MedIntelliBlog™

Intelligence on our life sciences industry is widely scattered and tough to track. Keep up to date with “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News on MedIntelliBlog. You can access and/or subscribe to the 25-story feed by visiting:

• Scrolling View
• Static View
• Subscribe to RSS feed

Current News “Top Picks” by MIB Editors…

Some health insurance rates are skyrocketing
The Morning Call, 2010-06-09
“Gov. Ed Rendell has ordered the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to investigate “truly…”

Regeneron’s $2 Billion Research Push Mimics Genentech (Update3)
Bloomberg Businessweek, 010-06-09
“Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported a successful study result in its new drug for treating…”

New Health Affairs Issue: Implementing Health Reform
Health Affairs Blog, 2010-06-08
“State and federal officials, insurers, and health care providers face thousands of important…”

Can The NIH Really Monitor Conflicts Of Interest?
Pharmalot, 2010-06-07
“For the past two years, the National Institutes of Health has been pressured by Congress to do…”

Most Read News from Last Week…

Healthcare and the Supply Chain: Why Values Must Precede Strategy
Spend Matters, 2010-06-02
France joins European price-cutting drive
FiercePharma, 2010-06-02
NASDAQ Continues Expansion Within Healthcare Technology Sector With Addition of…
MarketWatch, 2010-06-02
Is A Double Whammy Ahead for Hospitals and Healthcare Reform?
HealthLeaders Media, 2010-06-01

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Jordan Zornes – Editor & Senior Analyst

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko – Senior Editor

Subscribe to “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News

The recent article in The Economist published February 27, cited previously in this blog on March 10, examines how “The data deluge*,” information overload, however you refer to it, will lead to our demise.

One critical issue is available storage and reliable access. According to the publication and IDC, information created now exceeds available storage by 50%. However, in a mere 1 1/2 years from now information created estimated at 1,750 exabytes will exceed storage by over 100%! Where will that leave us in 2012? 2015? 2020?

For your company, can you honestly answer that you, your CIO and IT team will be ready to manage this exponential growth in volume projected by 2011? Best to establish a plan for a scalable content management structure now.

Let us help you master your business and competitor intelligence content management.

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko
Senior Editor

* To read more about this subject visit The Economist editorial page, “The data deluge,” and associated feature article. “Data, data everywhere,” in the February 27, 2010 issue at the The Economist online.

Let’s applaud Gienna Shaw at HealthLeaders Media for insight into a new intelligence that presently dismissive patient care maps miss.

Gienna’s article, “Ready or Not, Tech-Savvy e-Patients are Coming,” shares a glimpse of how simple doctor-patient communications can be. It’s observations are simple – doctors can use “e-information exchange” via emails and patient-centric educational websites with databases storing critically key articles to patient education…amazing simple yet profoundly incomprehensible in today’s paper-intensive healthcare system. And it’s exactly like we use in our daily business and personal lives? Yes, exactly.

There’s a critical  message here – intelligent patient care is most cost-effective when it is direct and easy to use.

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko – Senior Editor

Intelligence on economic issues critical to our life sciences industry is widely scattered and tough to track. Keep up to date with “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News on MedIntelliBlog. You can access and/or subscribe to the 25-story feed by visiting:

• Scrolling View
• Static View
• Subscribe to RSS feed

Current News “Top Picks” by MIB Editors…

AstraZeneca Case Rewards Repeat Whistleblowers With $45 Million
Bloomberg Businessweek, 2010-05-12
“Blowing the whistle on drugmakers is becoming a habit for a salesman and a psychiatrist…”

Biotech venture capitalist takes networking to the highest level
The Post-Bulletin, 2010-05-10
“For venture capitalist G. Steven Burrill, nearly every day is choreographed, pre-scheduled by…”

Healthcare is a headache for GOP candidates in California
Los Angeles Times, 2010-05-10
“Republican candidates across the nation are confident that opposition to President Obama’s…”

Repeal health care reform? 41 states think so
Huffington Post, 2010-05-10
“With the news that 41 states are trying to repeal part or all of the recent health reform law…”

Most Read News from Last Week…

Gov. Doyle: At BIO 2010, Governor Doyle announces Wisconsin to host national conference
Wisconsin Business Council, 2010-05-04

$1 billion in cash grants available soon for emerging growth life sciences companies
Association of Corporate Counsel, 2010-05-03

National Cancer Institute Awards $1 Million in SBIR Funding to BioMarker Strategies
BusinessWire via EarthTimes, 2010-05-03

Health costs keep rising as reform misses mark
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, 2010-05-03

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Jordan Zornes – Editor & Senior Analyst

