Jim Lefevere | Digital Strategy, Interactive Marketing and Connected Health Care

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2012-06-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I continually am on the hunt for is good info on how to explain social media to people who may not read as much as I do. From a marketing perspective, I think it completely changes marketing as we know it today. And when I say that, I think the shift is well underway but most people don't realize it yet.

Davia Armano from Logic + Emotion is definitely a thought-leader in this area had a article in the Harvard Business Review and talked about developing a social media strategy much like you would when planning a garden, which I think is brilliant. It's a great way to explain social media and the need to temper expectations. This is a marathon and not a sprint. My concern is that many Rx/Dx companies will roll out social media initiatives and see no immediate return and kill the programs. My cotention is that marketing today is a conversation and the conversation is online. It takes time to build, nurture and yield results--much like a garden.

Excerpt below and check out the entire article here.

This underscores a fundamental truth to social media that many organizations underestimate--being social means having real live people who actively participate in your initiatives. It's difficult to automate and a challenge to scale, but it can also help move your business forward in ways that produce leveraged outcomes such as new/better products or services.
The economics of using social media in business require the participation of people to fuel it. It is not simply enabled by technology that maintains itself. One of the biggest lessons to be taken away from a social platform such as Twitter is that the ecosystem it's a part of if, is itself built on people who keep it humming along with not only content, but a seemingly endless stream of third party applications. This phenomenon is not entirely new--it's been referred to as end-user innovation (innovation by consumers and end users, rather than suppliers).
There are a few considerations every organization needs to consider when developing their blueprints for their own unique social media design. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there are few things you can plan for as you review the many options before you.
Here are three to consider:
Seeding. As you plan your approach for designing your social system, take into account that you'll have to invest to grow your effort into a healthy ecosystem that can produce data, insights or even new ideas. People will be required in order to do this.
Feeding. Whether it's a community, Wiki or internal collaboration solution you've put in place, it will have to be fed with a steady stream of content. Some of this can be automated and some of it can come from your participants--but there has to be some editorial judgment made for every piece of content and functionality. People are required for that.
Weeding. A productive social business design will require efforts to prune and weed out material that can inhibit its growth (just like a garden). In some cases, automated moderation services can do this--but in others people will be required to ensure that interactions are productive. Weeding can also include creating a separate environment--for example, Nokia's "blog hub" encourages employees to vent freely internally (using anonymous aliases).You can bet that someone is looking at the data and analyzing it. If not, they should be.
It's worth noting that seeding, feeding, and weeding all take place after any social initiative has been launched. But not taking into account the manpower that's involved in these as you develop your social business design strategy can lead to a lack of adoption or participation--essential elements to any social initiative. Ignoring these realities will continue to propagate the myth that social media is fast, cheap and easy. As organizations look to grow or scale their current initiatives, it's proving to be anything but.

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Meaning to Be More Meaningful

2012-06-28T21:55:00.000-04:00

Interesting TED talk about making medical data more meaningful. If you can help extract meaning out of data it can have a very, pardon the phrase, meaningful impact on outcomes.

It kind of reminds me of the Papa John's ad slogan, Better Ingredients. Better Pizza.

Medical Data: Better Data. More Meaning. Better Outcomes.

In fact, if you apply better data to battling chronic disease it can have a significant impact. It goes back to the adage of data turns to knowledge turns into action.

If people could only figure out that action requires incentive....

Regardless, I think that we're finally on the edge of the mHealth boom. It's been a long time coming, but the combination of smartphone proliferation, accessibility and development of tools finally brings us to a point where it can get some traction with the end user. I still think there is a long way to go on the function and value of many of the health apps out there today, but it will Darwinism at its finest to see who can adapt and survive.

Image via: Cambridge Consultants

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It's a game of inches.

2012-06-21T20:35:00.000-04:00

Even Jesus Loves Football

I have always thought that life is never a big decision, but it is a series of small, seemingly insignificant decisions that lead you down the path. Life is a game of inches.

Here is Al Pacino, in 4 minutes of his best work.

