A blog covering the health/care ecosystem and people.

  On Tuesday, 9 July 2012, health industry stakeholders are convening in Philadelphia for the first CONVERGE conference, seeking to ignite conversation across siloed organizations to solve seemingly intractable problems in health care, together. Why “converge?” Because suppliers, providers, payers, health plans, and consumers have been fragmented for far too long based on arcane incentives that cause the U.S. health system to be stuck in a Rube Goldbergian knot of inefficiency, ineffectiveness and fragmentation of access….not to mention cost increases leading us to devote nearly one-fifth of national GDP on health care at a cost of nearly $3 trillion…and going up.

While 2 in 3 U.S. adults are active on social media, we are skeptical about trustworthiness of the content we find there. Welcome to the 13th quarterly Heartland Monitor Poll from Allstate and National Journal, surveying how U.S. adults look at social media, trust, and the political future of the nation. The Poll surveyed, by landline and cell phone, 1,000 U.S. adults over 18 in May 2012. The most common social network used is Facebook, among 51% of U.S. adults, followed by Google+ (28%), Twitter (13%), LinkedIn (12%), Pinterest (6%), and MySpace (5%). While Americans are drawn to using social

What is a Mom, and especially, who is a “Digital Mom?” I’ve been asked to consider this question in a webinar today hosted by Enspektos, who published the report Digging Beneath the Surface: Understanding the Digital Health Mom in May 2012. I wrote my review of that study in Health Populi here on May 15. In today’s webinar, my remarks are couched as “Caveats About the Digital Mom: a multiple persona.” Look at the graphic. On the left, the first persona is a mother with children under 18. Most “mom segmentations” in market research focus on this segment. But what

On May 23, 2012, Pfizer announced its teaming with EatingWell magazine to launch a mobile app for patients on Lipitor. Eight days later, on May 31, 2012, generic versions of Lipitor will hit the market. Lipitor is the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history, to-date. Sales of the product top $125 billion. While generic atorvastatin has been available in the U.S. since November 2011 from two manufacturers, low prices for the generic will drop to $10 or less for a month’s supply at the end of May. This is Pfizer’s first foray into a prescription drug-affiliated app. The free mHealth app,

Transparency, data-based pharmacy decisions, incentivizing patient behavior, and outcomes-based payments will reshape the environment for marketing pharmaceutical drugs in and beyond 2012. Two reports published this week, from Express Scripts–Medco and PwC, explain these forces, which will severely challenge Pharma’s mood of market ennui. Express-Scripts Medco’s report on 9 Leading Trends in Rx Plan Management presents findings from a survey of 318 pharmacy benefit decision makers in public and private sector organizations. About one-half of the respondents represented smaller organizations with fewer than 5,000 employees; about 20% represented jumbo companies with over 25,000 workers. The survey was conducted in the

“Knowing they may need to return at some later time, patients felt they were vulnerable and dependent on the good will of their physicians. Thus, deference to authority instead of genuine partnership appeared to be the participants’ mode of working,” asserts a study into physician-patient relationships published this week in Health Affairs. The study’s title captures the top-line research finding Authoritarian Physicians and Patients’ Fear of Being Labeled ‘Difficult’ Among Key Obstacles To Shared Decision Making.  Researchers at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute analyzed data on patients participating in focus grooups, from the age of forty and over, from

Once upon a time, patient satisfaction with visits to doctors’ offices used to be a function of bedside (exam room) manner, demeanor and responsiveness of the reception and insurance staff, and the age of magazines in the waiting room. Today, waiting time is a key factor, and social media is raising expectations around response time in health care. See the first chart, based on data from PwC’s survey, Social Media “Likes” Healthcare, published in late April 2012. The poll found that when U.S. adults use social media in healthcare, at least 4 in 10 people want complaints and information requests responded to

