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Archive for the ‘Wiley-Blackwell’ Category

Headline Commentary June 29- July 6

Review of week’s top stories, including reactions to Chris Anderson’s new book, Free, video interview with Michael Hansen, new CEO of Elsevier Health Sciences, several articles about disruption in scholarly publishing, and other notable developments in health content publishing and health IT.

  • » Gladwell & Nielsen: The Fixed Costs of Fixed Ideas « The Scholarly Kitchen

    More on the “Free” as business model debate. See my comments on the post.

  • » Daily Herald | Walgreen ties growth to ’several thousand’ work health clinics

    Walgreens may open several thousand work-site health clinics in coming years.

  • » Inside Google Books: Explore a book in 10 seconds

    Using tag cloud to help understand key terms and contents of a book, Google Books now makes it easy to glean substance of books in seconds. Pretty cool.

  • » 50 Successful Open Source Projects That Are Changing Medicine

    List of open source resources that have gained traction in medicine in multiple categories, from EHRs to collaboration to publishing.

  • » Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Inc. Signs an Agreement with Healthy Directions, LLC, America’s Largest Publisher of Alternative and Complementary Health Newsletters to Distribute its MedFlash EPHR

    Connectyx’ MedFlash portable PHR enters sales agreement with Healthy Directions, a vendor of “science-based vitamin & nutritional supplement formulas” and other wellness products. By end of August 2009, Health Directions will offer the flash-drive MedFlash EPHR through its distibution channels. Comment: press release alludes to fact that the Healthy Directions’ audience, on average, is more interested in health & health-related products, than the general population and therefore is more likely to be interested in tracking their health-related behavior. Given the behavior of Healthy Directions’ audience, it makes sense for vendors of PHR technology to focus sales efforts on this group.

  • » Few survive cardiac arrest, even with CPR - The Boston Globe

    Apparently, a hospital is the worst place to be if one suffers cardiac arrest!

  • » Two States Restrict Firms’ Gifts to Doctors - WSJ.com

    Massachusetts and Vermont ban on pharma and medical device companies’ giving gifts to doctors (anything from coffee mugs to trips) goes into effect today.

  • » Cool Search Engines That Are Not Google | Epicenter | Wired.com

    Wired lists new new entrants in search, including some vertical search engine–a couple focused on recipes!

  • » Concerro, Inc. Acquires CommandAware™ Hospital Incident Management and Disaster Response System from PortBlue Corporation

    Concerro, a vendor of SaaS workforce management s/w to hospitals acquires CommandAware, which provides hospitals a turn-key solution for emergency response.

  • » Societies deliver the value. Publishers value the delivery «

    Andrew Spong responds to Wiley-Blackwell’s recent press release that reports some results from recent survey of society publishers.

  • » Michael Nielsen » Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?

    Very good article (although long) that lays out reasons why incumbents have difficulty adopting new technologies. I’d add that many large incumbent scientifc publishers have to innovate through acquistions because of the problems described in Nielsen’s article and because of constraints put on them by the financial markets (if they are public). Accounting for acquisitions allows them more freedom to “buy” vs. “make”. I totally agree about the need for scientific publishers (in fact, all publishers) to become proficient in IT. Technology is a key input to all content products & services; without constant innovation, publishers will get disrupted by new entrants. This relates to last week’s article, “Health Content is Rapidly Losing Its Value”.

  • » HealthStream Expands Competency Solutions: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins’ Industry-leading Evidence-based Content Now Integrated in HealthStream’s Learning Platform - Yahoo! Finance

    Wolters Kluwer’s LWW partners with HealthStream, a leading e-learning and performance improvement provider to hospitals, to integrate Lippincott’s Nursing Procedures and Skills, into HealthStream’s Learning Center (HLC).

  • » Doctors on Demand prescribes an end to doctor’s office visits

    Using IVR technology, Doctors on Demand allows patients to call in and leave info, then get contacted by MD. Physical visits are required at least 1/year.