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Everthing I Know I Learned Moving Furniture

2012-06-21T09:19:00.000-04:00

I moved furniture for a summer back in college because at the time it was paying top dollar for a summer job--$7.00. I learned a lot that summer besides a more colorful vocabulary and in hindsight a lot of it applies to life and work today as it did to moving furniture on those hot summer days.

If I heard it once I heard a half dozen times that summer from honest, hard working guys that cut a living from moving stuff from place to place and it was, "stay in school."

I did stay in school and I look back some 15 plus years ago and think about some of the lessons learned that summer hauling furniture around Northern Indiana.

1) Respect those in front of you.
There is a pecking order and you are at the bottom.

2) Show up, shut up and hold your end up
Simply, be on time, don't complain and carry your weight.

3) You don't stop until the job is done
It may be 5 o'clock somewhere but you don't finish working until the job is done and there isn't a dinner break.

4) Leadership is everywhere.
There were crew leaders and guys I now think in hindsight were very good leaders. They kept it light, kept you laughing, worked you hard when they needed to, showed up well to the lady of the house and were the first one to hand you a beer after a long day.

5) Have a strategy before you start
Big house jobs would have a lead guy who surveyed the house and made the calls on when and how the furniture would go on the truck. Sometimes these were cross-country moves and you would have to get an entire house into half of a 18 wheeler. I never seen spatial reasoning to this degree it really is something to behold and it wouldn't work unless there was a strategy before bringing the first dresser on to the truck.

6) Build a solid foundation
You don't fit an entire house of contents on a foundation of book boxes. Always start with a good foundation and you can always build on top of it.

7) If it doesn't fit, try it from a different angle.
If something doesn't seem like a good fit, try looking at it from a new or different perspective and see if that helps clarify the situation. It helps every time.

8) Always, I mean always, hold up your end.
It was a cardinal sin of sins to drop a piece. If you are carrying a heavy load like a loaded dresser you cannot under circumstances drop your end I don't care how tired you are.

9) Sometimes the easiest looking jobs are the hardest.
Usually the crew leader was responsible for the loading the truck. He didn't necessarily carry all of the furniture but he had to make sure it got on the truck safe, sound and arrived at the destination in the same condition. Not the hardest looking job, but it was the hardest.

10) It's easier to pull than push.
Work smarter not harder. These guys had all kinds of tricks to save their backs and time and effort.

All-in-all a good summer, I made some money for school and in hindsight learned a whole lot more.

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Fate, Luck and Chance...

2012-06-07T23:18:00.000-04:00

I am a little random today, but playing catch-up on some reading.

I like Gary Vaynerchuk not because I am a wine guy, like my brother, who is the proprietor of Goodgrape.com, but because this guy talks such a good game and really has made a name for himself. He could sell ice to Eskimos. I pick something up from him every time I see a video. He is absolute living proof that charisma and hustle can take you pretty far in life. Or a favorite quote of mine is, "fate, luck and chance favors action over inaction."

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Keep your goals to yourself | Video on TED.com

2012-05-17T16:04:00.000-04:00

From TED, interesting notion for quietly pursuing your goals. Not only do I think you should have constant reminders of your goals, but that little decisions and everyday behavior lead down the path to your ultimate goals.

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It's Easy to be Awesome, Just be Awesome....

2012-05-03T21:44:00.000-04:00

Interesting article at AdWeek about crowd sourcing ideas for marketing. I am a big proponent of this type of approach for Rx/Dx companies. Companies like Communispace and many others enable organizations to test ideas and get feedback very quickly from their target audience. Often this is more cost effective and much faster than traditional research.

Judy Hu, GE's global director of advertising and branding, on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last week, discussed a new effort by GE to crowdsource ideas for how to "avoid the lame and embrace the awesome" in digital media. Over the next four days, GE collected 60 suggestions, ranging from ideas for ad campaigns to product concepts.

The effort is the latest example of a worldwide brand testing the crowdsourcing waters. The move has put the spotlight back on the ongoing debate about the value of such efforts -- including to creators.

For several years now, companies large and small have experimented with using the wisdom and labor of crowds for creative services from ads to logos to product ideas. To its proponents, these are merely early efforts at using far-flung digital collaboration to democratize the marketing world. But detractors see a wolf in sheep's clothing as companies seize an opportunity to get spec work done on the cheap, along the way commoditizing the backbones of the ad world: creativity and ideas.

