Today’s guest blog post comes from Carmen R. Gonzalez. Carmen is the Manager of Strategy and Communications at Healthcare Communications Group, a leading clinical trial recruitment and retention firm, where she spearheads new technology in clinical trial recruitment and business development initiatives.

By Carmen R. Gonzalez (@crgonzalez)

Digital applications are taking the lead in the clinical trial recruitment arena, while their social media brethren lag behind. At the time of this writing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration still had not issued its first set of rules on social media—a reason frequently cited by drug companies and clinical sites in delaying or avoiding use of this platform for patient recruitment. While social media is slowly being adopted in some quarters, the marketplace is teeming with e-tools directed at patients and doctors which support patient enrollment. This article offers a brief overview of this new technology. Full disclosure: my employer has developed an iPhone/iPad app mentioned in the article.

SMS Services: Reaching Out to Patients and Doctors One Text at a Time

Texting is widespread among youth and has gained traction among general society. Already, many companies are tapping into SMS to affordably and efficiently target patients for study enrollment. Early entrants, such as Exco In Touch, have applied phone technology to send HIPAA-compliant SMS text blasts among client databases to promote study awareness. Others, like In Touch Recruit, have offered SMS text messages embedded into clinical trial ads which allow responders the opportunity to reply and consent for further follow up and screening. The latest entrant into the field, Doximity, supports doctor-to-doctor SMS messaging, integrated with privacy controls, while allowing physicians to locate each other and incorporate them into their social network—an ideal framework for physician referral of patients for clinical studies.

Expect the use of SMS to continue to rise in this field. Many racial and ethnic groups are already digitally connected, creating new opportunities for study promotion. Earlier this year, Sparxoo.com reported that 76% of African-Americans use their cell phone to access the Internet, and a recent Pew Internet report in September confirmed that texting has reached the mainstream, with the movement being led by African-Americans, Latinos and teens. As the FDA increases its focus on diversity recruitment for clinical trials, it will become crucial to harness SMS to attract more ethnic and racial minorities.

Clinical Trial Recruitment? Yep, There’s An App For That

iPhone/iPad applications in clinical trial enrollment are growing in number, with most providing identification of local research studies, though a few offer information concerning the clinical trial process or clinical site-oriented support. The majority of apps are free. For the few that are fee-based, most tap freely available government sources (e.g. clinicaltrials.gov), providing no clear advantage over their pro bono cousins. Here’s an overview of a few of them:

Cancer Trials by MedTrust Online, LLC
This free app allows a user to locate nearby oncology studies within 150 miles of their location/zip code and to contact clinical trial managers directly by email or phone. It includes search features to locate specific types of trials (phase, status, type, and distance from location). Integrated into this is a share feature, allowing users to pass along their search results with friends and family.

Clinical Trials by StopWatch Media
Tapping into the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Heath database, this app touts access to over 78,000 registered clinical trials. It includes advanced search features by clinical trial type, location, phase, open or closed status and other options. Featured trials from the American Diabetes Scientific Sessions and the American Society of Clinical Oncology conferences are included, with abstract numbers for ease of reference. Search results may be forwarded to friends and colleagues via email. Polls exist to vote on the “most important clinical trials of the week, month and all-time periods.” This app is $3.99.

TrialX by Applied Informatics, Inc.
Locating nearby studies relies on the user’s location or zip, where this free app provides matching trials according to the user’s health condition, age, gender and other traits. Search results appear on a map or list, sorted by proximity to the user. Clinical study team members may be contacted via email or phone. An additional feature allows physicians to refer patients directly to study investigators. This app claims a database of more than 17,000 recruiting clinical studies accessed from clinicaltrial.gov, CenterWatch and registered sites and principal investigators on TrialX.com.

cTrials by Visual Soft Inc.
With this no-fee app, the user may search clinical study listings in clinicaltrials.gov, using advanced search features (e.g. country, state, refined terms). A time filter is available to limit results to more recent postings and search histories may be saved. Study teams can be contacted email or phone, and study listings may be shared with friends and family through email.

A Guide to Clinical Trials by CISCRP
De-mystifying the clinical study process, this free application explains the research trial process and provides instructive resources. Ongoing educational support is offered through educational programs, newsletters on real world clinical volunteer stories, advice on how to navigate the trial process and current updates in the clinical research field.

