This table compares the features of iBooks textbooks and iBooks Author to current eDetailing solutions:

* = Not yet available in iQ.Mercury but available in other eDetailing Solutions.

Overall, iBooks textbooks and iBooks Author allows any user to produce similar content to current eDetailing solutions for free. However, the limitation of email distribution and lack of pharma marketing features and analytics may be the deciding factor for most pharma companies.

For more about iBooks textbooks and iBooks Author visit:

• www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks
• www.apple.com/ibooks-author
• www.pharmalive.com/magazines/medad/view.cfm?articleID=11044

Based on findings from Manhattan Research, pharma-sponsored digital assets – like mobile apps and websites – that act as resources for patients are actually strong drivers of action for patients. These resources include condition and treatment information, disease management tools, mobile apps, websites and doctor discussion guides. Though these resources are sponsored, it seems that keeping them unbranded still drives patients to discuss prescriptions drugs with their healthcare team.

For iPad to Succeed in Medicine, Significant Software Innovation Needed | MobiHealthNews

A recent survey of 100 physicians by the Spyglass Consulting Group found that 80% of physicians believe the iPad has a “promising future in healthcare.” With that, many of the physicians still believe that significant changes to the software on tablets (not just iPad) need to be made to become the end-to-end clinical tool we all hoping they will become. One of the main drivers of hesitation, the survey found, was not physicians but their health system’s IT staff.

Tylenol Relies on Mobile to Educate Consumers on Responsible Dosage | Mobile Marketer

As part of a Tylenol’s “Get Relief Responsibly” initiative, the company is adding QR codes to select boxes of their extra strength product. When a consumer uses their mobile phone to scan the QR code, they are directed to dosing information and “other helpful tools.” Tylenol has created a Web site to help consumers of their products understand why and how to use the product appropriately.

Study: Virtual Coach Improves Activity Levels for Overweight, Obese | MobiHealthNews

Recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, a study found that using a virtual coach or trainer helped obese people increase their activity levels. During the 12-week study, people who had access to the virtual coach showed a significant increase in their level of physical activity (compared to the control group who did not have a coach).

1o Ways You Can Connect With Patients Online | Ragan’s Health Care Communication News

After presenting to the Utah Department of Health about engaging with people through social media, the author of this article (Jason Carlton) was asked to create a top 10 ways to connect with patients handout as a followup for the attendees. Upon completing, Jason felt obliged to share it with the public. These are 10 really nice tips for connecting with patient online.

The FDA social media guidance was just one element of what is becoming a more pharma-friendly social media environment. Below we cover some recent (and important!) news from the most-popular social networks.

Google Privacy Policy

Google has recently announced a major overhaul to their privacy policy. The company announced that they would start to track users across all its services—Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google+, and so on—and share that user activity data across all of their networks.

What’s this mean for the everyday user? Google will be tracking your every search of a location on Maps, the conversations you are having on YouTube and Google +,  and storing it in their system to be cross-referenced. The idea is to deliver ads, as their philosophy states, that are “relevant, obvious, and not flashy.”

For more commentary, read BusinessWeek’s article Should Google’s New Privacy Policy Concern You?

Facebook Timeline

Last fall, Facebook announced their most-significant design changes ever with the unveiling of Timeline. For those unfamiliar, Facebook Timeline is a new profile, essentially a scrapbook, which captures a users entire life on Facebook, as opposed to the more present-focused design we’ve seen in the past. New features include a cover photo, monthly/yearly navigation, maps, and life events status updates to name a few.

While those features are intriguing for personal users, brands are still waiting to hear what features branded company pages will have in the future. Until then, brand pages will keep their current design.

Learn more: Why Timeline Will Be Huge For Brands

Branded Twitter Pages

As part of a larger redesign of the entire Twitter website and experience, they also introduced brand pages to a select group of major advertisers. After researching the small group of brand pages that have already been deployed, we’ve uncovered 3 very specific, new features and their impact on marketers.

1. Expanded and Fully Customizable Header: A more sophisticated header that allows brand managers to more prominently display their logo, tagline and customizable banner.
2. Featured Tweet:  Brand managers now have the ability to utilize featured tweets that highlight specific promotions, campaigns, or offers over a longer period of time than ordinary tweets. The specialized tweets also automatically expand to display any embedded photo or video from Flickr, YouTube, or other sources.
3. Separate @replies and @mentions: Being able to separate the @replies from the @mentions is great news for community managers as it will help them streamline their responses and communication by clearly separating them out from all the other Twitter noise.

While the brand pages are only available to a select group of advertisers, AdAge reports that the pages will be rolled out to more companies around February 1.

Google+: Roche launches profile

As Google+ approaches 100 million users in the little over 6 months since being launched, we’ve seen a pharma brand make the leap to the social network.

Roche was the first to embrace the network but not for the reason we may assume. Roche’s head of corporate internet and social media, Sabine Kostevc, has been quoted mentioning that the reason she setup Roche’s profile was to “reserve the space.” Fake profiles have been an issue on Google+ since launch.

While the network is still a long way from approaching the likes of Facebook (800m users) and Twitter (225m users), that could be a trend that reverses as Google+ could have greater impact on the holy grail of digital marketing…search.

Share with us what marketing challenges or opportunities that recent social media and search headlines have created for you? Do you think the headlines above are more positive or negative for healthcare and pharma marketing?

Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida is tacking the challenge of how best to gauge the effectiveness of delivering health and wellness messages to patients via social media and mobile devices. Specifically, they will be testing the effectiveness of this messaging for chronically ill patients (ie, diabetes and hypertension).

Patience Patients – Are e-Patients Waiting for e-Docs | Eye On FDA

Technology is changing. Patients are changing. Are physicians keep up? This articles walks you through the author’s experience of tracking his own weight and blood pressure via wifi-enabled devices, storing the data in the cloud, charting them against each other over time, and then making available for their physician. Unfortunately, the physician isn’t connected to this process and only gathers information during annual check-ups with pen and paper.