Or as the company ZipCar says, "It's Easy to be Awesome, Just be Awesome."

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My New Favorite Quote

2012-04-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

I am a fan of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, for a number of reasons. I read his book, Straight From The Gut, with great zeal years ago and stumbled across this quote from Jack Welch via the blog Customer Experience Matters

Deal with the world as it is, not how you’d like it to be.

Let's face it, this is stupidly simple stuff, but it is a great reminder and applies to all facets of life and business. It's easy to get caught up in perfect and perfect is rarely achieved.

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Why Leadership

2012-04-19T22:26:00.000-04:00

Pretty self-explanatory. Leadership is what separates good from great.

Why Leadership

View more presentations from mhdbadr.

Disease Management and Connected Health is a Marathon

2012-04-05T22:47:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning my office recently and stumbled across a notebook that I had from a decade ago - it is dated October 2000. It is a collection of notes, thoughts and ideas.

I found a passage that particularly struck me and really reinforces the point that chronic care management and connected care are, and will continue to be, works in progress.

"Care of the chronically ill is inefficient, inconvenient, labor intensive and economically unsustainable with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hyper tension and asthma consume 70% of all healthcare spending in 1998."

That was followed by this nugget.

"The importance of the Internet -- look forward 5 years and where will we be in regards to the management of chronic disease and health management via the Internet?

And then this last one.

"Use Bluetooth to send data via wireless networks."

The point is not that I am Nostradamus when it comes to disease management and connected health care, the point is why is it taking so long? What levers need to be pulled to make this move faster?

That's the answer I wish I had. I think it starts and ends somewhere with behavior change and generational belief systems driving health changes, but that seems to acknowledge and accept the glacial pace we are on and that is not a good enough answer.

Image via http://blog.iconecto.com/

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The Cognitive Dissonance of Rx/Dx Digital Marketing

2012-03-22T13:27:00.000-04:00

In the past I have referenced a few of the reasons why I think social media for Rx/Dx organizations have lagged other industries. However, in my search for the true underlying reasons aside from legal and regulatory hurdles I think I have determined the real reason:

Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological term to explain the tension that can be caused by having conflicting thoughts.

From Science Daily:

In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what you already believe, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce your beliefs.

Why is that important? Because that is exactly what is happening relative to digital marketing across the Rx/Dx industries.

The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions

Cognitive dissonance is why people aren't buying hybrid cars, drink water out of plastic bottles and don't use solar power for their homes. We don't change until we are staring a threat squarely in the face.

Every piece of research you read and have read for the last three plus years indicates that digital is the right thing to do yet due to cognitive dissonance it has yet to become a primary method of engagement and marketing. So let's be clear, in combination with many of the reasons I have laid out in the past, Rx/Dx organizations will not fully move to digital and social media until they absolutely have to; until it is so patently obvious that it is what they should be doing to reach and engage with people.

That's a shame, because by then it will be really too late (see my post on Push or Protect). The opportunity to show that you have interest, to demonstrate goodwill and build ongoing relationships, particularly when it comes to social media, is long before you have to. That's why I think the chasm that is widening in marketing from the product/ brand to the customer and is becoming harder and harder to bridge.

At least now I figured out the reason why....what do you think? Leave a comment.

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The Two Tribes of Digital: Do You Push or Protect?

2012-03-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

As a parent of two young children I have noticed that many parents fall into two simple categories in terms of how they parent:

1. The "Pushers" - Parents who incorporate their children into their lives and take them everywhere they would normally go and push them into activities. The general notion being that kids will naturally follow the guidance of their parents do many things and try many activities.

2. The "Protectors" - The belief that kids are only kids for a short period of time and they should enjoy being a kid without the pressure of too many activities and having to be rushed around town trying to do too much. Why push kids into something; let them discover it on their own.

Of course, this is a simple comparison and can often be much more nuanced, but for the purposes of this topic, I see the same similarities and instincts when it comes to marketing and more specifically the adoption of digital marketing and social media in Rx/Dx organizations.

