Aug14

Mobile Health—Three Technology Challenges

Posted by Buddy Scalera from Ogilvy CommonHealth Interactive Marketing - NJ, North America

By Buddy Scalera from Ogilvy CommonHealth Interactive Marketing - NJ, North America | Published: August 14, 2012

Do you have an iPhone? Great, me too. Now, on the count of three, we’ll both drop our iPhones into a pail of water.

Ready? One, two… Wait, what’s the hesitation? I don’t see you taking the plunge with me.

And this underscores one of the big problems with our inevitable future with electronic health records (EHRs): our mobile devices just aren’t up to the task. In fact, if you stop and think about it, we’re really expecting an awful lot from these little technological marvels.

In addition to this shortcoming with hardware, there are potential problems with the EHR networks and the challenges of sharing secure data. Even if this is all addressed with regularly updated software, we still have to think about our creaky, inconsistent energy infrastructure.

I’m actually quite excited about EHRs, since they represent a leap forward in the way patients are diagnosed and treated. That’s why I hope there are serious efforts to address a few key challenges associated with the rapid uptake of EHRs.

Tough Mobile Devices

 The dare to drop your iPhone into water seems silly, but it highlights the inherent weakness of the device. Despite having a (relatively) tough exterior, the iPhone and most Android devices are not exactly waterproof.

We, as humans, are fairly water-resistant. It’s a nice design perk that allows us to swim, dash through the rain, and spill coffee on ourselves. (None of this is recommended with your iPhone.)

In many cases, we’re pretty tough on our bodies. From sports to everyday life, our bodies are pretty resilient. We get banged up, patched up, and do it all over again. Through much of this full-contact life, we’re carrying delicate computers, often wrapped in some kind of third-party case. It’s like Bubble Wrap around a china doll: bulky, unattractive, and definitely not part of the original design.

Our smartphones will become more powerful and more integrated into our health lives. From heart monitors to blood glucose tests, smartphones are becoming essential health devices.

Manufacturers will need to consider ways of making more durable devices, not just pretty things that run great in the lab. Someone’s life may literally depend on it.

Few manufacturers make tough smartphones, but hopefully more are on the way. We already have tough wristwatches, tough cameras, and some very tough cars. If we’re going to tote our health information on these devices, we’re going to need a device that actually works if you get injured around water.

That leads to the next issue to consider:

Proprietary EHR Format

Does anyone know what EHR my local hospital uses? If so, let me know—I’d like to install the right app on my smartphone.

Actually there are two regional hospitals. I sure hope that they use the exact same system, although I doubt it. Does that mean I need to download two apps and enter vital health information twice?

If you are injured and need access to your health records, you can quickly scroll through your apps and find what you need. But in a different scenario, you may be unable to work your password-protected device. What happens? How do medical professionals get to essential health information?

In an emergency, EMTs might check for a medical alert bracelet or necklace, but beyond that they’re going to be looking for your wallet. Yes, that low-tech leather thing in your pocket, which contains your driver’s license and health insurance card.

To my knowledge, there’s no universal health dock for emergency rooms and EMTs. They can’t just take your iPhone and access your personal health apps. Your mobile EHR is only useful if it is accessible.

Right now, we’re in a fragmented marketplace where there are lots of major solutions vying for the dominant position. Until we have an accepted standard that everyone adopts, we’re going to be living in a world where your wallet contains the most high-tech information about your health.

Which leads us to the third issue to consider…

Fragile Computing Cloud

People love to read scary fiction. Zombies and vampires stories are more popular than ever.

Know what’s really scary? Try reading the book One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It’s a book that paints a terrifyingly realistic world after an electromagnetic pulse.

In the book, the US is hit by a terrorist attack that leaves us without electricity. We are more reliant on electricity than we realize, and the story details our decline into chaos and anarchy.

In the past, doctors could work with handwritten patient records if the electricity failed. But as we all know, many of those records are moving into the cloud.

While many experts debate the security of the cloud, few are talking about the very basic challenge of electricity. With no power, there’s no way to download patient records. And with no physical backup, doctors may find themselves with precious little information about the patients they need to treat. Even if a hospital has generators as backup, that still doesn’t solve the problem of Internet access if the rest of the grid is incapacitated.

Doctors and pharmacists use electronic devices for dosing, contraindications, and diagnosis. Knocking out the power grid or disabling one of these clouds could have a devastating effect on the way a doctor treats a patient.