In PwC‘s landmark report, Social Media “Likes” Healthcare, there’s a data point obscured by lots of great information generated by the firm’s survey of 1,060 U.S. adults: that over one-half of people value patient support groups and social networks with other patients that are offered by drug companies. Not surprisingly, U.S. consumers. who are taking on increasing financial responsibility to pay for health care products and services, also highly value discounts and coupons, and access to information that helps them find the “cheapest” medications — both favored by two-thirds of people. The report found, overall, that over one-third of U.S. adults

Dr. Andrew Weil, the iconic guru of all-things-health, was joined by a panel of health stakeholders at this morning’s Edelman salon discussing Wellness Ignited – Now and Next. Representatives from the American Heart Association, Columbia University, Walgreens, Google, Harvard Business School, and urban media mavens Quincy Jones III and Shawn Ullman, who lead Feel Rich, a health media organization, were joined by Nancy Turett, Edelman’s Chief Strategist of Health & Society, in the mix. Each participant offered a statement about what they do related to health and wellness, encapsulating a trend identified by Jennifer Pfahler, EVP of Edelman. Trend 1: Integrative

Every patient carries her or his doctor inside, said the great Renaissance man, Albert Schweitzer. Based on Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Prosumer Report – My Body, Myself, Our Problem: Health and Wellness in Modern Times, health citizens globally have begun to take on Dr. Schweitzer’s vision. Clement Boisseau of Euro RSCG points out that people, globally, are fairly schizophrenic when it comes to thinking about empowerment over illness: check out the chart for perceptions by condition and disease state. Boisseau says that people perceive health today both in modern terms (such as feeling empowered to control some conditions), and archaic or “magically

How electronically connnected and communicative are nations’ health information infrastructures? Accenture has answered that question in its report, Making the Case for Connected Health. Accenture built a “connected health maturity index,” analyzing a nation’s level of health information exchange among users along with their level of health IT adoption among specialists and primary care doctors. Adoption was defined across four HIT functions: administrative tools, electronic patient notes, electronic alerts/reminders, and computerized decision support systems. Health information exchange was defined across seven connectivity dimensions: electronic communications, e-notifications, e-referrals, e-access to clinical data about patients who see a different provider, e-prescribing, and

comScore has issued its annual report on the state of the American digital consumer in U.S. Digital Future in Focus 2012 and the topline is that mobile and Facebook are redefining communication in both the digital and physical worlds. This disruptive phenomenon has transformational implications for health and health care. comScore’s macro observations are that: – Social networking, and especially Facebook, is capturing a growing proportion of online users’ time, thus redefining how brands and organizations must interact with customers offline and on-. – Google remains the search leader but Bing has grown, surpassing Yahoo! as #2 in 2011. –

Transparency and authenticity, constant and clear communication, and a drive toward value underpin the future health system — for those health leaders who can commit to these pillars of transformational change. Leading Through Transformation: Top Healthcare CEOs’ Perspectives on the Future of Healthcare summarizes the interaction among 17 health execs who convened at the second CEO Forum held by Huron Healthcare Group. The report was released in January 2012. Health leaders concur that regardless of the politics of the Affordable Care Act and its prospects for whole or partial survival beyond November 2012, market pressures in the health sector are driving

Technology, autos, food and consumer products — two-thirds of people around the globe trust these four industries the most. The least trusted sectors are media, banks and financial services. Welcome to the twelfth annual poll of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, gauging global citizens’ perspectives on institutions and their trustworthiness. This survey marks the largest decline in trust in government in the 12 years the Barometer has polled peoples’ views. Interestingly, trust in government among US citizens stayed stable. The top-line finds a huge drop in global citizens’ trust in government, with a smaller decline for business. There’s an interplay

Most U.S. primary care physicians realize the health of their patients is largely out of their hands — with their social needs ranking as important as addressing their medical conditions, according to the 2011 Physicians’ Daily Life Report, conducted on behalf of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by Harris Interactive in September-October 2011, results published in November 2011. In fact, unmet social needs are directly leading to worse health for Americans, say 9 in 10 doctors. With that recognition, most physicians feel they’re unable to address patients’ health concerns caused by unmet social needs. This has led to most doctors confessing

