NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES
PatientLinx.com Offers NEWS UPDATES BY DISEASE AND THERAPEUTIC CATEGORIES
MDLinx has launched PatientLinx.com, a free Website that provides reliable clinical updates for patients. PatientLinx aggregates research by disease and therapeutic category, making access to targeted news even more readily available to patients. The 24 subspecialties include categories such as allergy, Alzheimer ‘s disease, breast cancer, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and osteoporosis. Patients can subscribe to free newsletters to stay current with the latest research.
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I recommend PatientLinx because its content comes from only the most respected sources.
“Because there is so much unreliable information on the Internet, it is difficult for patients to stay current with the latest medical advances,” says Stephen Ferzoco, M.D., of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Surgery in Boston. “I recommend PatientLinx because its content comes from only the most respected sources.”
PatientLinx.com aggregates the top news and research from premier healthcare sources, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Medicine Direct, Science Daily, and British Medical Journal, as well as respected lay sources. Patient Linx.com also offers daily email newsletters that deliver specialized news directly to patients’ desktops. Online services provided by MDLinx are free to users and are supported by targeted advertising, syndication, and e-marketing solutions.
Proscape Tablet PC Edition PROVIDES PLATFORM FOR MOBILE SALES
Proscape Technologies’ newly released Microsoft XP Tablet PC Edition provides mobile sales organizations with a common technology platform to exchange, update, communicate, monitor, and pre sent sales and marketing information at the moment of presentation — when sales representatives often only have seconds to win prospects’ attention and interest and deliver a compelling, accurate, and organizationally consistent sales message.
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Derek Pollock
The nature of the sales call and of the sales presentation has changed dramatically. Today’s sales reps need instant access to the most up-to-date information while in front of the prospect.
” The introduction of the Tablet PC, along with Microsoft ‘s XP Tablet PC Edition operating system, completes the marketing and sales continuum, providing a way for organizations to enhance, assure, monitor, and improve the quality of infield presentations,” says Derek Pollock, cofounder of Proscape Technologies. “The limitations of cumbersome laptops, standalone applications, and devices once prevented sales forces from executing the payoff in a way that allowed for highly customized and updated presentations that could be fully integrated with all of an organizations’ sales resources.”
The ultra slim and lightweight Tablet PCs don’t need to be opened or turned on. Their grab-and-go, always-available functionality and pen-enabled screens make them constantly ready for a sales rep to present, within seconds of approaching a prospect.
SoftWatch’s Online Marketing Tool Helps COMPANIES MANAGE HEALTHCARE RELATIONSHIPS
An Internet solution for communicating and cultivating relationships with healthcare professionals on the Web has been launched by SoftWatch Inc. SRS Pharma Professional enables companies to extend their professional marketing strategies online by creating dynamic portals for increasing brand awareness, collecting important customer data, and tracking and influencing prescribing behavior to enhance sales effectiveness.
SRS Pharma Professional lets companies rapidly and cost-effectively deploy highly targeted professional Websites that complement existing online and offline sales and marketing programs.
SRS Pharma Professional incorporates SoftWatch best practices in Internet pharmaceutical marketing to help companies attract and retain healthcare professionals by offering a secure Web environment for delivering value-added support services and establishing an ongoing dialogue with target user segments, including key opinion leaders, advocates, and speakers. With SRS Pharma Professional, companies can leverage the Web to streamline communications, deliver timely product information, and establish their own database for tracking user attributes and preferences.
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Fred King
SRS Pharma Professional enables companies to easily meet their information needs, while establishing a cost effective channel for cultivating relationships and delivering key messages throughout the product lifecycle.
The product features interactive functionality for cultivating diverse professional communities, as well as portal management capability in such core areas as data analysis and tracking, survey management and e-marketing, and content segmentation and publishing.
“Not only are physicians spending more time online, but new industry stats show that a growing number of them are visiting pharmaceutical-sponsored Websites to find everything from new-drug information to information about prescription products and specific therapeutic areas,” says Fred King, CEO of SoftWatch. “SRS Pharma Professional enables companies to easily meet these information needs, while establishing a cost-effective channel for cultivating relationships and delivering key messages throughout the product lifecycle.”