The Good News

There is good news in all of this. Smart entrepreneurs undoubtedly see these opportunities as well.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a massive growth in tough cameras. If these cameras continue to be popular, manufacturers may see a market for more durable smartphones. They are missing some profit opportunities, which are being addressed by aftermarket cases.

And with EHRs becoming part of modern medicine, we’ll begin to see some synergy between professional and patient apps. As an industry, we’ve done a pretty good job with application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow for secure connections. It would make sense to bridge the gap between personal health records on a smartphone and hospital computer systems. Information about your health conditions, allergies, and current treatments could help save your life.

The big challenge may be something that happens at a government level. The average citizen has no influence over the security and backup of our electricity grid. We also have no real input about how much of our information will be migrated digitally to the cloud. These are questions that are answered by government and utility companies. This can be good or bad news, depending on how you frame the challenge.

Looking forward, there are good reasons to be excited about mobile health. Our devices are becoming more powerful, the software is smarter, and the EHRs are poised to make a positive impact on healthcare.

Just don’t drop your smartphone in water and everything will be fine.

Also posted in adherence, Apps, Branding, Great Ideas, Health & Wellness, Healthcare Communications, Marketing, Patient Communications, Physician Communications, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
Jul26

Native Content

Posted by Nancy Malaga from Ogilvy CommonHealth RedWorks- NJ, North America

By Nancy Malaga from Ogilvy CommonHealth RedWorks- NJ, North America | Published: July 26, 2012

Considering the Impact of Digital First

MIT is taking the lead recently, promoting a concept called “Digital First.” On the subject of Digital First, Jason Pontin, editor in chief of Technology Review, an MIT publication, is quoted as saying: “Henceforth…we’ll publish nothing first in print…We feel we can better serve our various audiences on electronic platforms…We can create more beautiful and interactive experiences, and create higher-value and unique advertising opportunities for agencies and their clients.” What I found refreshing about the idea of Digital First content is its dissociation with print. Distinct from, and neither secondary nor tied to print, native digital content can exist as a new and unique channel. A brave new digital world of native digital content is born with new opportunities for content providers as well as advertisers.

Enter the Paywall

Like any new frontier, unclaimed property will inspire the entrepreneur in any of us to place a stake. The paywall, a business model that proposes to charge for content on the web, has been gaining acceptance over the past year, thanks in part to the decline in newspaper and magazine revenue. The all-or-nothing paywall model used at The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London will charge for all content; the metered model will charge for only some content. For example, on The New York Times or Financial Times websites, free access shuts down after a certain number of articles per month. It is only a matter of months before trade publications like JAMA start metering.

Same Brand, New Content

Having enjoyed reading content on the web for free for many years, I originally rejected the idea of the paywall. These same content providers attempted to charge for content but failed during the earlier migration of content to the Internet in 2001. But as the concept of Digital First develops, the vision of new and exciting (interactive) content, replacing recycled “migrated content” may be worth paying for. Katelyn Watson, senior manager, Internet marketing at Shutterfly, agreed: “You know people are paying for a subscription, and you may even have access to data that tells you more about them. The quality of the inventory behind the paywall and the price an advertiser is willing to pay is probably better because of that,” she said.

Freedom From Advertising (We hope not!)

A recent survey by eMarketer indicates that 90% of readers who are willing to pay for content expect to find no ads on the other side of the paywall. If readers don’t reject ads altogether on paid content,  they may be more empowered to determine what advertising they want and how much they want. Or paid content could dissuade readers from reading content online, altogether. “If a consumer is paying for premium content and feels their information is being used to bombard them with ads, that’s going to make a bad situation worse, especially among people who already resent paying,” said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.

Time will tell as the concept of Digital First continues to unfold. As an editor, with only basic knowledge of marketing, native digital content (under the umbrella of Digital First), can provide a new channel for both content providers as well as advertisers. Unique, native digital content can optimize a brand by retaining existing customers and attracting new. Henceforth, revenue.

“Having a paywall opens up more opportunities for advertisers, for example, the ability to sponsor one-time access to the site on a cost-per-engagement basis. This makes for a much more robust and engaging brand experience than traditional banner advertising,” concluded Watson.

