It is with great sadness that I announce the closure of the DigiPharm Blog. Over the past couple of years we’ve been working really hard to give you up to date information surrounding all things digital within Pharma. With this the community has grown to be very engaged, with many of you also attending our offline events.

However fear not! We aren’t entirely signing off. We’ll be merging with our sister blog, Total Biopharma, as the ‘Engagement & Communications’ channel. This means that you’ll still be receiving information from us via our monthly ‘DigiPharm’ newsletter. We’ll also be keeping you in touch with the digital pharma world via our Twitter account @digipharm, so please continue to use #digipharm to share your thoughts & insights.

Once the new channel is live we’ll be sure to let you know. 

Goodbye for now.

DigiPharm

Wouldn’t it be delightful to have a reliable app that saves your trip to the clinic or at the doctor’s? Thanks to today’s technology you can sufficiently rely on some easy to use apps which can diagnose diseases, offer medical guidance, and provide prominent features that give valid information on your probable queries.

Here we list a few health care related apps that your mum would be very happy about. At least now she can worry a little less for you!

Diabetes Food Guide:

Here’s an app that answers prayers for all those who suffer from diabetes. Just as the name implies the app is specifically designed to assist, guide and provide relevant information regarding the disease and helps alleviate pain for those who are suffering or anyone who wants to help improve their quality of life.

Some Cool Features: The most fascinating feature about this device is that by using it you will be in a better position to know beforehand if you are moving towards complicated stages. For instance in “Types of Diabetes”: The feature provides information on the kinds of diabetes that exist and is equipped with a dietary plan for each kind with an insight on symptoms and how to deal with them.

Verdict: One of the notable things about this application is its user friendliness. No botheration of opening the menus. It is important to note that food groups incorporated gives you comprehensive information about you daily diet. You can easily distinguish between what is best for you to eat and what to avoid. Above all it has tips regarding eating and health care. There are also features that provide regular exercises for you to have a more optimized life.

Download this app here.

Pregnancy Calculator:

According to World Health Organization:

“Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.”

Now with an iPhone application a lot of important information is available at the tips of your finger tips.

Some Cool Features: It works just like a calculator, on installing this application on your phone; one can put their worries at bay. Not only does it give necessary details you want to know during pregnancy but also tells how your baby is developing and looks in the womb, the number of months passed and even offers precious advice. One of the most important thing is it gives guidance about how to keep away from any complications that may arise during the phase of pregnancy.

Verdict: You can use this application anywhere, whether you are travelling, working, watching television or shopping. It has the ability to give you information about the development taking place during this delicate period.

Download this app here.

Mango Health:

The aim of using Mango Health is to help you take your doses and medication on time, in a reward based way. Now you have an incentive to stay responsible and not be nagged about watching out for your health.

Some Cool Features: Usually people face difficulty in taking their doses on time. Mango Health gives you a very unique way of dealing with this situation. You will receive frequent reminders and those reminders are written in a very polite manner. The Mongo Health will give you rewards for doing this. Earn more and more points and you will be awarded with gifts. Some of the examples of the gifts that you may win are: different types of gift cards from the stores, donations to leading charities and much more.
Verdict: What could be more important than health? Here you can breathe instant relief by knowing that you do not need a nagging person to take care of yourself. You have your friendly polite app for that.

Download this app here.

Pokitdok:

Pokitdok has emerged in the market with the aim to provide health services to their customers. The attraction for the consumers is that they can directly shop from the providers and it’s cost-effective as well.
At first it was announced as a “Pinterest for healthcare”. This mobile application is designed in such a way that it offers the payer variety of tools that facilitates them in performing different transactions.

Some Cool Features: Another feature is that it smoothly collects accurate data based on the individual and medical needs with the ability of locating the ideal provider. Above all it helps the patient in taking healthcare decisions keeping in view both the convenience and cost.

Verdict: There might be a possibility that the consumers won’t be interested in paying online for the health services, although we may surely say that it will help in taking better care decisions.

Download this app here.

Allayo:

Here is a virtual health assistant for you. Now you can easily call or have a secure chat with a “Certified Medical Assistant”. Just become a member and it will take care of all your medical needs.

Some cool Features: Navigation and pursuing for health care has made it possible to attain for community discounts and save your money. Arrangements regarding exams, medications, labs are just a click away and above all it is all free of cost.