  • » Why use a tablet PC in the medical world?

    One doctor’s view of why tablet PCs work well in his environment.

  • » CMPMedica closes two publications :: BtoB Magazine

    UBM’s CMPMedica discontinues 2 print pubs and cuts unspecified # positions; some digital presence of pubs: Infections in Medicine and AIDS Reader will continue.

  • » Top court won’t review prescription privacy law | U.S. | Reuters

    US Supreme Court declined to hear appeal from IMS and Verispan/SDI Health to overturn data privacy law in NH that prevents them from selling doctors’ prescribing behavior to drug marketers who use info to sell directly to doctors. VT & Maine have since enacted similar laws.

  • » Wolters Kluwer Health’s New PharmaBI Research Reports & Forecasts

    WK Health announces new research reports that incorporate data and analysis gleaned from their Adis R&D Insight, WK Healthcare Analytics (NDA), and other resources to suppy focused analysis on specific markets. inThought is targeted to financial analysts, health care suppliers and drug manufacturers. Seems like a logical extension to their data services.

  • » Malcolm Gladwell: Chris Anderson Is Wrong About “Free”

    Discussion about Chris Anderson’s new book, Free, and Gladwell’s critique of it in NewYorker. See my comments in the comment section.

  • » ScribeMedia.Org:Michael Hansen - Elsevier Health Sciences

    Interview with new CEO of Elsevier Health Sciences, Michael Hansen. Describes EHS businesses and where they are focusing for growth (clinical decision support systems; outcomes analysis)

  • » Junta42 blog: Content Strategy as the Future of Marketing

    Outstanding presentation targeted to brand marketers/advertisers that presents variation on my thesis on convergence of publishing and advertising from the advertising agency perspective. As I wrote in 2003, “advertisers need to create more informational Web ads that will meet the standard of ‘related content’ rather than ‘vendor ad’”. In same paper, I wrote about how ad content is moving toward becoming ‘meaningful content’ and in some cases ‘entertaining’ content. See slides 5-60 in particular. Relevant to both publishers and marketers/advertisers.

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    Headline Commentary June 18-21

  • » PayerView — The Best and Worst Payers Revealed

    AthenaHealth publishes analysis of payment records of insurers based on claims data it processes for clients. Great example of “data content” byproduct of primary line of business. In this case, Athenahealth’s analysis helps clients and prospects understand payment practices of various insurers and more important, published results promote Athenahealth.

  • » CAHPS Survey May Expand to I.T.

    AHRQ proposes expanding CAHPS surveys to include patient attitudes about health It. Harvard & Rand will conduct a field test in 2009.

  • » Sales down, as Professional/Trade takes hit at John Wiley | theBookseller.com

    STM sales down 1% (up 9% at cc), profits rose 4% (14% cc).

  • » ContentNext Slows Growth, ‘Adjusts’ Staff :: MinOnline

    ContentNext, the parent company of PaidContent.org, which is now owned by the Guardian, confirms recent layoffs and realignment.

  • » Times Higher Education - Publisher ‘threat’ to open access

    Reports that Elsevier has been in discussions with some institutions to discuss having their institutional repositories replaced by PDF files hosted by ELS.

  • » Medicine and Social Media: Why Do I Tweet ? - Cancerwise | A blog featuring Cancer News and Insights from M. D. Anderson

    Anas Younes, MD on why he Tweets.

  • » Inkwell Publishing Solutions Owes Thousands to Workers - NYTimes.com

    Inkwell Publishing, which hires freelancers to write textbooks for Houghton Mifflin Harcout, has stopped paying the freelance content producers because of non-payment from Houghton. Fits with theme of content commoditization, the subject of this week’s commentary on HCA blog.

