Dr Neelesh Bhandari's List: Medical communication

Fitness and health wearables were some of the hottest products showcased during the event. Sony, Garmin, and luxury brands such as Swarovski all made an impression on smart watch technology this year.

We also monitored the most popular speakers at CES this year. Samsung’s Boo-Keun Yoon was the most mentioned speaker during CES. In his January 6 keynote he said, “100 percent of the company's products will be IoT enabled.” The second and third most mentioned speakers were Brian Krzanich of Intel and Mark Fields of Ford. Intel, Android, and Sony were the most popular brands in social CES conversations. Check out all the top social media trends and analysis from CES 2015 in our recap below. 

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Medical Director, HELP, spoke about the change that has taken place in social media in India. He also emphasised that the doctor’s key focus should be patient education. Doctors should take the initiative to reach out to their patient and help them understand their health conditions. He also encouraged doctors to have their own websites and interact with patients more. Dinesh Chindarkar, Co-Founder, MediaMedic Communications anchored the session. The Social Media Week in Mumbai helped pharma and healthcare professionals get insights on newer innovative ways to reach out to their target audience, build awareness in simple yet attractive format.

Despite reduction in prices of several medicines by NPPA, quality problems with US FDA, competition and slowdown in approvals, 50 top Indian pharmaceutical companies registered satisfactory growth in net sales and earnings before depreciation, interest, tax and adjustments (EBDITA). The net sales of Pharmabiz sample of 50 major pharmaceutical companies went up by 13.7 per cent to Rs.75,377 crore from Rs.66,314 crore in the corresponding period of last year. However, their other operating income declined by 13 per cent to Rs.2,244 crore from Rs.2,579 crore. <br />

Low-key Generation Xers—sandwiched between the “forever young” baby boomers and the “me-generation” millennials—are quietly crossing the threshold of middle age. Though many healthcare marketers have overlooked this generation because of its relatively small size, Gen Xers are a powerful and unique consumer group. They will be even more important to healthcare marketers as they grow older, according to a new eMarketer report, “Healthcare Marketing to Generation X: Helping the ‘Self-Reliant’ Find Something to Depend Upon.”

Weibo, a Twitter-like service, has attracted more than 500 million users in less than five years. Connected by online social ties, different users might share similar affective states. We find that the correlation of anger among users is significantly higher than that of joy.

Taking a page from popular mobile games such as Candy Crush, companies such as HealthPrize, Mango Health and Ayogo Health are using smartphone apps to reward patients whenever they adhere to their medication schedule.<br />HealthPrize Technologies LLC was founded in 2009 with the mission to fight medication non-adherence, which accounts for $290 billion in avoidable medical spending each year in the U.S., according to the company. Its solution is a four-pronged approach: education (e.g., daily tips, weekly quizzes), gamification (e.g., badges, leaderboards), prompts (e.g., daily medication reminders, activity notifications) and rewards (e.g., points, coupons).

A guide for healthcare professionals and clinics looking to use social media for promotional purposes. We’ll discuss how medical marketing ethics relate to the way you promote your practice.

The built-in tools that Facebook offers to business pages and advertisers are robust and detailed. Hence, you’re likely to uncover a smaller stash of third-party tools than you might for a network like Twitter.<br /><br />Still, there are some fabulous Facebook tools out there, and they can help push your Facebook marketing campaign forward with contests, insights, advertising, and more.<br /><br />Here is a selection of our top picks for Facebook marketing tools.

The pharmaceutical industry needs to engage much more in the digital space with healthcare professionals and “provide clear, concise brand and product messages which can be easily shared across digital channels”.

Traditionally, adverse drug effects could be reported to the FDA through their Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). From this, monitoring post clinical trials can be conducted for any issues that may arise. Many medications have been adjusted or withdrawn from the market based on unseen side effects on patients.<br /><br />But Friefield and colleague’s recent study in Drug Safety demonstrated that patients are increasingly reporting their side effects via Twitter. Utilizing a semi-automated process to identify 23 drug products on Twitter,  approximately 7 million tweets were assessed, with 60,000 evaluated, producing 4,400 identified. Many of the events related to side effects from drugs and how they were responding to therapy.

