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Archive for October, 2008
Headlines for October 27-30
- Posted October 30th 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
HealthCentral promotes Jeremy Shane to President. Shane will participate on Consumer-Driven Healthcare panel discussion at HC08 on 11/13. (www.healthcontent08.com)
Elsevier revamps The Lancet with value-add editorial analysis, enhanced RSS and social-bookmarking tools and other features to make content available more quickly and efficiently. New specialty collections to be added soon.
2009 Forecast for global pharma market from IMS sees slowing growth in US market, with emerging markets accounting for most growth. Growth in generics also slowing due to competition.
Comments from product managers of the major PHR platforms about adoption of PHRs.
Reports on study that observed residents & internists using UTD and PubMed, with better and faster results coming from UTD. Author cautions that no-one should rely on single source.
“Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, announced today the launch of its new Brand Probability File, which simplifies data analysis for brand vs. generic decisions.”
Article debates pros and cons of FDA quick-review process. Large # of comments on the article, too.
J&J/HealthMedia Acquisition is Bellwether for Future Pharma/Wellness Publisher Deals
- Posted October 28th 2008
- Comment (1)
- by Janice
Also: Scott Meyer to Moderate Consumer-Driven Healthcare Panel at Health Content08
HealthMedia is an intriguing company that has grown out of the University of Michigan Center for Health Communications Research (CHCR) and now provides behavioral health and wellness information resources and tools to health plans, employers, pharmaceuticals, and behavioral health firms. The company describes itself as “the only company in the world that has figured out how to use the web to deliver programs just like a health coach would.”
It’s acquisition yesterday by Johnson & Johnson, a previous partner to HealthMedia, illustrates multiple themes that are central to our view of the health content industry at Health Content Advisors.
- Big Pharma is branching into health content publishing in a big way. These big pharma companies won’t be satisfied limiting their participation on the Web to brochureware sites and display ads to drive traffic to drug-specific promotional sites. This isn’t particularly good news for social networking sites whose business models depend solely on basic pharma ad support, but it does present opportunities to more astute health content publishers.
- Patient education and consumer health publishing are converging. Pharma, which has been a primary sponsor of patient education materials to practitioners, is now going direct to consumer with websites that provide health and wellness resources that are only indirectly related to current drugs marketed by the pharma companies. These wellness sites can also be provided via employer portals, which was how HealthMedia first came to J&J’s attention.
- Importance of partnerships between stakeholders in the health content industry. HealthMedia was very wise to build relationships with payer organizations, including employers, insurers, and pharma. Partnerships generally accelerate sales or usage adoption and in some cases (like this one) they lead to favorable exits via an acquisition by one of the partners.
These themes affect consumer health media companies, providers and practitioners that offer patient education, and employers/payers that offer wellness programs. Our Health Content08 conference, which is just 2 weeks away, will explore the interplay between consumer health publishing and patient education publishing in the Consumer-Driven Healthcare and Lively Up Your Content sessions.
New Speaker Added: We are excited to announce that Scott Meyer, Entrepreneur in Residence at Warburg Pincus LLC, and formerly CEO of About.com, will moderate our executive panel discussion on consumer-driven healthcare at Health Content08. Seating is limited. Register now to reserve your place among the leaders in the health content industry!
Lifeclinic, LearnSomething Partner to Provide In-Store Consumer Health Offering
- Posted October 28th 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Marji
Lifeclinic, a provider of professional biometric testing stations, this month partnered with LearnSomething Inc. to provide interactive consumer wellness communication programs on its self-testing blood pressure monitors. LearnSomething is a supplier of eMedia solutions for the food, drug and mass retail industries. The companies produce healthy living consumer content for its ShopperAssist and LearnSomethingAbout product lines.
Consumer health information will be displayed on LearnSomething’s interactive digital signage, the Health Communicator, which is paid for with advertising and installed on Lifeclinic’s blood pressure monitors. These monitors are accessible in more than 20,000 pharmacies across the U.S.
When checking their blood pressure, shoppers can activate a multimedia consumer wellness segment on various topics. Each Health Communicator will have 10 channels that will be selected by pharmacies to help meet their patients’ needs. Topics include hypertension, weight management, nutritional supplements and cholesterol management. LearnSomething will produce and update the content.
This partnership makes sense for both companies. Adding LearnSomething content to its blood pressure monitors will enable Lifeclinic to provide an important value-added service for the users of those monitors. As a result, consumers may be more likely to use the monitors (and maybe use them more frequently) as a result of the bonus content they will receive. For LearnSomething, this will expand the scope of the audience for its content that is already designed to reach consumers. Lifeclinic appears to be an ideal partner.
Medical Center Launches Clinical Trial Matching Website
- Posted October 27th 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Marji
The University of California San Francisco Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care this month launched BreastCancerTrials.org, a free, non-profit clinical trial matching service that provides nation-wide information for individuals diagnosed with or at risk for breast cancer.