SRS Pharma Professional can be deployed to create applications such as advocacy management, product pro motion and education, and branded and nonbranded physician outreach. Companies can benefit from a customer identifier for tracking and managing users across all SRS Pharma Professional portals to obtain a single customer view.
Recently, the company also launched SRS Enterprise Edition, which provides pharmaceutical and healthcare companies with a scalable and secure platform solution for deploying SRS applications across the enterprise to enhance sales and marketing effectiveness, drive operational efficiencies, and optimize total cost of ownership. Through SRS Enterprise Edition companies can build dynamic customer facing healthcare portals that leverage SRS components and integrate with other enterprise systems to support multiple applications in key areas, such as DTC pharmaceutical marketing, patient support and compliance, and advocacy and physician outreach.
MDchoice.com Changes Name to CHOICE
MDchoice.com Inc. has changed its name to Choice Media Inc. Choice Media represents premium-branded Web properties to global, blue-chip marketers. The Choice Media Network consists of 4.3 million unique visitors and more than 40 million monthly page views.
The company’s growing scope of business and additional offerings led to the new brand strategy, including the name change.
Choice Media’s focus is on advertising sales representation, content syndication, and services to online publishers in the healthcare, women’s, family, and seniors categories.
” The Choice Media brand is an extension of the MDchoice brand, which has gained a strong reputation for high-quality customer service and performance,” says Ash Nashed, president, CEO, and co-founder of the company. “Choice Media highlights our commitment to providing quality services to both publishers and marketers. In addition, we felt that our growing, premium audience has become increasingly valuable to not only healthcare marketers, but broader lifestyle marketers as well, and that the new Choice Media brand would better reinforce this opportunity to broaden our marketing universe.”
Choice Media focuses on minimizing ramp-up time while maximizing quality advertisements across its represented publisher sites.
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Ash Nashed
The Choice Media brand is an extension of the MDChoice brand, which has gained a strong reputation for high-quality customer service and performance.
A new corporate Website, choicemedia.com, has been created to allow marketers and publishers to view the Choice Media offerings.
HEALTHCARE DATA INTEGRATION TOOL Includes Demographic Information To Key Medical Industry Sectors
Verispan’s Healthcare Market Index pro vides data-warehousing and data-integration solutions for companies that sell into the healthcare market. The recently launched index covers the universe of U.S. healthcare facilities and organizations, with more than 320,000 entities, the relationships between them, and links to other healthcare industry IDs.
The Verispan Healthcare Market Index includes demographic information for more than 80 distinct classes of trade/business types. It can be purchased in its entirety or in the acute care, extended care, managed care, and physician and diagnostic care market segments. The index helps pharmaceutical, medical device/surgical supply, and other healthcare-related companies target new clients and track existing ones. The SMG Master ID Number and entity decision logic is the industry standard for enumerating healthcare entities.
The ever-changing alliances between facilities are made simple using the ownership, purchasing, networking, and other business relationships between the different facilities and organizations.
Email Service Provides CLINICAL TRIAL REQUIREMENT UPDATES
Thompson Publishing Group Inc.’s FDA Library has launched Clinlaw, an online service to protect clinical trials from changes to state requirements. Published and updated monthly by Thompson Publishing’s FDA Library, the Clinlaw email update service notifies subscribers of law changes, proposed legislation, recent developments, and related news. Clinlaw provides state requirements for human research in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, plus the full text of federal clinical trial regulations.
Clinical trials conducted in the U.S. must comply with both state and federal requirements. Failure to keep track of trial requirements can result in costly fines and a shutdown of a trial. Users can search by the following categories: informed consent; legally authorized representative; consent age; clinical research laws; drug investigation laws; medical records privacy; STD reporting; and laws governing IRBs.
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Sean Smith, senior marketing manager
“Clinlaw makes it fast and easy for you to find the clinical trial requirements you need to make sure your clinical trials are fully compliant.”
IntraLinks Brings INVESTIGATOR TRAINING AND TESTING ONLINE
Pharmaceutical companies now can train, test, and conduct investigator meetings through the secure and auditable digital workspaces of IntraLinks Inc. The workspaces within IntraLinks’ drug-development hub help trial managers reach a much broader audience and reduce the costs of training and testing hundreds of investigators.