 

Sources:

www.technologyreview.com/view/428072/technology-review-goes-digital-first/

www.emarketer.com/%28S%28t1dbt545e1mlujiknbqcinbo%29%29/Article.aspx?R=1008294

www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009055

 

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May16

The Art of the Acronym: CRM Isn’t Just CRM When It’s MCM

Posted by Angelo Campano from Ogilvy Healthworld - NY, North America

By Angelo Campano from Ogilvy Healthworld - NY, North America | Published: May 16, 2012

Customer Relationship Marketing, Non-Personal Promotion, and Direct-to-Consumer are all concepts in marketing that aim to create the most important communication with your target. Whether the communication happens on the phone, on the Internet or in the form of direct mail and/or email, the interaction with your target or prospect should be informed by customer intelligence. The practice of building customer acumen into every interaction, and listening to the response so the next communication can keep getting better, isn’t at the core of intelligent Multi-Channel Marketing—it is Multi-Channel Marketing (MCM).

We talk about “discovery,” or new response channels that can be stored on our database to help our clients understand not only what the value of their targets is, but also what part of the target lifecycle , and what that target’s significance is to the client business as well. These bits of found knowledge are important insights that can be made useable by Marketing Analytics, and they really do accrue value over time. Building a roadmap for including analytics is a step-by-step process.

Analytics Creates the Multi-Channel Roadmap

1.  Building Informational Assets With Strategic Discovery

Often the first engagement with new clients is to develop some customer-focused and market-focused analytical benchmarks that can be used to help make decisions about new marketing campaigns and, more often than not, help forecast ROI for each campaign. Many of our clients don’t have the time to look or simply don’t want to find insights that can come from a 360° view of their customers. We are looking for uniqueness such as target lifecycle stages and target value or segment.  This Strategic Discovery Process begins to answer questions about customers that can drive our Multi-Channel campaign design and how we measure the success of it.

2.  Segmentation—Giving Your Targets the Attention They Need

Normally, a segmentation system is designed to be helpful in driving messaging tone and focus while identifying the proper message to deliver. Segments should have the correct classification by one or more characteristics in order to realize which of your targets will need what type of attention. The perfect segment should meet specific standards:

  • It’s internally harmonized
  • It’s externally harmonized
  • The target responded similarly
  • It can be reached uniformly (through all the MCM channels)

3.  Campaign Targeting, Testing and Analysis

Each campaign plan team needs to establish a clear method for campaign targeting and testing for maximizing results. We need to have a mandate to check the boxes on each of these components:

  • The campaign design should include a consistent “test and learn” approach that can be carried out from one campaign to the next with new learning goals building upon findings from previous campaigns. Add to this a method for building a business case for each campaign to predict ROI and help with prioritization of the campaign changes.
  • When the targeting and testing method for each campaign is recognized, make sure to carefully document this process for potential reproduction.
  • Develop a protocol for predictive analytics for each campaign—whether models will be created for the pilot phase, or be built on results for future stages of campaign development.
  • Of course each campaign needs an established methodology for back-end campaign analysis—which will be documented for future use and roll out.
  • Establish best practices of reporting on campaigns—different types of reports for different levels of management are usually required, and this practice would be established early on in the campaign design process.

4.  Integrate Analytics for Response Management

As marketers seek to embrace target engagement, their presence takes on singular importance. Multi-Channel marketers need to examine how to bring direct marketing and web activity more closely together for:

  • Fulfilling targets’ needs by providing immediate messages relevant to them on a personal level.
  • Measuring directly ascribes and personally identifiable conversion results from campaigns that cannot be easily achieved through traditional methods, such as Non-Personal Promotion (NPP) or Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertisements.

5.  Identify Opportunities for Impactful Insights

We normally use survey methods both to collect critical data needed to drive Multi-Channel Marketing programs/campaigns and to build predictive analytics.

  • Evaluate whether there is data you wished you had for campaigns, but that is not available from any source
  • Behavioral surveys with compound analyses are highly useful for identifying the feature and proper mix for plans as well as prices that consumers are willing to pay for those features.
  • Determine if there is a proof of concept for the use of primary research to devise targeting strategies and campaign design.

By creating a checklist of these five stops on your Analytics Road Map, you can incorporate your target intelligence into Multi-Channel Campaigns and deliver greater relevance, better results, and promise a constant ROI…without hesitation.

Also posted in advertising, Analytics, Customer Relationship Marketing, Direct-to-Consumer, Great Ideas, Marketing, Non-personal Promotion, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment