Been Busy

It has been a while since an update and the reason has been unprecedented work (from my day job). I promise to be back as soon as possible. Please bear with me.

When doctors become employees, what do patients do?

We’ve all seen it happen. The friendly neighborhood doctor who had a great practice is suddenly less available. He suddenly seems to be associated with one (or many) of the corporate hospital chains springing up around town. He now has a ‘roving practice’ where he is available at different locations throughout the day – sometimes as many as four locations in the same day. Certain days of the week, he is with one specialist hospital in one part of town. Certain others, he is dedicated to another hospital elsewhere. While he begins to visibly thrive, his once loyal patient base needs to follow him wherever he goes.

A slow but steady ill has been seeping through the healthcare industry in India. Increasingly, more and more doctors are ditching their private practice to become employees of corporate hospital chains. The economics of the decision are fairly sound. Why spend money they can ill-afford at the beginning of their careers on setting up a private practice - painfully waiting to grow a clientele, depending on the vagaries of patients for a steady income and maintaining a staff and equipment at their own costs – when a corporate hospital chain offers them steady employment, good remuneration, a readymade set of patients, marketing and sales machinery to generate leads etc? Clearly one option is far superior to the other.

However, that is but one side of the story. For patients, healthcare is suddenly a precious commodity – to be traded for money. When Corporate entities begin to determine how patients are treated, personalized treatment goes completely out of the window. The corporate entity is only interested in making profits, the sooner the better. So patients who enter these places are treated pretty much the way Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry – like an assembly line.

Think about it. Patients, even prospective ones need to schedule an appointment. They are then given a 15 minute consultation by the allocated physician. Post this they face a barrage of ‘recommended’ tests; preferably at the hospital where the physician has a tie-up. Reports from elsewhere will simply be dis-regarded. Another consultation after an appointment and treatment begins. The consulting physician refers the patient to a specialist physician depending on the nature of the diagnosis. The specialist needs another appointment and may entail further tests. Finally the problem is diagnosed. Treatment can then begin.

The trouble scarcely ends there. After this comes choice of hospital, choice of accommodation, choice of diet, choice of medication – all of which are determined by the consulting physician. Typically, these are all at one of the associated hospitals. Not that anyone is blaming the physicians of having an ulterior motive. They simply need to meet their monthly quotas. Unless they do so, they won’t get the ‘performance bonus’ component of their remuneration, which can be substantial. The hospital rakes in the moolah, the physician meets her/his quota and the economy grows at a frenetic pace. For everyone except the patient, that is.

This is a far cry from the days when the physician took time and energy to understand the patient. Over time, they actually became trusted healthcare advisors. Keeping the specific information about the patients, their families and even their affordability, the physician would recommend the best course of action. Tests were not a mandate. In a lot of cases, they were skipped in preference of careful examination. Time spent was not a criterion for consultation fee; outcome typically was.

However all that is nothing more than a distant memory nowadays. The Corporate Hospitals, Insurance Companies, ‘Consulting Physicians’ and their ilk have changed the very dynamics of the industry. And definitely not for the better! When doctors become employees, the corporate guidelines take precedence over the Hippocratic oath. Mammon becomes more powerful than patient health. Care decisions; formerly taken by the doctors themselves, are not centrally made by committees which may or may not have patient outcomes as the primary goal. Treatment options, once personalized and customized to individual patient lifestyles and financial status, may become more cookie-cutter in approach with a one-size-fits-all mentality. Sure, physicians and doctors may still play the role of an advocate. However, it is safe to say that they will have to keep the health of the corporate entity – meaning money-making potential – paramount in their practice.

All is not bad though. Being a part of a corporate healthcare facility may give the physician better and more easy access to specialists and expensive equipment. They also have access to quality and reliable healthcare reports. Facilities, otherwise unavailable become more accessible. Their patients can thus benefit from better care. But all of this comes at a premium. Money becomes the primary consideration.

India's Neurosynaptic's ReMeDi platform

Providing the Indian population with access to quality and affordable healthcare has always been a dream project. The healthcare infrastructure in the country is far from adequate. There is just 1 doctor for approximately 1,700 population and less than 40% of the infrastructure is available in rural areas even though over 70% of India resides in rural and remote areas.