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko – Senior Editor

Subscribe to “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News

Intelligence on economic issues pertinent to our life sciences industry is widely scattered and tough to track. Keep up to date with “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News. The second Wednesday of each month, we will post this Breaking News on MedIntelliBlog. You can also access it as a feed and/or subscribe to it by visiting its:

• Scrolling View
• Listed View
• Subscribe

See what your fellow readers voted the “Top 4 Most Read” News Articles of Last Week:

RMG Networks Extends into Pharmacies with Acquisition
Biotech Week, 2010-03-31
“RMG Networks announced the acquisition of Pharmacy TV, a digital place-based video network deployed near the pharmacist counter in major grocery chains and pharmacy…”

911 operations losing funds
The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News, 2010-03-29
“As an increasing number of Pennsylvanians drop their landline phones and use only cell phones, county 911 centers statewide are feeling the financial pinch…”

MedShape Solutions, Inc. Announces Commercialization of SBIR Funded Technology: Receives Purchasing Preference in Federally Funded Hospitals and Health Care Facilities
Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week, 2010-03-28
“MedShape Solutions announced that it is pursuing Phase III SBIR awards and has received preferred vendor status at Veterans Health Administration Hospitals…”

DNA Medicine Institute Awarded NIH Grant for Emergency Point-of-Care Blood Sensor
Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week, 2010-03-27
“The DNA Medicine Institute, a commercial organization focused on advancing human health through innovation, announced that it has been awarded a Phase I SBIR grant…”

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Jordan Zornes – Editor & Senior Analyst

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko – Senior Editor

Subscribe to “Economic Issues in U.S. Healthcare” Breaking News

As with our life sciences industry, any industry that relies on technology to diagnose, mitigate or solve a problem, needs to take a strategic view of how that technology is applied and managed.

Applying the technology to the problem is typically the job of senior applications and design engineers. Extending its application to making it manufacturable is the responsibility of the senior manufacturing engineers.

But managing the technology can be assigned to any number of functional managers from engineering to marketing to business development to senior management.

No matter who assumes the role, your management team needs to be well-informed with intelligence. And not just commercial or industry intelligence but technology application intelligence. In our life sciences industry, this technology as applied to the problem is considered a clinical or medical application.

So whose responsibility is it to track clinical competitive intelligence to make strategic business decisions? Clinical research? Marketing communications? Business development? Competitive intelligence? Let’s propose a hybrid between clinical research and marketing to create “Clinical Marketing.”

Clinical marketing does not manage the daily marketing communications, marketing messaging or sales support roles.  Clinical marketing (CM) guides the clinical research team and reports to senior management, closely tracking competitor activity, clinical research results,  new physician practice patterns, off label uses, and more to understand the market and strategically layout the course organization will follow. CM also keeps a close eye on clinical research results, medical findings and technology developments to interpret and broadcast their potential impact to prevent your company from being caught by surprise enabling it to surpass the competition.

Assign a new function, that of clinical marketing to keep your management team alert, knowledgeable and insightful, giving your company the market advantage.

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko

Senior Editor

Just a simple thought this week…share your company’s competitive intelligence across your organization. DO NOT restrict it to a few senior management team members or within a specific department. If you do not share it, your company (and YOU) are more likely doomed to an inevitable blunder.

Case in point, a few days ago an associate and I were talking about a recent peripheral vascular clinical trial…(the name of the companies and trial are withheld to protect confidences. But to make it real, insert one of your past company’s names and a pivotal trial that was critical at the time. The salient point is the lesson learned.)…Each week the clinical research team tracked medical conference proceedings, The Gray Sheets, press releases, any source that had hints of what the outcome of the competing sponsor’s trial would mean for its own stent. But the marketing team was confident that trial results would prove in favor of stenting. The team was preoccupied with executing its marketing strategy – developing collateral materials, demo kits, communications for its customers, patients and sales team. The list went on. However, no one in the marketing department, not even the senior managers bothered to meet with the clinical research team until the trial results were within weeks of release. The results did not favor stenting. It caught managers in marketing and up the line flat-footed. Heads rolled and many were demoted or fired.

There is major lesson to be learned here – enlighten all the members on your project team. Give them access to the same intelligence that you subscribe to. Your companies have enterprise subscriptions, so use them to keep your teams informed.

And don’t be cheap. If there is a per-user subscription fee, pay it for each of the key folks on your team. Everyone has to be informed and up-to-speed to do his/her job well. The few extra dollars spent are inconsequential compared to the expense of an entire 5-10 year development program derailed and jobs lost.