Verdict: By becoming a member you are awarded with a number of features. Send reminders, orders and refill prescriptions, keep a track of appointments, make arrangement for tests and lab work, insurance and safe home delivery. It has an easy access to get an appointment with your doctor, dentist or therapist. So use it and get gifts and ask for medical tips etc. This virtual assistant also interacts with human experts whenever necessary. So use your phones and get going!

Download this app here.

Conclusion:

Last but not the least, there is no substitute for a good doctor but as mentioned earlier, above stated information will give you an idea about benefits of using mobile applications and subsequently can prevent you from further complications that may arise.

About the author: Selena Mitchell is a mobile application developer at Social Cubix, which develops iPhone, Facebook, Mobile and Android Applications and one of the finest app development company in US. She’s a regular contributor at Business2Community, SocialMediatoday, Examiner, instantshift, Site pro New and other sites. Get in touch with her on Google+.

Simon Wentworth

E-detailing has come at a time of great change in the pharmaceutical industry. The effects of the 2008 economic turmoil are still being felt, with pharmaceutical firms under pressure to restrict spending across the board. One consequence was a widespread reduction in sales force numbers. Today, e-detailing has come as a welcome solution for pharmaceutical sales directors looking to connect with physicians in a more efficient manner, and market access managers looking to enhance the impact of their value communication strategies.

A report by IBM outlines the key success factors for e-detailing, the first being trust. Pharma firms should “give out data when and where doctors need it, and help them provide better care with access to drug information they value and trust”. The report finds that healthcare providers appreciate when information has a solid factual basis.

Studies have shown a positive reaction from doctors and healthcare professionals. A pilot conducted by Marianne Anderson, marketing manager for Pfizer, showed that “97% of physicians felt the e-detail was superior to paper-based details for explaining complex issues”. E-detailing means that information is available 24/7 through web-based tools, so physicians can now find clear and interesting product information whenever they have time during their busy schedules. They can also choose to select to read only the content that is most pertinent and interesting to them.

The work that sales reps and marketing teams do to increase the effectiveness of prescriber marketing is one part of the spectrum. Another aspect of e-detailing is the impact that it can have on market access effectiveness. Software and value communication firm BaseCase produces value communication apps which allow key account managers to present complex value stories based on health economic evidence to payers. There is a particular demand for this kind of higher level e-detailing as pharma companies move towards a key account management strategy.

About the author

With a background in politics and economics, Simon is well-positioned to interpret emerging trends in the global healthcare market, and identify the impact of governmental actions on the life sciences industries. He writes articles for BaseCase in the field of market access, and prepares case studies detailing the value communication solutions provided by the company’s unique web-based platform. He also advertises and promotes BaseCase‘s achievements through social media.

David Hunt is CEO of

David will be speaking at DigiPharm on Thursday 10^th October at 11.30am. He will be presenting his thoughts on the ‘Connected Health Experience’. Below David discusses why we should be proud of our industry and his passion to make a difference by putting the patient first.

Large to small pharmaceutical corporations are powered by profit. So are we. Without revenue HAVAS LYNX can’t pay salaries and overheads and we would cease to function. However, we also care deeply about our creativity, ideas and innovation. We like to get paid BUT we are passionate about making a difference. The pharmaceutical companies that I have worked for are the same – whilst they are fuelled by profit, they are driven by patients.

Why does pharma have such a bad reputation? Why does Ben Goldacre find such traction in social media? Because it counts. Because we are an ageing population terrified by the concept of ageing. Because we are more aware of our lifestyle choices, more informed about serious illness and more concerned about what it means to us. As a wider society, we are totally committed to the advancement of medicine and this demands expertise, integrity and investment.

I have been fortunate enough to meet and work with David Jones, CEO of HAVAS, both an inspirational leader and global advocate for a sustainable future. David is the author of the excellent, Who cares wins. It outlines the future for business, one I passionately believe in, whereby companies will succeed by doing good. David argues that with social media as the catalyst, companies will enjoy long-term success by finding a balance between making money and making a positive difference. Brand value will be built by actions and not image.

Who cares wins was penned for business, it is PERFECT for healthcare.

I have worked on some great healthcare campaigns, working with some fantastic companies. The theme that runs through the most successful is a crusade to make a difference, to understand the patient situation and drive for a better outcome – big or small. I passionately believe in a patient centred approach. If we can balance both morale and commercial drivers, we can take real pride in a meaningful contribution.