MyOutreach by Healthcare Communications Group
Aimed to help clinical sites perform patient recruitment efforts, this free permission-based application maps nearby support organizations and disease-based associations by proximity to the clinical site, so staff is guided to the closest community outreach opportunities. Details include group name, address, phone, primary contact, meeting times/dates/location, along with any unique details. The current version presents diabetes-related organization information among a dozen U.S. metropolitan cities.

As the technology grows in popularity among the medical community and patients alike, the app market will likely continue to heat up for clinical study recruitment well into the future.

By Krissy Goelz (@krisgoelz)

Maybe you’re not still making your wish list with a crayon, flipping through the Sears catalog anymore – but you never do get too old to make your list every year, do you?

I make mine every December, although I have to admit that my list includes lots of things that the ten-year-old me would never have imagined. Some are very grown-up (A new kitchen!) and some are still toys (name one person who doesn’t want to try out the Kinect for Xbox 360) – but I’ve also got a list of high-tech, social media, and Pharma wishes. Santa, are you listening?

1. I wish that social networking will become more useful – and more accepted – for businesses. So many companies block Facebook, and I think that’s really short-sighted. LinkedIn isn’t the only place to have a business-appropriate interaction! We’ve gotten clients, built relationships, talked business, had brainstorms, and done GREAT work through Facebook, Twitter, and IM. If you’re shutting that away from your staff, you’re doing your organization a disservice.
2. I wish for the mythical Verizon iPhone to finally come out. Maybe we won’t see one in 2010, but I would love for it to at least be announced. The funny thing is, I don’t actually want one myself. The gift I want for myself is just to get the peace and quiet that might come when my Verizon-faithful coworkers can finally stop whining about not having an iPhone!
3. I wish that social networking would stop being such a battleground. It doesn’t have to be owned by the IT department, or by the marketing team, or by the  corporate communications group. It shouldn’t be owned by anybody: social media should become part of how we all work. While we’re making our wish lists, let’s remember another childhood tradition: learning how to share!
4. Of course, my biggest wish for 2010… my Cabbage Patch Kid, my Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, my dream gift – is for those long-promised, long-awaited FDA social media guidelines. They could really be the start of a collaboration between government and industry, to help figure out how best to use social media to promote health. Julie Zawisza, Dr. Jean Ah-Kang, Tom Abrams: can you please be my elves this year?

Photo courtesy of Fast Company

By Sven Larsen (@zemoga)

A recent survey investigated physicians’ use of smartphones, and how it fits in to their detailing preferences. Here are some of the top findings:

1. The majority of doctors own smartphones.
2. While just about all of them still permit detailing rep visits, the numbers are dropping.
3. And almost a fifth now use their smartphones for e-detailing. That’s age-independent: they’re doing it whether you’re talking about an older physician or a younger one.

You can see the Pharmalot coverage of the survey here and the original press release here, but I know you’re busy, so I’ll cut to the chase of what this all means.

Here’s the point. If doctors purchase your product, and you aren’t developing smartphone apps to sell it to them, you’re failing.

It’s as simple as that.

The handheld communications device most stereotypically associated with physicians is the pager. It’s still common, especially with hospital-based physicians, but increasingly, it’s becoming a historical image. Your doctor is spending his or her time with a Blackberry, a Droid or an iPhone, not a plastic matchbook with ten LED numbers on the edge.

Physicians have adopted smartphone technology. We have to stop talking about that in the future tense, or as if it’s an eventual possibility. We have to stop doing doctors a disservice and treating them as if they haven’t had the time or the brainpower to pick up on what the rest of us have.

You need to think about the possibilities. These are the statistics as they stand now – with the paucity of physician-specific information available to them. Sit and imagine all of your physician outreach translated to smartphone apps. How much more would physicians use their phones then, with your new offerings adding that much more utility to their experience?

In another article on the survey findings, the founder of the surveying company noted that, “For a lot of doctors, they have the smartphone, but it’s not integrated with anything.”

This is a major drawback. It is also a massive opportunity.

How can physicians’ smartphones be better integrated? Let’s brainstorm for a moment.

Why can’t they write prescriptions on them?
Why can’t they communicate securely with patients through them?
Why can’t they call up complete charts on them?
Why can’t they order tests with them?
Why can’t they have apps for the PDR, the Merck Manual, and Taber’s?

