Pharma 2.0

Finally! We have a real-world example of how pharma can engage with social media. Last week, J&J launched a health channel on YouTube featuring short videos on a range of health topics. NBC’s chief medical guru Nancy Snyderman used to work at J&J and created many of the videos that will appear on the site. J&J spokesman Marc Monseau, who also blogs at JNJBTW, commented, “There had been a number of videos produced when Nancy worked in our corporate communications office. We were tasked with figuring out how to use these, and we realized that they would be very useful online.”

So they chose YouTube, which I think is a wise move. Go where the action is. With 80 million users, YouTube is a major destination and information hub. Plus, every imaginable (and some you’d never imagine) health topic already exists on YouTube in video form. I’ve used it to learn about conditions and love hearing from real people about their experiences. J&J’s videos will clearly be different - better quality, expert-led (via Dr. Snyderman) opinion pieces - but I suspect they’ll find an audience.

J&J was among the first healthcare companies to create a corporate blog - JNJBTW (mentioned above). They seem genuinely interested in engaging health consumers online. I was a bit surprised at the topic they chose for their YouTube debut: teenage gastric bypass surgery and related obesity. Not that it’s a bad topic, just not very J&J (IMHO). Nevertheless, it’s a start. Good for you, J&J.

Consumer Reports Health promised me they’d rate my prescription drugs “with the same expertise and independence [they] use to rate cars, electronics and appliances.” Who could resist an offer like that? I’ve been pretty happy with our GE fridge for about 10 years so I signed up. The initial email touted a $5 annual subscription, but by the time I got around to visiting the site it had gone up to $19. Still that’s not too much for a site that “provides objective, evidence-based Ratings for medical treatments, drugs and natural medicines.”

I searched for the drugs my family takes but came away disappointed. CRH does not rate Rx drugs, rather they provide information like why a drug is prescribed, its side effects, and how to use it. While CRH posts that they do not rely on drug package inserts and manufacturer claims and instead use info provided by the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists, there is nothing here that I couldn’t find on a public, non-fee site. I then went looking under Conditions & Treatments for specific topics. The current list of topics is small, much more so than what I’ve seen on sites like OrganizedWisdom, which is free.

Still I’ll give them a chance now that I’ve forked over my 19 bucks. Their Healthy Living section seems more robust, which makes sense since they are at heart a consumer organization, not a clinical one. They have also announced plans to launch a hospital ratings service. According to the email, it will rate about 3,000 U.S. hospitals on the intensity of care for nine serious medical conditions.

I haven’t posted in longer than I had intended - too much work and too much vacation. But I’m back and interested in talking about what is going on in healthcare and gaming. I had no idea!

A few months back I met Doug Goldstein at a conference and he introduced me to the idea of games and health through his company Gaming4Health. Check out his site which is rich in material on this exciting space. Then in late May I read that the venerable Robert Wood Johnson Foundation had awarded $2 million in grants to fund 12 research studies through its Health Games Research program. Intrigued I wanted to learn more.

The theory is that employing interactive games as part of the treatment paradigm in certain health situations may lead to significantly better outcomes. The funded studies will use a range of technologies to gauge the effectiveness of digital games on improving health. Here are some examples:

• Stroke patients will use Wii and EyeToy to assess whether they help in regaining motor skills. (University of South Carolina)
• Children with cystic fibrosis will test a breath biofeedback video game to determine whether it improves their self-administration of inhaled medicines, engagement in respiratory exercises and awareness of their respiratory status may also be useful for children and adults with asthma and other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (University of Vermont, School of Medicine)
• Type 2 diabetics (18 and older) will use online mobile minigames to learn how to estimate carbohydrates and calories in food portions, which should help them to attain better blood sugar control. (University of Washington, School of Medicine)
• College freshmen will participate in BloomingLife: The Skeleton Chase, a mystery that unfolds over eight weeks, and incorporates physical and mental challenges. It is an alternative reality game designed to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles. (Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation)
• Overweight children (9 to 17) will use either Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) or a pedometer to test which leads to better outcomes such as enjoyment, body mass index and body composition. (Maine Medical Center)

What fertile ground for pharma - and everyone interested in health outcomes - to explore. The idea of combining fun with health makes all the sense in the world…if it works.