How Can Pharma Help Scale mHealth? 3 Things Pharma Companies Need To Do | PharmaPhorum

mHealth initiatives have accelerated quickly over the past year. But an important and noticeable trend of existing mHealth pilots has been the limited participation of pharma companies. To date, most programs tend to be led by non-profit organizations, academic institutions or tech start-ups (more recently, major wireless providers). When asked, pharma companies say they are still unsure about how they can leverage mHealth solutions to achieve their objectives and are concerned about regulatory constraints. This article highlights 3 things pharma can do to get into the mHealth game.

9 Tablets Fit For Doctors | Information Week

Since healthcare pros have embraced tablets in a big way, tablet makers have come up with a few design and feature twists for this demanding audience. Here are 9 tablets – from the iPad to medical specific devices – that make the top of the list for clinicians.

5 Points Concerning Patient Engagement and Health IT | Healthcare IT News

As digital technology continues to replace paper records in healthcare, there is new opportunity to re-engage the patient in their health. Today, we provide patients with confusing medical forms and education filled with medical jargon – creating an immediate burden on patient to manage their health. Fortunately, there are more and more patient education tools that allow physicians and patients be better partners in managing health.

But it wasn’t the hospital we were visiting; it was an opportunity to meet the brilliant minds behind their Center for Medical Education and Innovation (CME+I). Founded in 2006, the Center’s mission is simple: improve healing and patient safety in a safe environment. It was out of the challenges and frustration clinicians face on the medical floor that CME+I was born. OhioHealth has a passion for transforming that frustration into change.

Today that means clinicians can use CME+I to test products, ideas and processes in one of many simulators and labs. Along the way, the OhioHealth Commercialization Team works with them to research the market for the product and help the innovator access outside funding. That’s right, OhioHealth itself does not have a financial stake in the innovations, as all products and ideas are owned by the innovator; the team is a support system.

Since 2006, Commercialization Team has worked with innovators to vet 130 ideas. Eleven of those ideas evolved into new product companies, and 7 have become products now in clinical use. How’s that for accelerating innovation in healthcare?

Inside the Institute

Exam Rooms

CME+I is the home for several variations of labs and exam rooms, all of which are equipped with microphones and video cameras that allow educators to observe from afar and even replay simulations (much like coaches do with athletes during film sessions). In fact, they go as far as hiring professional actors to serve as patients, family members, attending physicians, and any other combination of exam room situations.

(Pictured above: Notice the microphone hanging from the ceiling, center of photo)

SimSuite’s Simantha

An endovascular simulation system, this simulation features a cognitive approach to patient care that delivers comprehensive training experiences. It seems that Simantha has something to offer every type of clinician, from nurses and technologists to experienced attending physicians.

The purpose of the simulator is to provide increased patient safety by providing the ability to practice endovascular procedures in a realistic yet risk-free environment.

Virtual Care Unit

Promoted as the first of its kind, the Virtual Care Unit features four separate clinical areas: an operating room, trauma unit, ICU, and a standard patient room. The units surround a central control room where educators and technicians can lead and manage simulated situations behind one-way glass.

Not real enough? Each of the rooms feature human patient simulators that can be programmed to react in any combination of 72,000 physiological ways. In fact, the human simulators even breathe in oxygen and breath out CO2.

What We Learned About Innovation From OhioHealth

Ask “why not” instead of “why”

While meeting with directors and physicians that manage innovation and commcercialization, one theme was apparent (and even mentioned by one person); instead of asking “why” should we pursue a solution, ask “why not?” Sometimes an innovation that improves healthcare isn’t always a solution to a specific challenge but an entirely new idea or way of doing things. Don’t be afraid to pursue.

Be easy to work with

The team prides itself on being easy to work with. In an industry that typically has large amounts of red tape and bureaucracy to navigate, this group simplifies that process with a small staff and an openness and ambition to support new ideas and products.

Integrate with the community

Infrastructure is critical. CME+I is housed in Columbus, Ohio, home of many initiatives to drive innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation in the region. OhioHealth has formed a strategic partnership with Tech Columbus, a catalyst for technology-driven economic growth, to help the company’s innovators receive funding and support for their product ideas.

As healthcare becomes more digitalized, we are seeing more and more patients each month accessing health information online, on their own. While, initially this seems like it would have  a positive impact on self-health management, one trend that is emerging is patients inaccurately self-diagnosing themselves. Has readily available health information lead to people try to replace their physician at the mercy of their health?

Mobile Technology is Transforming the Health Industry, But to What Extent? | TechCrunch

The current landscape of mobile health is full of inspiring examples of how technology is changing healthcare and how we keep track of our own health, how we approach diagnostics, treatment, and more. This article highlights the best innovations in healthcare, their advantages and challenges and where the industry is moving. The mobile health space is booming, and we’ll continue to see leaps forward in 2012, let’s just hope it stays that way.

How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Healthcare? | Health in 30

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, tapped some of the best minds in digital marketing, specifically gaming, in healthcare to get their take on the gamification of healthcare. Part 1 features friend of iQ, Fabio Gratton from Ignite Health.

A Doctor In Your Pocket | Wall Street Journal

“Today, we mostly wait for the body to break before we treat it.” With the help of smart phones, wearable technology and other innovations in health, we are on the cusp of being able to track and adjust our health in realtime. For the most part, the technology exists to monitor our health. The missing piece is to seamlessly integrate into into our daily lives and to put the data to work with things such as electronic medical records.

