Harnessing Passion

Wouldn't it be exciting if we could harness the passion of people in all parts of the CHE mix in Canada?

In my 20 years in this field I have had the opportunity to work with Healthcare professionals, academics, CHE professionals from industry, patient groups and others with interest in healthcare in the development of great CHE programs. The greatest successes have always come from the efforts of multidisciplinary teams that had one thing in common, how to improve patient care.

For example, according to recent data, the care of patients with high blood pressure in Canada has improved significantly. I submit, that without the efforts of industry in providing support for research and education, aligned with efforts from groups like the Heart & Stroke Foundation and CHEP this advancement would be significantly less.

Instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, we need to look at what works and how to harness everyone's passion and expertise to make what we do even better.

Something to think about

Which is better, an education program put on by a medical school that uses a delivery method (didactic lectures) that has been shown not to result in change or a creative, multi-faceted program that incorporates small-group learning, patient assessment and reflective discussion but which is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company? Just because it is put on by a university, doesn't mean that it is better.

While I agree that not all industry-sponsored programs have been perfect, some of the most creative and interesting programs available have been created with industry support.

As a partner with industry I am proud of the work I do and I know that programs I have worked on have made a difference in patient care just as programs developed by universities have done the same.

I suggest that it is time that we start to think about how we can bring all of the interested parties together to create the best programs. It's time to think about what is possible and work together to make a difference and help the healthcare professionals remain updated in our information-rich environment.

New Media Same Rules

OK, so here's the thing, when you call a meeting Social Media Marketing (SMM) in Pharma, What Works in Canada, perhaps you should actually talk about what works rather than what you can't do.

At the Toronto meeting of the PAAB workshop they did a great job of reviewing the rules governing Pharma in the SMM space and a ton of time was devoted to making sure that everyone understood what they could not do. Basically, if you couldn't (wouldn't) do it in print, don't do it using SMM. I know from my own discussions with other folks in Pharma that there is confusion about what you can do and given the fast pace of things, it is important to provide an update and opportunity for discussion, so it was valuable from that standpoint, but I have no more understanding of what works in Canada than I did before the meeting.

One area that was clarified for me was the issue of Adverse Event reporting. In particular it was noted that Adverse Events are often posted online but one study from Neilson Online that is detailed in their white paper entitled Listening to Consumers in a Highly Regulated Environment, showed only 1 in 500 met 4 criteria to count as AEs according to the FDA: reporter, patient, drug, event.

All in all, it was worth the time spent and good information was shared, with the final caveat from Pat Forsyth, one of the panelists, who reminded everyone that social media is another tactic in the marketing toolbox, but just that, a tactic that should be considered in the context of the overall marketing strategy and objectives.

Inspired again

I'm trying to figure out how to better manage all of the things I want to do without compromising on the things I'm doing now. Take this blog for instance. I truly enjoy having the chance to express my thoughts about the issues and challenges of working in the CME field. When I write each entry I have to give careful consideration and thought to the issue (at least I think so). That is something I don't often take time to do on a daily basis, but which often helps when I'm working with clients or speaking with others in the industry. In turn I then make a concerted effort to do it more often. As you can see from the date of the last posting, I haven't been very successful at achieving that particular objective.

However, hope, as they say, springs eternal! So once again I'm going work on making this a part of my regular routine and do my best to post at least on a weekly basis. I just have to figure out how to do this from my Blackberry -- it sure would make it shorter...

The Death of the Medical Satellite Symposia?

So last week I heard about the American Psychiatric Association phasing out Industry Supported Symposia at their annual meeting and figured that it was another attempt by a single group to present the appearance of distancing from Industry. I had discussions with some of my Industry friends about its significance and we talked about how these things seem to move their way north but that one group doesn't make a movement.

