You’ve always known that patient education was important, but did you know it also makes excellent business sense? Healthcare Finance News reports that:

Patients who have a clear understanding of their after-hospital care instructions are 30 percent less likely to be readmitted or visit the emergency department than patients who lack this information.

The data comes from a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and was first reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.  Findings point to an opportunity for a win-win situation between pharma and hospitals.

Currently, one in five patients has a complication or an adverse event, such as a drug interaction, after being discharged from the hospital.  The study reveals that by following the “RED” protocol – Re-Engineered Hospital Program -  hospitals can reduce readmissions by 30% at an average savings of $412 per patient. The secret is to better communicate to patients their after-hospital care.

• Specially trained nurses help patients arrange follow-up appointments, confirm medication routines, and understand their diagnoses using a personalized instruction booklet.
• A pharmacist contacts patients between two and four days after hospital discharge to reinforce the medication plan and answer any questions.

A pharmaceutical product with high hospital usage could compete more aggressively on price when it has data demonstrating lower TOTAL costs. These costs include longitudinal data like after hospital care as well.  But how do you get that kind of data? In three straight-forward steps.

1. Pharma Company teams up with Hospital to implement RED standards for a given condition or disease state
2. Hospital and Pharma co-produce patient education – print, media, web – for use both in-hospital and at home after discharge
3. Patients are educated. Data collected. Resulting pharmacoeconomic interpretation shared between sponsors

This kind of solution would require especially clever communicators; those who can map out a successful strategy that spans multiple financial quarters. These kind of thinkers would be savvy enough to pull it off and  make it pay for itself. For example, a well-constructed deal could derive a revenue stream by licensing the co-produced patient education media to stock photo agencies like Corbis, or by repackaging the educational media for use at other sponors’ hospitals.

It’s a win-win-win situation. Patients win with fewer complications and readmissions. Hospitals win by demonstrating quality performance and attracting more, better-insured patients.  And Pharma wins both formulary status and pharmacoeconomic data for future efforts.

So the question is, who wants to give it a try?

Smarti Solutions is a marketing consultancy and agency search firm that connects businesses with advertising agencies, PR firms and allied companies.  Founder/President Michele Harris has authored an interesting white paper on “Selecting a Marketing Agency” that may be helpful for those looking for help in a hurry.  She divides her advice equally between “Do’s” and “Don’t Do’s.”

Do’s and Musts

1. Establish a budget range up front
2. Scope the size of the agency’s clients
3. Develop a clear scope of work
4. Check to make sure agency top talent is still on-board
5. Gauge expertise
6. Match agency culture with your own corporate culture

Don’t and Pitfalls

1. Avoid paying for “full-service” unless you really need ancillary services
2. Don’t fall for “hot” or trendy – what works for others might not be right for you
3. Avoid signature creative looks that may prove restrictive
4. Differentiate between the chemistry of the team and the needs of the business
5. Beware of larger firms taking on smaller clients during the recession.
6. Issue a blanket RFP to a long list

Health Care Communicators Benefit From Up-Front Homework

Harris’ last point is particularly important to health care marketers in a hurry.  Sending out a flood of Requests for Proposals is like a carpet-bombing campaign: it destroys everything in it’s path.  Your up-front homework:

• Saves you internal staff time – by some estimates up to 40+ hours for a small to medium size RFP
• Allows you to focus only on those agencies already up to speed on your business and regulatory environment
• Preserves honor and goodwill.  If you invited them to bid you must read the proposals and take the meeting for the final presentation.

At Group 8020, we recommend issuing the RFP to just 3-4 agencies, any one of whom you’d be interested in working with.  Yes, it takes a little bit of effort but it pays off in longer term relationships.  In fact, 100% of the agencies selected by our clients have been invited back for repeat business; none of them required Group 8020 for that second round of work.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

Links:

• You can read Smarti’s full article here [open's PDF in new window].
• Link to Smarti Solutions corporate website

As reported in “The Onion” and with holiday weekend implications, consumption of double stuff Oreos may lead to “tolerance”:

For 90 percent of Americans, it now takes twice as much stuf to reach the same level of satisfaction once achieved with a single layer of stuf,” the report read in part.

Health care practioners are bracing for the surge of new patients with “S.O.S” or “stuf Oreo syndrome.”. Read the full article here.

[By way of Amy Dangerously]

From the President who made social media a key tool in his campaign comes the biggest news for health care, pharmaceuticals, biotech and medical device manufacturers yet: an articulated vision for health care reform that is gaining traction.

What the final legislation will look like is anyone’s guess:

• Will it be, as The New England Journal of Medicine suggests a “value-based system”?
• Will pharmacists be paid more to better manage patient care, as The Chicago Tribune reports?
• Will insurers mount a “Harry and Louise Redux” campaign?

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

As reported in the LA Times, medical bills play a role in 62% of bankruptcies. That makes any argument in favor of universal coverage much more personal to an America already reeling from recession.  And much more difficult for lobbyists to spin.  How can Beltway Bandits contend with a president who features Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes on the official WhiteHouse.gov website?

Pharma, Biotech and Device Manufacturers Should Go Grassroots

The Democrats are going “town hall” with thousands of community events, like the kick off tonight in Asheville North Carolina [registration required]. Can industry respond in kind?  In my opinion, no.  There are neither sufficient resources nor time to organize.  But  industry can appeal to those who have benefited from life-saving treatments.

Companies like J&J and Cougar Biotechnology should reach out to self-funded health care evangelists like Lynn Lane, a cancer survivor who started the Voices of Survivors Project” building a library of first person video testimonials in record time, a blog, Facebook Page, and Twitter presence.  These are the people to carry the message “we need innovative treatments” to Congress.

What do you think?

Is there a role for citizen advocates in a debate this big?  Should we just “leave it to the politicians”? Comments welcomed and appreciated.

Were you impressed by Pfizer’s announcement last week that the company would give away 70 of its most widely prescribed drugs to those who lost jobs?  Sure, the program — called MAINTAIN, or Medicines Assistance for Those who Are in Need — has caveats.  To receive the drugs, individuals must show:

• That they have been unemployed since Jan. 1
• That they no longer have prescription drug insurance
• Must prove that they cannot pay for their medications, and
• That they were taking a medication listed under the program for at least three months prior to losing their jobs

You should be impressed.  As Dorothy Wetzel, former VP-consumer marketing at Pfizer and now a co-founding partner of  health-care ad agency, Extrovertic said in Advertising Age (registration required):

It’s probably worth more than $100 million in free advertising… Think of the goodwill, think of the brand advocates they’re creating by providing these medicines. You have somebody who’s going to say ‘I lost my job but I can still get my Lipitor for free? I’m going to tell everybody.’

It’s brilliant public relations and the beginning of a pro-Pfizer grassroots initiative in my opinion. As reported in Medical Marketing & Media, Pfizer has just hired onetime Gore advisor Gregory Simon to head its global policy efforts, the man Nature Magazine named “Ten People To Watch” citing him as one of “a handful of influential people who quietly keep the wheels of biomedical science turning.”

Given that the old scare tactics like “Harry and Louise” [link to original commercial] from the 1984 attempt at health care reform won’t work today, getting out in front of public opinion just makes sense.  And demonstrates that you don’t have to have “Twitter” in the headline to make big news.