  • » Hello Health clinics would offer medical care online - The Boston Globe

    Jay Parkinson’s Hello Health healthcare model is highlighted. Hello Health offers a model for providers of health care that utlizes technology to improve efficiency and communication between patients & doctors. For now, Hello Health requires direct payment from patients, although patients can seek reimbursement.

  • » kindles-drm-rears-its-ugly-head-and-it-is-ugly

    Ah, DRM! I haven’t heard much on that topic for a while. Device-specific DRM offers publishers some comfort, but this post and the comments expose the limitations of device-specific policies when upgrades to tech. devices occur so frequently.

  • » Glaxo CEO admits R&D overhaul has been traumatic | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

    Glaxo’s CEO, Andrew Witty, discusses changes in R&D organization, which has moved from “industrial-scale drug discovery processes” of the past 15 years that relied on “an industrial process based on large-scale applications of technologies like genomics, proteomics and combinatorial chemistry” which didn’t deliver on their promise, to more focused research that is “more of an art than a science”.

  • » Physicians Practice Articles : Billing Service or EHR Vendor?

    Review of some EHR vendors that also offer billing services.

  • » Draft Health Reform Bill from House

    Discussion draft of House’s health reform bill “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” 852 page pdf doc.

  • » Can intelligent cuts in drug R&D ease the pain? - Science - Thomson Reuters

    Video interview with Phil Gould, Managing Director of Jadara Pharma, discussing the need for R&D divisons of Pharma to improve methods to decide which compounds to invest in, given the economic conditions that Pharma faces.

  • » Elsevier: Health content Apps for iPhone and iPod touch.

    Nice to see that Els has iPhone apps for popular medical info products from Mosby/Saunders, including Mosby’s iTerms Flash Cards, Saunder’s Q&A Review for th NCLEX-RN Exam and many more.

  • » Candover Sells Wood Mackenzie, a global energy research & consulting firm

    Financially troubled Candover sells Wood Mackenzie to PE firm Charterhouse Capital for EV of GBP 553 Million.

  • » Getting in the way of a doctor’s calling - The Boston Globe

    Nice piece by Ellen Goodman on the importance of helping doctors focus on providing healthcare, not reimbursement rates and other business issues.

  • » Patients to get a peek at physicians’ notes - The Boston Globe

    BI/DMC to be focus on RWJF study that will allow patients to view doctors’ notes online.

  • » Librarians vs. Google: Fighting the Web Giant’s Book Deal - TIME

    Good recap of Google Book Settlement, Book Rights Registry, and orphan works rights proferred to Google under the settlement. Interesting that Google, the company that champions free content, is now being feared for possibly planning to charge “exorbitant” rates once they get near-monopoly rights over orphan works.

  • » TRANSCRIPT – HIT Policy Committee « Brian Ahier

    Full transcript from HIT Policy Committee meeting that will make recommendations to ONC.Links to presentation and other materials., too.

  • » The Health Care Blog: What Technology is Needed to Improve Care: EHRs or Registries?#more#more

    Great post by Richard Scoville on how some community health centers are relying on registries of patient records & outcomes to improve overall care. Unfortunately, most EHR systems aren’t set up to interoperate with registries, which nixes the whole idea of meaningful use!

  • » Surgeon who fabricated data in published paper was consultant to Medtronic

    Medtronic says it paid almost $800,000 to surgeon Dr. Kuklo over past 3 years for consulting, product development and speaking. Dr. Kuklo is accused of fabricating study that reported positive results for a Medtronic spine product.

  • » The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Care Consumer Confidence Index - RWJF - Health Reform 2009 - RWJF

    RWJF launches consumer health care confidence index in partnership with Survey Research Center at U. Michigan, which conducts the “Surveys of Consumers” monthly survey of 500 households.

  • » Revolutionizing Health IT to Meet Patient and Physician Needs

    Proposed principles from Children’s Hospital (Boston) workgroup for Health IT infrastructure modeled on iPhone platform with interchangeable applications.