Through the advancement in medicine, patients with Hepatitis C now have a much more positive outlook; it is still a tough situation, but better. However to benefit, patients have to be engaged and supported, as an agency we have helped to raise awareness of the new options available through social media. Empowering patients to take action and providing them with the tools and education necessary on their arduous journey.

In the later stages of cancer every day counts. HCPs, carers and family are under pressure. Sometimes the seemingly trivial can count against the patient and their survival. Partnering with our client, we developed an application to help HCPs reduce the critical number of days required to test and diagnose patients. Getting the right patients, on the right treatment, in the right time.

Schizophrenia is a lonely and isolating condition. Despite the best of efforts of everyone involved patients can unfortunately slip into a spiral of decline. We have used digital to educate patients and their families on more effective management of the condition. Over 100 patients have been enrolled in the programme, halving the number of hospital days.

I believe that by focusing on patients and engaging with all stakeholders, we deliver better health outcomes that simultaneously help to generate the revenue required to advance medicine. Good Pharma.

Further information:
https://www.stop-hepatitis-c.info/
http://www.schizophrenia24x7.com/

About HAVAS LYNX
We are HAVAS LYNX, a leading global healthcare communications group.
We are committed to bringing about a change in healthcare. Change informed by experience, driven by innovation and proven in delivery. Change that transforms outcomes for patients, professionals and brands. Helpful change.

David Hunt will be sharing more of his views at DigiPharm 2013. Click here to join him.

Follow David Hunt at: http://davidandrewhunt.wordpress.com or @DavidHuntLX

You can download the second batch of articles here today. Remember once you’ve registered you’ll receive these articles regularly over the coming weeks. So keep a look out for future emails.

Article 3: How digital communications can drive sales

It may sound counterintuitive but ‘going digital’ really is more about strategy than technology. We have to think differently – designing individual, relevant communications and seeing beyond quarterly campaigns. It’s easy once the right methodology is in place but without it we’re really not doing much more than transferring paper-based communications to the screen.

Read the full article here >

Article 4: How to connect customers to new digital channels

Since the early days of the internet, we’ve been busy creating websites and other digital channels. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most life science companies already have hundreds of websites and still more are coming. And now everybody is building apps.

There’s a lot of activity here and in many ways that is a good thing; these digital channels have the potential to reach a lot of people. That’s why they are assumed to be the future of pharmaceutical marketing – the expectation being that we’ll move our customers to these more efficient channels of communication.

Yet there is a problem: how are we planning to get the medical professionals to connect to them?

Find out by reading the full article here >

If you are interesting in the topics above you might be interested in attended DigiPharm 2013. Find out more information here.

You can’t escape the topic of Big Data at the moment. It’s everywhere – even the pharma sector has not escaped. Every conference and trade magazine seems to have Big Data speakers and articles. Like this one. But my purpose here is simply to explain what we mean by Big Data, and to provide a couple of real-world examples where it’s made a difference.

Put simply, Big Data is the name given to huge amounts, or sets, of data, that are difficult to collate and analyse using traditional database management techniques. Take the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN. Every second, 600 million particles collide in the LHC, and millions of sensors collect data from these collisions. Pretty much everything the LHC does is big, and generating data is no exception. In fact it creates around 30 petabytes of data each year – a petabyte is 10¹⁵ bytes, or a million Gb. A petabyte is equivalent to 20 million 4 drawer filing cabinets filled with text. It’s big.

The LHC team uses a sophisticated grid computing system to analyse this data, to see if any of these collisions have produced any interesting physics. That’s another part of the broader definition of Big Data – all the tools needed to store, search, analyse, visualise and share the data. The thousands of physicists around the world working on the LHC data call upon such tools to structure and sift through this mass of data. The CERN team spent years before the LHC went live putting the organisational structure, teams, tools, techniques, culture – and mindset – in place to help achieve this. Making use of Big Data in itself is a big step.

Now, in the pharma sector, we may not be looking to unlock the secrets of the universe, but curing disease and improving the well being of patients are equally worthy ambitions, involving processes that create huge amounts of data. Think of areas such as R&D, clinical trials, marketing, pharmacoeconomics, and pharmacoepidemiology – and the floods of data that they produce. Some of this data will already be siphoned off and analysed conventionally. But a Big Data mindset means looking at the data we would normally discard, to see what secrets it might reveal.