Which is why it is heartening to see that a company called Neurosynaptic has come up with a customized tele-medicine healthcare solution for developing economies like India. This is the ReMeDi platform and it is an indigenously developed customized solution created specifically for the Indian context.

Some of the key features of the ReMeDi platform include:

• System designed keeping in view low resource setting and the constraints associated with developing world
• Integrates end to end healthcare ecosystem
• Support Multiple simultaneous consultations
• Remote Clinics, Central Medical Facility, Diagnostic Centres, Hospitals and Pharmacy can be completely networked on enterprise version
• Easy to operate by a Para Medics or even a non medico
• Can operate on internet, intranet, WI-Fi, Data Card

ReMeDi has been validated at some of most prestigious Medical Institutes of India and is compliant with IEC 60601. Manufactured in an ISO 13485 Compliant Unit, it has an in-built mechanism to capture feedback for audit and quality. It works with real-time measurement of vital parameters and the data thus captured is stored on server & Cloud - making it easily accessible.

Highly modular and customizable the system includes such security features as Biometric identification. It is well integrated with existing HMS platforms and can be structured to suit various requirements. The sooner platforms like these are launched in the country, the sooner the dream of ensuring primary healthcare availability to every citizen will become a reality.

Improving Global Health | The Sana Technology Platform

When the brightest minds at MIT get set to work on an Application to enhance the quality of global healthcare, you can be certain that they will come up with a radical solution. And that is precisely what Sana Mobile is!

What is Sana?

The Sana technology platform includes an extensive set of healthcare tools for the collection, transmission, storage, and analysis of medical data. When fully installed and configured, the tools provide an end-to-end system connecting remote healthcare workers to physicians, and managing medical data. It is open-source, cellphone-based and free to implement!

Key Features:

• Multi-user mobile client with programmable workflow that provides decision support, directs remote workers in the collection of data, connection between workers and physicians, and integrates with point of care applications and devices.
• Middleware which provides a secure communication layer for secure, optimized transmission over poor or intermittent networks and allows for connection to a broad range of data storage and web applications.
• Host based data storage in a relational database along with web applications for accessing and managing data.
• Ready to deploy packages.
• All Sana software products are available under an open-source license to increase availability and encourage community contribution.

To try it out:

A compiled version of the Android based mobile client is available for installation by downloading the application on the mobile device from this location.

Links

Source Code is available at the Sana GitHub site

Documentation

Technical details about installation, configuration, and specific components are available on the individual component pages on the Documentation pages.

Sana Users Google Group

Intelehealth | Healthcare App to cater to primary healthcare in Rural India

The statistics were never really inspiring. India has just 1 doctor to cater to approximately 1,700 people. However, even that figure is misleading. While 70% of the country’s population lives in rural areas, less than 40% of the healthcare infrastructure is. This obviously creates several gaps in putting together a cohesive (and inclusive) healthcare program. The chief among which is access to qualified and trained healthcare professionals.

There are indeed health workers available in rural and remote areas. However, these are little more than semi-skilled nursing professionals. They can offer basic first aid and simple administrations. They have neither the qualifications nor the competence to offer tests and consults on things even as simple as diabetes and asthma. As a result, patients either avoid going to primary healthcare facilities – or more commonly – get over the counter medication without prescriptions from pharmacists who function as pseudo-doctors in underserved communities.

The result is an almost-complete breakdown of access to healthcare among communities of people who need it the most. Clearly an untenable proposition and something that hampers the very growth and development of the nation and its manpower resource.

Which is why, it comes as a blessing when students at the Johns Hopkins University created an App that lets rural health workers act as proxy for doctors who are unable to work in the underserved communities themselves. Titled “Intelehealth” the App aims to digitize the way in which primary healthcare is currently delivered across the length and breadth of the country.

How it works

The current rural health workers have been trained to operate the App. When a patient comes to a primary healthcare center, first their symptoms are noted and photographed. Demographic data is compiled about them and pertinent lifestyle, cultural and dietary information is gathered. This data is sent to qualified Healthcare professionals (usually retired doctors) living in urban areas who go through the information and revert with a diagnosis and recommended course of treatment. When required, a prescriptions is also sent along.

This makes the rural patients more confident that they are getting access to quality care – for a fraction of the price. When they see better outcomes for themselves and others in their community, they are more likely and willing to report health issues to gain care advantages.

