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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

SDI Acquires Verispan

• Posted July 30th 2008
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• by Marji

Healthcare analytics company SDI announced yesterday that it has acquired Verispan, a healthcare information and services provider. The newly-combined companies will create a de-identified longitudinal database that serves the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, medical/surgical, hospital, pharmacy, financial, payer, consumer packaged goods and government healthcare market segments.

 

The new database reflects the strong offerings that both SDI and Verispan bring to the table: SDI’s custom patient-level data analytics and Verispan’s syndicated patient-level data and audit-based analytic solutions; healthcare lists and profiles; and marketing services.

 

The companies anticipate that the acquisition will help them build their current customer base as well as increase their overall presence in the marketplace. Among the capabilities and expertise SDI and Verispan expect customers will be able to utilize are: tracking of pharmaceutical and device utilization, targeting and compensation products, marketing effectiveness studies, market research audits, healthcare profiles, comprehensive managed care offerings, data integration services, data warehousing and mining, healthcare lists and profile services, clinical data collection programs, clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol evaluation, patient therapy-management pharmacy programs, and marketing services programs.

 

This is a very key acquisition that creates quite the analytics powerhouse. Alone, SDI and Verispan had impressive offerings. But together, they will combine to offer a slate of services that will be tough to beat.

 

Customers of both companies will most definitely benefit from this solid pooling of resources. The healthcare industry has a very healthy appetite for analytics and SDI and Verispan will more than satisfy that need. Current customers will yield immediate benefits, while prospective customers will undoubtedly be more interested than ever in SDI/Verispan’s collaborative effort.

 

Nielsen, Wolters Kluwer Health Form Alliance

• Posted July 24th 2008
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• by Marji

Wolters Kluwer Health and The Nielsen Company yesterday announced the launch of the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance, which will provide healthcare-related manufacturers and media companies with a better understanding of consumer behaviors and attitudes to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their product messages, sales and media planning.

 

More specifically, the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance has developed data solutions to give marketers and media agencies insights into consumer behavior related to purchases of prescription, over-the-counter and other health-related products.

 

The initiative’s first platform, HealthScape, combines de-identified patient prescription-related transactional data with consumer purchasing, attitudinal and behavior information to provide insights into therapeutic market activity, patient trends, consumer segmentation and targeting opportunities.

 

The platform combines Nielsen’s expertise in consumer health and media and Wolters Kluwer Health’s expertise in prescribed pharmaceuticals. To do this, Healthscape integrates Nielsen’s consumer OTC and CPG purchasing and behavioral data from Homescan and Scantrack with Wolters Kluwer Health’s anonymous patient longitudinal and transactional data from Source Lx and Pharmaceutical Audit Suite (PHAST).

 

Overall, the alliance’s products will link health-related purchases to influencers such as managed care, TV and Internet advertising, in-store merchandizing and physician recommendations. This will provide insights into why consumers purchase particular products and give marketers and media agencies metrics they can use to improve the effectiveness of their strategies.

 

This collaboration between Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer Health has all of the ingredients to be a very successful endeavor. As we’ve discussed before, marketers are always seeking ways in which to get the most accurate insights about their target audience. But gaining this information from an audience of anonymous consumers is an incredible challenge. Perhaps with the confidential nature of the pharmaceutical business, this is an even greater challenge for marketers in this space.

 

This new solution will undoubtedly be a welcome addition to the pharmaceutical marketing space. Of course, it will have to prove its true value first. But that shouldn’t be a problem with the knowledge and expertise of market leaders such as Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer Health behind it. Both companies’ expertise seems to fit nicely together and have created a solution that should serve its customer base well.

 

Healthcare.com, BVK Direct Form Local Online Advertising Partnership

• Posted July 23rd 2008
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• by Marji

HealthCare.com, a player in the local healthcare provider search arena, has formed a partnership with BVK Direct, a privately-held Yellow Pages agency, to offer Healthcare.com’s local online advertising solutions to BVK Direct’s healthcare clients.

 

BVK Direct will incorporate Healthcare.com’s online healthcare directory listings to its advertising offerings. As a result, BVK Direct’s clients will be able to increase their online visibility through their inclusion in the Healthcare.com Care Provider Search.

 

Healthcare.com Care Provider Search is a local directory that helps users locate healthcare and wellness providers in categories such as physicians, hospitals and pharmacies. The directory contains more than 1.3 million providers and it is accessible on various health sites, including EverydayHealth.com, drugstore.com, MedHelp.com and RealMentalHealth.com, as well as on Healthcare.com.

 

As the Internet continues to develop into a viable advertising medium, organizations will just as rapidly seek ways in which make the most of online advertising. This alliance makes perfect sense for BVK Direct since it will provide its clients with yet another way in which to engage the end consumer and build their online presence in the process. By aligning with Healthcare.com, BVK Direct will be able to easily broaden the reach of its clients’ listings and make these clients more accessible to consumers who seek their services. These BVK Direct clients should benefit very quickly from this added exposure that Healthcare.com will provide.