  • » Google Public Policy Blog: Opening access to books means opportunities for everyone — including Amazon

    Dan Clancy responds to Bezos’ comments about Google Books. All publishers–in all platforms & for all audiences–should be following Google Books Settlement and the G Books program!

  • » peHUB » Adgregate Markets Buys Gydget

    Adgregate Markets, an online advtsg services provider acquires Gydget, a social media widget. Adgregate’s offering, ShoAdsTM, creates banner ads that have e-commerce capability directly embedded.

  • » HLTH Corporation and WebMD Health Corp. Announce Agreement to Merge

    Merger, which was called off last fall due to market conditions and lack of buyer for Porex, is back on. HLTH still seeking buyer for Porex. WebMD will be surviving company with Wygod as Chair and Gattinella as Pres/CEO. All stock transaction. WebMD has been a publicly traded sub. of HLTH.

  • » Mayo Clinic Transformation Symposium

    Looks to be a good conference on innovation in health care experience & delivery.

  • » Congress, Obama administration convene at mHealth summit | mobihealthnews

    Sponsored by CTIA (wireless ind assoc), Congress, administration officials, & experts to meet to discuss “mHealth solutions to America’s chronic care crisis”. Good quote from Obama at end of article. “We need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines”.

  • » Medical Transcription as Proven Accelerator of EHR Adoption on ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals

    Excellent points by 2 associations that deal with healthcare documentation and medical transcription (AHDI and MTIA). In short, we need representatives from parties that understand clinical workflow and “how” EHRs will be used not just representatives from the technology side. “Defining ‘meaningful use’ is not the role of HIT but…clinicians and experts in health care documentation who can speak to the document workflow process and the complexities of capturing health stories in a way that informs clinical decision-making and promotes coordination of care..”

  • » IBM To Invest $100 Million In Cell Phone Research - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

    IBM bets on mobile tech to reach parts of pop that don’t use pcs–and of course those who use both.

  • » CareMedic Markets Cleveland Clinic App for identifying Medicaid patients

    CareMedic, based in St. Petersburg, FL, has incorporated Cleveland Clinic’s app that helps identify medicaid, self-pay & charity cases to help manage bad debt & denied claims into its Patient Access Mgmt system.

  • » Revenue Cycle Best Practices Outlined

    The Healthcare Financial Mgmt Assoc will publish a detailed report this fall on how to implement best practices in revenue cycle mgmt (RCM). Preliminary results given at HFMA’s annual meeting in Seattle. Bullet point results listed in article.

  • » Captivate announces content, advertising deal with Thomson Reuters :: BtoB Magazine

    ThomsonReuters to provide business/finance news to Captivate for distribution via their commercial elevator screens.

  • » Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - June 17, 2009 - (4)

    Good article on recent research by TNS Healthcare on shifting relationships between Pharma and doctors. No major revelations, but some good data.

  • » Who’s Investing In Twitter Startups?

    Article provides table of Twitter-related start-ups and the investors in each.

  • » Project HealthDesign: PHR research from RWJF

    Round 1 research reports from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Project HealthDesign available via this link.

  • » Views: How Tweet It Is - Inside Higher Ed

    Good piece on use of Twitter by scholarly publishers. Focuses on using Twitter to promote info about books/journals on blogs or websites. But, also points out that PR folks have a bit more latitude in what they can do/say on Twitter than in a formal blog/web post.

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    Skyscape Sits Atop 2 Health Content Trends: Mobile Access and Pharma Marketing Shifts

    Skyscape is well-positioned to benefit from two key health content trends.  The first and most obvious is the rapid growth in usage of mobile applications for accessing health content.   Manhattan Research published in its latest Taking the Pulse® v9.0 study that 64% of doctors are now using smartphones and that the number of physicians using iPhones more than doubled in the past year alone. Clinical and administrative content continues to be made available for mobile apps in response to the demand from doctors and other clinicians.  Skyscape has seen its user-base nearly triple since the introduction of the iPhone. 

