Homeopathy the THIRD FRONT in medicine

Everybody has heard about Homeopathy, but never understood how it helps us. Lot of patients have beneficted from Homeopathy, but hardly anybody promotes it. Traditionally homeopathy has been in existence for more than two centuries. But it received widepread public attention through its effectiveness during epidemics of cholera in the 19th century. During the great influenza epidemic of the 1920's, homeopathic hospitals reported low death rates, while hospitals employing conventional medicine reported death rates of 20% to 30%.
Since the late '40's, double blind trials testing homeopathy on various medical conditions have led to mixed results. Some are claimed to support the use of homeopathy. In other cases, this method of evaluation proved itself incapable of documenting the success of homeopathic cures.
In a report published in the September 20, 1997 issue of Lancet, Dr. Wayne Jonas, head of the Office of Alternative medicine, and Dr. Klaus Linde, concluded that, when the evidence of the 89 studies of homeopathy judged to be of good quality was pooled, homeopathy was deemed to be 2.45 times more effective than placebo.
In 1996, an unpublished study from the Homeopathic Medicine Research Group, an organization formed by the European Union to determine the effectiveness of homeopathy, concluded that homeopathy was more effective than a placebo... and the probability was only 0.027% that this result might be due to chance! Remarkably, a group skeptical toward homeopathy had assisted in the study's design.
In the February 9, 1991 issue of the British Medical Journal, an analysis by two Dutch researchers asked to assess the efficacy of various forms of alternative medicine, reported that although initially they had been sceptics as to homeopathy and alternative medicine in general, "The amount of positive results came as a surprise to us... The evidence presented in this review would probably be sufficient for establishing homeopathy as a regular treatment for certain indications."
Another, more recent, study stated “Compared with placebo, homeopathy provoked a clear, significant, and clinically relevant improvement in nasal inspiratory peak flow, similar to that found with topical steroids.” British medical Journal August 19th 2000.
http://www.hpathy.com/homeopathy/homeopathy.asp

The basic law of Homeopathy is let like cure like. This means that the appropriate substance to treat a disease is one which induces similar symptoms in a healthy person. Then, it is crucial to know the symptoms associated with various substances, remedial pathogeneses.

Their have been lot of communities promoting Homeopathy, like http://i-heal.blogspot.com/ is doing a signature campaign to promote this alternative medicine. HEAL is an independent, open-membership platform whose mission is to promote health and well being through homeopathy and endorse homeopathy as a system of medicine. Our key objective is to create awareness about homeopathy. The HEAL web site and blog, aims to reach people who are new to homeopathy with helpful information.

Promoting new therapy or new category by Pharma Company

Mankind has been witnessing newer and newer drugs, therapies, drug deliveries to enhance the lives of humans. With the increasing competition from generic drug manufacturers, the multi-nationals are trying to develop new categories of drug therapy for existing diseases. In the recent past Multi-nationals have been funding their R & D depts. to invent new therapies.

Some of the new treatment innovations listed below:

• Oral insulin by Pfizer and Novo Nordisk
• 1ml painkiller inject able by Triokaa
• Drug eluting balloon to prevent restenosis by Eurocor

These companies have been facing lot of problems to promote new therapies, coz, the doctors are hesitant to prescribe fearing its effects. Sometimes doctors also recommend the old therapy along with the new one, so they don't have to worry about its failure.

Traditionally the Pharma cos have been conducting CMEs amongst the doctors to promote the new therapies usage. Surveys help to understand the side effects better. But, as yet no great innovation has taken place to promote these newer therapies. The brochures have replaced presentations and videos, but still those have not been impressive enough?

Thinking about in from my view, I personally think that from the time this new therapy gets USFDA and DCI approval a communications strategy should be implemented. This would be focusing on the problems faced by patients because of the existing therapy, survey reports indicating patients and doctors doubtful of this therapy, launching associations to promote the need of new therapy, tie-ups with NGOs fighting to help promote this disease, etc.

A communications consultancy can advice and create a communications plan accordingly.

Create associations with NGOs help a lot in creating awareness about the disease.

The case of Apple iPhone is one of the best one in the industry. The iPhone was completely promoted without advertising, before the product was launched and everyone wanted to be a user of iPhone.

The question will still haunt product & brand managers as to how to promote new product or therapy in the market. The sector is waiting for an innovation.

