New healthcare-related products, services, and companies
DVC Healthcare Launches Relationship- Marketing Practice DVC HealthCare, a division of DVC Worldwide, has expanded its service offerings to include a comprehensive relationship-marketing solution. The tool expands DVC’s ability to focus on establishing deeper, long-term relationships to improve trial recruitment, treatment adherence, and brand loyalty with healthcare professionals, customers, and patients for the pharmaceutical sector. Within the health-insurance sector, DVC plans to offer behavior-change solutions that impact product use, delivery choice selections, and health promotion and disease prevention. “Relationship marketing — the strategy of combining data and insight to build relationships with customers by meeting their needs and wants in meaningful and personalized ways — is ideally suited to address the business challenges of the healthcare industry,” says Joe Poggi, executive VP and managing director of DVC HealthCare. Daniel O’Keefe is leading the development of the new practice area. Joe Poggi Given the uncertainty of the ROI of many marketing and communication efforts, relationship marketing offers a proven, measurable strategy for healthcare firms and is a powerful extension to the marketing services DVC offers in our ethical promotion group. InChord Rebrands its Medical-Education Company The company’s new name, Cadent, reflects the company’s mission — to stay “one beat ahead” — of its clients’ needs and expectations. Cadent Medical Communications is the new identity for inChord Communications Inc.’s medical-education and communications specialty company. Previously known as S.G. Madison, the rebranded company is positioned to bring greater value to its clients through new organizational leadership and enhanced strategic focus. “The pharmaceutical and medical-education industries have undergone considerable change over the past several years,” says Mark Rickards, chief operating officer of Cadent. “While the basic goals of our clients haven’t changed dramatically, new regulations and guidelines have altered the ways in which those goals are achieved. As a result, our company has evolved to ensure that we can continue to anticipate clients’ needs and exceed their expectations.” The agency has enhanced its staff, hiring experienced pharmaceutical executives with a broad knowledge of product management and commercialization success and a deep understanding of the complexities of medical education and the associated regulations. The new name was developed in collaboration with Cadent’s sister branding company, Y. Cadent, which has traditionally focused on oncology and immunology, has recently branched out to work with clients in other therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular and central nervous system disorders. Mr. Rickards, who joined the company in January, manages the day-to-day operations of Cadent and its affiliate, the Center for Biomedical Continuing Education (CBCE). Steve Madison, who founded the company in 1994, announced his retirement from the company earlier this year. CBCE, the company’s accredited CME provider, will continue to work closely with Cadent on educational tools for physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, and its identity will remain the same. According to Mark Rickards, the rebranded Cadent is a reflection of what the company has become — solution providers with the expertise to counsel and guide clients on medical education and other product marketing issues. New Verispan Tool Delivers Market-Research Data in Near Real Time Verispan has launched a new tool for market research, sales targeting, and compensation measures for the pharmaceutical industry. Vector One provides both traditional prescription metrics and true patient measures, which include projected new patient starts, switches, continuing therapy, persistency, compliance, and diagnoses at every level, from prescriber to nation. Vector One provides both sets of metrics from a high-speed platform that is much faster than traditional Rx products. The tool also delivers the traditional new and refill prescription metrics previously available to the industry. “The old platform is slow and two-dimensional — Rx sales volume reported by prescriber,” says Greg Porter, CEO of Verispan. “Our new platform adds the critical dimension of de-identified patient data in a fully integrated view, so our customers can see the market in 3-D — prescription by prescriber and patient metrics at the same time. And all of this is delivered with unprecedented immediacy.” Verispan customers can simultaneously follow brand-switching behavior of de-identified patients down to the territory and prescriber level, with almost no reporting lag. This provides an invaluable leading indicator for optimization of both physician detailing and DTC campaigns. Vector One promptly delivers weekly data for the previous week’s activity, including key leading indicators, enabling pharmaceutical decision-makers to act in time to make a difference. Verispan’s projected prescriber products draw from one of the industry’s largest databases of longitudinal patient data and the only such database that can track de-identified patients across time, across pharmacies, across payers, and across providers. Verispan’s database exceeds 2 billion de-identified patient records annually. Greg Porter Vector One increases efficiency and effectiveness in the use of limited sales resources. With the pressure on pharma budgets, we think this is just what the doctor