Pharma Forecasting: The Changing Role of Patients | Eye For Pharma

The intersection of the Internet, social media, and mobile has created a new dynamic in healthcare. Today’s patients have more access to information and to each other and can thus exert more influence on their treatments and the healthcare system at large. And yet, some pharma companies continue to operate as if this shift were merely theoretical, without tangible impacts on their brands or their bottom lines.

]]> http://www.whatsyourdigitaliq.com/mid-week-stat-accessing-mobile-health-information-on-the-rise/feed/ 0 http://www.whatsyourdigitaliq.com/ces-2012-innovation-awards-%e2%80%93-health-and-wellness/ http://www.whatsyourdigitaliq.com/ces-2012-innovation-awards-%e2%80%93-health-and-wellness/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:36:33 +0000 Ben Harben, Associate Creative Director of Innovation http://www.whatsyourdigitaliq.com/?p=2739 Each year CES holds The Innovations Design and Engineering Awards. These awards give consumer electronic makers an opportunity to have their newest products judged by a preeminent panel. It’s the place to see, touch, feel and understand the future of consumer electronics. Best of Awards are given to one product within each category. Below is this year’s Best of Award and a list of honorees within the Health and Wellness category.

BEST OF AWARD

Company: Basis
Product: Basis band
Description: The world’s first connected health and heart rate monitor wearable on the wrist. A multi-sensor band collects data like heart rate, calories burned, physical activity and sleep patterns and links to a personal online dashboard.
http://www.mybasis.com

HONOREES

Company: Able Planet Incorporated
Product: Personal Sound Amp
Description: The first ever near-ear canal personal sound amplification product with 4 preset environment management filters that provide situational hearing solutions to enhance comprehension for tonal sensitivities and difficult listening environments.
http://www.ableplanet.com

Company: Andon Health Co.,Ltd
Product: Bluetooth Body Scale
Description: The body scale is designed to work with iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad by Bluetooth. The intuitive and easily use application on iOS device includes weight management, weight control plan and calorie management,support multiple user indentify by weight.

Company: fuseproject
Product: Jawbone UP
Description: UP is a revolutionary system (wristband + app) that tracks your sleep, activity & eating habits and puts that information in the palm of your hand. With UP, an around the clock, around the wrist app-powered band, healthy living is finally fun.
http://www.fuseproject.com

Company: LOREX Corporation
Product: LOREX LIVE Connect2 Wireless Family Video Monitoring System
Description: Truly portable physically and virtually, LOREX LIVE Connect2 enhances video monitoring with effortless online viewing, easy setup and secure access. Integrated Skype technology makes simple anytime, anywhere video monitoring for the family a reality.
http://www.lorextechnology.com

Company: LOSTnFOUND AG
Product: WATCHIE®
Description: WATCHIE® has been developed from the Swiss company LOSTnFOUND Ltd,in conjunctions with partners from similar industries. WATCHIE® has been developed to improve the lives and conditions for suffer of Alzheimers and Dementia.
http://www.watchie.com

Company: Moneual
Product: Silver Care Robot
Description: The Rydis H1004-II monitor and alert emergency regarding an elderly person’s or patient’s condition, as well as provide air purification for those in regular homes, silver town communities, or nursing homes and hospitals.
http://www.moneual.com

Company: Oregon Scientific
Product: Gaiam Touch
Description: The Gaiam Touch from Oregon Scientific is the industry’s slimmest heart rate monitor and the first with a touch screen, allowing for easy navigation between heart rate, calories burned and workout time with the touch of a finger.
http://us.oregonscientific.com

Company: Scosche Industries
Product: sportCLIPS II
Description: sportCLIPS II are sport clip earbuds with slideLINE remote and mic.The flexible earclip design provides a secure hold during even the most active workouts. Control play, pause, volume, skip tracks and more from the slideLINE control surface.
http://www.scosche.com/

Company: SDI Technologies Inc.
Product: NB639 Fitness Evolved System; 2-in-1 Sport Earbuds & Rechargeable Heart Rate Monitor and Pedometer
Description: The rechargeable New Balance NB639 Fitness Evolved Headphone System measures steps, time, caloric burn, and heart rate and delivers both exercise stats and your music in rich clarity via the 2-in-1 earbuds/earhooks. Graph the data using HeartPal.
http://www.newbalance audio.com

Company: Starkey Laboratories, Inc.
Product: AMP Hearing Aid
Description: AMP is a hearing aid for people who are not ready for hearing aids. AMP is a non-custom hearing aid inserted deep into the ear canal. It is invisible in most ears, more affordable and is designed to sound great.
http://www.starkey.com

Company: Withings
Product: Smart Baby Scale
Description: The Smart Baby Scale by Withings is an Internet-connected baby and toddler scale that reinvents how parents monitor, understand, and share their child’s growth. They access weight charts from any connected device, such as a smartphone or computer.
http://www.withings.com

Company: ZOMM, LLC
Product: ZOMM® Lifestyle Connect™
Description: The ZOMM® Lifestyle Connect™ is a multi-functional device leveraging the power of a mobile phone to enhance the user’s life. It provides personal safety services, hands-free communications, and manages valuable assets.
http://zomm.com/

IDEAL LIFE offers products to manage health remotely. For example, a user who takes their blood pressure using the IDEAL LIFE Blood Pressure Manager can have that data sent securely through an IDEAL LIFE communication gateway to review and manage this data online.

This year, IDEAL LIFE showcased their IDEAL LIFE Health Tablet. The Health Tablet functions as a personal health management and communication device. In addition to managing one’s health, users are also able to speak to a physician or care giver via video chat, receive messages, read news, track the weather, use as a bedside clock and even take a health related survey.

It’s interesting to think that just last year we heard Cisco lecture on how physicians are using WebEx to exam patients. Now, a year later, we’re seeing more and more products incorporating video chat into their devices. As with each CES, I’m always curious to see what innovations product manufactures create as they continue to collaborate with healthcare professionals and like-minded manufactures.