 

Waterfront Media Buys Netramind to Bolster Online Presence

• Posted July 16th 2008
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• by Marji

Waterfront Media Inc., publisher of EverydayHealth, has acquired Netramind, a search engine marketing company, in its quest to become a more powerful health information site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

Netramind provides online marketing solutions and helps web publishers increase their site traffic by optimizing the use of general search engines (like Yahoo and Google).

 

Waterfront Media plans to use Netramind’s technology to improve its results when consumers conduct online searches for health-related information. The company hopes to overtake the advantage WebMD has in the online health information space. In addition, Netramind’s technology will also help Waterfront Media increase traffic to its 20 health-related websites, such as SouthBeachDiet and WhattoExpect.

 

Netramind, which is based in India, will be integrated into Waterfront Media. It is the second acquisition for the media company. Last year, Waterfront Media acquired My-Calorie-Counter.com, an interactive tool that helps users track their calorie intake.

 

Waterfront Media has also added new leadership. About.com’s Marjorie Martin was hired to lead Everyday Health and the company’s other health sites. Doug McCormick, former iVillage chief executive and partner of one of its venture investors, Rho Capital Partners, was named chairman of the board.

 

The online health information market is definitely a competitive and crowded space. And anything companies can do to gain a competitive advantage is a good thing. This acquisition shows how serious Waterfront Media is about gaining that edge in the marketplace, and how concerned the company is about taking a leading position from WebMD.

 

Most companies just hire technology companies in their quest to become more prominent online. Actually purchasing the technology company is certainly an aggressive step. With new leadership in place as well, it will be interesting to track Waterfront Media’s progress in this endeavor. The company should do well as long as it remains equally committed to the quality of health information it provides to consumers who do Waterfront Media online.

 

Meredith Corp. Acquires Healthcare Marketing Communications Firm

• Posted July 15th 2008
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• by Marji

Meredith Corp. has acquired Big Communications, a healthcare marketing communications company. Meredith expects Big Communications to help the media company bolster Meredith Integrated Marketing, its unit that provides other companies with custom online and offline marketing services. It also helps Meredith create a larger footprint in the healthcare space. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

Big Communications develops custom healthcare communications for more than 20 of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, biotech and managed care companies. Its marketing and communications programs are delivered through various media channels, including print, digital and mobile. Their target audience includes a diverse group, from pharmaceutical sales forces and caregivers to medical professionals and patients. Big Communications will be integrated into Meredith Integrated Marketing, but will remain headquartered in Detroit.

 

A press release announcing the acquisition notes that this deal represents just one of Meredith’s recent investments to broaden its audience, improve its online and video content creation expertise, expand distribution platforms and increase sales and marketing capabilities.

 

This deal will certainly help Meredith achieve all of these goals, so it is a deal that really makes sense. With just one purchase, the media company has effectively deepened its presence in two important areas: healthcare and marketing. Look for Meredith to use its strong brand name and capabilities to further improve the offerings that Big Communications currently provides, as well as give those customers access to all that Meredith has to offer on its own. Both Meredith and Big Communications should reap plenty of benefits as a combined entity.

 

PharmaVentures Launches Database of Pharma Deals

• Posted July 14th 2008
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• by Marji

Transaction advisory and media company PharmaVentures, has launched PharmaDeals v2, a database of deals and alliances for the pharmaceutical sector. The new database is an extension of the PharmaDeals database that has served pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, law firms, financial institutions and universities for the past 12 years.

 

Using feedback from customers, PharmaVentures, introduced new features in this latest version of its database. PharmaDeals v2 has several applications, including the benchmarking of deals, analyzing competitor activity, tracking development of particular deals and investigating the landscape of emerging deals and alliances. The database has a new user interface and an improved search function that helps users wade through information related to more than 28,000 deals.

 

New features include mapping of pharmaceutical products according to the recognized, international classification of diseases, as well as an enhanced classification of product types and a rigorous classification of license territories. There are also new personalization features, such as a watch list and associated email alerting service. Customers can also access the database through several delivery methods, including IP domain-authenticated access and xml feeds.

 

PharmaDeals v2 subscribers will also receive access to PharmaDeals Review, an online publication and article archive that provides users with intelligence to compliment the data records they receive from the database. The publication contains articles about deals news and contributed feature articles from industry writers. Subscribers can also access recent and archived videos from PharmaTelevision, PharmaVentures’ online TV channel.

 

There is certainly a lot to like about the new PharmaDeals database. While the original product had more than a decade of success, it’s clear that PharmaVentures realized the need to supply its customer base with a more robust offering. Of course, the data is important. But the addition new functionality, as well as a collection of personalization features, is crucial for any database product today. The more relevant you can make such a product for your customers, the better. By communicating with customers to determine what they wanted from a new database product undoubtedly helped PharmaVentures get–and stay–on the right track with this new initiative.

 

Providing access to PharmaDeals Review and PharmaTelevision also help PharmaVentures provide the value-added services that customers also expect.