Some of these are possible. Some aren’t possible yet. But we’re teetering on the edge of an ocean of possibilities – and if you can be the one to provide these options, to make physicians’ smartphones that much smarter – just imagine how indispensable you’ll become.

By Kimberly Reyes (@CommDuCoeur)

It’s no shock that on Monday, February 8, 2010, people were buzzing about the Superbowl game the day before.  What was a surprise is that they weren’t necessarily talking about the New Orleans Saints first Superbowl win against the Indianapolis Colts – they were most likely gushing over the Weiden + Kennedy Old Spice Commercial that made its debut on television screens all across the country.

“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is a series of 33-second commercials starring actor and former NFL wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa.  In the first and most widely recognized commercial (above), Mustafa plays the pompous stud of every woman’s dreams – inviting us on a private yacht, buying us “two tickets to that thing we love,” transforming the tickets into a handful of diamonds, and capping off the whole fantasy on a horse.  Where’s the selling point?  If we replace that ladies’ scented body wash our men have been using with Old Spice, he’d somehow turn into Isaiah Mustafa…or at least smell like him.

From there, the campaign took off, turning into a social media phenomenon.  This past Tuesday, July 13, Old Spice enabled fans to submit their questions for Mustafa via Twitter. “Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into twitter,” read a mysterious morning tweet on the official Old Spice account, “Or maybe the Old Spice man shows up.” America’s shirtless sweetheart wasted no time posting responses via personalized YouTube videos, fielding questions such as “What would happen if you were in a room with a pirate and a ninja?”, flirting with actresses Alyssa Milano, and even facilitating a marriage proposal.

It’s almost passé at this point to call Old Spice’s “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” brilliant.  Outspoken Media’s Chief Branding Officer Lisa Barone lays out in a blog post all the things that made it truly out-of-this-world remarkable – which also reads as a handbook to creating effective personality-based marketing campaigns:

1. It was done in real time
2. It created personal connections
3. You can’t watch just one
4. They got the media involved
5. It’s fun

So take a look at your Pharma marketing efforts.  Now back at the Old Spice campaign.  Now back at your Pharma marketing efforts.  Now back at the Old Spice campaign.  Sadly, your Pharma marketing efforts aren’t anything like the Old Spice campaign.  Here’s why.

The industry has long been struggling to put a human face to its products, most of them somber, and most of them unsuccessful.  For example, raise your hand if you a.) saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s diabetes PSA for Novo Nordisk, b.) attended Tim Gunn’s Psoriasis awareness fashion show sponsored by Amgen and Wyeth c.) remember who Holly Marie Combs is and why J&J paired her with their Ortho McNeil contraceptives.

Considering the amount of times Pharma has fumbled the ball with celebrity endorsements, it’s a wonder why we keep at it. Back in 2002, we all learned an important lesson in disclosure.  Reuters revealed the Man Behind the Curtain with an article that shamed Pharma companies for “covert drug endorsements” by celebrities.  Musician Ann Wilson promoted the lap band weight-loss treatment on CBS’ Early Show, actress Kathleen Turner appeared on ABC and CNN promoting arthritis drug Enbrel, and Lauren Bacall’s Today Show interview on behalf of Novartis often gets blamed as the smoking gun.  And the struggle continues: in September 2008, blogger Wendy Blackburn wrote about Extreme Home Makeover host Ty Pennington getting a slap on the wrist (or five, rather) from the FDA for his endorsement of Shire Pharmaceutical’s Adderall XR in a YouTube video.

Even when we do follow the rules, we execute it to little effect.  John Mack published a case study on his Pharma Marketing Blog to show an example of celebrity spokespeople for public awareness campaigns.  Penlac, a toe nail fungus topical treatment, retained 10-time Olympic medalist Jenny Thompson to be the face of their product through 2004.  Thompson, a medical student afflicted with toe nail fungus, promoted the brand through Satellite Media Tours, Video News Releases, and other appearances.  My challenge to you is to find all the things that are wrong with this campaign.  And sure, the story got picked up in some top markets, but is there really any proof that anyone watched it?  I didn’t read anything about the campaign raising Penlac’s profile.  I do, however, remember that the government berated pharmaceutical and healthcare-related VNRs not long after.  Tsk, tsk.