Good LinkedIn company pages are few and far between. In fact, bad ones are few and far between as well! Most companies simply don’t seem to bother completing the basic information on them, let alone updating them frequently

We invest millions in building a brand, yet remain terrified of its mention in public. Of course, we cannot publicly announce our treatment and associated scientific benefits, and yes we have an obligation to ensure it is not miss-represented either positively or negatively. But are we really at fault if a member of public chooses to discusses our brand in a fair, valid and experienced manner? We live in a free world, and an increasingly global community, we must engage if we have valuable information & insight. Do we not have a moral obligation to respond with valuable insight? Why would we leave Wikipedia with data we know to be inaccurate, when it’s widely considered to be the first point of reference? The vast majority of the general public are wholly unqualified to comment on disease, symptoms, side effects or treatments, but do so with the vigor of a grand-parent championing chicken soup. We have the knowledge, rigor and expertise to harness valuable patient experiences, real-life events and dialogue to support broader society.

Are you struggling to make social media work for you?<br /><br />Do you have the right social media strategy for your business?<br /><br />The challenge of social media is that it’s constantly changing.<br /><br />In this article I’ll share five ways to adapt social media for your business.

Novartis currently has 13 iPhone apps in Apple's App Store, and nine of them are designed for patients and consumers.<br /><br />Some, like "Sickel Cell Iron Invaders" and "Marley's World", are games. Patients with neuroendocrine tumors, or NET, can use Novartis' My NET Manager to learn about their condition, monitor symptoms and medications, schedule doctor's visits, and track insurance claims. Another app, Clinical Trial Seek, streamlines data from the National Institute of Health's database to locate cancer clinical trials in the area.

In response to this shifting environment, pharmas are looking to move to a range of value-added services under the moniker beyond-the-pill – and most of those new services are digital. “Beyond-the-pill is a logical and inevitable path forward for all,” reports Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Swiss healthcare giant Novartis. “Creating value by embedding products into a holistic offering with the aim to improve patient outcomes and provide tangible competitive advantages.” Such holistic offerings include telehealth services, wellness programs, and improved chronic disease management over patients’ lifetimes.

Google restricts the promotion of healthcare-related content such as the following:<br />over-the-counter medication<br />prescription medication and information about prescription medication<br />online and offline pharmacies<br />pregnancy and fertility-related products and services<br />medical services and procedures<br />medical devices and tests<br />clinical trial recruitment<br />sexual enhancement treatments<br />The restrictions that apply to this content may vary depending on the product or service that you're promoting and the countries that you're targeting. Some content, such as unapproved pharmaceutical supplements, can't be promoted anywhere.<br /><br />Depending on the content that you're promoting and the countries where your ads appear, you may need to apply for pre-authorization with Google before advertising healthcare-related content.

SmartStory Technologies today announced it has deployed its groundbreaking SmartStory enterprise platform, which automates the delivery of short, sequenced and personalized videos in several U.S. retail pharmacies.<br />The service was launched last month with Monrovia, California-based health-solutions company Stayhealthy Inc., which operates thousands of HealthCENTER kiosks in pharmacies, grocery stores and employer locations across the country to measure customers' health indicators, such as body composition, body mass index, hydration, weight, heart rate and blood pressure. SmartStory is now using this data, with customers' permission, from an initial group of pharmacies to deliver personalized short-form videos (three minutes or less) to explain customers' specific health readings on their smartphones and personal computers.

The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development convened 20 pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs) to provide insight into how social media was being used in drug research. Some of the findings highlight the worries that pharmaceutical companies have when dealing with social media in general.

Out of all the digital health stakeholders, pharmaceutical companies have both one of the biggest opportunities and some of the most significant challenges to make the most of mobile and digital technologies. As such, while providers and payors have dived into the digital health world with gusto, moves from pharma have often been tentative. They are just now starting to take off.

Twitter is being used mostly as a one-way communication tool. To expand the reach of the message and maximize the potential for word-of-mouth marketing using Twitter, organizations need a strategic communications plan to ensure on-going social media conversations. Organizations may consider collaborating with individuals and celebrities in these conversations. Social media communication strategies that emphasize fundraising for breast cancer research seem particularly appropriate.