Take a real example. Washington Hospital Center (DC) was concerned about the number of A&E patients who were readmitting after treatment. They called in Dr. Eric Horvitz from Microsoft Research, who built a model to collect and interpret the data from the records 300,000 patients, over a 9 year period, with 25,000 variables in the dataset. The analysis resulted in many useful findings, some perhaps not too surprising, such as a patient stay of over 14 hours being a red flag for readmission. Others were baffling – a mention of the word ‘fluid’ anywhere on a patient’s chart indicated an above average chance of readmission. These findings helped form the platform for a readmissions manager software application that helps doctors create a readmissions forecast and management plan for the benefit of the individual patient.

And that is a big idea.

PharmiWeb Solutions are an official partner of DigiPharm 2013. Find out more about the event here.

	There’s always a story. Every product has a unique angle – you just need to find it! Great digital presentations start with a great messaging strategy, focusing the communication on a product’s strengths right from the start.
	Think ‘problem first, proof second’. Highlight your product’s claims rather than proofs. With digital communication, space isn’t a problem. So you can have all the supporting data you need filed away, with your product benefits placed front and centre.
	Design a dialogue. Empower your sales force to have meaningful conversations. Get physicians talking about scientific elements with easy-to-understand animations and visuals.
	Avoid group-think. To get the full benefits of digital presentations, try switching your approach away from one-size-fits-all campaigns. Instead ask how technology can help your communicate on a one-to-one basis. You might be surprised by what’s possible.
	Interaction brings understanding. The more engaging something is, the more it will be remembered. So use the power of digital interaction and see customers’ message retention rise from approx 20% to around 80%.
	Put the doctor in charge. Digital allows you to ask customers what matters to them instead of pushing pre-defined topics. That way you become relevant to their needs – matching each physician’s personal interests and knowledge.
	Raise the bar. If you find your sales teams resisting the technology, make it clear that this is necessary to do something entirely new: individualized communication. And then explain that the only way to make this happen is with the right technology.

Anthill

Anthill is the leading agency for closed-loop marketing and multi-channel communications. Experts in digital communication, we pioneered the use of ‘pull’ communication in the life science industry. Anthill has more than 10 years of experience in digital sales presentations.

Anthill will be attending DigiPharm 2013 as premium sponsors, to find out more about the event visit the website here.

Throughout September DigiPharm Europe 2013 will be hosting a series of webinars as a preview to the event itself. The webinars will give you an insight into some of the topics at the forefront of the industry. 

The first webinar will take place on Thursday 12th September | London 2pm | Paris 3pm | New York 9am |Shanghai 9pm.

‘Amplify the effect, not the annoyance – How digital communication can create deeper customer engagement’

For the first time ever, we can stop segmenting and start meeting individual customer needs.

Digital sales tools enable us to switch from low value mass message delivery to high value individualized communication by matching the right technology with the right strategy, we revitalize our connection to our customers.

Session includes: 
Panel discussion with key industry experts 
 
And presentation by
Morten Hjelmsoe, Agnitio CEO and founder

To register for the webinar please click here.

This webinar is kindly sponsored by Agnitio.

Welcome to the Digital Academy

Stay up-to-date on the latest thinking in digital communications. The Digital Academy is the latest initiative from Agnitio. This service provides insights, strategies and practical advice – keeping you at the cutting edge of life science communications.

The Academy kicks off with a series of articles that explore topics essential to digital sales tools – from a close look at the strategies that release the potential of these technologies, to practical issues like getting digital embraced by sales representatives.

You can download the first two articles from the academy today. Once you’ve registered you’ll receive these articles regularly over the coming weeks. So keep a look out for future emails.

Article 1: The fundamentals of digital sales

When you’re updating your sales technology, it’s worth considering how to update your strategy too. This general introduction looks at the thinking that’s inspiring the next level of customer communication.

Article 2: The importance of strategy in digital sales

Technology is being implemented that will shape how we relate to healthcare professionals in the years to come. Right now, as this article shows, there are currently two very different approaches. Which will you take?

Download your copy of the first two articles here

Agnitio will be attending DigiPharm 2013 as premium sponsors. Agnitio CEO, Mr Morten Hjelmsoe will be addressing ‘The new marketing thinking that gets the best out of digital communication’ on the morning of Day One. Find out more about the event here.