The question remains: how can we effectively put a human face on our brands?  Some Pharma marketers are doing away with celebrities altogether and focusing on real people with real stories.  I’m privy to this idea, if it weren’t for the fact that most of these “real” stories are too somber or too touchy-feely.  To an extent, tragedy works because it’s depressing, and that shot-through-the-heart feeling tends to linger for a while.  The other major theme is empowerment, which is certainly useful in that it’s a call to action, but your message only reaches the patient and is less relevant to their circle of care.

I personally don’t think we should give up on celebrity endorsements yet.  Looks like John Mack became a fan of professional racecar driver Charlie Kimball after being introduced to him by Ambre Morley from Novo Nordisk, who works with Kimball in their Race With Insulin campaign.  Here’s what they talked about:

Charlie says the Tweets on both sites are written by him — using his iPhone — and are NOT edited by Novo as I had previously suggested. Charlie depends on his sponsorships to keep his career going, just like any other racecar driver. He wants to make sure he does a good job for Novo in representing the Levemir brand. Although Novo does not tell him what to Tweet nor does Novo edited his Tweets, Charlie has been briefed on how to word his Tweets whenever he mentions a Novo branded product. Every branded Tweet MUST be just one-click away from the PI because the Tweet exists on the Race with Insulin page that mentions the benefit.

If we revisit Lisa Barone’s post on the Old Spice campaign, we’ll quickly notice that Novo Nordisk hit the first two touch points: facilitating real-time response and developing personal connections.  The jury is still out on whether or not interacting with Charlie Kimball is actually fun (item #5 in Barone’s list), but it sure is interesting.

It’s also worth noting that what eventually shot Isaiah Mustafa to superstardom wasn’t his acting career or his stint in the NFL – it was a few clever maneuvers by the folks at Weiden + Kennedy and a fictional identity.  Whether you use a big name (like Nick Jonas for Bayer’s Contour USB Meter) or just a regular Joe, you have to shape the right personality – someone loveable, possibly humorous, and representative of your brand.  All day, I’ve been tweeting about taking Pharma out of it’s comfort zone on the Pixels & Pills Twitter account.  Like Old Spice, that might mean creating a new kind of language around your brand, a new environment, and giving it a new personality.

Now for some weekend homework.  Answer the following questions: 1. What can Bayer do to up the ante on their “Nick’s Simple Wins” campaign?  2. If a Pharma marketer were to turn a regular person into an effective celebrity spokesperson, what kind of personality would the spokesperson have?

By Bob Mason (@BobMasonPalio)

Whether you’re ready or not, iPad and iPhone apps are invading the business world and the pharma industry is no exception. As the workforce becomes more mobile, the ability to complete tasks and access information remotely will become even more indispensible to medical professionals in the future. While tablet devices are nothing new to the industry, the touch screen and portable technology delivers a range of previously impossible options.

Sure, the technology has some short comings. For example, the iPad, like the iPhone, doesn’t allow applications to run in the background, limiting users from performing several activities at once – the way they’re used to on a laptop. They also may not blend well with the corporate enterprise. Some users have found that iPads are blocked at the device level from active synching, meaning they don’t communicate well with corporate systems. Or apps haven’t been developed that integrate with legacy ERP systems. Users may also face barriers due to Apple’s incompatibility with Adobe Flash. As a result, many eDetailing programs are not supported by the iPad. Of course, it’s just a matter of time until developers design programs specifically for the platform, overcoming this challenge.

The reality is, no tool does everything well. But what the iPhone and iPad do better than its predecessors is enable users to consume media in new and exciting ways. Tuned for Web, music, movies, books and games, they provide digital marketers with more opportunities to reach the target audience with robust, relevant Web, mobile and email experiences and interactions well beyond the limitations of earlier mobile devices.

And, some analysts believe there’s a fundamental paradigm shift occurring in how we use computers, with a move away from desktop and even laptop systems to lower-powered, more portable devices that access data in the cloud or back at the corporate office via lightweight, specialized applications.

For pharma, iPad and iPhone apps present the following opportunities:

Eye-popping visuals - The iPad, with its 9.7- inch screen (compared to the constraints of the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen), provides the ability to access larger, beautifully rendered interactive applications. Need a refresh on the human body? Explore different body systems with Blausen Medical’s human atlas, an app that uses 3D animations to make anatomy come alive.

Marketers should be working with developers to take advantage of the tablet’s large display and multi-touch technology to bring exciting innovations to display and video advertising.  Applications that bring information to life in a visually informative and interactive way deliver an experience that can’t be matched by traditional collateral (or any other electronic platform).