There are the Pushers the people that are early adopters, who want to push, be inventive, and make a difference with this new way of communicating. These are the folks who are paving the way, creating new strategies when nobody asked them to, they are defining the rules of the road and in the end are the innovators and risk takers within the organization.

Then you have the Protectors who don't necessarily see or understand the benefits of moving to digital and social media. They don't see the value in trying new things when the old tried and true methods seem to still be working. These folks toe the line and have to be shown why doing it a new way is valuable. The burden of proof is on YOU to show them versus them taking initiative to understand on your own.

You have to understand that you must always be in education mode.

So the question is, which category do you fall into? A favorite quote of mine is, "risk, fate and luck always favors action over inaction." So, you can probably tell what category I favor.

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The Devil is in the Details

2012-03-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win. Bobby Knight

The rise of digital and social media has created increased fragmentation and complexity for marketing. Today the devil is absolutely in the details and you must have an overarching, coherent strategy, that yes, is detailed.
Sub-strategies need to be developed for the many facets of digital, which are many. Web sites, micro sites, SEM, Display, Social, Mobile, Apps, Promotions, Content, etc. It's a lot to consider.

So, you might be wondering what my point is? There seems to be very little tolerance for detail today in large organizations and with executive ranks in many organizations. When it comes to Digital, there is virtually no tolerance for detail and only small group of people that understand it. That is a problem.

To provide some contrast to that notion, consider this: Dr's are constantly learning, working with peers and exchanging information. Venture Capitalists are some of the most detailed and knowledgeable across multiple domains about business, marketing, company and product viability. Jack Welch, considered by many to be the best CEO ever, famously and routinely took deep dives into businesses. So why is there a gap in digital and most executives today when digital is impacting the entire enterprise?

If you are a leader, let's take it from the customer perspective and ask yourself if you are driving change that enables the organization and employees to provide the type of customer experience that you expect from other companies?

If you're not, you should. It's the details, that matter.

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What Disney Movies and Digital in Rx/Dx Organizations Have in Common

2012-02-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

I was a Journalism major and at various points in my life I aspired to write screenplays. I printed screenplays from favorite movies, studied them, bought books on how to write a script; and I still have the tattered and dog-eared notebook filled with nuggets, kernels and half-baked ideas that I hoped would eventually turn into the million dollar screenplay. However, I quickly realized that writing is a craft that requires practice and I am not gifted with an overwhelming amount of patience or natural writing skill; so I tabled that fleeting ambition and moved on to other ideas.

I am a father of two young kids and have watched my fair share of Disney movies over the years. On my way back from a recent trip to Walt Disney World, the happiest place on earth, I thought on the plane ride back about how completely satisfied I was with the trip and how Disney turns their stories so effectively into an experience. I think the storytelling, believe it or not, has similarities to the current state of digital marketing in the Rx/Dx industries.

All movies have a plot structure and some are definitely better than others, but Disney movies in particular often follow a similar plot structure that can be categorized as the heroes journey.

This structure could be further distilled down into the following steps:

1. Everything is Good

2. Something Bad Happens!

3. A plan is developed to fix the bad and everybody lives happily ever after.

The similarity to what is going on in Rx/Dx organizations today is that for marketing has largely been the same for the last 20 years. The marketing channels were known, you developed your marketing messages and you blasted with reach (number of people) and frequency (how often) your message.

In a story or plot structure that is the "everything is fine" part.

However, the rise of digital and social media has thrown a wrench into marketing planning. This is the "something bad happens" that the industry is in the midst of managing through.

In the future, digital and social will take a central role in marketing while traditional marketing becomes ancillary to the new digital and social engagement models.

The question is do organizations recognize how quickly this shift is occurring and are they moving fast enough to develop the plan to fix the bad and ensure that everyone lives happily ever after?

I have been blogging here since 2008 and have been focused solely on digital, social and connected health topics. In those three years, and particularly the last two years, I have seen the pace pick-up very significantly. So much so, that I think in some cases I think we'll look back in years to come and wonder why so much time was spent on whether Rx/Dx should move to social media or not when the real conversation is why are companies and brands not moving more quickly to social media but why aren't they sprinting there because they are in the sheer fight for relevance.