Primary benefits

First and foremost Intelehealth fills a need in the market for affordable, quality, reliable healthcare. The fundamental gap it fills is that of access. The peripheral issues it tackles are wide-ranging. Patients in rural or remote areas can now access diagnoses from qualified healthcare professionals without having to travel long distances spending money they can ill-afford to spend. This makes them more likely to access healthcare and not delay symptoms that could result in more dangerous diseases if left untreated.

Larger Benefits

Intelehealth also functions as a epidemiological resource. When the gathered patient data is collected and encrypted, some of it can be anonymized and used in research. This can range from identifying the health profiles of specific areas to tracking the spread of disease over larger geographical regions. This is something that is currently unavailable in the market. The conventional means of data collection, collation and distribution are heavily manpower-reliant and lack of access to qualified and trained healthcare professionals makes it more of an administrative exercise with no healthcare outcomes.

Intelehealth however is much more than a simple tele-medicine App. The lack of bandwidth prevents solutions like that from being deployed. Hence the team worked on a solution that uses low bandwidth. It is currently available as an Android-based solution. Similarly the functionality of the App was geared towards collecting, disseminating and securing diagnoses in the fastest time possible. So bells and whistles typically found in Apps of this nature were also ditched to function well within the low bandwidth

Pilot studies were conducted at two location in West Bengal and the product will soon be launched in other parts of India. The App itself is free for anyone to use. It is currently in Beta mode and will be officially launched by year end. To cater to organizations who want Intelehealth to manage and train health workers, they have a separate program. After India, the target areas include SouthEast Asia and Africa – regions with similar challenges. Here’s more power to the people behind this really useful healthcare App!

Depression is the flavor of the season for healthcare marketing

Until Deepika Padukone stood up at a public forum to speak about her battle with depression, the disease wasn’t even recognized as such. Suddenly, post that historic moment, pharmaceutical companies, individuals and healthcare organizations are falling all over themselves to contribute their mite to the cause of mental health. This is especially significant as October 10^th marks the worldwide recognition of the World Mental Health Day.

There’s nothing wrong with a celebrity being able to endorse a cause. Rather, it is sad that until celebrities attach their name or their money, the cause remains under the radar for most people. Especially in the Indian context, mental health has historically never been viewed as an illness or a disease to be treated. It has been attributed to demonic possession, to “weak-mindedness”, lack of will or even sheer laziness! The cultural mores made speaking openly about it not just taboo but as something embarrassing to be hidden away and dealt with privately.

So it was with a great deal of positivity that I reacted to the news of the Live, Love Laugh Foundation! Not just because of the Deepika factor, but in spite of it! 

The Foundation has an interesting logo and an even better objective – to express, share and champion mental health concerns. The site is power-packed to deliver. Not only can you learn and understand more about mental health, you can also find a therapist, read inspirational stories of other sufferers, access great articles, find answers to common questions and even share your tips and tricks to deal with the illness or its care and management.  Help lines offer telephonic solace to callers and a call for donations promises to do more for the cause as well.

As the foundations gets set to celebrate one meaningful year of its existence, it continues to strive to achieve the following:

• Creating awareness and reducing the stigma around mental health
• Partnering with other non-profits organizations and academic institutions to drive various interventions and
• Supporting research in the area of mental health

These objectives will be delivered through the creations and sustenance of programs like:

• You are not alone
• Together against depression and
• The Nationwide Campaign

Do check out the foundation website and learn more about the steps they have taken. We need more such meaningful initiatives to help the estimated 7% of our population suffering from mental health issues. If more celebrities can lend their fame and resources to such programs, there is indeed hope that we can tackle this sooner. 

5 myths about Advertising and Creativity in the Pharma/Healthcare world

When it comes to Marketing or Advertising, it is safe to say that most Pharma and Healthcare marketers are a confused lot. For one, they don't understand the industry as it deals with products in the outside world (non-pharma/ healthcare!). For another, they have crippling regulations which cramp whatever little they can say and do. Except in the US and New Zealand, most pharma marketing is restricted from Print or Television almost everywhere in the world. So it is no wonder that several myths abound.

In this blog we will take a look at 5 myths about Advertising and Creativity in the Pharma/Healthcare world.