Fingertip access to information – Reference applications let you take information with you and access it from anywhere, at any time. Need access to information about any of the thousands of drugs sold in the market? Check out Epocrates. This app shows drug interactions for up to 30 different drugs at a time and comes with several health calculators. No longer simply a textbook, the app provides intelligence with the swipe of a digit.

Along with a catalog of information, apps designed with interactive capabilities further engage users. You’ll turn pages like a book in your lap. And you will love it. You’ll read written content that is augmented with video and graphics, gathering as much information as possible. Other apps are designed to aggregate information sources, pulling everything together in one place.

Access to a greater audience – According to a recent survey conducted by Epocrates, one in five physicians is likely to purchase an iPad. A recent report from market-research firm Manhattan Research indicates that the number of physicians who own smartphones will increase from 64% to 81% by 2012. As the amount of time a physician spends with reps decreases, iPhone and iPad apps provide a new platform to connect and get in front of medical professionals. Adoption of these technologies is estimated to increase as applications become more sophisticated and robust.

Powerful Presentations – Put dazzling effects into a slideshow with more video, particularly for instructional purposes. Apps like Keynote have easy-to-use tools that let you add elements such as tables, charts, media and shapes to slides. Or, drag and drop photos, promotional materials or videos into the presentation. Interactive presentations increase the effectiveness of any program whether that’s delivering training to the sales force or used as a marketing vehicle.

Currently, more than 140,000 apps are available at the Apple store with more coming every day. These 25 have been identified as ones that are revolutionizing healthcare. Users will tell you the iPad is fun and engaging. Like the iPhone before it, it’s a technological powerhouse with a multi-touch screen interface that is revolutionizing how we consume media. Isn’t it time you joined the revolution and made friends with iPad and iPhone apps?

By Dan Bobear (@dbobear)

No, this is not a shopping guide. Go check out Engadget or Gizmodo if you want advice on the latest shiny things. We’ll wait.

…Back? Good. Because here, we’re not going to tell you about whether the iPad is worth buying or how to hack your new phone or what the latest Android news is. What we can tell you is:

• Why mobile devices are more important than they seem at first glance
• Why they’re important to pharma
• What’s going on
• What you should be doing.

If someone came up to you in 1975 and said that you needed to gather up your 35mm camera and your VHS camcorder and your touch-tone telephone with your local phone book and your handwritten address book and all of your books and your hi-fi with your entire record collection – and that in exchange for this truckload, they’d hand you back a small chunk of plastic and metal about the size of a candy bar – what would you have said?

Well, you wouldn’t have said anything, of course, because you weren’t born yet, you spry young thing. But let’s just pretend for a moment. Obviously, you’d have thought they were insane. This thing is smaller than an eight-track and it’s going to hold a warehouse of information? I thought you said it was a telephone!

That’s a tricky thing about mobile devices: they’re often still called by outdated names. Your mobile phone isn’t just a phone. Saying that is like calling your MacBook a word processor. They’re far more like computers than like telephones. That’s why they run applications, after all.

According to a Reuters article earlier this month, the Apple App store has more than 150,000 apps that have been downloaded more than 2 billion times. But if you add some of the competition – GetJar, Android Market and BlackBerry – that brings the total nearer to 275,000 apps (although some may be the same app on different platforms). And according to this infographic on Gigaom, that generated a quarter billion dollars in revenue in December 2009 alone. Simply put, it would be difficult to underestimate the existing and burgeoning capabilities and uses of mobile devices. That’s why they’re important – and of course, that’s also why they’re particularly important to pharma.

But more specifically for pharma, they provide immediate anywhere-connectivity to data. And as we all know, healthcare is all about data, whether it’s the provider or  managed care or caregiver or patient who’s looking for it.

Here’s a great list of useful healthcare apps for the iPhone – and another list of health apps for Android phones. Like anything else in this space, though, they’re outdated as soon as they’re published. The rapidity of this market is stunning – perhaps only eclipsed by its growth. Doctors use apps. Patients use apps. And the FDA has their eye on apps, some of which they may consider medical devices. As with much of this burgeoning technology, it’s moving faster than references and regulations, and even statistics, can keep pace.

We, as people conversant in both the technology and in the industry, can help. Let’s become the bridge between the app world and the pharma world – helping patients, helping professionals, helping the industry. At last count, there are half a dozen apps designed to help a man keep track of the menstrual cycles of the women in their life, complete with devil-horn icons on “appropriate” days. We’ve got to be able to do better than this!