Hospitals care about brand building too

Branding initiatives in the healthcare industry are getting an emphasis they’ve never had before. So, you have pamphlets on preventive healthcare from the neighborhood clinic, advertisements of a new facility at a big hospital in the city, and health tips on radio sponsored by another hospital. Health care providers are are going all out to make sure their respective brands stay in people’s minds by doing sponsored events, banners and audio-visual ads.

"Brand conveys trust and that is more important in this industry than in any other", says Ratan Jalan. “Research has shown that in healthcare, the customer has a limited rational framework in decision making. In this context, a brand becomes important.” Hospitals take a wide range of channels to highlight the brand — sponsoring events for the medical fraternity, continuous medical education programmes, medical camps, awareness seminars in colleges, literature on specific ailments, and the reminder media.

Manipal Health System MD R Basil says: “Our external branding is directed at specific groups — doctors, corporate houses, insurance companies, students and general public. We conduct continuous medical education programmes on the latest in each speciality and what the hospital is doing in that field. We also use the reminder media like radio and traffic canopies to remind people about help numbers.”

Manipal Hospital has earmarked about Rs 1.5 crore for its external brand development activities for the current financial year, Mr Basil says. It has also laid much emphasis on internal branding efforts. “A hospital’s brand is built from the point of view of a patient or his relatives and visitors walk into the hospital interacts with any staff member,” Mr Basil adds. The hospital, thus, has in place “patient care coordinators” and gives out education material on common diseases to patients.

With a budget of Rs 6 crore for mass media promotions, Apollo Hospitals carries out campaigns through the print, radio and TV media on preventive healthcare, Mr Jalan says. “We have not been very aggressive in the conventional mass media advertising.

But we do have commercials promoting preventive health care, and to advertise technological breakthroughs or a new facility at the hospital,” he says. For Wockhardt, promotions are not done on an on-going basis but are event-based, Wockhardt Hospitals CEO Vishal Bali says. “In Bangalore, when we made the transition from cardiology to other specialties, we had a large campaign that was very effective. The objective is to let the consumer know what is available,” he says.

Delhi-based Max Healthcare conducts doctor-driven customer meeting events and has in the market a pre-paid health check-up package, which together give mileage to the brand name, Max Healthcare director, sales & marketing, Sanjay Rai says.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/223373.cms

Crisis in healthcare industry

As this sector deals with life - every life saved translates into big publicity and every life lost translates into lot of negative publicity very difficult to erase. Crisis in this sector is usually classified into the following:

1. Death of patient
2. Sexual harassment charges
3. Medicine overdose
4. Duplicate drug

There are many situations where crisis can take place, but above mentioned are few of the important ones. Incase of any crisis the thumb rule is:

1. It is very important to understand the crisis, talk to all the parties involved.
2. Inform the spokesperson and people affected to maintain a common statement for media. In the meant time setup an enquiry committee.
3. Keep media informed about the latest reports only after approval.
4. Get assistance of legal department/consultants.
5. Understand what media wants and diplomatically solve all the queries.
6. There are many aspects to deal with crisis so it is necessary to hire a communications agency.

Here I will quote a case study to better understand crisis Molestation charges against male doctor by female patient during checking and no female attendant is nearby. And the doctor is not guilty, but how to prove it? What, I have highlighted is an extreme crisis situation which can tarnish the image of the doctor as well as of the hospital. Here, it is important to understand the doctors’ side and the patients’ side of the story. Can schedule meeting with a psychiatrist of both the parties, whose reports can help to understand the reasons behind such incidence. The legal dept and the hospitals spokesperson should keep all channels open and interact with the media (the information shared with the media should be approved by the mgt). As far as possible the culprit should not speak to media and have faith in the hospitals management. If the patient is wrong their will be loopholes in her story which can surface during interrogation. It might happen that the patient was sexually starved and was trying to advance towards the doctor and he might have objected resulting in this claim. The other possibility can be that doctor was checking her heart beats and by mistake touched her breast. Only after discussions this type of case can be solved. Once the case is solved both the parties (doctor & patient) should speak to media and convey the right message. Keeping media informed helps to gain positive respect from media which helps in the long run.

This can happen in any hospital like Hinduja Hospital, KEM Hospital, JJ Hospital, Tata Hospital, etc. So be aware and set your protocols to fight such crisis...

Good Public Relations is Equal to Better Health

The correct approach must be to be forthright, transparent, and to accept ultimate responsibility without much hesitation. News media are bombarded with stories every day. How do you choose what is most interesting? We will not cover press releases here, but rather the importance of a long-term strategy emphasising your 'good works'.