The percentage of U.S. adults seeking health information declined from 2007 to 2010, according to the Health Tracking Household Study conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), published in November 2011. In 2007, 57% of consumers sought health information, falling to 50% in 2010, HSC found. The chart illustrates where the big drop in health information seeking occurred: in print media including books, magazines and newspapers, falling by one-half from 33% of consumers to 18%. The Internet (with 33% of consumers searching health information online) and friends and family (attracting 29% of consumers) remained relatively flat as information sources. TV/radio dropped 5.6 percentage

The Internet, broadband, mobile health platforms, and consumers’ demand for more convenient health care services are fueling the development and adoption of health technologies in peoples’ homes. However, designing products that people will delight in using is based on incorporating human factors in design. Human factors are part of engineering science and account for the people using the device, the equipment being used, and the tasks the people are undertaking. The model illustrates these three interactive factors, along with the outer rings of environments: health policy, community, social, and physical. Getting these aspects right in the design of health technologies meant for

The vast majority of employers who sponsor health benefits look at those benefits as part of a larger organization culture of health. While one-third are adopting value-based health plan strategies — doubling from 16% in 2010 to 37% in 2011 — only 3% of employers are taking an integrated view of value-based benefits and corporate wellness. This is the second year for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) and Pfizer to examine employers’ approaches to value-based health care (VBHC). As explained by Michael Porter, the guru on health value chains, value in health care focuses on the patient at

More people with higher levels of concern about their health feel they are in good health, see their doctors regularly for check-ups, take prescription meds “exactly” as instructed, feel they eat right, and prefer lifestyle changes over using medicines. And 40% of these highly-health-concerned people have also used a health technology in the past year. At the other end of the spectrum are people with low levels of health concern: few see the doctor regularly for check-ups, less than one-half take their meds as prescribed by their doctors, only 31% feel they eat right, and only 36% feel they’re in

The recessionary, sluggish U.S. economy has had an impact on Americans’ mental and physical health. The least healthy citizens have experienced a disproportionately hard hit on their health and health care. But necessity being the mother of invention, some people are re-inventing their personal workflows in health care — and many of these tactics may well benefit their health in the long run. The Economy and Health: 10 Observations is the analysis from Euro RSCG‘s survey of U.S. adults’ views on their personal health in light of the continued economic downturn. The first chart shows the economy’s impact on the overall mood of

3 in 4 of the Fortune 50 companies are part of the U.S. health economy in some way. Only 1 in 3 of these is in traditional health industries like pharmaceutical and life science companies, insurance, and businesses in the Old School Health Care value chain. 2 in 3 of the Fortune 50 companies involved in health are in new-new segments. In their report, The New Gold Rush, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) identifies four roles for “prospectors” in the new health economy which will represent 20% of the GDP by 2019: Fixers Connectors Retailers, and Implementers. These are the disruptive roles that will

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been the rational cornerstone of medical decision making for decades. RCTs demonstrate a drug or therapeutic course’s efficacy – that is, the extent to which a specific intervention, procedure, or regimen produces a beneficial result under ideal conditions. Of course, how a particular therapy works in an individual is highly personalized based not only on a body’s biochemistry, but personal preferences, perceptions, and personality. That’s why Dr. Andrew Weil and his colleagues, Dr. Scott Shannon and Dr. Bonnie Kaplan, say that medical decision making should take into account the patient perspective. In Medical Decision Making in

With non-communicable diseases (NCDs) killing two-third’s of the Earth’s residents — not malaria, HIV or other infectious diseases — the World Health Organization calls lifestyle-borne chronic conditions a “slow-motion catastrophe.” The solution for addressing this global challenge isn’t just about deploying more doctors and medical technology in hospitals and bricks-and-mortar institutions. The real health reform is about infrastructure-independent care and feeding that bolsters peoples’ health where they live, work, play and pray, as characterized by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2011. Today I’ll be participating on the eHealth track at the J.