However, Ford hasn’t stopped there.

“A driver doesn’t stop being diabetic once he get behind the wheel of a car,” say David Melcher, “in fact, it probably more important to know about the driver in those particular cases. Not only for the safety of the driver, but for other as well.”

David Melcher is one of the main developers working on the integration of Sync with WellDoc and Medtronic. In fact, he confessed on still making code modifications to the demonstration at 2am the morning before. He was figuring out a way to combat the loud environment in which his voice driven demo was.

By utilizing a Bluetooth enable MedTronic Glucose Monitor, the WellDoc Application and Sync, your car acts as a personal butler insure you’ve made consideration prior to setting that vehicle in motion.

Here’s the demonstration he provided us at the Ford Booth at CES:

As you can see, David has some additional features he’d like to add to make the experience much more enriching and comprehensive. Innovation and mashup of technologies like this should lead us to expect a lot more health aware integration implementations in the years to come.

To learn more: The New York Times

To give you an idea, UnitedHealth Group’s booth was similar in size to electronic manufacturers such as JVC, Kia and Pioneer. And it had, by far, the largest booth in the Health related / Living in Digital Time area – the next largest booth, being about half it’s size.

Here’s a tour of the booth:

“Intersection of personal technology and consumers’ health is really an opportunity for individuals to be engaged with their well being,” says Nick Martin, vice president of innovation and R&D at UnitedHealth Group. And, with the innovations found within the booth, it is clear that they are going to make the most of that opportunity.

Some of the key booth attractions include:

OptumizeMe Mobile App
OptumizeMe is a collaborator, motivating consumers to engage in wellness by making healthy activity a social activity. It creates online communities with a common purpose defined by common interests – seamlessly integrating with Facebook to allow for direct messaging.

NowClinic
NowClinic online care, you can talk to a doctor, clinician or specialist like you would in an exam room via a secure webcam, instant messenger or chat. Share your symptoms, receive a diagnosis, and even get a prescription, if clinically appropriate – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. No appointment necessary.

Health Saving Checkup
This tool provides users with an estimate of their own future health care costs based on an analysis of $130 billion in claims from more than 16 million plan participants. By answering basic questions about retirement goals, health and finances, you’ll get an estimate of your retirement health care costs and guidance on ways that may help you stay healthy, spend less and save more.

Health Care Cost Estimator
It’s more and more important to help consumers make more informed decisions about their health care, the Health Care Cost Estimator will provide consumers with key information including:
• treatment options,
• provider quality information,
• total out-of-pocket costs,
• consumer spending account balances (as applicable), and
• potential risks, benefits and outcomes for the treatments they are considering.

Health4Me Mobile App
The Health4Me mobile application makes it easy and convenient for members to make their health care decisions, including:
• Personalizing with photos and creating a list of favorite care providers,
• Locating In-Network Providers, Hospitals, or Clinics based on the GPS location of the mobile device,
• Can review benefit, savings account, and recent claims information about the member and those covered under the members plan, and
• Quickly and easily navigate telephone self-service options to have a health advisor call you back.

OptumRx
The upcoming mobile app from OptumRx will allow members to fully manage their medications with the convenience of a mobile app. Subscribers will be able to set reminders and track their medication consumption for all their prescription and non-prescription medications, reach a pharmacist, be alerted of drug interactions, and use GPS to locate an in-network pharmacy. Mail Service Members will be able to refill and renew their mail order prescriptions right from their phone by scanning the pill bottle, and check the status of their orders.

All in all, this is a pretty impressive line up.  But, that’s not all, we should expect a lot more things to come in the next year as that UnitedHealth Group recently announced that they have created strategic partnerships with CareSpeak Communications, Lose It! and Fitbit to finding innovative ways to help people live healthier lives.

For more on UnitedHealth Group’s presence at CES as well as the company’s booth, fitness challenges and speaking engagements, please visit www.ceshealth.com or follow @CESHealth on Twitter.

Verizon’s SureResponse is a one touch personal emergency response service. SureResponse works with a touch of a button, to connect users to Verizon’s Care Agents. These agents can use location and personal information to assist with any situation. Care Agents are able to communicate with the user through a built-in speakerphone. If needed, Care Agents can also connect users to any one of their emergency contacts and speak to them directly. SureResponse is intended to bring peace of mind to individuals and families, while helping them stay independent and safe.

Although this isn’t the first personal emergency response service we’ve seen at CES, it is a healthcare product being produced by a major exhibitor. Seeing corporations like Verizon creating healthcare products may lead other corporations to fund and adopt healthcare innovations.

One noteworthy company at CES this year – Tobii Technology, has been awarded the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award as one of the most innovative and revolutionary products being showcased. Their product, Gaze Interaction, uses eye tracking to make common tasks on consumer products such as laptops, games, operating systems and PCs easier, faster and more intuitive.

If Tobii’s Gaze could make our experiences with consumer products easier, we wondered, “How could eye tracking make our healthcare experiences easier?”

We discovered our answer, at Carnegie Mellon’s Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT) exhibit booth. Their product uses retinal tracking to display what the user is focused on. Their video demo showcased a city driver looking at on coming traffic, pedestrians and obstacles. They envision their product being used in NASCAR to study what the driver is looking at when judging passes. But when it comes to healthcare their ideas are endless.

Curt Stone, Director of QoLT Foundry and Industrial Liaison, talked about their vision of reducing paperwork within hospitals by equipping nurses with their product. Rather than recording patient data by hand, nurses could simply look at say a patent’s blood pressure reading to record their data.

Another vision combined eye tracking with audio to improve adherence with the elderly. Here a patient would be able to look at the pill bottle he or she is about to take. Before taking, an audio response would play confirming or denying whether or not that is the right pill for that time and day.