Pro-active PR

Your objective is to identify real stories about what a great facility you have, and the good you do for people and communities. So, put your best foot forward. The best news stories are about patients and medical staff as human beings, combined with healing against all odds, or successful surgeries in difficult circumstances.

How do you start your pro-active strategy? Bring all department heads together for a comprehensive discussion towards a cohesive approach. Of course, this approach must be in tune with the brand and image of the facility. In other words, don't forget to invite the marketing department. As in any organisation, the challenge is to have this cohesive message still intact by the time it filters down to the front lines. For this reason, your PR officer should meet with each department separately and regularly to discuss important and innovative work.

An important result of regular contact with media to tell them about worthwhile stories is that, whether stories are published or not, your PR officer forms a relationship with key health and news reporters. Contacts are made and kept. These contacts and this approach are extremely important when the bad news happens.

Reactive PR

Sometimes mistakes are made by medical personnel who are human beings. Sometimes a quality process is not up to standard, or not internalised by staff. Sometimes ownership has neglected an issue. Most important, every patient is different and has different responses to stimuli. Sad and bad things happen. Yet, two facts are against you even before the unfortunate occurrence has taken place.

First, the 'tall poppy' syndrome. When someone increases in stature to be a superstar, other people have an urge to cut that person 'down to size'. Sad but true. People and reporters will always want to know the clay foot of a superstar. This syndrome is coupled with a distrust of authority, in most countries. Hospitals and doctors are of course authorities on health. In some circumstances, people are not inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to authority, but rather to suspect the worst. They think of a cover-up.

Second, the media loves a sensational story. 'When it bleeds, it leads' is a maxim of media. This is why reactive stories of tragedy are more likely to be news, while proactive 'good works' stories may be harder to place in media. Don't forget that every reporter wants to be a star, too. They want a juicy story. All these sad and bad things do happen, and who is to blame? You are to blame.

When bad news happens, your facility can only hope the media contacts you have carefully nourished pro-actively will call you to ask for your side of the story, for balance. Consider the UK media where 'slash jobs' are done without any balance. So, when bad news happens, what will your story be? For insight, let's look at two famous negative health care stories: Tylenol and Bhopal.

Tylenol

In 1982, seven people in Chicago, USA died after taking Tylenol capsules that had been tampered with and replaced with poison. This was soon found to be an act of random murder. Parent company Johnson & Johnson distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors. They stopped Tylenol production and brand advertising, but soon advertised that individuals should not consume Tylenol. They issued a nationwide recall of an estimated 31 million bottles of Tylenol with a retail value of over $100 million.

Tylenol's market share immediately collapsed from 35 to 8 per cent. Later, it was determined only Tylenol capsules were tampered with, and Johnson & Johnson offered to exchange Tylenol capsules purchased by the public with solid tablets. Tylenol soon re-introduced capsules in a new triple-sealed package, which set a new packaging standard for all OTC medications. They had taken a negative and turned it into a positive, and were seen as a leader. Market share rebounded in less than a year, credited to consumer confidence in how the crisis was handled, and Tylenol was undisputed market leader for many years.

Think again about this story: it is a focused strategy to limit danger no matter what the cost or embarrassment, and to emphasise quality and trustworthiness.

Bhopal

In 1984, a tragedy struck right here in India: Bhopal. I will not recount the details here. Readers know of the gas leak which was blamed by Union Carbide on some unnamed 'disgruntled worker'. A different opinion came from former workers who said the plant maintenance was not up the mark and led to the disaster. More than two decades later, the cost of human suffering is scarcely fathomable: more than 1,00,000 people have died or become deformed or affected in other ways. The groundwater around the plant area remains contaminated, and the question of cleaning up the area is still unresolved. In addition there were costs to business, to the brand of the city, to various Governments and to Union Carbide. The company has since been sold several times.

This was a difficult case. Police were recorded as broadcasting that 'everything is normal' to the population. Several conflicting statements from various sources came during the ensuing days, weeks, months and years. This remains one of the worst industrial accidents of all time.

Anyone who thinks about this story will realise that from the beginning right through to the present day, nobody has taken appropriate responsibility. Which is the correct approach? Remember you are dealing with effects on your brand and company value, your employees, your patients, not to mention Governments, regulators and benefactors. Should you hide, deny and hope for distraction? Or should you address issues head-on and simultaneously show you are correcting the situation?