Those that realize that they are in a fight for relevance and proactively move to showing their human side, connecting, engaging and providing real value will be much better off.

There is no amount of reach and frequency that can overcome irrelevance.

Image via toptenz.net

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Are You Using the Pareto Rule?

2012-02-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

Do you know what the Pareto Rule is? It is commonly know as the 80/20 rule.

As a marketer are you chasing the mass audience, which represents the 80% with tried and not so true mass marketing? Are you still "broadcasting" and reaching your audience with frequency? Or are you using digital strategies to interact with your most valuable 20% and providing them value? Once you do find them are you doing everything in your power to satisfy them, keep them happy and loyal to you and your product or service?

Do you communicate with them how they want to be communicated with rather than how you want to communicate with them? Are you listening and asking them what they want from you so that you can provide a better product or service to them?

If not, you should start.

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The 3 Things That Separate Good Companies from Great Companies

2012-02-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

Have you noticed that there are some companies that clearly separate themselves from others in your mind. Do you wonder what simple attributes they have that separates them and allows them to raise the bar?

For Example, these companies spring to mind for me.

Apple
Coca-Cola
Lufthansa
Amazon.com

What makes your interactions with these companies memorable? One you peel away layers there are a few fundamental differences and it's a pretty simple formula:

1. Clearly defined leadership that puts the customer first and treat customer centricity as a corporate competence not a functional area.

2. They obsess about the customer and the customer experience

3. They reinforce the brand with every interaction regardless of channel

Pretty simple, right. Are you working to put the customer first?

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The Patient Uprising: A Confederacy Begins

2012-02-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

Last year I wrote a post called the Patient Uprising: A Revolution is Coming. In that post I put forth my thoughts on how social media and how the Health 2.0 movement was changing the game for pharma and diagnostics. Nothing that has happened over the last 12 months has changed my opinion of this Health 2.0 movement and in fact it’s exciting to see some of my predictions coming closer to reality.

I recently was privileged to participate in an event that brought bloggers, online community leaders and patient advocates together with leaders from a prominent association that has the mission to prevent and serve those living with a chronic disease. What I observed left me convinced more than ever that the patient uprising will not only occur but is already underway and accelerating pretty quickly.

The conversation flowed freely and the passion to lead and help fight for the cause was clearly evident by all parties in the room. The question that came to my mind, is not how bloggers, community leaders and patient advocates become more plugged into the status quo and play nicely in the proverbial sandbox, but how do you harness the power and passion this group of people brought together by a common disease to develop a confederacy that can really work together to make a profound difference? How could they develop a bottom up, grassroots, groundswell of change?

What I surmised in my Patient Uprising: a Revolution is Coming post last year was that this group over time would eventually form a tighter bond and connection and turn the tables on industry and begin to have an impact on how industry thinks and behaves. This could apply to developing not for profit organizations to help fund a cure to forming an NGO (non-government organization) that serves as the link to this loose confederacy (in this case when I say confederacy I mean loosely bound communities and there is no direct or indirect reference to the American Civil War. Please don't comment on my word choice) of bloggers, community leaders and patient advocates. With this organization they could begin to band together to take their fight direct and not necessarily fight the fight of the large association. Tactically speaking, they could direct their energy, passion and resources to the areas that mean the most to them versus the larger associations who may fund research with long lead times and not so evident or visible results. This would be something analogous to instead of donating to the United Way, which distributes money to many hundreds of not-for-profits; you create your own not-for-profit that focuses efforts on your specific cause and passion.

The rally cries that I kept hearing from the bloggers, community leaders and patient advocates was, “how can we do more?” and “how can we become more involved?” Now, the “establishment” is attempting to understand the perspective of the bloggers, community leaders and patient advocates. In turn the bloggers, et al. are trying to understand why the establishment is not doing a better job of involving them in the fight to find a cure. After all, they are on the front lines and are “of the people, for the people” and interact daily with the very people that the establishment is trying to reach on a daily basis. It seems like a perfect pairing, but it’s not quite that simple.