Myth 1 - Healthcare/Pharma marketing is different from Consumer Marketing

While it may be true that Pharma/Healthcare marketing is highly regulated, the fact remains that brands are still selling to consumers. As such, the rules that govern business in other sphere also apply here - albeit with some restrictions. More importantly, healthcare decision makers, like the rest of us, are subject to the laws and flaws of human behavior. Their decisions are primarily influenced by non-rational biases. If they choose to, advertisers and brands can influence and leverage this to create a massive opportunity.

Myth 2 - Healthcare brands sell themselves

Nowhere else is the 'Build it and they will come'mentality more rife than in the healthcare marketing industry. Health is undoubtedly one of the most searched rerms on the internet. This however does not automatically mean that consumers will easily find your brand message online. You need to take concrete steps to create awareness, promote interest and call for action. This is where marketing can help you. No matter how great the solution you can offer or the app you have designed - if it can't be found, it won't get popular.

Myth 3 - Healthcare brands don't require creativity

Most healthcare marketers firmly believe that clinical evidence is what powers their sales activities. However, most consumers buy brands that strike an emotional chord with them. No amount of rational, scientific or clinical explanation can win over customers if there is no compelling story that emotionally resonates with them. Case in point is the Pain relief category. While healthcare marketers are currently focused on the relief of pain as the primary factor and attempt to sway consumers with claims and counterclaims of fastest-acting formulations, consumers are heavily invest in pain in an emotional way. When a dear one is suffering, their family members too feel the pain. When the pain is alleviated, the family members heave a sigh of relief. this is the compelling emotional territory that is up for grabs! Small wonder then that the brands who have actually managed to crack compelling campaigns are based on powerful, emotion-laded brand reminders.

Myth 4 - Global (HQ) will take care of my brand marketing

Most Pharma/Healthcare Companies are multi-national entities. Typically, they tend to centralize branding at the HQ or at Regional HQs in order to deliver on the goal of branding - consistency and uniformity across all communication. This is especially true when it comes to the development and implementation of brand identity elements, as it rightly should be. Advertising on the other hand is built on creativity which has an altogether different goal - that of being different and able to stand out in the minds of the consumer. Add to this local cultures, habits, interests, themes, memes and thee like and it becomes evident that locally-produced campaigns will be able to emotionally engage the local consumer better. The sooner marketers at all levels of the MNC organizations realize this, the better. Hopefully that will spell the death of the plain-vanilla concepts structured to mean nothing to anyone globally.

Myth 5 - Pharma/Healthcare Companies discourage creativity

Most Pharma and Healthcare Marketers prefer to err on the side of caution. The primary reason is that they prefer to toe the line when it comes to making claims rather than battle legal and regulatory departments over complaints. However creativity thrives on taking risks. Given that it is subjective, difficult to define and doesn't test well, Pharma/Healthcare markerters are understandably nervous. The products they market are built on the basis of rigorous formulation and testing after all! But it is about a mindset change. Once the marketers are able to distance themselves from the clinical mindset and focus on the consumer benefit (rather than product features) they will begin to see the value of creative marketing.

So there! This is a humble attempt to break some of these myths. Let me know in the comments if you have come across any other similar myths and hopefully we can bust those as well!

Why Healthcare Marketers should care about the Apple CareKit?

Earlier this year, Apple announced the launch of a radical software development platform without much fanfare. This was the unveiling of the Apple CareKit - a new software framework that helps developers build apps and software focused on healthcare. Following this announcement, a number of developers actually started designing relevant Apps. Here are just a few:

OneDrop

A diabetes-management App. It helps track food & medication intake as well as activity. Available for the Apple Watch as well!

Start

An App for the monitoring, treatment and medication of depression. Helps to diagnose mental health problems and track patient progress.

GlowBaby

An infant-care App that covers feeding, sleeping and nappy cycles for a new born in an attempt to make the first three months a tad less hellish!

These were the first of the lot to come rolling out after the announcement. However, now that the CareKit has been made open source, you can expect to see a whole lot of apps come out in the days to come!

The CareKit isn't really for consumers - in the conventional sense. What I mean is that consumers like you and me won't use the CareKit itself. Rather, they will use Apps that have been built using the CareKit framework. In developer terms, the Apple CareKit is a SDK Platform or a Software Development Kit. This 'kit'essentially contains the building blocks that helps developers quickly and efficiently put together healthcare applications.

