TrueView, the Ryan TrueHealth POV

Amanda and EHR

http://www.theamandaproject.com/

The Amanda Project.

Check the link out and take in how they target and execute against people's need to express themselves. It is simple and brilliant. It is not a blog or a community, but a series of individuals. Good user experience, solid on their Value Exchange and overall Value Proposition, but best in the simple inviting way they ask you to engage.

For a while, I have been taking in the emerging world of EHR/PHR, and trying to decipher the role of marketing within a medical world dominated by this coming use of patient technology.

Electronic Health Records -- the V 2 of Google Health and MSN HealthVault has peaked into reality with KEAS (keas.com).

keas offers "Care Plans" that guide you step by step to healthier behaviors and outcomes. And they have conceived of what was the true missing piece in the puzzle to make EHR actually usable -- content and advice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/technology/06bosworth.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Adding%20Health%20Advice%20to%20Online%20Medical%20Records&st=cse

Why is it important?

Because once again it shows how technology is now taking over health care. And potentially leaving clients/brands behind. Even as they spend more on this channel, it is potentially slipping away. 

Last winter I saw the Microsoft guy give a very dynamic presentation on EHR/PHR and the role his company was playing. My immediate impression? Very smart, but lacking that essential human insight into how we humans view and "game" our own health like so many other things, that the current thinking was a 2-dimensional, highly functional tool but lacking the user experience, content and adherence-related information to truly help patients.

I guess someone was thinking the same thing.  Probably a lot of people.

Keas, it is called. And though in its infancy, the promise is huge; here are some clips from the article:

Using the Keas system, for example, a person with Type 2 diabetes might receive reminders, advice on diet and exercise, questions and prompts presented on the Web site or delivered by e-mail or text messages — all personalized for the person’s age, gender, weight and other health conditions.

Although success is far from certain, Keas has some big partners, including Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.

 “The goal is not just health care information, but knowledge about what that means and what action to take,” said Dr. John D. Halamka, chief information officer at the Harvard Medical School, and a member of a federal advisory group on electronic health records.

Where does that leave the rest of us? Well, multi-channel marketing is one. And maybe only the acquisition and conversion stages. The mix? No DTC unless it is for database building of users. Probably a major focus on targeted direct mail, email, micro-sites and brand sites and sponsored content.Doctors handled through communities, email and e-Detailing.

How do you build a database, engage a health conscious patient type online build your database and your brand?

http://www.theamandaproject.com/

Have fun. Get involved. Tell your story. It's basically a brand "owning" compassion. What is more powerful than that?

e-Detailing. A Shifting Model To a More Human Approach. But What About the Patient?

This week we focus on e-detailing – but in a compare and contrast approach. e-Detailing seems to have taken on the spirit of marketing innovation.It is fascinating.

e-Detailing will replace the sales force model. Not completely, of course. But the electronic version of the sales experience is like most technology advances – it is additive and those doctors who like it, will embrace it and others – most likely specialists – will perhaps use a combination of face-to-face and online information gathering.  But let’s be honest: like all true innovations, this was forced on us. The writing was on the wall.  The steady spigot of detailing and sales force driven marketing is slowly turning off. Look at how e-detailing is taking off and why – nearly 20% of doctors have opted out of having sales reps visit them; a half dozen states all have some form of limiting access or sales data from pharma sales organizations; new guidelines are taking away all the tried-and-true tricks of where influence and information-sharing meet – like dinners, lunch ‘n learns, and all the little branded ‘gifts’ that litter an office. That’s the negative. On the positive, I recently read many doctors do the e-Detail on non office hours and that is big, especially when the comparison is some poor sales rep. hovering awkwardly like some nerd at the high school dance. The motivation for innovation is real and it is called ROI.

But an odd thing has happened: Instead of just seeing doctors as deciles and having some sales rep. know the names of their kids, this evolution of the sales model  has forced businesses to now research doctors as people, like they recently learned to do for patients. A 360 degree view: their age, habits, feelings, attitudes, behaviors. All the basic information we use for patients. Actually, maybe more.

Think about that seminal shift. This is not just finding a new way to market to a doctor; it is accepting that the doctor is not just a doctor, but a consumer. They have habits, they shop, they buy, and they ponder brands and have the same intangible relationship with products they use every day. 

Doctors being sold to as people. Who’dathunk it.  

And what does that mean? What is the challenge? Well, the same challenge all online marketers face: engagement. Breaking through the noise and finding new ways to grab more of their attention.   

What shocks me is that the technology for e-Detailing has quickly surpassed what is being used for consumers. Real-time dynamic content. Personalized micro-sites. Customization. I have seen highly engaging and smart waves of mail driving to personalized, time-based product information…”Do you have five minutes? Ten? Fifteen?”  Or, “please help us make this visaid for you…what would you pick as the key message?”

Or, and here’s a wacky one, let’s build a Second Life island just for e-Details and assign the doctor and sales rep. a digital persona and deliver the information in a 3-D environment. 

Personally, I think that the embracing of interactive tools is one of the great trends in our industry. Oddly enough, it seems that online innovation for doctors in just a short time is passing that used for patients. Most patient Web sites are one-size-fits-all. Text-heavy. PDF’s galore. Video that is canned and over-produced and over-edited. Information is watered-down.

But…why not do these same innovations for consumers/patients? Why are they so different? Is it because they do not have the science background? Or it is that most organizations just are so much more driven by HCP marketing (and the $$$ that go with it) and the world of consumer marketing is just entering its teenage years?

Try this on: what would happen if the same e-Detail was reinterpreted for a patient?

Let’s end with a simple truth: the key reason people do not either take in that first prescription, or get their second, or stay on for long, starts with a poor communication between the doctor and patient. Second reason? The patient is not prepared or does not accept the doctors’ diagnosis/advice.

But if the patient knew enough to know what the doctor was saying, if the patient was able to truly educate themselves beforehand or after in an engaging, interactive and personalized way, wouldn’t that all-hallowed moment of truth  between the doctor and patient have a better outcome?

So, what is an e-Detail for a patient? And what would happen in a company supplied that to their doctors to offer to patients with the Rx? “Before you start taking X, I want you to go online and go through this short lesson on why this diagnosis and why this drug.”

Now, that is innovation.