E-Detailing Online Patient Healthcare Programs: Good Medicine for Patients and the Pharmaceutical Companies That Serve Them Robert O. Likoff CEO and Founding Partner Graphic Details The business case for e-detailing healthcare professionals is now well-established throughout the pharmaceutical industry. Successful e-detailing is a personalized, highly relevant, interactive, and cost-effective tool that augments sales and marketing efforts. It lets marketers experience quality, undisturbed time with physicians (a true rarity these days) and allows for the effective delivery of quality, brand-specific information and service messages to healthcare professionals. E-detailing provides a cost-effective means to achieve greater market coverage and reach by allowing a speedy distribution of engaging brand-related messages to physicians at a time that is convenient to them. The Patient Perspective For the same reasons online physician-facing platforms are attractive and effective, online patient healthcare programs can be too. Since a proven online model for reaching target physician audiences already exists, it’s logical to use that same model to connect with patients, cultivate relationships, drive healthy behavior, and make sure that end-users are filling their prescriptions and adhering to their therapies. And the great news is that patients really want information and tools that can help them stay healthy. Patients are smarter and want more information about their conditions and therapies. Left to their own devices, patients face a sea of Websites that may provide incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate medical information. A recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, entitled Counting on the Internet, shows that more than 60% of Americans now have Internet access. More importantly, 67% of Americans with Internet access expect that they can find reliable information about health or medical conditions online. Clearly, Americans view the Internet as a mainstream tool for finding healthcare information and want help finding data they can trust. There exists, therefore, an opportunity for pharma companies to step in and tap the strength of the Internet to shepherd patients with helpful tips and truly reliable information about their conditions and the drugs they take. Successful online patient healthcare programs can facilitate a productive dialogue and help develop relationships with patients in a cost-effective and engaging way. It can give patients what they want — reliable, timely, and helpful information. And it can capture the valuable user data from them that pharma companies want. Additionally, online patient programs can lead consumers to better compliance and increased persistency, which makes for healthier patients and a healthier bottom line for the pharma companies that sponsor the programs. Developing Online Patient Programs Effective online patient programs bring adult learning theories to life, providing an opportunity to build relationships and to promote education, compliance, and persistency. The single most important factor in creating successful interactive communications is the delivery of a superior user experience. To create that user experience, follow these four principles: 1. Harness the full power of the Internet Content needs to be created with the Internet’s almost limitless potential for customization in mind. Begin with the journey’s end in mind. Use the medium to learn about your target audience. 2. Actively engage patients Make programs interactive, since this leads to active learning or learning by doing. Studies show that passive learning (reading, watching, and listening) results in retention of about 10% of the material presented, while active learning can increase retention levels to as high as 75%. 3. Respect marketing Make it all about the end-user. And when the audience weighs in, make their experience customized in real time based on their responses. When marketers do that, their participants feel as though they really care. 4. Make it enjoyable An inviting, enjoyable learning experience translates into patients who really “get” why they need their meds and develops a positive image for pharma companies, as well as increased compliance for their products. By having patients involved with data and by letting them interact with what they need to know to take care of themselves, they are far more likely to remember the brand and to continue to fill their prescriptions. Online patient programs can harness the full power of the Internet and represent an opportunity to: • Deliver consistent messages to a targeted audience • Increase share of voice • Increase promotional reach • Increase incremental scripts • Strengthen relationships with physicians and patients • Generate significant positive marketing ROI Graphic details, Montclair, N.J., is a leading healthcare communications company that serves eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies. For more information, visit about.gdetail.com. July 2005 VIEW on E-Solutions

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