Psychiatric Times has launched its first gameified engagement with mental health professionals. Although the prize in the head-to-head competition between doctors is one ounce of gold, VP of marketing Amy Erdman told MM&MUBM Medica has run similar competitions among its readership and has found bragging rights are also pretty important, saying “they tend to be a competitive bunch.” The five-week game feeds competitors a new set of diagnostic questions every week; win a round, and you go onto the next. Lose, and you can take the quiz again, but not advance. The questions were developed by the publication’s editorial team and will rotate among a series of conditions, with the first week covering topics such as ADHD and bipolar depression. UBM is promoting the competition through emails, social media and its print publication. Erdman said the publisher is “always looking for innovative ways to engage our audiences.” It’s the company’s first game in the mental health marketplace.
Reversing its position, Bayer says it is no longer looking to sell off its diabetes division, reported Bloomberg. The move would have affected the unit that produces product lines including the Contour glucose monitor, diabetes management software Glucofacts Deluxe and A1CNow SelfCheck, among other products which come under the company’s medical care division. Four of the company’s diabetes R&D sites are in the US, the largest being in Tarrytown, NY. “We evaluated different options and we came to the conclusion that we continue to be the best owner,” Joerg Reinhardt, CEO of Bayer Healthcare, told Bloomberg.
Companies seeing a jump in OTC sales may not be surprised by this factoid: 26% of consumers polled by AccentHealth said they have increased their used of OTC products during 2012, reported Drug Store News. The survey included responses from 900 consumers last September. The majority of these buyers—85%—had health insurance, 87% of the polled consumers were women, and 41% had at least a college degree. About 20% of the survey participants, or 180 consumers, said they had actually scaled back their OTC spend last year.