One example Apple offers is an upcoming app called EpiWatch, which allows you to send a notification to a friend of relative when a seizure is imminent. Like the three other Apps we saw above, the possibilities are limited only by the imagination of developers, which is one of Apple's strong suits.

The bigger benefit actually lies below the radar. What SDK's like the Apple CareKit can actually enable is a semblance of standardization across all the data that is likely to be generated. Different manufacturers are busy putting out different Apps and wearables designed to simplify user lives. However, unless a major player like Apple (hopefully Samsung is listening!) steps in, there is little chance that the data can be generated in a standardized manner. With the CareKit, that dream will come true – at least for devices running on the iOS platform!

In the Big Data Sense, this could prove to be really useful. Apple has a huge installed base of loyal users, and any data they generate may potentially help in formulating medical treatments. Assuming Privacy concerns are taken care of of course!

So stay tuned to this space on more as it happens!

Credibility of Healthcare information on the Internet

Health - as we have repeatedly seen - is the second most searched for topic on the internet. This obviously means that the number of websites catering to healthcare information is also amongst the most prolific. But with all this information available online, it is very easy to get sucked in by unscrupulous elements that have an ulterior motive in spreading dangerous or deceitful information. How then does one ensure that the information available is true and useful? This is precisely the reason for the existence of the Health On the Net Foundation - or HON as it is better known.

About HON

The Health On the Net Foundation (HON) promotes and guides the deployment of useful and reliable online health information, and its appropriate and efficient use. Created in 1995, HON is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. For 20 years, HON has focused on the essential question of the provision of health information to citizens, information that respects ethical standards. To cope with the unprecedented volume of healthcare information available on the Net, the HONcode of conduct offers a multi-stakeholder consensus on standards to protect citizens from misleading health information.

HONcode Facts

The HONcode is a code of ethics that guides site managers in setting up a minimum set of mechanisms to provide quality, objective and transparent medical information tailored to the needs of the audience. HONcode is the oldest and the most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information available on Internet. The HONcode is designed for three target audiences: the general public, the healthcare professionals and the web publisher, actively involving the site owner in the process of certification. The HONcode is the most widely accepted reference for online health and medical publishers. Currently the HONcode is used by over 7’300 certified websites, more than 10 million pages, covering 102 countries.

Please note: HON cannot guarantee the accuracy of medical information presented by a site and its completeness at any given time, but possession of the HONcode seal allows a site to demonstrate its intention to contribute to quality medical information through the publication of objective and transparent information.

HONcode Principles

The 8 HONcode Principles are as follows:

• Principle 1 - Authority: Give qualifications of authors
• Principle 2 - Complementarity: Information to support, not replace
• Principle 3 - Confidentiality: Respect the privacy of site users
• Principle 4 - Attribution: Cite the sources and dates of medical information
• Principle 5 - Justifiability: Justification of claims / balanced and objective claims
• Principle 6 - Transparency: Accessibility, provide valid contact details
• Principle 7 - Financial disclosure: Provide details of funding
• Principle 8 - Advertising: Clearly distinguish advertising from editorial content

The Certification System

The HONcode is a certification system that can be requested by anyone publishing healthcare information on the world wide web. This applies to sites catering to patients, healthcare professionals or even the general public whetehr or not it has a strictly health or medical focus. All requests for certification are voluntary, but considering that it adds credibility to the website, publishers could very well go for it.

What makes the HONcode certification credible is that each submission is evaluated by a review committee comprising professional healthcare professionals. The committee visits the target website and ascertains that it verifies all of the 8 ethical principles. If it doesn't the owner/publisher is informed about the same and guided to make the content or website compliant. Once a site is certified, it is given a dynamic seal to place on its pages which annouce that it is HONcode compliant. The certified sites are re-evaluated each year (as a paid service). Ad-hoc reviews may also be conducted in case there is a specific complaint or a technical malfunction detected by the monitoring services. HON is the only organization to enforce its code through a formal complaint mechanism.

So the next time you are searching for relevant medical information on the Internet, take a step back to see if the website you are browsing is HONcode compliant. The process is rather simple with a `downloadable toolbar provided by the foundation. The toolbars come as plug-ins for both Internet Explorer and Firefox and can be downloaded from the HON site here. Toolbars for other browser versions are available here.

