The mobile revolution is here. While the word revolution gets overused, the point is, you need a mobile strategy to reach audiences on the go (whether they are healthcare professionals, patients or caregivers). For this post, I boiled down the mass of information and strategies out there to create a quick, insider’s guide to mobile. So, here you go:

1.Right-size Your Content. DON’T take your entire brand.com website and try and make it mobile friendly. It won’t be. Instead, serve up pared back content that gives your audience only what they need—while they’re on the go.

2. Integrate Into Everyday Life. Physicians, nurses, patients and caregivers are not technologists. They just happen to be people who use technology as a part of their everyday life. Ensure your content, app, whatever—make their jobs easier. Make the management of their disease easier. Make their discussion with one another easier and more productive.

3. Make It Easy to Find. You put a lot of time and money into your solution. But nobody’s going to use your great solution if they can’t find it. So, market it. Optimize it for mobile search. Promote it using mobile media and traditional/digital channels.

4. Measure Your Success. Put the metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in place to know if you hit the mark (or more important if you just released a dud). Prove the value not only to your audience, but the senior management team that funded that puppy. It’s how you’ll know you made an impact in the lives of the people you touched, and also have the data to secure the funding for your next big initiative.

And, don’t lose sight of the core foundation for building any solid strategy (digital or otherwise).

• Gather Insights. You need to truly know your audience, whether HCPs, pharmacists, patients or caregivers.
• Make it Relevant. Understand what’s important to your customers. It’s not about shouting out your message or app, it’s about giving them what they want and fulfilling their needs.
• Provide Value. Whatever you’re offering—content, dosing apps, co-pay offsets—provide value. It’ll create connections and establish relationships that will pay dividends big time.

Think I missed any major steps or buckets? Email me or post a comment below.

By Kurt Mueller, Chief Digital & Science Officer
Roska Healthcare Advertising

Broadband access to the Internet has become commonplace. And, the desire to view online video by healthcare professionals only continues to increase. Until recent, Adobe Flash (flv format) has been the industry standard for viewing online video; however, its popularity with marketers (and their tech teams) have dropped over time for a variety of reasons. One key reason is that Flash is not compatible with the most popular mobile devices (iPhone, iPod, and iPad). While Apple rocked as the device leader for the past 3 years, it’s kept Flash from being the video star of mobile.

Last September, Adobe saw the writing on the wall and announced their media server (Adobe's Flash Media Server 4.5) will have the ability to detect any device visiting a website and determine the best format to stream content. Sounds great, but two concerns with the Flash Media Server still exist:

1. It currently only supports Flash video formats (flv)

2. In some cases, it’s cost prohibitive to install and maintain

While interesting from a technology and ‘geek’ perspective, what does all this mean to marketers?  How can one user experience be created that’s as seamless as possible, cost effective to deploy across all devices, and not give design and tech teams fits?

So, I assessed the present situation and came up with a realistic approach to serving video across the majority of browsers and devices, with as little duplication of effort an assets as possible, making the marketer, creative, tech team, and client happy.

Present Situation
Whether you’re marketing to healthcare professionals or consumers, most are consuming video on various devices. Whether performing research, viewing testimonials, watching presentations, or just plain hitting Netflix or YouTube, video consumption is becoming more popular every day. And, if your online/digital campaigns don’t or can’t display video across the majority of desktop and mobile devices, you’re missing big opportunities to connect with your audience.

Potential Solution
The good news is there’s a format called “m4v” available that uses “H.264” (the same compression used for BlueRay DVDs). When used together, they create a neat little video format that will play across virtually any mobile/tablet device and in the Flash player itself. Based on our tests, it performs well on mobile and may offer a potential solution for overcoming the limitations of Flash video formats.

Recommendation 
Implementing the solution above is not that hard. And, it let’s you leverage a single video asset (as opposed to creating different videos for different devices). All you need to do is tell your agency, creative, or tech team to have your website detect the device and web browser hitting your website before it loads. If the browser can handle HTML5 and on an Apple device, play the H.264 video right through the browser. On the other hand, if the browser is older and the device is anything other than an Apple product, load Flash and play the H.264 video through Flash.

The end result? With a few lines of code, and one video file, you can unify the video user experience across virtually all browsers and devices. 

If there’s anything I’ve missed or you want to continue the debate, leave a message in the comments or contact me directly.

By Dennis Hatcher, Director of Technology

I’ve read countless blog posts, POVs and articles discussing the new FDA social media guidelines released in December of last year (cleverly worded as “Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices.”)

Most people reading this blog don’t have the hour in their day needed to read the actual document, decipher it (let’s face it, the title alone is somewhat cryptic), and most important figure out what to do with it.

So, I created the cheat sheet below that can easily be read over your next coffee break or between meetings.

Point 1. The FDA is expressing trust and faith in us. (so let’s not screw it up). In writing, the FDA recognizes:

• Firms are capable of responding to requests about their own products in a truthful, non-misleading, and accurate manner
• It can be in the best interest of public health for a firm to respond to an unsolicited request about off-label use of its products (after all, who knows the most about the product than the manufacturer?)
• If a firm responds to unsolicited requests the FDA does not intend to use the firm’s response as evidence of intent that the product be used for unapproved or unclear use (reading between the lines…no FDA warning letter if you follow the rules)

Point 2. There is finally FDA draft guidance on what we can do – respond to unsolicited requests for information about off-label use.  For this point I’ll focus on public requests only (those viewable on a website, YouTube channel, Facebook, etc.) The same principles apply regardless of whether the information was posted to a digital property you own, or on completely independent properties on which you choose to inject/respond.

1. Your medical team should respond, not your marketing team.

2. Your answer should be tailored to the specific request (don’t go broader or you’ll receive the letter you wish you hadn’t). To be completely safe, it may be best to pull information straight from your PI.

3. Information provided should be truthful, accurate and balanced (see point 2 above).

4. Information should help direct people to the right information and right resource. Give them an appropriate number for medical affairs to properly discuss their request. Be proactive and state that the request is for a use that has not been approved or cleared by the FDA. State your actual indication and provide a link to the full prescribing and safety information in your response. And, make sure you provide adequate risk information so your response is truly balanced.

Point 3. Read between the lines. Nowhere in the guidance does it state off-label statements or requests must be deleted. Read this point 3 times out loud at your next med/legal review. Then, enlightening the group by stating that if one person is requesting this information, many people are requesting it. Leaving the post visible, with a properly-worded response would not only help the original poster, but all those having that same request (just remember – those responses are of an enduring nature, so keep an eye on your label and track your responses to ensure you update everything if your label changes). Another interesting point is that nowhere in the document does the FDA provide guidance around on-label requests. This, in conjunction with Point 1 above, is a little cue that we should keep innovating and exploring (responsibly) in the on-label promotion/conversation space.

Point 4. Maintain and file your records. You should always maintain and file all responses.  Not only is is good for you (and provides a proper audit trail), but submitting them on a regular basis to the FDA will also show good faith and keep the agency at the forefront of technology and consumer health.

Summary
This is a first step by the FDA. I’m hopeful there will be future hearings and additional guidance that allows us to innovate and better connect with physicians, patients and caregivers.

Remember what I said in Point 1. The FDA is expressing confidence in us.  Let’s not screw it up.

If there’s anything I’ve missed or you want to continue the debate, leave a message in the comments or contact me directly.

By Kurt Mueller, Chief Digital & Science Officer