The Defining Moments series looks back at the biggest events of 2010 to see what we can learn from them here at P&P, to work better in our calling, in 2011 and beyond.

Where were you on August 10th 2010?

Do you remember when you heard the news?

….Okay, no, I don’t remember where I was either. And I don’t think I heard the news at all. August 10 was the day that the World Health Organization officially declared an end to the H1N1 pandemic. You probably don’t remember it, because it wasn’t made much of. In fact, if you went by your memories alone, if you’re like most of us here, you would probably remember a few  outward signs – hand sanitizer and cautionary signs in restrooms – but not a lot of personal concern.

This relatively relaxed attitude persisted despite the statistics: 80 million Americans caught H1N1, 360,000 were hospitalized from it, and 16 thousand died. Sixty-one percent did not get vaccinated – and interestingly, higher-income survey respondents were less likely to get vaccinated against it.

Ironically, this may have been because of another healthcare issue: 72 percent of American parents had reservations about the vaccine. Vaccination fears were largely founded on a study that linked childhood shots to autism.  The problem is, that study was later completely discredited. It was even withdrawn by the medical journal that had originally published it. And the doctor who authored the paper had his license taken away for misconduct. Yet the worries that it created kept people more afraid than a sickness that was declared a national emergency.

Here’s what we learned from H1N1: Don’t assume logical reactions to healthcare issues.

We’re better informed about our health than at any time in the past. We’re more capable of searching out information, better versed in medical terminology, and have at our disposal an unprecedented array of data. But sometimes, instinct and emotion still take over.

It can be incredibly difficult to tell a patient to calm down if they’re convinced they’re at death’s door, and more problematic, it can be even harder to convince a patient that their condition is worth worrying about when they don’t want to worry.

As we work, we have to remember this. We’re not dealing with robots or with lists of pros and cons: we’re dealing with people: emotional, illogical people, who are worried about their health, their bodies and their lives. We are those people.

So while we can create the most sensible online destinations, apps and widgets; while we can make our arguments with unsinkable logic – we can’t forget that we also have to appeal to the tumultuous emotions that we all have about the health of our loved ones and ourselves.

This post continues this week’s theme of partnerships and collaborations.  As a partnership ourselves, Pixels & Pills strives to demonstrate what brilliant things can happen when great minds come together!

By Guy Mastrion (@gmastrion)

In talking about potential collaborations, there are many pairings that should have already happened – many pairings that we love happening right now – and many pairings that we can’t wait to see.

But what about the ones we hardly even dare suggest? The ones that are fascinating, possibly groundbreaking, but which are so politically incorrect, so impractical, so “but they would NEVER” that you can’t even offer them up for fear of being made fun of?

The first of these interesting and unlikely partnerships is of a think tank with pharma. Often founded on a strict political ideology, many think tanks are replete with genius and funding. So is pharma. Together, what could they do? Please note that many think tanks are funded by pharmaceutical industry money. This is not exactly the same thing. What if the “independent” experts of the think tanks and the industry researchers were allowed to collaborate directly, without fear of reprisal?

To go a step further, what about more direct collaborations by pharma with national governments? We hear about it when there is a crisis – such as with HIV in Africa, or with the recent H1N1 scare. But as a daily practice? All of that private money and all of those private resources put to public use? There must be so much promise there.

Again, we’re not saying that these don’t happen – of course people from these different groups do work together, frequently. But it’s not always in the most productive way possible – the way that could be most conducive for creativity. The direct, informal, person-to-person network of brainstorming doesn’t happen between these groups like it should. Instead, it’s incredibly formalized and structured.

The essential point, really, is that groups have become afraid to work together because it might taint the objectivity of one or more of the partners. And this may indeed be true. But the problem is, this way of working keeps everyone in ivory towers – or silos – or whatever tall cylindrical metaphor you prefer. Separate.

We realize that getting the benefits of partnerships such as these without the difficulties and problems that might come with them might be impossible. But as Lewis Carroll’s White Queen told Alice, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Could you try to believe in one of these impossible things – and help make them happen?

Not to toot our own horn, but look at us as an example – Zemoga and Palio. Boutique agencies collaborating? That’s usually only done at gunpoint, demanded by a client, and endured as a last resort – but you know what? It works. Pretty spectacularly.

By Guy Mastrion

You’re probably reading that acronym and feeling fatigued already. But that’s kind of the point.

The virus was first identified in April and it hasn’t left the media spotlight since. I’m sure you’ve heard and read and seen all of these variations on the theme in the last six months:

• Dangers of the virus.
• Spread of the virus.
• Shortages of the vaccine.
• Dangers of the vaccine.
• Arguments about the vaccine.

But there’s something that nobody’s talking about.

We – the public? the media? both? – assume that a vaccine will be instantly available, everywhere, be 100% effective, 100% safe – and when any of those don’t happen, there’s outrage.

But – isn’t it pretty amazing that this is a virus that we first heard of just a few months ago and now we have a vaccine? How on earth does that happen? Who are the people who have made this happen?