The site has an online database that includes information about clinical trials taking place at more than 1,100 medical facilities across the country. The site is an outgrowth of a regional pilot initiated by the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and patient advocates.
BreastCancerTrials.org users first enter their detailed health history and that information is used to match them to trials that are specific to their personal health situation. Users are also provided with contact information that will enable them to discuss the trials further. They can use the site on a one-time basis or they can opt to store their health history on secure servers so they can be continually matched for new trials.
The entities involved with this new site hope that by making information about clinical trials more accessible, the participation in the trials will increase. The ultimate goal is an increase in participants to lead to the creation of new treatments.
BreastCancerTrials.org certainly seems like a step in the right direction to achieve these goals. Having the backing of such prominent centers will instantly lend credibility to the site and hopefully encourage strong participation. The real challenge may be helping participants initially find the site. As long as marketing efforts are strong, this should be a true success–in a variety of ways.
Headlines for October 24-26
- Posted October 26th 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
Good run-down of presentations of consumer health tools at Health 2.0 conference.
High-level perspective of consumer attitudes toward health system and health IT responses to improving the system (drawing on Health 2.0 conference). Bottom line: we have a long way to go to change a complex system via tech improvements.
Good post by Bill Crounse, MD, Sr. Dir, Worldwide Health, MSFT about translating Health IT developments into useful tools that add value to the patient’s healthcare experience. Good contrast between Health2.0 and Health Content08, where we stress the importance of intermediaries (whether they be publishers, navigation tools/advocates, or producers of decision tools) to guide consumers and medical professionals in finding and using new tools that are ready for the market.
Comprehensive slide show on future of health care.
“(Reuters Health) - If you’re searching the Internet for surgery information, you may want to stick with sites run by professional medical groups and other sources free of commercial sponsors, a new study suggests. In a study that examined the quality of various surgery-related websites, researchers found that unsponsored sites generally gave more reliable information than sponsored sites did. When it came to the specific sources, sites run by professional medical groups got the highest marks, followed by government-run sites. The findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Surgery, underscore the need for consumers to consider the source when looking for online medical information.”
“October 23, 2008 — Sermo, Inc. (http://www.sermo.com), the world’s largest physician-only online community, today announced the creation of The Healthcare Exchange™, a new forum that for the first time provides healthcare investors with instant access to exclusive medical information directly from 90,000 practicing physicians.” Exclusively via Bloomberg.
Librarian Hope Leman gives positive review of Infovell, a new search service that “culls content from thousands of journals, millions of documents and billions of untapped pages of Life Sciences, Medicines, Patents, Industry news, and other reference content from trusted and expert sources.” Note, Infovell is one of 12 companies to present at Health Content08’s Innovators Showcase Nov. 12. (www.healthcontent08.com)
Good round-up of recent announcements by consumer-focused health content companies (mostly announced at the Health 2.0 conf in SF). Implications will be explored in more depth at Health Content08.
“Yahoo! Health will incorporate HealthGrades data into a new search-driven directory that will leverage numerous Yahoo! technologies and applications. The new physician directory will offer detailed physician and care provider pages, insurance coverage information, ratings and reviews from other users, comparable physician charts and health-focused Yahoo! Answer and Yahoo! Group modules.”
The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer will pay for the technology from Zix Corp., Dallas. It includes an electronic prescribing device and connectivity for transmitting the prescriptions. The services also include access to health plan formulary and drug interaction information. The three-year contract follows pilot programs Aetna has done with Zix in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York. Aetna roughly estimates 40,000 of its covered members could be served under its new program in northern New Jersey.
Headlines for October 23
- Posted October 23rd 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
Aetna joins health plans that link their PHRs to MSFT’s HealthVault.
“The Second Life training system uses online avatars of patients in Second Life, in a series of different scenarios, to teach future paramedics how to respond to different situations. Students work in groups of three or four to treat the virtual patient.”
Many rush to open banks as more Americans open health savings accounts, a tax-sheltered way to pay medical bills. Managing that money is more profitable than offering health insurance.
“Oct 22, 2008 — Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry, today announced it has completed the acquisition of UpToDate, the leading evidence-based, electronic clinical information resource.”
MHP partners with American College of Physicians to produce a series of reference works focused on reference tools for clinical procedures that are “evolving rapidly”. First title will be publishing Spring 2009.
Infovell adds Oxford Univ. Press, MIT PRess, Hindawi, and arXiv to the full-text material that can be searched by its phrase-based search engine.
Benjamin Wolin, CEO of Waterfront Media joins Health Content08 program
- Posted October 23rd 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
Blockbuster sessions with CEOs and heads of strategy for the leading consumer and professional healthcare publishing firms will dominate the morning program at Health Content08 on Thursday, November 13. Hear what’s on the minds of these industry leaders and find out how healthcare publishers are re-vamping their product marketing strategies to take advantage of the consumer-driven healthcare and evidence-based medicine trends.
