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

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’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!

by Dennis Portello

Everywhere you turn, a wave of seemingly ever-accelerating technology changes impact our world. From computers to communications, from basic research to go-to-market products, technology has increased productivity and, most would argue, increased our standard of living.

Against that backdrop – not to mention the backdrop of individual lives, full of smartphones, computers, iPads and cars with more computing power than the systems guiding the first moon launch, it’s easy to forget a basic fact:  Not everyone has access to this range of cool technology.

In fact, if you’re reading this on a computer, you’re in the minority, globally speaking. Accessing content on a smartphone? You’re in an even smaller group.

That’s a crucial point in the global healthcare market, where many of the biggest challenges lie in developing nations – places where GDP per capita won’t support basic sanitation or nutrition, much less a new iPhone.

Technology works in healthcare, supporting and providing positive patient outcomes. So what are the leading technologies being adapted for the developing world?

Cheap tablets and computers: On October 5, India launched the world’s cheapest tablet, the Aakash, priced as low as $35. Similarly, One Laptop Per Child‘s XO and Intel’s Classmate PC share a common mission:  Bringing children access to education through computer ownership. Both programs distribute laptops to schoolchildren across the developing world. These efforts are targeted at students and the general populace, but they also present enormous opportunities, both for devices loaded with appropriate software to inexpensively aid medical professionals in the developing world, and for health-related communications to a newly connected population.

Cheap mobile phones: Today, mobile phones are as inexpensive as $15. With more than 5 billion mobile phone subscribers and 90 percent of the world’s population covered by a cell signal, lowering the cost of mobile communications can provide a lifeline to hundreds of millions of people with no access to traditional landline communications. One company sees this as a way to change global healthcare: Medic Mobile is focusing on the lowly text message as a way to change how patients and doctors interact. Can low-tech SMS programs revolutionize global health? The key is ubiquity: In sub-Saharan Africa, for an example, 50 percent of people now have access to a cellphone. Within two years, if not sooner, that figure will jump to 100 percent. No other form of communications technology comes close.

Cheaper sanitation: Keep people’s food and water clean, and you’ll solve a lot of health issues. So it should be no surprise that technology is driving down the cost of sanitation. India’s Tata Chemical has released an affordable – at around $21 – water filter that needs no electricity, yet purifies water to U.S. EPA standards. Although new and not yet pervasive, the filters address an enormous problem: Advocacy group water.org reports that one billion people don’t have access to clean water, and 2.5 billion people don’t have improved sanitation.

If these advances sound a bit like something out of science fiction, then take comfort in the fact that we’ve been here before. From the first vaccines to the first X-ray machines, first MRI devices and first genome sequencing, the march of healthcare has been the story of advances aided by technology. And, at each step along the way, there have been parallel efforts to try and make these technologies more mainstream and less expensive so they can also aid the developing world.

Allison Stone of MoTeCH talks about how her company is using mobile phones to help improve patient care in Africa.

Continuing our reporting from the Digital Innovation for Pharma Conference, Meredith Ressi, President of Manhattan Research talks about the myths & realities of mobile use by HCPs.

by Krissy Goelz (@krisgoelz)

Weight Watchers – SparkPeople – Livestrong – Tap & Track – iFitOne – FatSecret – Diet Organizer – do any of these sound familiar to you?

If you’re part of the ⅔ of the adult American population who is either overweight or obese, and part of the ⅓ of that same population who owns a smartphone, then they probably do. Weight-loss apps are a huge segment of the healthcare app market, and that list above is just a few of them – not even getting into fitness-focused apps like Runkeeper, Fitness Pro, or FitDeck.

Weight loss is a huge industry as well as a huge medical concern, so it’s no surprise that there are so many apps trying to capitalize on the consumer interest. As a result, the consumer wins: they’re all trying to outdo each other with more features and better functionality.

Many of us are focusing our work in disease spaces that aren’t as widespread as weight loss – but that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from this! What can we learn from weight-loss apps to help us build more effective disease-related apps?

Connect to a community. Many of the above-mentioned apps are connected to larger online communities of dieters. Weight Watchers has the longest tenure, of course, having existed since 1963 as a community first and foremost.

Are you trying to make your app succeed all alone? Connect with a patient community, or create one. People want more than data – they want conversation.