In all revolutions, there is a small uprising of people with a common objective rising up against the establishment. While industry and bloggers, et al. are now finding ways to work together and work toward that common objective, I do foresee the day that they stop looking so directly to industry for leadership and start looking to each other. I think they are beginning to realize that they have the locus of control.

When that fully happens, which I think is sooner than later, they will have realized the full patient uprising. The results, I believe will be long-term and profound.

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Small Decisions Can Lead To Big Changes

2012-02-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

Either you like what he has to say or you think he is a clown. I happen to think that he pounds a simple message that philosophers have been saying for hundreds of years. He puts it into a new package and does so quite effectively.

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What's Your Why?

2012-01-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I like to soak up as much information and knowledge from as many places as possible. I often go to TED for such things.

This video from Simon Sinek, is focused on leadership, but the underlying point is so much more interesting to me. The question is, what is your why?

People respond to underlying causes and according to Simon there is science behind this. Intuitively, this makes complete sense so why aren't more Rx/Dx marketers discovering what their why is?

Wouldn't that drive marketing rationale, social media and purpose?

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Strategy is Sexy, Execution Beats Your Competitors

2012-01-13T21:19:00.000-05:00

Strategy rarely fails, execution fails...often. Put as much time into planning implementation and measurement as you do strategy.

Strategy is sexy, execution beats your competitors.

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Social Media and Crisis Creation: My Guest Blog

2012-01-13T10:38:00.000-05:00

I guest posted at Turn Up Your Volume, check it out.

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The Patient Uprising: A Revolution is Coming

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

Update: September 2011

I recently attended the e-Patient Connections conference, which was brilliant by the way, and found that we are well on our way to this patient empowered revolution that I originally blogged about in 2009.

Seth Godin was the keynote at the conference and he had one line that jumped out at me and made me want to dust off this post.

"Revolutions wipe out the old before the new is created."

I had never thought about it in that context but it is true and connected health, e-health, empowered health, whatever you prefer to call it is facing a little bit of an existential crisis, because it is clear the revolution is occurring but the new is definitely not fully formed.

I could more fully flesh the concept that I put forth over 2.5 years ago, but that would gilding the lilly to a certain extent. Sure, I'm more enlightened now then I was then and have had the opportunity to really learn from a great number of people, but the fact is that the premise is still true and well on its way.

Perhaps the biggest thing from my perspective is that the empowered patients, bloggers, patient advocates, etc. haven't yet realized how much power they wield. They are rocking that boat, but when they realize the collective power they hold when they organize - watch out.

********

I have talked in the past how health care and technology is the 10 year trend. I won’t retell that story, but you can see my thoughts here. It is truly a topic where the reach consistently exceeds the grasp.

Technology once again plays a big role in the Obama health care reform plan with the multi-faceted goals of modernizing the system to lower cost and improve quality while also working to improve prevention and management of chronic diseases which (by many estimates) accounts for 80 percent of total costs. These are very lofty goals.

Technology plays a vital role in driving efficiency across the entire continuum of care. The major players driving this “reform” are many and including your usual suspects of government, corporations, policymakers and the requisite lobbyists and special interest groups.

It seems hard to fathom that something so large and unwieldy could bring about an immediate and lasting change that led to consumers getting better care faster.

The fact is that despite best intentions, untold sums of money will be spent to put a band-aid on an axe wound. The pace of change required to make a difference doesn’t happen organically and despite best efforts to move an immovable mass it will only happen as quickly as the fastest mover; the government is not known for being quick. I think it will continue to occur in fits and starts and not be the solution that it could be for a number of years. And by solution I mean a true end-to-end process that is best described here.

With that as a backdrop, as I survey the scene from high atop the hill (the figurative hill not the literal Hill in D.C.), I see a void so large that you could drive a truck through it regarding where I think real change is occurring and will continue to come from.

Revolutions Always Have Beginnings

A revolution is not about you, it’s about the collective. The hallmarks of a revolution are a few daring individuals who are angry about how things have come to be and challenge the status quo and create a cause or culture with like minded individuals. Typically very intellectually thirsty, these individuals have strong convictions and question the current status. They connect with others and commit to making a change. The model for a revolution can be seen over and over again in history and I think we’re in the beginning stages of a healthcare revolution that could uproot and change the current health care delivery model.