The training and testing capabilities are the latest features aimed at reducing the number of days to complete study startup for all phases of clinical trials.
“Many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies currently use IntraLinks to accelerate the core components of the drug-development process by improving information exchange among clinical trial community participants such as sponsors, IRBs, investigators, and CROs,” says Richard Jenkins, general manager of life sciences at IntraLinks. “This latest enhancement extends the benefits of using IntraLinks for clinical trials by allowing these companies to train and test potential investigators online, and makes IntraLinks a more powerful service for use throughout the lifecycle of a clinical trial.”
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According to Richard Jenkins, general manager of life sciences at IntraLinks, the benefits of using IntraLinks have been extended, allowing companies to train and test potential investigators online.
The new features include investigator meetings, training, and testing. Aventis currently is using this new functionality to accelerate the speed of their drug-development process and reduce expenses.
“IntraLinks’ new capabilities have enabled us to transform our processes for investigator meetings by completing the training and testing of physicians online,” says Robin Kelen, RN medical product manager with U.S. medical research at Aventis. “We have been able to reach out to a greater number of potential investigator sites, while reducing the number of investigator meetings and increasing flexibility and convenience for physicians. More than 400 of our study recruits have elected to participate in the training and testing option offered online through IntraLinks.”
COMMONHEALTH Relaunches Website
CommonHealth, a healthcare communication network, has relaunched www.com monhealth.com.
The newly improved Website provides the communication agency’s history, mission, and creative through a corporate community format.
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CommonHealth has relaunched its Website, which reflects the environmental conditions at its headquarters in Parsippany, N.J.
The Website’s home page features a display of a town that reflects the environmental conditions of CommonHealth’s headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. When it is raining in Parsippany, it rains in CommonHealth-land. When the sun sets, the site is bathed in the moonlight. In addition, cars go by, planes take off, and people come and go.
Each one of the company’s business units has its own section, complete with unit descriptions, capabilities listings, and creative displays.
HEALTH ECONOMICS RESEARCH Available Through New Website
Visitors to the recently launched www.healtheconomicsresearch.com can review the published outcomes of research studies conducted by the Thomson Health Economics Research (HER) division of Thomson Physicians World.
The group has developed its own proprietary Observe methodology, which uncovers critical distinctions among competitive healthcare products and services via retrospective and prospective controlled observational research. HER’s expertise in outcomes research offers clients significant flexibility in terms of study size, scope, scalability, and budgets, resulting in rapidly completed work and published results that can have an immediate impact on physician behavior and medical practice.
An example of HER’s work is the recent Evident Study of thiazolidinedione therapies for patients with type 2 diabetes, which revealed significant clinical distinctions between Actos (pioglitazone) and Avandia (rosiglita zone).The study has both clinical and economic relevance for patients, providers, and payers of healthcare.
“In an era of cost-conscious healthcare decision making, the new HER Website clearly demonstrates our unique ability to quickly design, conduct, and publish the results of important research that can have a genuine impact on medical practice,” says Albert Marchetti, M.D., VP and medical director of HER and Physicians World.
In addition to Observe studies, HER designs research programs that help change the way providers and payers manage healthcare and costs in the U.S. and abroad. HER services include economic modeling, outcomes research, pharmacoeconomic evaluations, quality-of-life studies, preference research, formulary submissions, and health economic strategy.
DENDRITE UNVEILS PRODUCTS to Manage Samples and Enhance Sales, Marketing Effectiveness
Dendrite’s SAI business unit has launched eSample Guardian, a system for sample accountability and sample compliance management. The Web based solution includes tools and management information that pharmaceutical companies need to comply with Prescription Drug Marketing Act regulations regarding sample distribution, storage, disposal, record keeping, and security.
The solution features eSG Remote, a PDA-based tool for field-based sample tracking and management. eSG monitors the entire lifecycle of all samples, maintains an audit trail, continuously identifies inventories for reconciliation, and alerts home office personnel to any problems. Using the Web-based interface, clients can create user defined business rules that provide infraction monitoring and error management capabilities.
Dendrite also recently launched WebForce 1.6.1 sales channel management solution, which features WebForce Express, a cost-effective offering enabling rapid deployment.