Although eye tracking isn’t anything new, these uses are. With touch replacing clicks, we may begin to see eye tracking replacing or complimenting touch and click in the near future.

This is not anything new and shouldn’t be a surprise. But when you couple the information available on the web with health-related consumer devices that are more accurate and easy to use, you have a very new kind of patient. You now have a patient that is very much informed and has data to back their finding.

This new kind of patient allows us to ask a number of intriguing questions:

• How does this change the dynamics of the doctor – patient relationship?
• How does this impact healthcare in general?
• When can we truly expect to see the benefits of digital in Healthcare?

In Dr. Eric Topol’s new book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine, Topol states that the digital revolution is here and will create better health care. However, true integration of technology into the medical industry hasn’t happened yet—what we’re seeing is simply the tip of the iceberg.

Historically, medicine is conservative so true adoption by doctors and/or insurers would be slow. However, change is still possible because of the following factors:

• The ability to truly digitize a human is possible
• Technology brings us to the brink of a “super convergence” of information
• Democratization of medicine has begun

Dr. Topol believes that “the [health industry] needs a jail break”, and the only way to make the radical change is through the consumer. Once the consumer starts making the demands, this new type of healthcare will occur.

Here at CES, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and fuseproject demonstrated a fully functional version of their updated 3rd Generation XO product, the XO-3 tablet.

What makes this tablet most intriguing is that it’s a low-cost, low-power tablet computer designed for use by children in third world and emerging countries. It is meant to withstand rough conditions, not only within the enviroment they are intended for, but the ruggedness was specifically designed with their end user in mind. The end users, generally, being children.

Upon first glance, it’s clear the the XO-3 is aiming to be simple. However, this little Android-based tablet sports a Marvell ARMADA PXA618 SOC processor, has WiFi capabilities, and comes with rear and front facing cameras. What also makes this tablet unique is that the XO-3 is also the ONLY tablet that can be power via solar panels, hand crank and other alternative power sources.

Obviously, the XO-3 isn’t designed to be an iPad killer or even a competitor to the Kindle Fire. Tablets such as the XO-3 are clearly a testament on how simple design and consideration can make technology affordable and available to just about anyone. The OLPC initiative has provided technology based educational tools to over 2.5 million children globally.

This approach to providing access to low-cost computing power can be extended to other forms of education for people not normally familiar with new technology.

Manufacturing moves like this can play an interesting role in our industry. Lowering hardware cost can possibly usher in a number of different application:

• Disposable / recyclable one use eDetail platform
• Customized / branded educational tool for patient education
• Video conference between a medical specialist and a patient in a remote location

Withings unveiled a new health and wellness cloud platform that integrates not only the data from Withings products, but also other fitness tracking apps/sites or connected devices. Their platform adds a whole new dimension to Withings’ already successful connected devices for health and wellness, because it allows a Withings user’s dashboard to function as their go-to site for all their fitness and health data.

With the closing Google Health, Withings may be trying to capture some of these users. Although Withings’ users may not be able to input the array of personalized health data as found in Google Health, they are able to import data from more connected devices. This number may grow with the release of Withings’ free API. Withings reported, “More than 40 online services providers, which represent more than 40 millions end-users, are using Withings free API.” Brands that are already on the Withings platform include the Zeo Sleep Manager and Runkeeper.

Although Withings Cloud may not be a replacement for Google Health it may become a user’s one-stop dashboard to their health and wellness data generated from their connected devices.

Other platforms like this on display at CES include:

FitBit – Extend your experience with the App Gallery to discover new websites, tools and applications like Foursquare, About.Me and Microsoft HealthValut. Fitbit also offers an API that allows developers to interact with Fitbit data in their own applications, products and services.
http://www.fitbit.com/apps
http://dev.fitbit.com/

At iQ we experimented with a similar idea back in April 2011. However our idea we offered a bit of a twist. In our experiment iQ.health we asked, “What if we could collect health-related patient data and compare each source to derive an answer to a patient’s health concern?”

• Light weight (<3lbs)
• Thin (<.8”)
• Contains a solid state storage system (no more rotating cylinders and spindles)
• Instant / immediate on
• Wifi is the primary network interface
• No traditional media drives (e.g. at DVD/CD/Blu-Ray)
• Limited external device interfaces (<1 USB ports)

It’s clear that these new ultrabooks are inspired by the MacBook Air and will be used to shepherd out the slow, clunky and traditionally considered “cheap” netbook and usher in a new type of computer where the user can get what they need immediately and quickly. To help frame where it sits in the device space, an ultrabook would be in the space between a tablet and a traditional laptop.

Probably one of the most exciting new releases was Vizio’s introduction of their own line of ultrabooks. The buzz was not so much that ultrabooks were being debuted, but that a US-based television manufacturer was getting into the computer manufacturer industry and from initial looks it seems as if they’re doing a good job at it.

It’s very clear how this type of computer/device can affect our industry. In our world, digital communication and teaching is vitally important, not only do sales representatives consume/display teaching content, they also create the content. Content creation, in my opinion, has always been a challenge on the iPad as well as any other tablet.

This smaller, ultra-lightweight version of the traditional form factor of a laptop is an obvious alternative to the current enterprise anchors that gets schlepped around in reps’ laptop bag.

However, consider the following:

• Ultrabooks running Windows can easily be integrated into an enterprise’s network security and infrastructure, meaning easier adoption by Enterprise IT Departments.
• Ultrabooks can easily allow users to create new content, meaning more versatility.
• Smart phones are getting bigger and more functional while still fitting in a suit pocket. (Check out the Samsung Galaxy Note.)

It’ll be interesting to see how an introduction of the ultrabook into a reps bag will affect overall device usage and detailing behavior.