Keynote speaker West Shell, Chairman and CEO of Healthline Networks, will kick off the program. Then, the opening panel on Consumer-Driven Healthcare features Ben Wolin, CEO of Waterfront Media, which recently announced its merger with Revolution Health, and Jack Barrette, CEO of WEGO Health. This panel session will debate how consumer health sites with a mix of advertising, subscription and sponsorship business models are faring.
Following the conference theme of Incumbents, Innovators and Intermediaries, the second panel will include well-known names in medical publishing. Tom O’Connor, Managing Director, Berkery Noyes, will lead this session that includes leading strategists from Elsevier Health Sciences, Hearst Business Media, Wolters Kluwer Health, and RemedyMD.
This all-star line-up is certain to energize the audience and set the stage for our afternoon sessions that will delve into more specific examples of innovation in patient education, clinical information, personalized medicine and price transparency. Thursday’s full-day program is preceded by the debut of Health Content’s Innovators Showcase, where 12 early-stage companies selected by our Advisory Committee, will present their business models to the Health Content08 audience.
There are only 30 seats remaining. Register now to reserve your place at Health Content08, the ultimate networking event for health care publishers.
Online Health Information Video Site Launches
- Posted October 22nd 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Marji
Online video solutions provider CITYLIFE.TV, brand communications firm PARTNERS + simons, and Stephen Zinner, MD have pooled their resources to launch drZ.tv, an online program that features the latest news in medicine, health, healthcare and medical technology.
The program is hosted by Dr. Zinner and it will answer consumers’ questions about their healthcare as well as provide access to information on the latest research on common diseases and medical innovations. Dr. Zinner is a board certified specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He is also the Charles S. Davidson Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mout Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass.
drZ.tv is geared toward consumes as well as health professionals; insurers and payers and pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
The program’s first webisodes will focus on health issues such as the relationship between coffee drinking and mortality, the link between nicotine and heart disease in women, salmonella food-borne outbreaks and the link between sleep apnea and hypertension.
The online health information sector has become very interactive and very visual, with video content fast becoming as prevalent as traditional text articles. At this point, the most common video content is short pieces–snippets of information about a specific condition, ailment or procedure. But, if anything, they are increasing in popularity and are perhaps paving the way for more ambitious video offerings like drZ.tv.
It will certainly be interesting to see how drZ.tv is accepted and who its main audience will be–if consumers or medical professionals will find it most valuable.
Headlines for October 20-22
- Posted October 22nd 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
Mgmt professor writes about technology drivers that are changing healthcare system.
Piece about open source electronic medical records on Newsweek.
Jodi Kahn hired as EVP of iVillage Network. Rebecca Miskin promoted to GM.
John Halamka speaks about advantages of using PHRs, while also cautioning about some risks–at a New England HIMSS Chapter conference.
Financial market concerns leads HLTH and WebMD to terminate planned merger, in part due to pullout of buyer for HLTH’s Porex. “The Boards of Directors of HLTH and WebMD believe that, in the current economic environment, it is important for a growth company like WebMD not to be encumbered by $650 million in long-term debt that would be coming due in 18 to 36 months.
Bob Wachter on the effectiveness of patient safety regulations.
Rundown on using video games in patient education.
Kaiser Family Foundation 2008 update report on consumers’ use of health care quality comparison data. Reports of having “seen” comparative data on insurance plans, hospitals or doctors is down from recent years, as is reports of having “used” comparative data to make choices. Interesting data to be explored at Health Content08.
Headlines for October 15-19
- Posted October 20th 2008
- Comments (0)
- by Janice
Interesting piece that reviews some popular analogies used to describe the US healthcare system.
“The company Oct. 15 enhanced Google Health to help visually impaired people access the service from their computers using self-voicing browsers or screen reader applications.”
First annual fiscal report on Medicaid provides analysis of past program trends and projection of Medicaid exp. and enrollment for next 10 years.
T2 BioSystems, a nanotech/diagnostic device start-up, gets $10.8 in 2nd round funding.
Excellent article by Susan Bjorner that describes evolution of open access publishing. Key point: the “article” is becoming the unit of commerce, separate from the full journal.
Transcript of Google’s Q3 2008 Earnings call transcript. No mention of Google Health or Google Scholar.
David Worlock on Harold Varmus’ current view of open access models, from Frankfurt Book Fair (Varmus also has a new book on the art and politics of science).
Hospital room of the future includes system to display info relevant to the specific professional who enters patient’s room; also includes features for patients to control room env. & educational materials.
“HealthCare.com, Inc. (http://www.healthcare.com) today announced the acquisition of BrokersWeb (http://www.brokersweb.com), a leading provider of targeted, performance-based online advertising to health insurance brokers and lead aggregators. In addition to operating the BrokersWeb health insurance pay-per-click (PPC) platform, BrokersWeb also owns and operates HealthInsuranceFinders.com (http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com), a leading consumer health insurance website