Then yesterday the other shoe dropped with the release of an Article in JAMA entitled Professional Medical Associations and Their Relationships with Industry: A Proposal fo Controlling Conflicts of Interest. The authors of this paper take the issue to an entirely different level, suggesting that the Professional Medical Associations (PMAs) totally divorce themselves from any relationship with Industry that would create a perceived conflict of interest. That changes the discussion entirely. It will create challenges for both Industry and the PMAs in Canada who rely on Industry support to bring, in my view, some very high quality programs to the healthcare professions.

The question is whether there is some middle ground where industry and the medical profession can partner and work together. The Industry has worked hard to move away from its previous excesses and I think there has to be a way to make the relationship work to everyone's benefit.

Starting the Conversation

I attended an interesting presentation by Mitch Joel from Twist Image at a meeting of the OPMA last week. The presentation entitled Six Pixels of Separation is also the name of his blog and provided some interesting views of the internet world today. It’s always great when you can leave a meeting feeling like you’ve learned something new or at least updated your knowledge in some way. Mitch certainly did that with his lively and enjoyable presentation.

For instance, did you know that half of Youtube’s audience is over 34 or that there has been a significant shift in the use of the internet from a communication tool (33% of use) to a content source (47% of use)?

He also shared with the group the fact that community users remain customers 50% longer and spend 54% more. Also, research shows that 43% of members feel as strongly about online as real-world communities.

While his presentation wasn’t directed to CME or education per se, it did provide food for thought in terms of program development and approaches to communication in the Web 2.0 world that we find ourselves in. He left us with six key points that he feels are important to consider for online communication with customers:

• Think in terms of tribes
• Everything is with, not instead of -
• Don't be fleeting - build, share and grow
• Earn the right to get your users out of lurker mode
• It’s attitudinal not generational
• Upload a video to Youtube ... Do something now!

In that vein, we have uploaded a short video that we think that you will enjoy.

National Physician Survey - the e-World of Medicine

Today, we continue our discussion on the National Physician Survey (NPS) with a review of some of the key points on the digital evolution of medical practice in Canada.

Over the years, there has been a trend toward developing online CHE programs designed to reach physicians who were unable (or unwilling) to participate in live programs. I certainly have been involved in discussions about developing such programs and worked on a number of initiatives including a program called mypatient.com, as well as a number of custom programs that included quizzes, surveys and resource libraries. I really think that there is opportunity to develop e-CHE programs that will deliver education in formats that meet the needs of physicians who are not interested in live programs.

It was therefore interesting to read the results of the NPS and how medical practice in Canada is evolving digitally. From a practice perspective, it appears that the use of computers and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is beginning to gain significant speed, particularly in provinces where funding is available. As such, Alberta leads the pack but physicians in other provinces are quickly catching up. In provinces where programs supporting EMR implementation are not widespread (PEI, Quebec and New Brunswick) the use of electronic charts is negligible (0% in Prince Edward Island vs 21.7% in Alberta). Across the country the use of EMR vs paper charts is as follows:

· 9.8% of physicians use electronic charts instead of paper charts
· 26.1% use a combination of paper and electronic charts
· 57.9% continue to use paper charts in their main patient setting

From an e-CHE and communication perspective, the use of computers and the skill level of physicians continues to move forward. I think that the numbers speak for themselves and suggest that digital approaches are more important to consider than ever. In particular, skill levels and access to high-speed internet, previous barriers to digital programs, no longer appear to be an issue:

Skill level:
· 52% of physicians rate their skill level with computers as intermediate
· 17% rate their skill level with computers as advanced

Access to the internet:
· 71% have high-speed access to the Internet in their main patient setting
· 86% have high-speed access in other settings (eg, at home)

E-mail communication:
· 13% use e-mail to communicate with patients for clinical purposes
· 63% use e-mail to communicate with colleagues for non-clinical purposes
· 50% use e-mail to communicate with colleagues for clinical purposes

In our view, this means that it is more important than ever to include flexibility of delivery in CHE initiatives and consider additional options such as downloadable podcasts with key messages, or KOL presentations as a rep follow up tool to live, interactive CME. You may also want to include e-CHE versions of live programs to extend the reach beyond those who attend your live programs.