The correct approach must be to be forthright, transparent, and to accept ultimate responsibility without much hesitation. Of course, you did not intend this bad thing to happen. Presumably, you had the correct safeguards and quality standards in place. Obviously, your PR officer should already have ownership-approved emergency SOPs in place for any unfortunate occurrence, and those SOPs have been understood by department heads in order to lessen misunderstandings at a critical time. Naturally, your PR officer must have 24-hour access to a mobile number of the CEO to discuss an urgent response to an emergency.

Hopefully those good pro-active relationships may help to buy some time or understanding, as that reporter inches closer to deadline with each passing minute. Yes, in healthcare public relations, you put your best foot forward…and you hope for solid footing for as long as possible.

http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/200812/strategy02.shtml

Healthcare Media

Healthcare media as they are referred….
Journalists are appointed for specific beat like business, education, crime, political, etc. Each beat specific journo reports stories & news related to that specific beat. They network, specialize and understand the sector. Healthcare media or journo are the ones who report on news related to healthcare, health policies, new technologies in treatment, etc.

With the advent of competition between publications it became obligatory for media houses to assign journalists dedicated to report news on this sector, earlier city beat journalists reported on those news.

Let us now try to understand this beat.
Healthcare journalist usually reports news on Health, Health Policies, New Technology Developments, Doctors in public & private hospitals operating on unique patients, new infections, government vaccination programs, etc. Basically they report on Human interest stories, everything related to humans & health. It is important to note that most of the other reporters also do such type of reporting like the education beat, crime beat, special features, etc. But the difference is they report the same story with different angle.

Here is a case study:
FOGSI (Federation of Obstetric & Gynecological Societies of India) - Adolescent Empowerment arm is conducting seminars for young girls on how to manage their health during growing years, precautions during periods, diet management, etc. These seminars are conducted in schools only for girls in the age group of 12 to 15 years.
Taking this brief into consideration, the story will be reported by a health beat correspondent, but simultaneously an education beat journalist can also report on this, coz school & education is involved. The same story can also be reported by NGO beat reporter as FOGSI is and NGO body and the seminars are also conducted for government schools. If this seminar is sponsored by some pharmaceutical company then the story will get CSR initiative angle for that pharma company, and a financial journalist can report this corporate story highlighting CSR initiatives. A feature journo can report an informative story of things to take care for teen girls during periods & maintaining diet.

The above case highlights how a story can be reported by different beat journalists. So the bottom line is a correct strategy & pitch to the right journalists. In the business of communication the correct strategy will bore fruits, just media relations cannot help.

So understand the objective of the strategy and pitch to the right journalist accordingly. Also the main aspect is to understand healthcare journalists and how they report, their style of reporting and the placement of the news in media.

Disease BRANDING !

Interesting to note, the healthcare industry works in reverse manner. Actually the main reason being, restrictions on advertising in this industry. While, it is also been argued that the Indian consumers hardly get influenced by Pharma Drug / Product advertisements, doctors promoting advts, etc. With the advent of mass media and information age, the consumer has become knowledgeable enough to decide. Now the consumer is the king coz they take their own decisions. In such scenario promoting products becomes very difficult, add to it the launch of more products in the same category creates a very competitive environment for the products/brands to survive.
So then what can be the right medium to promote / publicise Healthcare products?
These products are often managed by Product Managers more experienced in marketing and armed with MBAs. They think only on Rol, exceptionals think about MAR-COM (Marketing & Communication).

It is important to promote the disease category, brand the diseases and inform the consumers about diseases. Some of the important diseases which enjoy Brand status in the market are listed below:

1. Breast Cancer
2. AIDS
3. Bird Flu
4. Headache
5. Sore eyes (Conjuntitis)
6. Heart Attack
7. Dog bite (Rabies)
8. Diabetes Day
9. Blood cancer (Leukemia)

Consumers are aware about these above diseases and its effects. They are empowered with knowledge to understand the symptoms, asking for help, diagnosis and treatment. Mass media gets the credit to promote among the patients/ consumers. Patients often debate with Doctors on possible treatments for these diseases.

The media informs consumers / patients and doctor answers queries, it is a two way process, which creates a lasting impact in the minds of consumers. Branding diseases also helps to create awareness resulting in more patients and diagnosis. Early diagnosis helps to provide early treatment, saving the patients lives.

Now, the time has come for ICMR to soften of restrictions which they had laid.
I won't be surprised if tomorrow patients start performing diagnosis on themselves and consult with the doctor online for help...