In case you’re curious… “Ultrabook” is the buzzword at this years CES, similiar to how Tablets was the word, last year. Some other manufacturers expected to play in the ultrabook market: ASUS, Acer, and Lenovo to name a few.

For those of you aren’t Trekkies, a tricorder (as defined by Wikipedia) is a multifunction handheld device used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and recording data.

This is exactly what Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs described during Tuesday’s keynote at CES. Their hope is to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making reliable health diagnoses available directly to “health consumers” in their homes. By offering this award, they hope to spark the creation of markets and products that offer medical detection, prevention, and management, as well as more complete diagnostics.

But for those of you who wish to compete the requirements are challenging:

• Capture key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases
• Metrics could include blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature
• Collect data through wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements
• Total components must be no greater than five pounds

Are you up for task? Visit http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org for more information.

Not only does this cover smartphones, but there has been hints towards tablets as well. And yes, they’ll all be running Android (see previous Googlerola post).

The most impressive thing about this announcement is that we’ll be seeing the products from this partnership as early as the second half of 2012.  This means a lot of interesting toys are coming out next holiday season.

Read a press release here.

One of my predictions for this year as the next “hot” thing is “wearable technology”. Not only will we be seeing more smart watches, we’ll also be seeing many tools and devices designed to motivate, measure and promote healthy lifestyle and better living.

Enter the Striiv. At first glance, you could boil the Striiv to simply being a glorified pedometer. However, this pocket sized $99 consumer device is coined the “Walkathon in your pocket, “ every step you take counts towards a charitable contribution to a cause of your choice.

For those who are motivated to make the world a better place, they could now take steps toward providing a small village with clean drinking water or vaccines via Corporate Sponsor who are backing healthy and active lifestyles. If one is not so philanthropic, the Striiv also has a number of other motivational tools stored within to get its user more active – socially based games as well as activity comparison to national averages and the user’s personal best.

The 2.75” x 1.7” x .5” Striiv is a simple color LCD touch screen device having the ability to store a plethora of metrics such as steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, and can tell if you’ve taken stairs throughout the day.

Devices like these have a great role in our industry as our clients become more and more inclined to add service around their particular molecule / drug. With addition of some simple features, there are really neat possibilities for a Phrama branded device:

• Real Time tracking between a physician / trainer / physical therapist while not at the clinic / gym / facility.
• Community based social motivation to promote conversation and brand recognition.
• Value added support services around a molecule to help promote adherence.

Other wearable technology devices include:

• Basis Band – CES 2012 Best innovation Award Winner, the Basis Band. The world’s first connected health and heart rate monitor wearable on the wrist. A multi-sensor band collects data like heart rate, calories burned, physical activity and sleep patterns and links to a personal online dashboard.
• Jawbone UP – UP is a revolutionary system (wristband + app) that tracks your sleep, activity & eating habits and puts that information in the palm of your hand. With UP, an around the clock, around the wrist app-powered band, healthy living is finally fun. http://www.fuseproject.com

Donna: Why do you do it on Friday?
Josh: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.

The FDA may have made a similar move last week. After years of hubbub about social media guidance, they actually released some during that very quiet, very disconnected last week of December.

Back at our computers today, commentators and brand managers are digging into the draft guidance and talking and typing away about what it means.

The good news: What it means is pretty straight forward

The particular topic they’re tackling is unsolicited requests for off-label information – both those that come directly (think: email) and those that are posted in a public forum (think: message board). The guidance itself is only 12 pages long and full of good examples – definitely worth reading – but, in short, comes down to these 4 things:

• Be specific: Only respond to questions/issues that are clearly about an off-label use for your brand and only include messaging that answers/addresses that issue. (Make sure to identify yourself, too.)

• Be scientific: No marketing or sales messages. And when it gets down to the details, the responder should be a medical or science officer, not the marketing suite.

• Balance public and private: Any public response should just convey that the question pertains to an unapproved or uncleared use of the product and then point the reader to a specific medical or science officer for more info. Everything else: Answer one on one.

• Keep great records: The internet is always changing – you want the definitive record on hand with your brand

NOTE: This guidance only applies to brands that choose to respond. The FDA is not requiring monitoring or response.

The better news: The context around the content is very social savvy.

Reading the guidance, my first take away is: The hearings were worth it. The FDA’s perspective on what brands can and should do online is really progressive – and, it sounds a lot like some of the conversations that happened on the floor of those hearings. The challenge they’re facing, of course, is how to adequately act on it.

A few of the great signposts found in the guidance:

• The FDA believes that brands can be trusted to take on a bigger educational role: “FDA recognizes that firms are capable of responding to requests about their own named products in a truthful, non-misleading, and accurate manner.”

• They know more, direct information is what will most benefit people: “Moreover, because firms usually have robust and current information about their products, it can be in the best interest of public health for a firm to respond to unsolicited requests for information about off label uses of the firm’s products that are made in public forums, especially since other responders may not provide or have access to the most accurate and up-to-date medical product information…”

• They get the unique challenges of the web – especially the social space: “…because product information posted on websites and other public electronic forums is likely to be available to a broad audience and for an indefinite period of time, FDA is concerned that firms may post detailed public online responses to questions about off-label uses of their products in such a way that they are communicating unapproved or uncleared use information about FDA-regulated medical products to individuals who have not requested such information?

The challenge: The human connection.

We’re going to be talking more here over the next week or so about the guidance – figuring out what, if any, areas there are to ask for further consideration or improvement. The one watchout we see so far is the named speakers. There’s a heavy, heavy emphasis on making sure all responses are scientific in nature – the guidance goes so far as to recommend specific types of authors: “Responses to unsolicited requests for information should be generated by medical or scientific personnel independent from sales or marketing departments.”

