Ran across this vid on YouTube. Couple of thoughts. First, he researches at least 2 hours a day. Umm, he's definitely more on his way to 10,000 hours than I am. Second, he's says social media is cheap. I would argue it's cheap from a tool perspective, but you've got to have people do the work, which is not necessarily cheap. Especially if you're an Rx/Dx firm and you employ an agency or firm to help you manage it. Rather, it's cheaper than traditional media--much cheaper.



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This is a novel video that outlines a few things for me:

1) Using YouTube in a way to show the product. It is also informative about Connected Health in general.

2) It shows the problem

3) It shows how the product helps solve the problem.

4) Was easy to produce and can be used across multiple platforms = social media.

Very novel. Kudos to the Cambridge Consultants team.





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There are some good metrics and visuals in this deck.

This is hilarious and classic.



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I read a post from whydotpharma.com and her usage of the term "patient opinion leader." Kind of a new twist on Key Opinion Leader that is commonly used to reference influential doctors.

I particularly liked the visual.I couldn't agree more or stress the importance for Rx/Dx to go out and use social media. To put it bluntly, you have to go fishing where the fish are. And forget talking about your product, how about joining the conversation and listen and learn and provide some value. You're already treading on their turf so tread carefully and give something back.




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I wanted to refresh on the Twitter book I was the tech editor for. Check our the original post and check out the book.

Ed. Note: I do not financially gain in any way for this, just doing public service.

I had the chance to tech edit this new Twitter book by well known author Paul McFedries. The foreword is written by Pete Cashmore one of the founders of mashable.com.

I was pleased to be able to edit the book and excited that I got a sneak peak and was able work on it while it wasvery much still in progress. Paul Mcfedries has a writing style that is very easy to read regardless of where you are on the learning curve and he has unearthed some great Twitter tips.

Check the rest of the post here.


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Check out my guest blog post on mobihealthnews.com. If you haven't checked out their site yet, I recommend that you do. I am impressed by what they have accomplished in a very short time frame.

“Pioneers get the arrows,” as the saying goes. I much prefer: “Pioneers get arrows in their back.” Being early in a market is great — if the market is ready for you.

I have been in and around Internet and healthcare for nearly 15 years. I almost regret to say that that for many reasons, but mostly because I have been waiting that long for technology to revolutionize healthcare. That is a decade long trend in the making. I don’t think there has been much transformation other than a lot of VC money has been burned and consumers and HCPs are now both online. If you go back to the start of the millennium when the “Year 2000″ was the issue du jour, consumers and “silver surfers” were online then too and health information was at the top of the list for why they came online. The same is true today except the “silver surfers” are now the fastest growing segment on Facebook.

Check it out here.

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Continua Health Alliance announces their low power radio solution. More info here.

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Every now and then I come across a post that when I read it, I say to myself, "damn, I wish I would have written that." Kudos to Jonathon Richman of doseofdigital.com because he did write it.

Here is an excerpt and I would recommend the full read at his site. I particularly like #2, which would be #1 if anybody had the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing in a time frame when it is still avant garde and not obvious.

1. Create a game for the Wii Fit that helps your patients manage their disease and begin a proper exercise and fitness regimen. I just wrote about this. More details on why this is a good idea in my post.
2. Get rid of your brand website. No one is really visiting your site anyway. It’s likely not driving anyone to get a prescription and it’s almost certainly not getting anyone to stay on your treatment. Instead, take all the money you were going to spend on your site and create great content that you syndicate out to credible third-party sites. The information can include branded and unbranded information, but it would now be located where patients (and doctors) are likely to find it and pay attention. It’ll be on the health sites they trust at a time when they’re researching their condition.
3. Add ratings and reviews to your brand site. Don’t want to get rid of your website? Okay, how about adding ratings and reviews to your site. Every other industry has realized that this is critical to building trust with visitors because it shows authenticity. It turns out that simply having reviews can increase traffic, conversion rate, and average order value (see more detail here). In addition, negative reviews aren’t an issue so long as there aren’t only negative reviews. Your products are already being reviewed on sites like iGuard, so why not bring this onto your site and build some credibility with your patients?
4. Install Google Friend Connect. Wonder who your real friends are? Install this tool and see. Visitors can join your site, which in turn adds your site to their Google profile as one of their “friend” sites. They can comment on the site and quickly and easily share your site with friends. A simple way to add a little social media to your site without going too far. Not sure what Friend Connect is? Here’s the video from Google explaining it.