ordered. Health Station Kiosks Provide Targeted Advertising Opportunities for Marketers Health Station, Computerized Screening Inc.’s (CSI) recently launched DTC marketing vehicle, enables pharmaceutical marketers to reach consumers with targeted advertisements in retail locations nationwide. Health Station is a digital, freestanding kiosk featuring a complete array of health-screening tools and preventive education resources. The unit’s patented technology enables consumers to accurately track blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs, such as pulse oximetery, spirometry, and temperature. Health Station also provides instant telemedicine communication with with local healthcare providers and emergency departments. A personal medical record feature allows consumers to compile and store test results from Health Stations, physician office visits, hospitalizations, and prescription histories. Available in more than 400 pharmacies and grocery stores, Health Station delivers customized, product-specific messages to consumers while they are in the healthcare mindset and accurately measures results to maximize marketing dollars and achieve measurable ROI. The Health Station’s technology displays specific advertisements, based upon the medical assessment or test conducted by the user. Pharmaceutical marketers committed about $3 billion last year to bring product messages directly to customers. “The benchmark of effective DTC campaigns is the ability to see not only concrete evidence that consumers received messages, but to know that they have acted upon them,” says Charles Bluth, founder and CEO of CSI. “Marketers can see who has been exposed to a call-to-action, the demographic they comprise and indicators of response after a message has been received. These critical metrics are the cornerstone of measurable ROI.” Health Station produces evidence of each impression an advertisement receives, helping marketers to maximize budgets. For example, an ad receiving 1 million impressions per month, producing a response rate of 2%, would cost about two cents per impression. Health Station provides clear metrics, which indicate the number of consumers exposed to messages and how they responded, as well as help determine whether the consumer purchased products because of the advertisement. CSI is now offering DTC clients a free test market so that marketers can compare sales results from CSI locations that promote the DTC product ads, versus a panel of CSI locations that do not promote the DTC product ads. Success is guaranteed before committing valuable DTC funding. According to Charles Bluth, founder and CEO of CSI, the Health Station system generates real-time survey data, allowing marketers to see who has been exposed to a call-to-action, the demographic they comprise, and indicators of response after a message has been received. Springer Science+Business Media and Kluwer Academic Publishers to Merge The merger of Springer Science+Business Media, formerly known as Bertelsmann-Springer, and Kluwer Academic Publishers has created the second-largest professional publisher in the fields of science, technology, and medicine worldwide. Starting in the spring of 2004, the merged companies will publish 1,350 magazines and more than 5,000 book titles each year. “Through the merger of Kluwer Academic Publishers and Springer Science+Business Media, we will strengthen our market position in editorial publishing and sales and thus be better equipped to meet the tough competition in this business,” says Dr. Dietrich Götze, member of the management board at Springer Science+Business Media. “With our new owners, we will receive the necessary financial and strategic support that is needed for further growth and quality leadership.” Derk Haank, who will take on the role of CEO effective Feb. 1, 2004, will head the new company. Until that time, both publishing groups will continue to operate as separate companies. According to Dr. Dietrich Götze, member of the management board at Springer Science+ Business Media, the merger of two science publishing giants will strengthen the group’s market position in editorial publishing and sales. Follow up BertelsmannSpringer/Springer Science +Business Media, Berlin, Germany, is one of the world’s leading publishing groups for scientific and specialist literature. For more information, visit springer-sbm.com. Cadent Medical Communications, Irving, Texas, is a subsidiary of inChord Communications Inc., a global group of communications companies providing customized marketing solutions with a single point of accountability. For more information, visit cadentmed.com. Computerized Screening Inc., Sparks, Nev., is a privately held, medical-device manufacturer, healthcare technology, and marketing and information company. For more information, visit computerized-screening.com. DVC HealthCare, Morristown, N.J., a division of DVC Worldwide, combines scientific expertise with strategic and creative marketing solutions to improve the speed to market, accelerate brand uptake, and increase brand loyalty. For more information, visit dvcworldwide.com. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, is a publisher of scientific information, specializing in numerous fields within science, technology, medicine, humanities, and social sciences, with U.S. offices in New York and Boston. For more information, visit wkap.com. Verispan, Yardley, Pa., is an informatics company that provides a broad array of information products and services to the healthcare industry. For more information, visit verispan.com.