New (to me) Blog: Patient Centric Healthcare

I am always searching the Pharma Blogosphere for comments and opinions I can quote in the articles I write for Pharma Marketing News. Sometimes, bloggers send me their comments directly. That's how I learned about The Patient Centric Healthcare Blog written by George Van Antwerp. He sent me his comments on why many pharmaceutical marketers ignore ROI and rely upon anecdotal evidence:

1. They haven't been forced to;
2. They don't clearly understand the success metrics and what is causality versus correlation; and
3. They data is hard to get to using traditional mediums such as letters.

That being said. I have never had the luxury of launching programs without a way of tracking and demonstrating ROI. I haven't worked for pharma, but I have worked in the PBM and now HealthComm industry. It is possible (and difficult).

You can read more about Pharma Marketing ROI in the next issue of Pharma Marketing News. For a preview of that issue, click here.

Meanwhile, here's how George describes his blog:

This blog (formerly The Patient Advocate) contains my thoughts about healthcare. It is generally focused on marketing related issues from a patient perspective. After working in healthcare, my opinion is that most companies today think of patients as claims. I advocate that healthcare needs to be more like consumer products and think differently about how they interact...both for their own personal benefits and for the patients.

George may not have pharmaceutical companies and products top of mind when he says "healthcare needs to be more like consumer products." Who knows what the world would be like if that was how pharma marketers thought of their products? Come to think of it, that IS how they think! Still, it could be worse. See, for example, "Marketing Drugs Like Packaged Goods at the Super Bowl."

Let's give a hardy welcome to Patient Centric Healthcare, the newest member of the Pharma Blogosphere family!