 

Online Database To Track (and Stop) Infectious Diseases Worldwide

• Posted July 9th 2008
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• by Marji

 

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have launched HealthMap, a data-mining project aimed at stopping infectious diseases. HealthMap is an automated system that scours news services and online discussion forms and collect the information about worldwide emerging health threats.

 

The goal is to identify potential disease outbreaks in local areas before health agencies such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognize them as health threats. HealthMap is tracking more than 200 countries.

 

Once the news content is collected, HealthMap tracks and compiles reports (from government warnings and blog conversations) and makes the information available on its web site for free. A variety of different algorithms are used to wade through the information to accurately identify trends.

 

HealthMap uses a color-coded reference system overlaid on a world map to highlight the location of disease-related news. Red or “hot” icons identify areas where there are multiple reports of illness. When public health agencies declare an outbreak or epidemic, HealthMap continues its scan to keep both researchers and consumers updated.

 

This is a very interesting idea. It’s certainly not a new idea to collect information from a wide range of online sources and offer analysis on that data. But the potential impact HealthMap could have on society is worth noting. The creators behind HealthMap expect to gain a better understand of emerging health threats and even identify them before the most powerful health agencies in the world. If they can accomplish this, everyone will know what HealthMap is.

 

Healthwise Earns Quality Distinction

• Posted July 3rd 2008
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• by Marji

Healthwise, a healthcare information provider for consumers, has earned Health Information Product (HIP) Certification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for interactive consumer health tools. The certification process evaluated how Healthwise manages its data collection and systems processes and how it continues to improve the services it provides users.

 

The NCQA HIP certification program assesses organizations that develop and provide content, tools and services to health plans. HIP interactive consumer health tools certification is designed to be consistent with NCQA health information standards.

 

The Healthwise Knowledgebase provides consumers with interactive tools with which they can research their most important health concerns. For instance, they can learn if they are at risk for a heart attack or stroke.

 

Health plans and other organizations license Healthwise products, including Knowledgebase to provide health-related information to their members.

 

Earning this honor could perhaps help Healthwise attract even more health plans to its services. With the vast amount of health information on the Internet, sites like Healthwise need such distinctions to separate themselves from the competition. The certification will make health companies more comfortable entrusting Healthwise to provide content to their customers; and those end customers will most likely develop a stronger trust of Healthwise and its content as a result.

 

Zynx Health Partners with National Comprehensive Cancer Network

• Posted June 26th 2008
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• by Marji

Zynx Health, which provides evidence-based clinical decision support to the medical community, has partnered with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to provide NCCN chemotherapy templates to users of the Zynx OncologyCare product. (Zynx is a subsidiary of Hearst Corp.)

 

The NCCN is an alliance of 21 of the nation’s leading cancer centers and it provides information to both patients and healthcare professionals regarding cancer care. The development of NCCN information is based on the independent evaluation of available scientific evidence integrated with the judgment of leading clinicians. The chemotherapy templates that will be available through Zynx OncologyCare will be based on the Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology, a widely used oncology information source in the U.S.

 

Zynx OncologyCare users will also gain access to AuthorSpace, Zynx’s online tool that can customize, manage and integrate clinical content. The NCCN templates will be pre-built and updated in AuthorSpace, enabling users one online location in which to review, edit and maintain local templates. Newly customized templates can then be integrated into the clinician’s workflow on paper, as HTML files or by exporting them into a clinical information system.

 

Zynx Health should be an ideal partner for the NCCN as the alliance continues its goal to the quality of care patients with cancer receive as it helps increase the profile and use of the chemotherapy templates. Improving patient care is, and should be, top-of-mind for such organizations. This alliance serves to emphasize the commitment both entities have to achieve that goal.

 

At the same time, enabling users of Zynx OncologyCare access to AuthorSpace is also a very important development as it makes the content added into the templates more usable and accessible. Allowing them to be integrated into the clinician’s workflow is a vital function. It’s already a popular one. According to the company, most of Zynx’s more than 1,400 hospital clients already use AuthorSpace to customize and maintain evidence-based order sets and interdisciplinary plans of care.

 

APCToday.com Launches New Search Tool

• Posted June 24th 2008
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• by Marji

APCToday.com, which provides clinical information to Advance Practice Clinicians (APCs, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists) launched a new search engine tool, APCFindit.com.

 

APCToday partnered with Convera Corp., a provider of vertical search services for trade publishers, to create this new offering.

 

APCFindit.com presents editorially selected website searches to the clinician user. When they conduct searches, only relevant sites that will appeal to their specific interests will appear in their search results.

 

Searches conducted through the new tool will focus on association activities and publications, peer-reviewed medical research, surgical procedures, diagnostic techniques, standards of care, medicolegal, and other industry-specific content.

 

This new tool is a great idea. While medical professionals are utilizing technology more than ever before to meet their research needs, they still don’t have a lot of time to search. Providing them with a tool like this that will streamline (and quicken) their search efforts will undoubtedly be welcomed in the marketplace.

 

Launching such a tool will also help APCToday.com solidify is place in this market as a go-to source for the content needs of its users. It’s one thing to have the content for users. It’s another to make it easily accessible for them. APCToday.com has both.