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Via NYT:

Among older people who went online last year, the number visiting social networks grew almost twice as fast as the overall rate of Internet use among that group, according to the media measurement company comScore. But now researchers who focus on aging are studying the phenomenon to see whether the networks can provide some of the benefits of a group of friends, while being much easier to assemble and maintain.

Other silver surfer coverage here:

Remote Patient Monitoring




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Very thorough coverage of the impact of a mobile device becoming a medical device on Ad Age.

I highly recommend you do a full read of the article and the comments.

"This is a seminal moment for the pharmaceutical industry," said Tim Gee, principle of Beaverton, Ore.-based Medical Connectivity Consulting. "The trend to incorporate more medical devices into consumer electronics is going to explode." Added Dr. Michael Ostrovsky, an editor for MedGadget.com: "If you look at what the iPhone can offer both patients and clinicians, it's truly an untapped market."

It's also fertile ground for marketers of medical products and prescription drugs aimed at medical professionals and consumers. "The app is the new 'let's build a website' when we're presenting tactical plans," said the head of one pharmaceutical ad agency. "That's absolutely true," said Michael Guarini, the president of New York-based health-care agency Flaum Communications. "I talk to clients all the time about mobile technology. We use the term 'smartphone,' but the iPhone is ahead of everybody else."

I am as bullish as anyone on the potential. My iPhone has enhanced my life in countless ways and I think device convergence is natural. However, either I am crazy as a loon or there is some overly optimistic people out there. I am naturally very optimistic and pretty close to the industry, but I hate having to be the voice of reason injecting some realism into the conversation.
Tim Gee extols how this is a "seminal moment" for the pharmaceutical industry then goes on to explain how the iPhone will impact devices.

That may be a nit-pick, but the fact is that there is no good news going on in Rx/Dx so I guess this makes it as seminal as any other right now. I think the opportunity is bigger short-term for 3rd-party and disease state app builders who focus on prescription/testing adherence, e.g reminders and useful disease state information. Then down the line for devices and apps that can facilitate better chronic disease management. The fact is there is natural resistance to Rx/Dx companies and I think there is better uptake opportunity at the moment with 3rd party developers.

Really, is someone going to download a Viagra app? What's it going to do?

I've talked in the past that I don't think you'll see a ton of traction in the market until there is an end-to-end solution, which is coming but we're not there yet. Until then you'll see alot of money being spent, some novelty and a lot of effort trying to get people to find your app among the 35K other apps.

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Good post over at mobihealthnews.com about Google Wave and they take it a step further to discuss the potential implications for Google Health.

First, the Wave portion--I never get to married to any app, service or site because as easy as it comes and can go just as fast. There are countless examples. I loved excite.com when the hot portal competing with Yahoo. I tried Yahoo as well, still have an account that hasn't seen the light of day in 2 years. So when it comes to Twitter, which has struggled to find a revenue model and Twitter Quitter rate hovers around 30+% I tend to think that something will come along that will knock it off its perch--eventually.

Shameless Plug Alert: In the meantime, please check out this Twitter book I was fortunate enough to tech edit.

When it comes to the Google Health component, Brian at mobihealthnews makes an interesting connection on how Google Wave and Health may come together. Check it in full here.



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Back in December of 2008 I decided to do a re-design of my blog. I scoured the Internet for hours, made a few half-hearted attempts to find and implement a new template and finally decided to find someone who could do it for me.

I came upon Vanessa at Paperback Designs. We exchanged a few emails and agreed on what she would and a week later I had my new site. It was easy and she was great to work with. I also love the look of my new site and I know it doesn't scratch the surface of what she can do.

I approached her again a few weeks ago to talk about a few tweaks to the design and a few ideas I have and found out that she lost her mother recently and was mourning. As you may imagine she was a little slower to respond to email (but she did respond) and I am sure was wrapping up loose ends related to her mother's passing.

Despite that tragedy, apparently another blogger didn't believe this story and has been trying to disparage Vanessa online. All of this is to say, that there are always two sides to every story and in life we should always be gracious and give people the benefit of the doubt.

Here's the story.

If you need some design work, check her out.

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