ePatient conference: Ten big ideas (Day 2)

Seth Quillin (the EVP of innovation in GSW's digital lab) and I were in Philadephia this week for ePatient 2010 - a conference that brings together lots of people like us who are dedicated to reaching, engaging and educating epatients and caregivers. Who are they? Patients and caregivers who’ve become empowered and engaged advocates for their own care through the social web and connected communities.

We were both live blogging from the conference floor on WhatsYourDigitaliQ.com, but of all the great talks we heard, these are the essential ideas -

Ten big ideas from Day 2:

1. Medicine is moving online (fast). Kaiser Permanente has over 3 million people enrolled in its online health management system. In the second quarter, those people sent over 2.6 million emails to their physicians. 


2. Pharma's selling cycle hurts digital investments: Product launches inspire big investments, but they're often quickly abandonned once a list is built or a product matures. Patients don't trust that pharma-sponsored destinations will be/stay there.


3. Big trend in wellness = powerful sensors. Products like Zeo let engaged patients be active participants in their own health. More engaged patients need better tools.


4. Medicine will only change by example. Docs have four years of medical school. That sounds like a long time until you think – the amount of medical information doubles every 3-5 years. Docs have a lot to learn and keep learning. New skills (like writing, video conferencing, sharing) can't be taught that way (what would be left out to teach them?)  We need to get to a critical mass of doctors who think this way and practice this way to teach by example.


5. We're ready for quick response: Kurt Mueller at Roska Digital said that 45% of US is QR ready; 95%, Japan; 75%, Europe


6. Your competition online isn't other products. It's everything else on the internet. People are watching the Family Guy on Hulu, not camping out on your competitor's new blog.


7. Medical journalism is "sideways." Twenty years ago, medical journalists tended to open their advance copies of JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine to write stories. The medical news was top down. Now personal stories reflect bigger challenges in navigating the healthcare system.


8. Nonspecific guidance IS coming. Barabara Chong from DDMAC reported that the agency will release multiple rounds of online and social guidance - the first of which should come out this year. But, the guidance will be general, not targeted to specific destinations, like Facebook


9. We need to think about ePatients when we design clinical trials. The big opportunities are making them more participatory (enroll from anywhere) and more patient centric (share clinical data back with enrolled patients to allow them to increase their own health and wellness or decrease their medical costs)


10. Storytelling breaks through. Novartis reported that 78% of docs were motivated to change their behavior after seeing a film about life with cystic fibrosis. The difference? Real storytelling that followed the three-act format of compelling entertainment (The three acts)

Also see: Ten big ideas (Day 1)