Representatives from eight U.S. Federal government agencies, including the FDA and Veterans Administration, among others; health financiers (VCs, angels); health tech start-ups; providers, life science companies, and analysts, attended the Health Care Innovation Day DC sponsored by West Wireless Health Institute on April 28, 2011. The meeting had the tagline, A Discussion with the FDA, setting the stage for a day-long consideration of the role of regulation vis-a-vis health innovation. The $2.5+ trillion question (annual spending on health care in the U.S.) is: can innovation drive making health care “cheaper?” This was the underlying theme of the panel on which I sat

Anyone attending a Health 2.0 or health IT meeting in the past 18 months has (hopefully) been exposed to the force known as  Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services, and his mantra of “Data Liberación.” Data Liberación is the act of freeing data — in this instance, health data — locked within data silos, to be ‘liberated” allowing it to move about so that analysts can learn from it and develop strategies to better manage health for individuals and populations. Now there’s a force advocating for “Social Media Liberación” in Health: health activists, the most engaged patients

If you are a person with heart disease and you have received treatment at the Mayo Clinic, you’re certainly a fortunate health citizen. The hospital was just ranked #2 best hospital in the U.S. by US News & World Report. However, if that’s you and the costs of post-op treatment — namely prescription drugs — are out of your financial reach, then you might skip them; thus, undoing your top-notch acute care. This scenario is discussed in the April 2011 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, which describes a study by Mayo researchers among 209 patients with heart failure who were prescribed

As we are in the midst of the Hype Cycle for mHealth, the answer to the question, Health – is there really an app for that? has a loaded answer. This will be evident during the panel on which I’m participating on Sunday 3/13/11, the first full day of health hosted as part of the legendary South by Southwest conference. I am absolutely gob-smacked thrilled to be sharing the stage with John DeSouza, President and CEO of MedHelp; BJ Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab; and, Margie Morris, clinical psychologist and senior researcher at Intel Labs. We’ll be shepherded by Gigi Peterkin of Edelman, who

“Life well shared” is the tagline for Reader’s Digest. The publication began in 1922 and was, until 2009, the #1 best-selling magazine in the U.S. (losing its position to Better Homes and Gardens). How does a magazine that’s over eight decades old stay relevant? More digital offerings appeared in 2010. And, in 2011, Reader’s Digest is collaborating with one of the most well-used and -respected online health social networks, OrganizedWisdom (OW). How did this collaboration come to be? I spent some quality time in February 2011 with Unity Stoakes, co-founder of OW with Steven Krein, in New York City, the geographic HQ of OW.

Remote health monitoring, which enables people to track health and daily living metrics when they are in one place and communicate those measures to another node via some communications platform, is not a new concept. Telehealth, telemedicine, consumer-facing health electronics like USB-ported blood pressure monitors, and some mobile apps can all fall under the broad umbrella of remote health monitoring. There are strong market forces converging to enable health citizens to connect to their providers, institutions, payors, health coaches, caregivers, and each other. Still, a balanced look under the remote health monitoring hood reminds us that old saw taught to me by colleagues

EURO RSCG has polled 1,000 online Americans’ views on romance through the lens of digital media, publishing results in a paper, Love (and Sex) in the Age of Social Media. This ‘digital love’ survey was conducted in January 2011.  [It’s interesting to note that EURO RSCG won the business for the Durex condom line in November 2010.] In its introduction, EURO RSCG suggests that, “the Internet is the most powerful erogenous zone that the world has ever known.” There are five aspects to digital love, based on these findings: 1. Observing love online. As more people do more daily activities online like banking,

February is American Heart Month. The month also features Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Awareness, and National Condom Week. It also feels like mobile health month. I’ll be speaking three times this month at meetings featuring mobile health themes, in very different venues. On February 8, the Health|Tech|Food event will be held at the Paley Center for Media in New York City as part of Social Media Week. I’ll set the stage at the meeting for mobile health, sharing my perspective on the role of social media and mobile health, and how together these can combine to address health