The Shift

The missing part for me in all of machinations of these huge grinding gears and sausage making in the current health care system is the patient. The Internet and social media, which by now we are all familiar with, is having a seismic change on how people interact, share information and connect with each other. Social media has enabled the consumer to have a voice and demand two-way dialogue and this is a change that is happening everywhere.

I am confident that real change is happening and will continue to come from the consumers who are empowered and are talking and sharing and that no company, insurer or doctor has direct influence over more than is absolutely necessary to either write the prescription or pay the bill. Common bonds and information is spreading and building entire networks of people, who are banding together across all conditions and disease states to share, learn and support each other in their health. The internet allows that connection and it is real, powerful, empowering and often more informative than any doctor can provide in a 10 minute visit.

The leaders of this new revolution are you, me and your neighbor.

The Internet and social media is leading a form of health management self-service that is still small today by most standards but will grow to be a large and a very disruptive force. There is an official term for this and it is called Health 2.0.

Healthcare whereby patients have the information they need to be able to make rational healthcare decisions (transparency of information) based on value (outcomes over price). In the Health 2.0 paradigm, everyone in the healthcare process is focused on increasing value for the patient.

We will move more into the semantic web and this consumer led movement clears the way for collaborative groups to join together through enabling technologies to find, share and combine information. The notion of the wisdom of crowds and crowd sourcing are concepts that have yet to really take off in health care, but combine the idea of the semantic web and crowd sourcing and you have the beginnings of a grassroots-led populace as a driving force that can have an impact on managing health and more specifically a disease or condition.

Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang has written about the future of the social web and talks about the 5 different eras of social media.

The Five Eras of the Social Web:

1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share
2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system
3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social
4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content
5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

The change that I foresee, which will have the most impact on health care is that of colonization and context. Where the collective is bonded together by enabling technologies, theme, cause or condition and they find, share and combine information to support each other without the need or aid of an institution.

I think this type of social functionality and social commerce will have far-reaching impact on the health care industry. The current reform and policy work is forcing function and is really an acknowledgement of a long standing problem that translates technology into process efficiency — wringing waste from the system. However, it doesn’t look like it will have a measurable impact on improving care.

Instead, companies will have to begin to face up to the fact that the era of “consumers” simply consuming what they create is nearly over. The tables have turned and companies will begin to deliver what you the consumer actually want and need. This is of course already happening and has been going on for quite some time in software development and other industries. In doing so, I think it will begin to apply to how people self-diagnose, treat, and use information to manage their health and condition; the products they choose, down to how, when and why they see a doctor.

Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine is on the leading edge of this in her role as a leading Health 2.0 expert and Patient Opinion Leader for the diabetes community. The community and those on the periphery look to her and respect what she has to say. In some cases, I believe that she is more trusted to her readers than a doctor. She also recognized very early on in the Health 2.0 movement and that she could have a voice and an impact. She started a design contest that has created energy and movement in the diabetes blogosphere while also bringing good consumer product design to medical devices.

The Outcome

Take this idea a step further along with an increasingly evident power shift from organizations to individuals and subsequently communities and the scenario that I see developing is an energized group of people with a particular condition or affinity inflicting real change at a grassroots level. Combine the need for personalization, Health 2.0 advocacy, the semantic web and enabling technologies such Open Social, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect and crowd sourcing capabilities and it is easily within sight that communities can and will collectively develop ideas, use cases, preferred specifications and even designs that would serve as next generation products that would meet the exact needs of the communities.

The next step is this community coming together as a powerful semantic disease condition co-op and using their collective influence, power and force.

How could this manifest itself? I see a few simple ways:

Develop and license community designed “product” to a company and use that company as a manufacturing arm for the product they designed. The company gets a licensing fee and the community gets a royalty of the sales that goes back to participating members.
Development of a Non-Governmental Organization NGO such to sponsor, lobby and develop mechanisms to conduct independent research outside of institutions for cures to common chronic diseases, subsidizing care and cause related efforts.
New interoperable and social application development to manage health and chronic disease.
Set pricing for products and services.
It’s the ultimate opportunity cost situation. What will manufacturers have to give up in order to gain?