By Russ Ward (@russcward)
Bill Davenhall of ESRI, a geographic information software developer, spoke at TEDMED in a talk that’s just been posted called “Your Health Depends on Where You Live“.

He shows an iPhone prototype app that could provide “geomedicine” data – locating the user and mapping it against all of the maps of publicly available data that exist for disease prevalence, chemical pollutants, etc.

Geomedicine? Isn’t it thrilling? It’s like an academic mashup. An entirely new field created because we have the power now to combine data from two different departments. Better, faster, more educated decisions enabled by technology.

And, while it’s exciting of its own accord, it’s also exciting because of what it suggests. What’s next? What other fields have connections that previous generations couldn’t have seen?

We already have bioethics, sociobiology…  What other academic disciplines can match up with health-related studies? Here are just a few – some more traditional, some less.

Psychology + sports medicine.

Fine arts + health.

Religion + medicine.

Gender studies + clinical trials.

Agriculture + nutrition.

Marine biology + pharmacy.

Now, what could you create that would work with one of those combinations? Or, what could pairs up two other disciplines in a new way?

Think about it. An app. A campaign. A website. A philanthropic project.

And what more opportunities are inherent in geomedicine? Davenhall offers as an example that a doctor can tell you not to run outside in the ozone to improve your health. But there are so many more things to learn. Do people tend to have better aerobic health if they live near more sports and recreation facilities? Are people who live near chemical disasters showing unexpected clusters of illness? Are immigrants more or less likely than their families back home to experience different kinds of health?

There’s so much potential here, it’s thrilling.

What has this made you think of?

By Russ Ward (@russcward)

Buying many things can be an outing or an event – or at least a collaborative effort, in which you share links to product listings and discuss pros and cons. But how social of a process is purchasing your healthcare?

Many people ask for help with health research, especially if they know someone who works in a pharmaceutical-related job. (Most of you reading this are nodding from experience.) But the actual experience of healthcare isn’t nearly as social as it should be.

Think about all of the ways in which having another person could help improve how pleasant or useful healthcare could be, if there was someone to:

• Accompany a doctor’s visit to take notes and ask questions
• Debate the purposes, pros and cons of OTC medications at the drugstore
• Remind, cajole and encourage compliance with doctor’s orders

A big reason why this doesn’t happen is that healthcare issues are frequently embarrassing. Here’s where technology can come in. It’s a lot less embarrassing to tell a ‘bot about your actual weight, your uncomfortable rash, etc. Sure, a friend would probably understand, but it’s just not a fun conversation. So if technology can make the conversation easier, it can make them happen when they wouldn’t otherwise. And all kinds of help can come of that. Here are a few:

• Automated compliance buddies delivered through preferred technology – whether that’s text message, Twitter, Facebook, Wii, email.
• iPhone or other mobile apps making healthcare information easier – recording doctors’ advice, listing current medications, providing databases to check ingredients.
• Social networks where people can cheer each other on in their progress toward better health, regardless of geographic location or personal mobility.

What else is there? What else can we create?

We all need social support to be happy and successful – and healthy. Think about the patients who are closest to your work. What will help them become healthier – and how can you use technology to get them closer to it?

By Guy Mastrion (@gmastrion)

The recently announced demise of I.D. Magazine strikes a sad note for me, as I consider the need to spread good design thinking around the globe and how that thinking has enabled the creation of emergency potable water systems like those in use in Haiti as well as innovations like the iPhone or Droid. the creation of products that improve peoples lives is what matters and is the best use of design thinking.  I.D. Magazine remains, for me, one of the few voices extolling the benefits of design thinking and the sharing of ideas and innovations to help solve some of the worlds more pressing issues (and the occasional new killer chair design too).

From graphic design to industrial design and the design of a digital interface, understanding the needs of the end consumer is key to a successful execution. When I consider the design of simple objects like pharmacy pill bottles for instance, I think of my Mother-in-law, GOD rest her soul. She suffered terribly from a number of conditions, the least of which was arthritis that made her hands nearly unusable for most tasks requiring any level of dexterity. Given the number of medications she was required to take every day, the task was daunting. She tried various approaches to managing her meds but the safest bet was to keep them in the bottles they came in from the pharmacy. She stood the bottles like little centuries, shoulder to shoulder on a piece of paper with boxes drawn on it, with each bottle placed in it’s square marked with very large letters the name of the drug and the time she was to take it. The child proof caps, barely on. For her, getting those pills in her mouth was a terrible task, that often held her in lack of adherence. This was many years ago now and it is a sad memory to think of her suffering so, with a task most of us take for granted. Yet these are the challenges for those who use design to solve problems, to place yourself in the shoes of another, to consider their situation and potential solutions and innovations to power their daily lives.