1 in 2 people who use the internet to seek health information do so to self-diagnose; this is highest in China, US, UK, Russia, and Australia. Furthermore, health citizens in emerging economies including India, Russia, China, Brazil, and Mexico, may rely more on online health searches than people in developed countries. In these regions, health seekers face high costs of face-to-face visits with medical professionals. These global findings come out of the report, Online Health: Untangling the Web, from Bupa. Bupa is a health company based in the UK that serves 10 million members in 190 countries, and another 20 million

One in 3 managers in life science companies — including biotech, pharma, medical device and diagnostics firms — have no plans to engage with online social networks, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte. The key reasons for shying away from social networks include lack of guidelines offered by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), concerns about consumer privacy, and low or uncertain return on investment. On the other hand, 41% of life science execs already use social networks, and another 21% plan to do so. There are many benefits for life science companies in using online social networks, including using them for

Federal Express and Ketchum, the communications firm, have benchmarked best practices in social media and brands and published their findings in Leading Brands and the Modern Social Media Landscape. Interviews with chief communications officers were conducted between August and October 2010. Four key insights were identified in the study for regulated industries, which include health care, financial services, energy, among others: Research the rules regarding disclosure and reporting Manage internal stakeholder expectations and identify internal champions from across the enterprise Establish a business case and ongoing management plan with Legal/Compliance teams In risk-averse cultures, consider focusing social media outreach on a specific

Most caregivers involved with home care services would be inclined to dialogue with other caregivers in an online forum or social networking site, according to a  survey, How the Web and new social media have influenced the home care decision-making process, from Walker Marketing, Inc. Furthermore, 91% of caregivers would be likely to conduct research after receiving a provider referral by a professional source; while 78% would rely on a physician for recommendations, caregivers ultimately make their own decisions on long-term care providers. Websites are generally considered highly credible by caregivers, and are important sources of information for engaged caregivers on sources

At least one-third of American adults use social media for some aspect of health. Most seek health information online, and increasingly via mobile platforms. While many physicians engage in social networks on a peer-to-peer basis in Sermo and Ozmosis, among others, most physicians have avoided social networks where their patients and health citizens interact. The American Medical Association (AMA) released guidelines to help physician members enter the social media fray. There are five areas of recommendations: Protect privacy: using settings to protect personal information and content on social networking sites Monitor internet persona: routinely monitor presence on the internet to ensure that information is accurate

“Freeing health data from silos” and fostering collaboration between patients and providers can save costs and improve health quality for employers who sponsor health benefits. The bottom line: employers can benefit from using social media tools for employee health management, according to a report from Healthcare Performance Management in the Era of “Twitter” from the HPM Institute. As employer health care costs continue to annually escalate in the high single or low double digits, benefits managers have focused on tinkering with health plan design: looking into 2011 health plan strategies, employers are planning to implement Another prescription for dealing with runaway

The oracle (and I use the word here in the classic sense) of health internet statistics, Susannah Fox (@susannahfox on Twitter), along with the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation, find that 17% of mobile phone users look up health information online — and nearly 1 in 3 young adults 18-29 do so, while between 5-6% of people 50 and seek health information via mobile. The Mobile Health 2010 report tells the story. Beneath these macro statistics are the ones shown in the chart: people who have used cell phones to look up health information, which is a larger base

In a ballroom at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco on October 6, 2010, several hundred people shared ideas, debated, and painted a multi-faceted picture of the NewPatient: the networked patient. The meeting was convened, in “unconference” style, in conjunction between the Health 2.0 Conference and Gilles Frydman, founding father of ACOR, the Association of Cancer Online Resources. Gilles knows a lot about the NewPatient: he’s organized people focused on cancer for over 15 years through his organization, which has helped tens of thousands of health citizens connect to clinical trials, researchers, information, and each other – all seeking to