What will the impact be to providers and payors? I think there are some questions that don’t yet have answers, but I do think there is significant interest to preserve the system in place, but I also think this could be the revolution where the institutions will have to adapt to the groundswell rather than the consumer adapting to the institution. Or, in the least, there will have to be some middle ground found to equalize the current system and satisfy the collective. People really don’t like insurance companies.

When I think of Connected Health, the above scenario is what I think of, which leaves the groups in the “reform” debate today, well, not very connected.

***A big hat tip to Jeremiah Oywang who provided the insight from the Future of the Social Web for me to piece together my thoughts on the groundswell I think will be coming with consumer health care.
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Simple Lessons: The Story of Success

2012-01-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

I bought a book for my daughter recently based on legendary coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. The book is called Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success. The book is a little text heavy for little kids, but it makes for a decent nighttime read if you can inject some life into it in your storytelling. However, the principles are timeless and serve as an excellent foundation for young kids--IMHO.

Fast forward a few days and I come across this talk from from Richard St. John on TED.

It was a nice reminder during the summer when most people would rather be outside than in dealing with complex, multi-threaded issues and projects. It's a good reminder for everyone and reinforces that the best lessons are often the simplest.

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Your True North

2012-01-09T20:08:00.000-05:00

In your life if you can’t do the right thing, do you do it? If doing the right thing was always the hardest thing, would you change your approach? Would you take a stand rather than do something that doesn’t seem right?

Why is developing a marketing campaign different?

Often, an outside in versus an inside out approach is needed. With increasing fragmentation and difficulty of getting your message in front of the right customer at the right time it becomes necessary at some point when iteration and evolution stagnates when it may help to ask yourself or your organization What is your True North? A back to basics and authentic approach, simple blocking and tackling to use football terminology is often what is needed to get back on track.

According to the Marketing Leadership Council there are usually two things that can contribute to a stall in growth:

Premium position positivity: When firms don't react to new low-cost competitors or shifts in consumer preferences
Innovation management breakdown: inefficiencies lead to an imbalance towards incremental or next-generation investments.

Which leads me back to following your True North. It's critical from a personal and professional perspective.

The Rx/Dx mHealth Conundrum

2011-11-01T20:59:00.003-04:00

No doubt that this is the year for mHealth and Apps in the Rx/Dx industry just as Social Media was the topic du jour in 2008. While the twittersphere still gnashes its collective teeth about social media, it seems that people are moving on to mHealth. Why? I think there are many reasons, but chief among them is that people can get their head around mHealth more easily and can see a direct linkage to product and therefore sales.

However, mHealth and Apps in my opinion is infinitely more complex to develop strategy against and deliver effectively in the Rx/Dx industry. There are countless Apps out there and as much research out there to quantify the countless Apps in the Health and Wellness landscape.

The question that has to be addressed is:

How will you stand out against a sea of sameness?
Is your strategy and App differentiated?
How will an App attract, acquire or retain new or existing customers?
Is it marketing, education focused or potentially regulated?
And how will you deliver, manage and maintain?

The deliver question is loaded because it gets to a very complex topic that is not well understood or appreciated in Rx/Dx companies...Customer Experience.

Well known Customer Experience expert Mark Hurst from Good Experience had this to say in a post and it resonated strongly with me.

To succeed today, with a mobile app or otherwise, you've got to be obsessed with what your customers go through. Call it the user experience, the customer experience, the ideation-info-architectural-construct, whatever: it's that delight-or-plight of your users that you must obsess over.

Sure, you could outsource it to someone else - on the team, or outside. But it won't work. You can't outsource obsession. If the very future of your company depends on delivering a good experience, then you have to care about it as much as - no, more than - anyone else on the team.

That sums up the worst fear that I have about mobile and mHealth today. User Experience is scarcely understood in Rx/Dx companies from the product to the Web. The customer expectation is set by others such as what are you going to do to delight? If you can't answer that question effectively, do not release an App until you can.

This may be the only time that NOT doing something may be considered strategic while you shore up your User Experience and Obsession capabilities.

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