The Graduate Center of The City University of NY
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), Conference Level C, New York, New York 10016
Website: http://www.bdionline.com/mobilehealthcare2012.html
Discount Code: P&P

See you there!

Pixels & Pills is excited to be playing a part in Eye For Pharma’s upcoming Digital Innovation in Pharma Summit, being held in Boston, MA, November 2^nd and 3^rd. We’ll be there with camera and mic at the ready to get all the thought leaders on camera. We’re also the sponsor of Wednesday night’s opening drinks. Make sure to come and say “hello.”

This blog is all about “new directions in digital pharma,” so the Digital Innovation in Pharma Summit is one that we’re really excited to be attending. With topics surrounding new advancements in digital marketing, with a focus to EMRs, ePrescribing, 2D barcodes and Pharma 3.0; Improving patient communications; Improving engagement with health care providers; Consistency through integration – how some top level execs are using digital with their traditional methods; and new developments in analytics, this is a conference that’s right up our alley.

What are you most looking to check out?

Check out the full agenda here.

Solution providers, register here. Pharmaceutical companies, register here.

Title: Digital Innovation In Pharma

Date: November 2 & 3, 2011

Location: The Radisson | 200 Stuart Street | Boston, Massachusetts 02116 | (617) 482-1800

Nandita Sen of EmPower Reasearch Shares her Takeaways at Digital Pharma East 2011.

Joe Hogan of Epion Health talks about putting tablets at the point of care at Digital Pharma East 2011.