    The second trend relates to the increasing use of publishing as part of marketing and sales strategies by pharma companies.  Pharma companies have a long tradition of subsidizing the distribution of authoritative medical content to physicians and other clinicians.  Whether through reprints distributed by detailers or by providing access to content via sponsored CME and conference programs, pharma has served as an intermediary between commercial medical publishers and physicians for many years.  A combination of factors, including tighter regulations on detailing and advances in digital publishing technology, is leading pharma companies to incorporate a more direct publishing component into their sales and marketing strategies.  For example, social media marketing is gaining traction for use by pharma media agencies as part of cross-media marketing campaigns and in our view brings them ever closer to becoming “publishers”.  With social media, the ad and media agencies are typically taking the lead in helping pharma companies to build communities of prospects around a drug or condition-related topic.  For more on this topic, please see the accompanying blog post: Social Media Use by Pharma Blurs Lines Between Advertiser and Publisher.

    Back to Skyscape.  Last week, I met with the founders of Skyscape, Sandeep Shah and Kartik Shah (no relation), along with their new VP and investor, Will Passano, at their headquarters in Marlborough, MA.

    Skyscape partners with leading medical publishers to distribute clinical content, mostly medical texts and other reference works, on the full range of mobile platforms. (Note, Skyscape got its start in 1994 creating content for Apple’s Newton.)  The list of content partners is impressive and includes the top medical publishers (Wolters Kluwer, Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, McGraw Hill and many others) and drug reference sources; they claim to offer more than 500 reference works and offer them for download for fees similar to a print book, generally $50 - $100 for a reference work.  They compare this to an iTunes model. 

    Their primary revenue model is selling content directly to doctors and other clinicians.  Skyscape makes it easy to purchase and use clinical reference works with an intuitive interface and the addition of Smartlinks, their own technology that allow users to navigate directly to related information between applications. 

    But Skyscape’s business model extends beyond direct sales.  They also offer programs for pharma companies to subsidize content, and offer the content to clinician customers as part of a marketing program that may also include alerts on brands news. 

    Skyscape also creates digital versions of conference programs.  For multi-track events that take place over several days, the value add of a mobile application with digital search and linking features is obvious, especially when it replaces a 5 lb. conference book as was the case with the recent American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference guide.  This allows the company to brand themselves with a “powered by Skyscape” logo.

    We like their multi-faceted business model that includes direct sales and pharma channel sales. With over 650,000 active users and continued growth in adoption of smartphones by clinicians, Skyscape merits serious consideration from healthcare publishers as a mobile distribution partner.

     

    Crossover Publication: Health For Women

    The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) has recently partnered with Wiley-Blackwell to launch Health For Women, a consumer magazine that is distributed by nurses to their patients. This initiative represents the type of crossover opportunity that more scholarly publishers will be pursuing. (Note, Wiley-Blackwell also publishes the scholarly journal, Nursing for Women’s Health, with AWHONN.)

    This isn’t the first attempt by AWHONN to publish for a consumer audience. The first try, Every Woman, was co-published with HealthSpring Communications and was shut down in 2006. Wiley-Blackwell has more experience and should be a stronger partner this time out. Like Every Woman, Health for Women will include content written by medical experts and will mix evidence-based medical content and lifestyle columns.

    AWHONN and Wiley-Blackwell are continuing the same revenue model of controlled circulation via nurses at point-of-care, supplemented by paid subscriptions at $12/year for the quarterly publication. Advertising will be the dominant source of revenue. The magazine will launch in March 2008.

    The consumer healthcare segment is experiencing high growth, and consumer publishing companies and producers of consumer health portals, such as Revolution Health, AOL Health, and EveryDay Health (to name just a few), are investing heavily in this segment to gain share. So expect to see an increasing number of these crossover publishing efforts as both scholarly publishers and consumer media companies seek to capitalize on consumer-driven healthcare.