Think about what an amazing achievement that is! Consider the knowledge and collaboration and fascinating moments that have gone into that. Why don’t we know those stories? Why aren’t we talking about them?

Everyone should be, and they’re not. The negative angles are all we’re hearing. Frankly, that sucks. And what sucks worse is that we’ve let it happen.

The pharmaceutical industry needs to get better at promoting itself.

There is a whole lot wrong with it, let’s not pretend otherwise. But it’s unfair, and disingenuous, to focus on that without remembering that this industry saves lives. Lots of them. Every day. It’s far from perfect. But it does do amazing good. And it’s incredibly important for all of us who work in it to know it.

We need to remember the real point of what we’re all working on. And the entire industry needs to feel better about itself.

Only once we take pride in what we do right will we really be able to fix what’s gone wrong.

By DJ Edgerton (@wiltonbound)

So, we were sitting around comparing swine flu and SARS the other day. (Yes, we do these sorts things here at Pixels & Pills HQ. In between sharing Perez Hilton updates and seeing who can tie Mike’s laces together without him noticing. It’s a hard life.) Seriously, though. Why does it seem as if SARS coverage disappeared pretty quickly, but H1N1 is continuing to capture the public consciousness?

• Does it just seem that way because SARS was a few years ago and so it’s faded from memory?
• Is it because there have been more H1N1 cases than SARS cases?
• Is it a vast right-wing conspiracy?

This may shock you, but we don’t always have all the answers here at P&PHQ. (Either for celebrity gossip OR for healthcare.) So we decided to poke around a bit and see what we could learn. And then we thought we’d tell you, in case you were curious too.

Something interesting to remember is the way that SARS has helped the global health community prepare for H1N1, in that it was the first pandemic of the new century. Digital technology allowed the governments and health agencies of the world to share information to a degree and a rapidity never before known.

It’s not just those official bodies are doing that, either. Here are:

• A dynamic swine flu dashboard with graphs, charts and tables
• The well-known Google Flu Trends
• A Pittsburgh researcher’s FluTracker

But it’s this infographic from the WHO seems to have the definitive answer to our first question. H1N1 has affected over 50 times as many people and caused almost eight times as many deaths as SARS.

From the data, you can also tell that many more countries have been affected (obviously, given the numbers).

More mortality, more cases, more nations – no wonder there’s more conversation. It’s been immensely instructive to get our heads around these facts and data points.

But we also realized that we were just glad we could find the answer. Think if that question had been posed ten years ago. No civilian would have had access to that kind of information – at least not without massive amounts of legwork and research.

We’re so immersed in the ins and outs of digital technology every day that we take it for granted. But it’s worth remembering, not to sound too dramatic, that we really are part of a frontier.

What we do is making it possible for people to have access to more information than ever before. And specifically, for what we do here, to have that much more information about their health. You can’t get much more important, can you?

Sometimes when you ask a question and go looking for the answer, you get more answers than the one you wanted. We’re glad we asked, because this was a reminder worth having.

(SOURCE: AP/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ)

By DJ Edgerton

Quick. What do you know about vaccines?

Unless you work directly in the field, there are probably two main points that spring to mind first. One, that it’s flu shot time. Two, some reference to the vocal minority that fears vaccines (think celebrity Jenny McCarthy).

But how about this fact about vaccines? This spring, the global vaccine market was estimated to be growing at a rate of nearly 17%, to reach US$21 billion next year.

And then realize this: that estimate was made before the WHO declared the global H1N1 pandemic.

The 2005 flu-vaccine shortage may have been the first recent event that made everyone take notice of the corner of the industry that had been quietly chugging along.

(Four years ago, vaccines made up a modest 3% of the Pharma industry at about $9 billion.)

Then Gardasil was approved in 2006. The way its efficacy made parents consider their daughters’ future sex lives made it instantly controversial, and put vaccines back in the headlines again.

And now, flu vaccines are back in the headlines and those headlines are bigger than ever.

So, do headlines automatically mean growth, profits, innovations? Of course not. But they do help.

The vaccine business, however, is by definition very different from the pharmaceutical industry overall. In this case, you are not creating or selling medications that cure acute illness – so there’s less sense of urgency on the part of the consumer. And you are not creating or selling medications to be taken for a lifetime to treat chronic conditions – so there’s less profit to be made.

What the headlines are doing is, they’re shaking up both of those mindsets. Vaccines are an urgent need – and there is profit to be made.

So of course now we go back to our focus here – what does this have to do with digital? Quite a lot, actually.

Google Flu Trends is the best known mashup of social media and epidemiology but there are many, for Twitter as well as others.

And moving beyond data to opinion, don’t underestimate the power of social media in growing and strengthening conversations about vaccines, or the importance of monitoring those conversations to see what the current public concerns are.

Both Pharma execs and patients are gaining an appreciation for the importance of vaccines as part of the industry. I believe this will continue, and I believe that by staying abreast of online conversations and data, we can be informed enough to help them create and find the information they need.

What’s your company doing to take advantage of the vaccine trend?