WebForce Express is deployable in a variety of hardware environments. Dendrite has developed a PDA-based offering for clients who need portability, instant data access, and lower hardware ownership costs. It includes a Windows CE-based field sales solution that communicates directly to home office servers, and a stand-alone data-analysis tool for district managers that is functional on a laptop or desktop.
Dendrite also has released a laptop or tablet based offering to provide clients with rapid access to customer and business intelligence information within every component of the pharmaceutical organization. This includes a salesforce solution for field representatives and a data viewing and analysis tool for district managers that is operational as a standalone or embedded application.
Dendrite’s WebForce offering is a Web-enabled product suite that lets drug companies manage all salesforce activities and provides sales teams with a single, centralized location from which to access product information, evaluate competitors, record and catalogue client and prospect data, and access physician databases.
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WebForce Express is a cost-effective offering enabling rapid deployment.
“Today’s pharmaceutical companies face challenging business circumstances, and in this environment customers are increasingly unwilling to incur the expense and business risk associated with a lengthy software implementation,” says Christopher French, senior VP of global solutions marketing. “WebForce Express provides a powerful sales channel management solution that does not require the extensive configuration necessary to make competitive offerings production-ready for a life sciences industry customer.”
Another recently launched Dendrite product is VisiForce 1.1. The Web-enabled sales channel management solution is designed to enhance pharmaceutical sales and marketing productivity. VisiForce is ideal for markets with limited prescription data or where salesforce activity is guided by promotional campaigns. It enables companies to rank targeted customers, giving district managers and their teams the ability to determine which customers require additional attention and making it possible to assign call quotas based on qualitative points rather than merely call volume.
ENHANCED FORMS FOR MEDICAL PRACTICE Connect Paper, PCs, and Physicians from Triple i/CliniForms
Triple i/CliniForms has begun external product testing in clinics with CliniForms Connect, a new information technology that uses digital pens to transfer data collected on enhanced paper-based forms directly to PCs.
“We see a whole range of applications for this technology,” says Bill Mulderry, president of Triple i. “In addition to our initial product, we envision digitally enhanced prescriptions, clinical recordkeeping, and many other forms of desktop media, such as calendars and notebooks.”
Triple i/CliniForms’ initial product, slated for commercial release in early 2003, is a patient intake form that analyzes form data to produce a patient health assessment. Patients can fill out a history form with pen and paper as part of the intake process at a clinic or hospital.
The data are captured in real time and used to create a printed, highly focused report that the physician can use immediately to supplement the examination of a patient. This enables physicians to clearly identify patient risk factors, recognize candidates for preventive medicine such as immunizations, and link patients to educational materials.
Roska Direct’s E-marketing Technology Assists With DIRECT-RESPONSE CAMPAIGNS
Roska Direct’s recently launched Roska e-Marketing Suite’s customer relationship marketing and database technologies consist of database development, warehousing, target audience selection, email delivery, campaign tracking, and real-time campaign reporting. The suite gives customers the technology needed to design, develop, implement, and measure a direct-response campaign.
“What sets this technology apart is that it is designed and developed specifically for the needs of direct-marketing and direct-response programs by direct marketers,” says Michele Bennett, VP of technology at Roska. “The Roska e-Marketing Suite handles all aspects of a program with zero handoffs among agencies.”
The suite has several proprietary components, which can be used individually or as a whole in the execution of an e-marketing campaign: Customer Central, a data warehousing component that allows clients to access information from any location, via the Web; RoskaBlast, a bulk email delivery system; RoskaSelect, a data profiling and selection utility; RoskaTrack, an online and offline tracking system; and RoskaReport, a real-time email reporting system.
Aris Global’s Web-based Clinical Trials Management System Collects, Manages, Shares, Analyzes, and REPORTS STUDY PERFORMANCE DATA
Aris Global LLC recently launched its new system, globalTrials, on behalf of Yamanouchi Europe BV. GlobalTrials is a comprehensive Web-based system comprising five fully integrated modules that allow users to plan, track, and control all aspects of the clinical trial process, from study setup to database lock.
GlobalTrials enables hundreds of diverse ,globally dispersed sites to communicate, in real time, through a central hub, regardless of their local, technical, or operational infrastructure.