Next week, we’ll explore a new breed, a hybrid between clinical research and traditional marketing…”clinical marketing.”

Stay alert, be intelligent -

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko

Senior Editor

This week in Seattle at the Washington Biotech and Biomedical Association (WBBA) Innovation Northwest 2010 conference, the organizers convened an outstanding panel of three of the remaining top life science reporters in the region. These highly respected business and industry reporters included Kristi Heim from the last remaining regional newspaper, the Seattle Times; Keith Seinfeld from one of the local National Public Radio (NPR) stations, KPLU; and Luke Timmerman from the newly emerging online biotech and tech source, Xconomy. All three agreed that with the wrenchingly painful slow demise of the print newspaper industry, the meat and bone of their news industry is nearing extinction. With evaporating operating budgets from loss of large advertisers and classified ads, newspapers’ staffs are shrinking. Along with them go our diamonds – investigative reporters. And along with them goes our collective “informed state,” our intelligence as a nation.

This disruptive force is epidemic across the U.S. It’s scary but excitingly new.

At the same time new sources of news and information are exploding around us. The Economist* calls news and information “data.” But with no standards to manage that data, delivering it in one or two formats, or to editorialize to give that data a frame of reference, we are inundated. Bombardment comes from the relatively new – emails, feeds, twitters, online social and professional networking sites, cells, text messages – and the old – newspapers, magazines, TV, radio. The list goes on.

What do we do about it nationally? There are many business models being developed by those who are better informed on comprehensive news investigation and delivery than I.

In the biotech and medtech industries, we can do much to take responsibility for keeping ourselves informed about medical advances and medical industry news. To remain intelligent ourselves we must be “plugged-in,” informed. The key is to do so without becoming overwhelmed with data or worse, sound bites.

Just as our pharmaceutical and biotech industries portend the rise of “personalized medicine,” so should each of us now pursue “personalized news” or “personalized intelligence.” This conscious management of our information sources is essential to making timely, wise decisions in our medical business sectors. We as senior managers cannot afford to miss critical “nuggets” or “diamonds” of information or to waste our team’s time digging for them. Our sources need to be laser sharp and precise, eliminating extraneous distractions. These sources need to be intelligently selected tools that effectively integrate into one or at most two of our communications devices to best serve our needs.

Start simply, intelligently. In marketing stats or math classes when you used multi-variant analysis you introduced or changed one variable at a time. You did not know what variable affected a precise outcome until you changed just that one variable. This is the same with your sources of information. With your device of choice in hand, it’s time to move onto selecting medical intelligence source as tools to equip your intelligence toolkit. We’ll start those first steps later this month.

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko

Senior Editor

* To read more about this subject visit The Economist editorial page, “The data deluge,” and associated feature article. “Data, data everywhere,” in the February 27, 2010 issue at The Economist online.

Keeping up with the deluge of information that is coming at you every day – from email, news feeds and online…even low tech mail, newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV – is becoming daunting. Wherever you are it never ends. Streaming 24/7.

The periodical The Economist perfectly summarizes our present situation in its February 27, 2010 issue editorial page, “The data deluge:”

“Everywhere you look, the quantity of information in the world is soaring. According to one estimate, mankind created 150 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of data in 2005. This year, it will create 1,200 exabytes. Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analyzing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still. Even so, the data deluge is already starting to transform business, government, science and everyday life…It has great potential for good – as long as consumers, companies and governments make the right choices…“

That is what MedIntelliBlog is about – helping you learn how to make the right choices, intelligent choices, when managing information in your daily business lives.

The editors at The Economist go on to say that, “Plucking the diamond from the waste,” has been mastered by a mere handful of industries – credit card companies, insurance firms, mobile phone operators, and retailers – and, of course, government agencies.*

You as executives of the life sciences industry need to embrace doing the same. You need to master the deluge of information, culling it to get the precise intelligence that you need.

The editors at MedIntelliBase have conceived this blogspace, at Blog.MedIntelliBase.com, to:

• give you insights on how to remain focused on getting the precise intelligence you need
• prevent you and your organization from becoming overwhelmed by information overload
• most importantly, prevent you from missing critical nuggets of intelligence that will help you make the right business decision…the first time…and every time

Each week MedIntelliBlog editors will post proven solutions to the information deluge and offer quick tips to selecting intelligent management tools. To read more in the coming weeks join our subscriber list.

We look forward to helping you master your market, business and competitor intelligence.

Victoria Hunsicker Sanko
Senior Editor

* To read more about this subject visit The Economist editorial page, “The data deluge,” and associated feature article. “Data, data everywhere,” in the February 27, 2010 issue at the The Economist online.