Lybrate Healthcare App | Some interesting observations

The biggest challenge with digitizing healthcare in a country like India is trying to get medical professionals, especially doctors, to accept and embrace technology innovation. Given the nature of their work, the paucity of time and the demands on their continuous education, doctors and allied healthcare professionals have been hard pressed for a solution.

Until Lybrate – India’s first and largest mobile healthcare communication and delivery platform – appeared on the scene! Lybrate first appeared on the scene in the year 2013 has today become the most popular Healthcare App for both patients and healthcare professionals. With over 80,000 doctors registered on the platform and daily visitors of over 100,000, Lybrate has overtaken its rivals in the space to become the go-to solution.

Lybrate functions like a Zomato for healthcare. Users can register on the site and find information on nearby doctors, their services, ratings and clinic timings for free. The easy-to-use user interface makes it a breeze to filter and find the right options. Content powers the platform and user reviews are given utmost importance. A simple button also makes it possible for users to schedule appointments with doctors.

In the back-end, there is a fully functional CRM system that doctors and healthcare professionals can use to accept, schedule or reject patient appointments. This CRM system includes vertical-specific modules like appointment booking, scheduling, billing and prescription handling. Doctors choose from one of three monthly packs which given them incremental clinic management tools, marketing options and SMS options to reach out to patients.

In addition to the above subscription based model for doctors and healthcare professionals, Lybrate also makes use of contextual advertising on the App and Website to serve relevant ads to consumers. Free and paid online consultations also contribute to revenues.

In late 2015, Lybrate also tied-up with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) – India’s premier Association of Healthcare Professionals – to become their Digital Partner. Under the partnership spanning a year, Lybrate is tasked with providing technical expertise to the IMA, coach it’s 2.5 lakh member doctors in digital technology adoption, and expose the entire medical and healthcare fraternity better communication and treatment technologies.

Allied responsibilities include assistance with policy making and program implementation, especially in the field of e-Health and m-Health. This is especially important in a country like India which has a pathetic doctor-patient ration of 1:1700 – among the lowest in the world. Technology is the only solution to bridge this gap and it is indeed fortunate that players like Lybrate are taking the right steps in the right direction.

The bizarre world of Healthaholic marketing!

There is Healthcare marketing and then there’s Alcohol marketing. Conventionally, you would thing the two would never meet, right? Well, apparently not so…

I’m still reeling from having stumbled upon this product. Welcome to the bizarre world of Anti-AGin – a young in spirit Gin that is touted to reverse the aging process even as you enjoy your tipple! The strap-line for the product actually says, “Rejuvenates your skin, while you drink.”

The primary ingredient is collagen and this gin happens to be distilled with it. That’s not all though! The Anti-AGin also contains Chamomile, Tea Tree and other such ingredients which are usually used to preserve younger-looking skin. The product is available here, but always seem to be out of stock. However, for the relatively moderate price of 35 Pounds, you can preserve your youthful-looking skin. Or enjoy an interesting botanicals-flavored Gin in the bargain!

If that wasn’t weird enough for you this next item will surely tipple your fancy. The Clermont-Ferrand University hospital – a hospital about 290 miles south of Paris – opened a wine bar for terminally-ill patients in its palliative care division. (Where else but in France, right?)

The reason wasn’t difficult to fathom. Terminally-ill patients tend to get depressed, and what better way to help them deal with their depression than by allowing them to enjoy a glass of wine in the otherwise sterile surroundings of a hospital! I’ll raise three cheers to that!

3 factors fostering ‘The Internet of Medical Things’

While the world is waking up to the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) – for Healthcare, this is rather old news. For the longest time, large, expensive equipment like MRI and CT scanners have been monitored by their manufacturers. While it is true that this was primarily done for service and maintenance reasons, the fact that physical devices were connected and monitored through data networks actually makes them the forerunners to the IoT technology.

1. Connected Devices

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) first made its presence felt with network enabled infusion pumps and heart rate monitors. These were more in line with monitoring the functioning to ensure that the patient got the best possible care – thereby adding value to them and their healthcare providers. Today, nearly every piece of home-based medical equipment, including the likes of blood glucose, blood pressure monitors and digital thermometers are capable of connecting to the Internet. Most of them come with companion Apps. Even old school devices have made use of a USB dongle to give them data sharing capabilities. Case in point is Diabeto – which converts Wifi-less blood glucose monitors into digital blood glucose monitors. Add to this the capabilities of health and fitness trackers and smart watches, and the future only spells more connectivity!

2. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality has finally passed through all relevant hype cycles to now become a tangible service for our connected world. State-of-the-art devices like the Microsoft Hole Lens and the Oculus Rift are already in use in a variety of healthcare settings. The availability of cheaper devices like the Gear VR will only make this more convenient for Healthcare to harness and use Virtual Reality. Typical therapy areas that have been exploring the possibility of using VR technology include pain management, treatment of phobias, surgical training, operation procedure training and even cancer treatment!

3. Artificial Intelligence

One of the primary needs that today’s healthcare professionals have is the ability to sift through gigabytes of clinical studies, drug development and latest therapies to identify the one thing that can help their patients have better outcomes. Artificial Intelligence is an invaluable aid in helping them achieve this. Even today, an overwhelming portion of patient data exists in the form of unstructured data (physician notes, case histories, admission records, scanned reports etc.) This makes scanning through data to derive valuable insights not only difficult but well nigh impossible. With digitization of medical records this becomes much easier to manage and implement. Healthcare providers like Talix are using a combination of comprehensive medical taxonomy, advanced clinical natural language processing and sophisticated coding and clinical rules databases to make collecting, collating and analyzing patient data easier.

Even today, we are far from being a world with an impressive Internet of Medical Things. But the latest development and rapid strides being made in these key areas assures many of us that the day is not far when our healthcare systems and practitioners will make this an essential part of their arsenal. Only then will diagnosis get better, patient outcomes improve and the industry as a whole move to the next level!

3 myths about the growth of wearable tech for healthcare

Myth 1 – Only younger audiences use wearable tech

Technology innovations are often (and rightly one might add) driven by younger, savvier audiences. However, when it comes to wearables, the distribution is spread out. Younger audiences use wearable tech as an aid for fitness tracking. They primarily make use of these tools for a) Personal health surveillance and b) social connections with other using similar devices. However, older audiences too use wearable technology for a) improvement in overall health and b) As an alert aid in chronic conditions.

Myth 2 – Wearable use ensures successful weight loss

Numerically, wearable technology might have become main-stream. However, the way people use them still hasn’t reached optimal levels. Case in point is the novelty factor associated with initial use of wearable tech. The most popular consumer-focused brands like Jawbone and FitBit primarily measure movement through pedometers or accelometers. Through the use of proprietary algorithms, they are able to estimate activity levels. During initial usage, consumers are gung-ho about the activity levels and stick to it. This results in instant and noticeable weight loss. However studies have revealed that these results are not sustained over extended periods of use.

Myth 3 – The data provided by wearable tech is extremely useful for physicians

It is undeniable that wearable activity trackers provide a great deal of data about how active patients are and how much exercise they are getting. However, most physicians are still stuck with legacy systems which don’t allow them to harness this data effectively. Getting hold of relevant data is one thing, but unless physicians and health care providers are able to mine this data in an efficient manner to derive insights, outcomes and engagement from them, they are next to useless.

Wearable healthcare tech is still a sunrise industry. People have started using them and are beginning to get fitter and more active. Some physicians and healthcare providers have adapted their systems to incorporate data provided by such technology. However, there is still a long way to go. There is no denying that when patients are involved in their own care and maintenance, the clinical outcomes get better. However, this space needs a lot more observation before any ‘trends’ can be realized. 

Introducing the future of Healthcare | Proteus Digital Health

One of the biggest pain-points for Healthcare Professionals has been the adherence of patients to prescribed medication. Too often the patient skips medicines, does not take them in the prescribed dosage, or tries to self-titrate after having skipped a recommended schedule. The result is reduced patient outcomes and in some cases, complications of a serious nature.

This is especially the case with patients suffering from long-term chronic illnesses like Diabetes and Hypertension. Initially when diagnosed, fear acts as an enabler and keeps the patient adherent to a large degree. However, as time passes and patients don’t see any visible symptoms (considering that these are typically lifestyle diseases with no apparent short-term symptoms), they begin to slack.

Concerned physicians have long observed this. But apart from constantly reiterating to patients how important proper adherence is, they will little else they could do. Until now that is – till Proteus Digital Health made an appearance!

