Inspire’s MS Community Overcomes Patient Isolation with Peer-to-Peer Support and Experience

Inspire’s MS Community Overcomes Patient Isolation with Peer-to-Peer Support and Experience By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Over 15,000 members of Inspire have interest in, searched for, or have posted about multiple sclerosis (MS). Members have written over 4000 posts and more than 2000 searches have been conducted on MS. Pharmaceutical marketers wonder if patients discuss medications with each other online. The answer is a definitive yes. Patients also discuss what they learned online about treatments with their health care provider. It is not unusual for members to reach out after just being diagnosed. “I was just [...]

What Touchpoints Influence Drug Compliance for Chronic Illnesses?

What Touchpoints Influence Drug Compliance for Chronic Illnesses? By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Recent marketing research from Google shows that it takes 50-500 touchpoints to influence a purchase decision. While the study focused on common non-medical purchases (headphones, airline flights, beauty products, and candy), the authors point out an important shift in the concept of marketing touchpoints: Today, people are no longer following a linear path from awareness to consideration to purchase. They are narrowing and broadening their consideration set in unique and unpredictable moments. In fact, the authors of a study titled “Chronic Illness Medication [...]

Lost Voice: Addressing healthcare inefficiencies through patient equality

Lost Voice: Addressing healthcare inefficiencies through patient equality After attending the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS ) 2018 in Las Vegas in March, Christina Farr, the CNBC reporter who covers health and technology, tweeted I have one observation post-HIMSS, now that i'm back in SF. There was an elephant in the room, so I'll just say it. We'll all be patients and/or caregivers someday. So are we going to fix health care now, while we can, or continue to make $ through the current inefficiencies? — Christina Farr (@chrissyfarr) March 8, 2018 Defining patients Farr’s tweet [...]

The Patient-Industry Connection: Building Brand Loyalty

The Patient-Industry Connection: Building Brand Loyalty Many patients don’t know which pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the medications they take. What Patients Say About Their Relationship With Industry Over the last two years, Inspire’s Annual Survey illustrates this insight with little change from year to year. Despite regular medication usage, the majority of respondents had limited, if any, knowledge of the manufacturer of their treatment(s).  At most, 14 percent of responding patients and caregivers reported having a ‘relationship’ with these companies, characterized by utilizing such resources as educational materials or financial assistance or communicating with them directly. [...]

Adherence and Compliance: Is Our Language Patient Centric?

Adherence and Compliance: Is Our Language Patient Centric? T1 HATE hate hate hate the word "adherence." Makes pts who cannot follow instructions to the letter seem like unruly children. #hchlitss — Laurel Ann Whitlock (@twirlandswirl) March 27, 2015 1 During a tweetchat held in March 2015, patients with chronic conditions shared their feelings about the words adherence and compliance.  The above tweet illustrates the tone of that chat. The language of medication taking According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, compliance is “the act or process of doing what you have been asked or ordered to do.” 2 [...]