Offer the most comprehensive database. Yes, data isn’t everything. But data is the sine qua non of your app – of any app. If the information isn’t there, it won’t matter how snazzy your interface is.

Don’t get so wrapped up in your design that you forget to underpin it with a rock-solid foundation of information.

Consider your smaller markets. Weight Watchers learned this lesson earlier this year when it sought to expand its male user base, who had traditionally been less than 10 percent of members. They didn’t change the functionality of their offerings, but they packaged it in a way that was less ostracizing for men, and felt more familiar and welcoming.

Are you inadvertently losing a big part of your app audience? Don’t focus on the majority to the exclusion of everyone else.

Keep it simple… but offer the extras. LiveStrong’s basic app functionality is as a food tracker, but it can also track exercise, recipes, nutrients and more. Those options don’t get in the way of the food tracker, though.

Figure out what the main purpose of your app is, and put that front and center. Don’t clutter it up.

Today’s guest blog post is by Aarin Murray, a Search Marketing Coordinator and passionate SEO practitioner at iProspect.

By Aarin Murray

It’s a fact: Smartphone sales are rising, and according to Google, mobile search has grown four times in the past year. Yet as of June 2011, none of the top 15 pharmaceutical brands had a mobile site. Given the growing popularity of mobile search, which means more individuals are accessing the internet on the phone, it is imperative that pharmas ensure their websites function appropriately on these devices. In addition to the usability considerations, pharmas need to ensure their sites meet regulatory guidelines when viewed on mobile devices.

Attracting a mobile audience doesn’t mean constructing new mobile sites and apps – there’s mobile-friendly optimization, too.  Altering desktop landing pages popular among mobile users is a viable alternative capable of producing search visibility and user satisfaction.

Consider the following as you embark on this strategy:

1. 1. Examine Current Data

Pharmas need to track mobile traffic to see how mobile visitors interact with their sites. This data is found through analytics software, most of which allow segmentation by device. On Google Analytics, for example, creating an advanced segment for mobile devices allows you to see top landing pages, traffic-driving keywords, and page bounce rates. With this information, pharmas not only know what pages and keywords to target in mobile efforts; they can also track the results of their changes.

Note:  If the overall percentage of traffic from mobile devices is low, making the website mobile friendly may be a lower priority for now, though the segment is fast growing. According to Manhattan Research data, nearly 30 million US adults are mobile health users, or use apps, text messaging or browsers on their mobile devices for health reasons. So don’t put mobile aside for too long!

1. 2. Keep It Simple

For a visually successful and user-friendly page, simplicity is key. Avoid clutter in the form peripheral text, image links, and Flash objects. Delineate the sections of a page, as done on PubMed.gov, shown below. Here three distinct areas are present: search bar, page copy, and navigation links. Because mobile users work with a small screen, it’s best that they identify the layout of the page quickly, and spend less time scrolling and zooming.

1. 3. Key Content First

Mobile users are looking for quick access to information.  Consider rearranging the body copy to give priority to the most pertinent information. On a page about disease symptoms, for example, list the symptoms in the first paragraph. Visually speaking, shorter paragraphs and larger font make for a more legible page. For pages that give the brand name and indication, remember the ISI will need to be included in a highly visible location as well. This can be challenging for black box drugs considering the small size of mobile device screens, but typically a call-out at the top of the page works well.

Additionally, mobile search queries tend to be shorter than those made from a desktop. If a page is optimized around a long keyword, consider optimizing the page around a shorter keyword, provided that it stays relevant. To check traffic on a certain keyword, you can select the mobile setting in the advanced options of the Google Keywords Tool.

1. 4. Local Value

Don’t forget the emphasis on local intent in mobile search. Google reports that 95 percent of mobile searchers search local information to visit a business, call a business, or make a purchase. If a pharmaceutical site has a location-based feature like “find a pharmacy” or “find a physician,” verify that it carries up-to-date contact information or has a click-to-call button.

1. 5. Technical Efficiency

Search engine success also depends on a site’s technical foundation. To determine how mobile-friendly a page is from a technical standpoint, refer to Google’s Page Speed Online. This free tool gives suggestions on how to minimize page load time on mobile devices. A check on PubMed.gov returned no high-priority suggestions, meriting a “Good Job!” from Google.