At the face of it, Proteus Digital Health sounds like something out of science fiction or the future! The system comprises of the following:

• Ingestible sensors
• Small, wearable sensor patch
• A mobile Application
• A Provider Portal

Proteus Digital Health - Smart Pills, Patch and Mobile App

When patients wear the patch and ingest the sensors and their medication, the dosage is detected and the information relayed to the mobile App and provider portal. In keeping with HIPAA regulations, the patients can choose whom they share their information with. Sending this information across to the healthcare professional on a regular basis gives them an unprecedented ability to monitor adherence like never before!

Studies have previously proven that when patients are involved in managing their own health, the outcomes tend to be much better. With Proteus, the process becomes simpler. Patients can regularly monitor their dosage and even set reminders to take their medication. 

Physicians with access to recorded objective data can enhance, titrate or even eliminate medication as the case may warrant. The overall health ecosystem could also benefit from privacy-protected data availability that helps define standards and ensure effective usage.

The Trust Gap in Healthcare Digital Marketing

In a previous post, we discussed some of the challenges that prevent Healthcare Marketers from adopting and embracing Digital as part of their marketing efforts. The focus there was on the regulatory and systemic restrictions.

However, the Healthcare Digital Marketing environment also suffers from another important challenge - The lack of trust regarding Pharmaceutical companies among both patients and physicians.

Patients don’t trust Big Pharma.

Although Pharmaceutical companies see themselves as knights in shining armor, helping patients deal with debilitating disease and other conditions, this is not the way patients view them. Given the ever-rising costs of pharmaceutical formulations and regularly-breaking headlines about drug price manipulations, this sentiment is understandable.

Consider these instances from the recent past:

Martin Shkreli’s staggering 5,000% price hike for AIDS-drug Daraprim instantly turned him into the Poster Boy for Pharmaceutical greed. The fact that he continued to remain unrepentant, and even confrontational on social media, did not help matters along.

Mylan’s EpiPen has been increasing in price for years. However the revelation that it has more than quintupled in cost since 2007 for no incremental benefits has raised the hackles of patients and policymakers.

Teva Pharmaceuticals has increased the price of its Multiple Sclerosis drug – Copaxone – by 118% since 2001. This, despite the fact that a far-cheaper generic version of the drug has been available for over a year now!

Pharmaceutical companies’ responses have ranged from justifications like:

• Recouping investments in failed drugs
• Supporting ongoing R&D efforts
• Paying for clinical trials to broaden the use of approved drugs and
• That medications actually prevent costly hospitalizations!

People simply aren’t buying the excuses though!

Physicians don’t trust Big Pharma

Information source Preference

When compared to Pharmaceutical outreach programs that remain largely in the realm of direct marketing (think sales representatives, Continuing medical education, direct mail etc.) most Physicians are increasingly active on digital media channels offered by third-party information providers. Medscape, Epocrates and SERMO are reported as being the networks most commonly used by physicians to meet their professional needs. Similar offerings by Pharmaceutical companies are either not credible enough, likely to be biased or downright untrustworthy!

Lack of usability/credibility

When compared to the exploding demand for consumer focused healthcare apps on platforms like the Google Play Store, the Apps developed by Pharmaceutical companies that are targeted at Physicians show extremely low numbers. Consider this:

• Pharma Apps targeted at Physicians: 100 to 5,000 downloads
• Apps developed by 3^rd Parties for Physicians: 1M – 5M downloads
• Consumer Healthcare Apps: Up to 5 Billion downloads!

This clearly suggests that the information being offered by Pharmaceutical companies to Physicians through digital channels is simply not compelling enough. View this with the community’s distrust of Big Pharma, and the problem is compounded.

Direct-to-consumer Advertising

Most developed countries have historically banned Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription pharmaceutical products. They only two countries where this continues to be legal are New Zealand and the United States of America. Physicians have long-complained about the negative impact of such advertising and call out that this leads to avoidable exposure and self-medication by patients. In the light of other issues plaguing the industry some action on this front is clearly warranted.

Healthcare Digital Marketing can offer more transparency, enhance trust factors and speed-up research and treatment options. However, in order to reach that ideal stage, all the stakeholders in the Healthcare Digital Marketing ecosystem need to work closely to first eliminate the trust gap.