Target’s great improvements aside, there has been little advancement in the area of pill bottle design. Not too big a deal you say, unless you’re the one who can’t open the child safety top, or can’t read the warnings, or even see the name of the script. As America’s baby boomers age out, these challenges will become more apparent.

We need good design thinking to tackle the needs of the end users. Should meds for arthritis come in containers that arthritics can not open? Despite some claims to the contrary, if you got it bad enough, you can not open these bottles. What about those with Parkinson’s disease who take multiple meds? What if your eye sight is bad and your hands shake and there’s no one around to help? These are problems that good design thinking will solve. Those Mon.-Sun. pill containers don’t always get the job done.

But this is just one area of design in the Pharma space that needs addressing.

A peak inside a sample closet reveals another, there is more sameness than differentiation. Of course there are practical reasons for a certain standardization of shapes and sizes but what about graphics? The similarities create a dulness that defies brand differentiation. There’s a certain design “schtick” in the Pharma space that broadcasts itself, like old-time Catskill Comedians, about to hit the punch line (rim shot please).

Consider the doctor or nurse experience as they quickly duck into the closet. A former primary care doc of mine and his associates had tupperware bins built into their sample closet on angled shelves and taped big photocopied names of the samples on the front of the bins, to avoid confusion.

Design must consider the end user as much as the message it wishes to communicate.

The Pharma industry in the U.S. in particular, has a market that is going to continue to expand as it ages and it must meet the needs of its aging audience. There is much to be improved in package design in the Pharma space and Healthcare as a whole, from pill bottles to the sample closets, to user interface design in the digital realm.

Even in the blogosphere, we must work to meet the consumer with a set of design solutions that support their evolving needs. I’ll pick on WebMD for a minute but this applies to most interface design today as it relates to an aging population. Take this little test, go to webmd.com right now. Better yet, sit down with an older person in your life, say someone in their mid to late 60’s or early 70’s and have them log on to WebMD. Then imagine yourself, maybe not in the best of health, with failing eyesight, staring at all those various bits of information trying to read. And maybe a little shake to your hands, trying to navigate the ocean of information that confronts you. Even if you zoom in enough to see, then you’ll find yourself scrolling back and forth trying to find what you’re looking for.

Is this a prescription for success?

By Sven Larsen

Quick, what’s the fastest growing segment in the digital space? Facebook? Twitter? Both of those platforms have posted impressive growth over the last year. But perhaps, the most astounding story in terms of consumer & developer adoption has been the growth of the iPhone Apps store. Mashable reports today that the number of approved apps for the store has just broken the 100,000 mark. That’s an impressive figure. Even more impressive is the fact that in August they estimated that the size of the iPhone economy had reached $2.4 billion.

So where are the Pharma apps? A look at the top 10 paid and free apps doesn’t show a single Pharma sponsored or created application. As one might expect, WebMD is a big player in this space (with their Medscape mobile application) and there are a number of clinical and reference tools for healthcare professionals. But why can’t there be sponsored apps for helping diabetics with their diet or reminding patients to take prescribed medication. Heck, they don’t even have to be sponsored. If Andrew Johnson’s organization can charge for advice on weight loss or regulation, why can’t there be paid guides for managing pain or tools for tracking blood pressure?

The lack of applications is really just a symptom of the larger issue. Since Pharmaceutical companies have had (legitimate) concerns about how social media could be utilized without running in to regulatory and compliance issues, there has been an industry trend to ignoring almost all activity in the digital space. But iPhone apps, like YouTube and many other platforms don’t carry the risk involved with social applications. The conversation is strictly one way and these new platforms provide tremendous opportunities for education and engagement with the consumer.

As the Pharma industry holds it’s collective breath waiting for the FDA hearings on social media next month, it’s a perfect time for us to explore some of these other opportunities. Let’s work towards the day when a patient can ask his doctor how to track his medication intake and the HCP can respond …

“There’s an app for that.”