Benefits of the system include up-to-the-minute status of worldwide study progress; improved study management and planning; identification of study bottlenecks early in the trial, ability to track key trends, risks, and other issues over the course of the trial; reduced internal requirements, including information technology support and user training; and linking to clinical-data collection and management systems.
“With globalTrials, users receive immediate, online access to up-to-date study information in order to support their daily work,” says Annet Rozema, supervisor and project manager, Yamanouchi Europe BV. “The system is easy to use, even for people who once in a while need to access the information.”
With remote data-entry support and access via a standard Web browser, globalTrials streamlines and enhances many processes, including: study setup, project management and study metrics tracking, study subject enrollment, clinical supplies tracking, and linking clinical-data collection and management systems. The system also provides for adverse event tracking, and electronic document exchange and tracking.
PerkinElmer Launches New MICROARRY INFORMATICS PLATFORM
A recently launched microarray informatics solution will automate integrated data management from microarray spotters, scanners, and gene expression data analysis. PerkinElmer Inc.’s new platform fills a need for microarray data tracking and data analysis products that go beyond first-generation file storage formats and Excel spreadsheet analysis macros.
This set of laboratory microarray tools provides gene expression researchers with ArrayInformatics software, which automates data flow from SpotArray 24 or SpotArray 72 microarray printers and the ScanArray Express family of microarray scanners.
PerkinElmer’s integrated microarray laboratory software streamlines the microarray production and analysis process. PerkinElmer’s microarray-focused Laboratory Information Management System enables more dynamic, comprehensive process record keeping and accountability.
Follow up
ARIS GLOBAL LLC, Stamford, Conn., develops innovative software solutions that accelerate the drug-development lifecycle and assure global regulatory compliance. For more information, visit arisglobal.com.
CHOICE MEDIA INC., Somerville, N.J., is an Internet advertising sales and services company that optimizes the buying, selling, and delivering of online marketing solutions. For more information, visit choicemedia.com.
COMMONHEALTH, Parsippany, N.J., is a leading healthcare communications network and a WPPGroup company. For more information, visit commonhealth.com.
DENDRITE, Morristown, N.J., enables pharmaceutical companies to have more of their drugs prescribed for improved patient health through the strategic optimization of their sales and marketing channels and clinical resources. For more information, visit dendrite.com.
INTRALINKS, New York, a provider of digital workspaces, enables companies to effectively collaborate outside the enterprise on complex business. For more information, visit intralinks.com.
MDLINX, Washington, D.C., the Medical Specialists’ Network, is a provider of global real-time information resources for physicians and healthcare professionals. For more information, visit mdlinx.com.
PERKINELMER INC., Wellesley, Mass., is global technology leader focused in life sciences, optoelectronics, analytical instruments, and fluid science. For more information, visit perkinelmer.com
PROSCAPE TECHNOLOGIES, Fort Washington, Pa., provides marketing and sales solutions that help sales representatives deliver more content, win more time, and sell more products and services to prospects. For more information, visit proscape.com.
ROSKA DIRECT, Montgomeryville, Pa., is a full-service direct response advertising agency, specializing in both interactive and traditional media for the pharmaceutical, ecommerce, financial services, insurance, technology, and publishing industries. For more information, visit roskadirect.com.
SOFTWATCH INC., New York, is a provider of enterprise-wide Internet relationship management solutions and services for the global health and life sciences industry. For more information, visit soft watch.com.
THOMPSON PUBLISHING GROUP INC., Washington, D.C., is the authoritative source for interpretation of complex laws and regulations to professionals in the fields of energy, environment, federal grants and funding, finance and securities, food and drug law, healthcare, human resources policy, pension and benefits, and telecommunications. For more information, visit thompson.com.
THOMSON PHYSICIANS WORLD, Secaucus, N.J., is a full-service provider of medical education and communications programs for physicians and allied healthcare professionals. For more information, visit physiciansworld.com.
TRIPLE I/CLINFORMS, Teterboro, N.J., is a MediMedia USA company that specializes in healthcare communication and practice management tools. For more information, visit medimedia.com.
VERISPAN, Newtown, Pa., is a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp. that provides patient-level, longitudinal data. For more information, visit verispan.com.