That could create a real challenge for true communication. Will the content be easily understood by average consumers? Can medical and science personnel – who are used to working with healthcare professionals – reliably translate complex concepts into consumable health information? If not, we see new challenges afoot…

Download the Guidance

With 1.6 million net square feet of exhibit space, it’s no surprise that CES draws the attendees it does. But what may be surprising to some came from AdAge’s article “Forget Cannes: CES Is the Place to Be and Be Seen.” Out of this year’s attendees, 5,000 identify themselves as in “advertising and marketing” and more than 1,000 CEOs of companies identified as involved in “advertising and marketing.” The reason for this HUGE number of marketers?

“Two megatrends: Technology focused on ad-supported models, and mass marketers realized that reaching the next generation means understanding the technology that is altering the way they shop, communicate, consume media and experience brands.”

We couldn’t agree more with this reasoning and is the reason why we’re attending again.

Starting Wednesday, January 11th Jude Divierte and I will be LIVE blogging from CES until Friday, January 13th. Look for articles that span:

• The best healthcare products on exhibit
• Most innovative tradeshow displays
• Summary of the day’s keynote presentations
• …and more

Like last year, Jude and I will be tweeting throughout the show to report on new, innovative, and interesting technology and its impact on Pharma Marketing. Be sure to follow us on twitter at @BenHarben and @KnightDiver to follow along with us.

“In the future we might not prescribe drugs all the time, we might prescribe apps.” That is kind of a crazy thought, right? These 6 digital ideas may very well change how we approach treating and preventing illness. Which idea is the most plausible for 2012?

Who are Kout’s Top 10 Healthcare Social Media Influencers? | MedCity News

The (controversial) Klout score, which measures an individuals social media influence on a scale of 1 to 100, is an often looked to system to see just how important a Tweeter is on a specific topic. MedCity News highlighted the most influential social media folks talking about healthcare.

Health Apps Already a Bigger Market than Remote Monitoring | Mobihealthnews

Several industry reports are showing that mobile health (mHealth) applications are a much larger market than remote monitoring tools. One study from Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2015 the market for mHealth apps will be approximately $100 million larger than the market for remote patient monitoring. Wow.

FDA’s Social-Media ‘Guidelines Befuddle Big Pharma | Ad Age

It seems that the FDA was trying to fly under the radar with the release of their social media guidance (releasing them in the midst of the holiday hustle and end of year shenanigans). But they didn’t go unnoticed. iQ published our own perspective on the guidelines (Inside the FDA’s First-Ever Social Media Guidance…is a really productive perspective), but Ad Age shared a much different perspective. We highly recommend you read both and formulate your own viewpoint.

Fun Pick: Are you a GEEK or NERD? [Infographic]

Here in iQ, we often get the title as the “geeks” of the organization. Well, today, we found out that some of us are, in fact, not that geeky but more nerdy. Which are you?

Back in November, iQ’s Managing Director, Leigh Householder, sat down and collected all of our best content and insight that we gathered from working with our clients, speaking with colleagues at major conferences and the conversations online and offline we engage in and started to formulate what 2012 will look like for the healthcare marketing world.

The result was a presentation highlighting the first moves that healthcare is making to embrace the latest trends and the changes that iQ sees ahead. Slideshare recognized the presentation as a Top 12 for 2012 presentation and recently highlighted it on their own blog.

The other eleven that were recognized are phenomenal and feature some ground-breaking ideas. Be sure to check them out, as well.

1) 2012: 12 Themes – What to expect in the year ahead, Ross Dawson
2) Social Media & Content Marketing Predictions 2012, Content Marketing Institute
3) How Digital Innovation Impacts Your Business, SapientNitro
4) 12 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012, Trendwatching.com
5) Where Is Nonprofit Marketing Headed in 2012?, Kivi Leroux Miller
6) The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
7) 10 Business Intelligence Trends for 2012, Tableau Software
8) 10 trends for 2012, JWT Intelligence
9) What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012, SapientNitro
10) 2012 Predictions for Mobile Web and HTML5, Jonathan Jeon
11) 7 Online Video Trends to Watch in 2012, Skytide

If you like one of the top 5 prototypes below, share your vote by naming your favorite prototype in the comments section below.

1. iQ.mercury Controller

Challenge: In an eDetailing situation, sales reps are finding that the physicians prefer to hold and use the iPad in their own hands. So we asked, what if sales reps were able to let the physician hold the iPad for better readability and to provide interaction without eliminating control of the content?

Solution: iQ.mercury Controller – The app that empowers sales reps to control an iPad held in a physician’s hands. iQ.mercury Controller provides the ideal eDetailing experience that physicians deserve with the crucial control sales reps require.

2. My eDetail

Challenge: How physicians want to receive detailing—is changing… often faster than pharma can keep up. Case in point: a recent study of more than 5400 physicians found that a growing number—about 1 in 4—prefer computer based electronic detailing.

Solution: My eDetail – A sales representative’s specialized desktop that delivers customizable details to physicians in the precise way he or she prefers.

3. RepCentric

Challenge: Access continues to present one of the toughest challenges in healthcare marketing. Every day brings fewer and fewer sales representatives in the field. And more and more healthcare networks restrict access to physicians.

Solution: RepCentric – The physicians’ digital tool that provides better access to their sales representative through location-sharing and enhanced communication features.

4. iQ.Health

Challenge: Today, patients are continuously producing health data—and lots of it. For example, Nike+ tracks and stores runners’ distance, time, heartrate, and calories burned. Other apps and devices do the same for blood pressure, calorie counting, home workouts, or even walking around the neighborhood. What if an app could collect all of this health-related patient data in one place and prepare a simplified overview that patients can share with healthcare providers?

Solution: iQ.Health imports data from apps, devices, websites, and electronic health records, such as Nike+, the Withings body scale, Foursquare, Mint, and others. Aggregating and comparing data, iQ.Health keeps patients on track to healthier lifestyles while providing physicians with a simplified, time-saving glimpse beyond medical data into patients’ lives and health-related choices.