If these recommendations seem daunting, keep in mind that optimizing for mobile-friendly desktop pages means slimming a page down to its essential content. The goal here is to keep mobile users on the site so they recognize and remember the brand.

comScore reports that for pharmaceutical marketing, branded websites are most effective in that they increase brand favorability among prospective patients. This finding coupled with the growing number of smart phone users further illustrates why pharmaceutical companies need to work toward satisfying mobile users – i.e., potential consumers. And with the top 15 pharmaceutical brands playing little or no role in the mobile sphere, the chances for success are that much more palpable.

We’re excited to be participating in another UnNiched(micro) breakfast at the CUNY Graduate Center in October.

This one, however, will prove to be a little different from other events that UnNiched has hosted in the past. This one is a grown up show and tell, or, as they are calling it “Scratch, Sniff and Learn.”

That’s right. Your friends at UnNiched are asking you to submit your innovations in the world of pharma and healthcare.

From their website:

We’re launching what we hope are the first of many of what we’re calling “Scratch, Sniff and Learn” unNiched(micro) events.  This event is designed to highlight innovative programs, products and campaigns in the health marketing communications arena.  Attendees will not only get to hear about these innovations from presenters, but get hands-on experience “playing” with each innovation at specially prepared exhibits during the event.

We’re looking to showcase Web applications, innovative campaigns with real-world or virtual elements, mobile apps, designs and much, much more.  For example, we’ve already signed up the folks from Zemoga who will be showcasing the Teach Shirts they developed to aid public health communication in developing countries.

Submissions from any area of health marketing communications are encouraged, including social marketing, mobile communications, pharma communications, public relations and advertising. What’s more, the work of individuals, organizations and others showcased at the event will be promoted in other ways:

1. Case studies about featured innovations will be published on our popular wiki for health marketing communications pros, Living the Path
2. Innovations will be featured on our podcast, fyi: healthmarcomms
3. We’re planning other ways to showcase innovations, stay tuned for more

If you have an innovation you’d like to submit for consideration please fill out the application form by clicking here (Submission Deadline:September 26, 2011).

Pixels & Pills will, of course, be there with cameras rolling. We’ll talk to the hosts and the innovators and post the most interesting submissions on the blog.

We know you can’t wait!

unNiched(micro) Event: October 25, 2011, New York City
Innovation Submission Deadline: September 26, 2011
Event Registration Opens: September 15, 2011
Innovation Submission Form: Click Here

This post is part of a series of point/counterpoint arguments proposed by different members of the Pixels & Pills staff. We’re strong believers that healthy arguments can yield the best solutions, and we hope that you enjoy our series. Feel free to add your own arguments in the comments section below!

by DJ Edgerton (@wiltonbound)

Many pundits have pointed out that recent months and years, pharmaceutical sales representatives have become something of an endangered species. Their numbers are falling, and as with any endangered species, there’s a force to blame for their decline. In this case, it’s primarily because physicians are changing their world.

Market research is showing the numbers of reps sinking by about 25%, and the number of “no-see” healthcare professionals growing by about that same number.

That’s dramatic, and the statistics do bear it out (as seen in this WSJ article), but there are still about 75,000 sales reps in the industry. That doesn’t exactly make this species rare.

When you’re buying something whose efficacy really matters, you want information. You want details. And particularly when you’re vastly overworked, and have a lot of people who are depending on you for their well-being, you don’t want to have to take on a side job as a researcher in order to find out your answers. What you really want is someone who can help you get all of that. You want, in short, a sales rep.

Talking about digital tools replacing people is usually based on well-meaning excitement about technology and its uptake, and corresponding opportunities for gaining efficiency and saving money. What people forget, though, is that technology isn’t self-propelling.

The big difference that sales reps make to the HCPs they call on is that they are, in themselves, a “push” technology. Their presence puts information-gathering in the context of a cheerful relationship. That’s something that technology just can’t do yet.

So: can digital tools completely replace a sales force? I sure don’t think so. But can they help? Absolutely. The role of technology is not to replace, but to benefit the sales representative. That’s why Zemoga created PADFORCE ONE, an application that makes it possible to securely place and update all of a sales forces’ multimedia materials on iPad. These tools do exist and should be taken advantage of. They don’t replace the people behind them – they just make the people that much more effective.