The ePatient Connections (ePC) conference convened this week in the City of Brotherly Love, my town, Philadelphia. And indeed, the eHealth love did flow between health citizens and organizations that seek to serve them: technology developers and health providers, alike. My flying fingers recorded nearly fifty pages of notes, and these don’t even include two tracks’ worth of presentations — social networks in health and health games — because I was the emcee for mobile health track. However, this gave me the opportunity to get to know the 11 mHealth presenters and their organizations up-close-and-personal and to brainstorm with track attendees

The fact that physicians access health information digitally is not big news; but, where they’re going online may surprise some health marketers who are shifting educational and promotional resources to online portals.   4 in 5 physicians access health care professional sites, the most visited online sources for physician seeking health information online; these sites get nearly one-half of physicians’ time online, and 1/3 of total visits among all health categories, according to a report from the comScore/ImpactRx Physician Behavioral Measurement database. However, one of the long-standing sources of information for doctors — medical journals — only reaches 30% of physicians, and doctors spend

“If you build it, he will come,” Shoeless Joe whispers to Ray in the baseball class movie, Field of Dreams. Ray then takes a leap of faith, building a baseball field on top of his corn fields there in the middle of Iowa, and miracles happen. Will it take a miracle for people to adopt health apps? A panel, now in the midst of PanelPicking as one of many Interactive sessions for South-by-Southwest 2011 (SXSW), will respond to that question. The panel is called, Health: Is There Really an App for That? Voting ends midnight CDT on Friday, August 27,

A decade ago, I was engaged by a consumer health company to lead a scenario planning exercise on the future of the health consumer. We developed four scenarios, one of which was called something like “MicrosoftMerckGEGenMills.” In that futureworld, several Big Organizations would come together to serve consumers in caring for themselves outside of traditional care settings, like hospitals, doctors’ offices, and nursing homes. The beauty of scenario planning when done well is that, if you’ve done it for a long time, you sometimes get one right. Witness the New Deal between GE and Intel, partnering up to develop solutions

Most consumers give thumbs-up to “fair and balanced” information on risks and benefits delivered in prescription drug ads on TV. But online? Not so much. This finding comes from one of the most highly anticipated surveys in the pharma business, the annual Prevention Magazine consumer survey on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC). The FDA takes this survey seriously and its results inform FDA approaches to regulation. The 13th annual poll was published on July 15, 2010, titled, Consumer Reaction to DTC Advertising of Prescription Drugs. Most consumers find that “fair balance,” which is FDA required for presenting risks and benefits, is indeed “fair and balanced” on broadcast and in magazines. However,

This week’s issue of Advertising Age magazine dated June 28, 2010, includes cover stories about fast food advertising buoying cable TV revenues, car companies changing ad agencies, the Cannes advertising festival focusing on creativity and ROI, and…hospitals and health reform? Why do hospitals and health reform appear on the cover page of Ad Age? It’s the “new front of medical marketing,” Rich Thomaselli, Ad Age editor, calls it. With upwards of 30 million Americans gaining health insurance coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordability Act (PPACA, or “health reform” broadly writ), hospitals are competing for new business, along with aging baby

The Health 2.0 Conference convened its first meeting in Washington, DC, today, with public sector health leaders and private sector innovators coming together in a Great Big Kumbayah. This conference featured two prominent and key players absent from previous Health 2.0 Conferences: patients on every panel, and the  Federal government punctuating the start, the middle, and the end of the day’s agenda. The over-arching message: Data Liberación! says Todd Park, the DHHS Technology Officer. This follows last week’s launch by DHHS of the Community Health Data Initiative (which Park wants to rename with your help here). [More about the CHDI herefrom Health Populi] 

1 in 2 global health citizens looks first to the Internet for advice to make health decisions; then, they look to doctors. This virtual tie for ‘first place’ in health information that supports health decision making is the New Second Opinion for at least one-half of the population, according to data gleaned through PricewaterhouseCoopers‘s Health Research Institute’s Global Consumer Survey. Traditional media, including print (newspapers and magazines) and broadcast (TV, radio) are go-to health information sources for about 1 in 4 health consumers. Social networking websites were found to be useful health information decision-support sources by 17% (say, nearly 1 in 5 people). Health