PHARMA NEWS, MULTICHANNEL & CROSSCHANNEL MAKETING

Pfizer has launched a new mobile app for patients suffering from depression that it hopes will enable them to take a more active role in managing their condition.
The firm wants its new Moodivator app to complement treatment and says it can do so in a simple and efficient way.
The free iPhone app allows patients to set goals, track their moods using a simple scale and share their progress with their care team.
It also includes information about one of Pfizer's prescription treatments for depression, but the company says the app is not intended to take the place of doctors' care or advice.

A new study released by mobile engagement provider Mobiquityexposes the “gap between patients’ demand for taking control of their own health and the accessibility or availability of digital and mobile tools when it comes to the management of chronic health conditions.”

The study revealed that one third of patients with chronic diseases don’t currently use mobile apps to manage their conditions, but would like to start.

In fact, the report summary notes, one in four respondents feel that “wearable devices are the way of the future.”

Interestingly, almost 50 percent of patients believe they should bring information/digital tools to their doctor – rather than the other way around – reinforcing their desire to be actively involved in managing their health rather than trust their doctors to exclusively manage it.

When asked about the most challenging aspects of managing their conditions, 26 percent of respondents agree that finding direct means of communicating with health professionals presents the biggest hurdle. Other top challenges include:

• Monitoring changes in health (25%)
• Remembering to take medication (20%)
• Keeping up to date with medical advancements, treatments, etc. (18%)

“It’s clear the potential for digital solutions is vast: 40 percent of respondents feel mobile tools play an important role in overall healthcare,” the report summary reads.

Health care professionals have more experience in selecting and processing digital information than the industry has experience in making it! Whereas information for healthcare professionals is basically about reliable and valid information, the format of it should be both appealing and interactively enough to gain and hold the interest of the professionals.

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Indeed: “Pharma companies are far from realizing their App market potential,” is the conclusion of research done. See here. Seven in ten doctors even have a self-tracking patient, says Manhattan reserach, quoted here. See some other statistics on tele- and mhealth here. Health care is moving towards integrated care in eHealth: 76% of Patients Would Choose Telehealth Over Human Contact with their care provider! (survey).

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There is a definite expectation among health care professionals about the impact of digital information to the quality of care. Beyond information on the drug itself, one is definitely in need of information about both background and consequences of using the drug in the perspective of practice of care: how would the drug facilitate the process of care, patients’ compliance, outcome of care and both patients’ and physicians’ satisfaction with their use.

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Based upon the survey results above, one would like to add the third dimension: development!
Development of dynamic edetails is more crucial than to produce a good looking app. Apps need to further interactivity and engagement. They must stimulate the journey of the professional through the information about the drug, leading to connectedness both for persons of reference and for further information. Indeed the very relationship with other (multichannel) sites and communications is relevant to the attractiveness to target professionals.

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But still another aspect is crucial to success in the long run: how does the organization respond to the challenges that edetailing poses to the firm’s current routines of promotion? Creating an app is one. But to handle it in promotion to doctors and other health professionals demands internal training and organization.

..It means that the design of the app and its use needs to follow the pace of individual learning and of internal change and development; a change that would also relate to development of internal culture of orientation: from an “inside-out product orientation”, to an “outside-in orientation on best practice of therapy”!