5. Fluent 2.0

Challenge: Successfully getting a patient started on a new treatment, isn’t as easy as just writing a prescription. Almost 30% of patients never fill their first prescription. And half who do, will discontinue use within the first 6 months.

Solution: Fluent 2.0 delivers time-released notifications via mobile apps, txt, email or phone to inform and educate patients on common treatment reactions. Fluent 2.0 answering patient adherence through time-released notifications that inform and educate patients on their treatment’s reactions.

Holy cow, my dad’s gone to the cloud!!!

Ah, there are many stories when it comes to the advancement of technology in 2011, but the one that quickly jumps out in my head is how my dad found “the cloud.” Ya see, growing up, my dad was always a gadget guy, owning one of the first cell phones that looked liked something out of a military flick. But over time, technology advanced quicker than he (and most of us for that matter) could keep up. Time elapses, and his old “blue” Blackberry dies on him, and just as his world is about to come to an end, he calls me up and says, “I’m calling you from my new iPhone and would like a lesson on the cloud.” Naturally, as most of us who have some level of technical expertise and aging parents, I automatically became (yet again) his tech support lifeline. So began the lesson on the new iPhone and power of “the cloud.”

For me, I always tend to look at life’s experiences as direct sketches out of a cartoon, and when my dad, some of my clients, and hell… even Al Gore talk about “the cloud” as if it was something that just popped up over night, has a silver lining, and will save their lives, I kinda chuckle. For those of us in the tech biz, the cloud has been around for quite sometime, and yes, it has saved my life several times. Apple’s iCloud (my dad’s favorite cloud), Microsoft’s Cloud, Amazon’s EC2, Force.com, Rackspace’s Cloud, and the list goes on and on, continue to mature and provide continuous synchronization and seamless work-life balance.

Cloud-based solutions have also become more widely adopted by leading pharma and healthcare organizations (there are even dedicated cloud conferences PharmaCloud) as the ease of setup, maintenance, cost of resources, and infrastructure are key decisions when trying to get a company’s products, services, and messages to market as quickly as possible.

So looking back @ 2011, I applaud how my dad and industry-leading organizations have learned how “game changing” the cloud has become. Our personal and professional lives are ultimately made easier and more productive (thanks Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Flickr!!!). And while it drives me nuts when my phone rings and I’m tempted to answer “Bob’s HelpDesk,” I just have to look up into the clouds and smile.

For me, the most important technology story of 2011 is privacy. This year’s headlines are littered with privacy stories that include privacy settlements, changes, and hacks.

Privacy Settlements

Facebook settled privacy issues with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over accusations that Facebook is engaging in “unfair and deceptive” practices. The settlement required Facebook to respect the privacy wishes of its users and subjects it to regular privacy audits for the next 20 years.

(For more on this, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/technology/facebook-agrees-to-ftc-settlement-on-privacy.html)

Google has agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that its social network, Google Buzz, violated the company’s own privacy policies and used deceptive tactics when it launched in 2010. The settlement, approved by the commission with a 4-0 vote, requires Google to implement a full privacy program and agree to regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years. As many of you already know, Google has discontinued Buzz and turned its efforts to Google+.

(For more on this, visit: http://mashable.com/2011/03/30/google-buzz-ftc-settlement/)

Privacy Changes

Policies from Facebook and Google requiring the use of “real names” to register for social networking sites have been a point of contention in 2011. Google required members of Google+ to use only their real names—especially people with uncommon names and people who prefer to use pseudonyms. This requirement put political dissidents and others in danger while raising questions about the value of anonymous online comments.

(For more on this, visit: http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1228271)

Privacy Hacks

In April, Sony’s PlayStation Network was breached and taken offline for nearly a month. This breach allowed the theft of names, addresses, and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts, making it one of the largest internet security hacks ever.

(For more on this, visit: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42769019/Sony_PlayStation_Breach_Involves_70_Million_Subscribers)

Also in April, Epsilon, an e-mail marketing firm that sends more than 40 billion e-mail ads and offers annually, was breached. Notices said that no personal financial information such as credit cards or social security numbers appeared to have been exposed. Several companies, including Best Buy, warned consumers to be on the lookout for phishing scams.

(For more on this, visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/03/epsilon-hack_n_844212.html)

Conclusion

As new networks are made available and present networks changed, we should be more apt to review their terms rather than quickly selecting “I agree.” Doing so will hopefully insure that their terms are right for us and protect us from any surprise occurrences.

The most important story of 2011 is the mass migration of digital creative leadership toward a future-friendly design and content approach. This approach is nothing new in theory. In the late ’90s, we heard about how CSS would impact the industry with flexibility and separation of content from code. But then Flash came to power and steered the industry toward proprietary plug-in use as a way to standardize presentation across browsers and devices. That lasted until Apple blocked Flash from its market-leading iOS devices and started to promote JavaScript and CSS as a replacement for Flash. Developers followed their lead and, in the last year, major Web properties (YouTube, most notably) dumped Flash for more flexible HTML and JavaScript based content delivery solutions. So, thanks to the late Steve Jobs, future-friendly digital publishing is finally here and ready for us to embrace, leverage, and promote.

At the root of the migration is a small group of industry titans who have published a manifesto with three simple instructions for anyone developing digital content. (Read the full manifesto)

1. Acknowledge and embrace unpredictability
2. Think and behave in a future-friendly way
3. Help others do the same

Presentation by Brad Frost: “For a Future-Friendly Web”

This talk introduces the need to start thinking and acting in a more future-friendly way when approaching Web design. The diversity of Web-enabled devices is increasing at an alarming rate. We have to rethink our content and the contexts in which our content is viewed.