About Jeff Terkowitz

Jeff Terkowitz is the Vice President of Product for Inspire. Before Inspire, Jeff was Director at Avalere Health focusing on Medicare data solutions. A graduate of Cornell University, Jeff specializes in health policy analysis and data-driven research to inform business strategy.
Vice President of Product

The Case for Online Consumer Recruiting

The Case for Online Consumer Recruiting Over the past few years, recruiting for consumer healthcare market research has undergone a drastic change. In the past, pharma clients would take their business questions to their research vendors, who could easily leverage panel companies to fill the desired project samples and ultimately deliver successful insights back to their clients. As the industry has shifted its focus to oncologic conditions, rare diseases, orphan drugs and otherwise underserved populations, vendors are struggling to access these small, unique patient populations, resulting in partial, or even total, failures in fielding. I recently addressed [...]

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Jan 2018By |0 Comments

Introducing Inspire Recruit

Introducing Inspire Recruit Commonly discussed statistics on patient enrollment and retention in clinical research paint a bleak picture. Clinical trial on-time completion rates are low--only around 20%. This is due in part to the fact that 85% of clinical trials fail to retain enough patients.1 The causes may lie in the low levels of knowledge about clinical trials. A recent survey found that only 19% of the public felt very informed about clinical trials.2 The actions of Inspire’s 1.3 million members reflect this uncertainty.  Searching Inspire for “clinical trials” yields over 50,000 unique discussions. “Looking for clinical [...]

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Jan 2018By |0 Comments

What Do Patients Wish Their Doctors Knew?

What Do Patients Wish Their Doctors Knew? For the better part of the 21st century, researchers from academia and the pharmaceutical industry have observed, recorded, and attempted to influence the physician-patient power dynamic.  As one such study revealed in 2001, both physicians and patients have “power”; but differences in “in-office priorities” – physicians’ focus on efficiency and patients’ on self-advocacy – result in missed opportunities for improved health outcomes. As my colleague, Richard Tsai wrote in Embracing The Patient-Centric Culture, “The challenge for healthcare organizations, be they government or private, is to elevate the perspectives of [...]

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Oct 2017By |1 Comment

Research Confirms: Valuable Patient-Centered Data on Inspire (Part 2)

Research Confirms: Valuable Patient-Centered Data on Inspire (Part 2) In part 1, Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance?, I shared the results of a think tank co-sponsored by the Drug Information Association (DIA) and the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium discussing the use of patient postings on social media for pharmacovigilance.  Today's post answers the question: Would Inspire’s patient-generated health discussions be useful for pharmacovigilance? Historically, pharmaceutical companies embraced a medication-focused approach to pharmacovigilance. Now, however, as R&D in the pharmaceutical industry is incorporating patient-centric methodologies in their processes, regulatory guidance is also transforming drug [...]

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Oct 2017By |0 Comments

Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance?

Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance? (Part 1) Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions by health care providers has been the keystone of pharmacovigilance.  Yet health care providers tend to under-report for a variety of reasons including lack of time, complacency, indifference, fear of medico-legal consequences or their uncertainty of the causal relationship between medication and condition.1 An unexpected opportunity to supplement spontaneous provider reliant reporting may be at hand. Communication about personal health that occurs over the Internet could be a resource for pharmacovigilance.  In June 2016, a think tank co-sponsored by the [...]

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Oct 2017By |0 Comments

What Do Patients and Caregivers Know about Immunotherapy?

What Do Patients and Caregivers Know about Immunotherapy? Inspire’s Immunotherapy Awareness and Perceptions Survey According to a 2012 study, patient activation means “having the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage one’s health.”  The study confirmed that better health outcomes are typically associated with greater patient knowledge and activation.1  As the field of oncology continues to embrace personalized medicine with immuno-oncology and immunotherapy, patient activation is essential. Today, in a world with content flooding every single channel and device we own, consumers are either over-informed, or under-informed.  A wide range of information sources, ranging from news outlets to [...]

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Sep 2017By |0 Comments

Know Your Audience: 4 Tips for Creating Compelling Sponsored Content for Inspire

Know Your Audience: 4 Tips for Creating Compelling Sponsored Content for Inspire Sponsored content or native advertising is advertising that has been integrated into the publisher’s platform so that it does not disrupt the audience’s experience.  Unlike banner ads or other advertising, the character of the content matches the native content that the publisher’s audience expects.  It has the look and feel of that platform.  The result is an almost seamless flow of content for the audience. Creating content that is smooth and harmonious with native content can be challenging when regulations need to be [...]

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Aug 2017By |0 Comments

Turning Visitors Into Customers: Introducing Sponsored Content On Inspire

Turning Visitors Into Customers: Introducing Sponsored Content On Inspire Trying to get your company’s content in front of engaged patients and caregivers is a daunting task in the information-overloaded Internet.  That’s why it’s important to look for new content discovery strategies. Sponsored Content Sponsored content is becoming the solution for many organizations.   Also called native advertising, sponsored content is a form of advertising that is integrated into the publisher’s platform. Whether a written piece, an infographic, or video, it has the look and feel of the content of that platform. Unlike banners or other advertising products that [...]

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Aug 2017By |0 Comments

Mobilizing Pharma: Mobile Apps and Devices

Mobilizing Pharma: Mobile Apps and Devices Today, fifty percent of Inspire’s members come to the community through their smartphones.  Another twenty percent came through tablets.1  Mobile behavior has changed so much in just a few years that we wondered how patients are using mobile apps on their devices to manage their health conditions. In our 2015 Annual Survey, 72% of responding Inspire members had never used mobile apps or tools for healthcare.2   By 2016, 50% of the respondents said they used these resources to manage their health.3 For the 28% that reported using mobile resources in the [...]

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Jun 2017By |0 Comments

The Case for Patient-Centric Tailoring to Improve Brand Outcomes

The Case for Patient-Centric Tailoring to Improve Brand Outcomes One of the main objectives in both marketing and health education is to reach the right individuals with the right messaging in an attempt to change their behavior.  This is the value of patient centricity in healthcare.  Patient-centric messaging not only provides useful information to patients, but also strives to motivate them to achieve positive outcomes, leveraging a communication style with which they are comfortable.  A meta-analysis of tailored, web-based content indicates these interventions can impact behavioral outcomes and help people maintain these behaviors over time.1  A separate meta-analysis [...]

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May 2017By |0 Comments