Millions of patients across the country are set to enter the healthcare system, each with different insurance plans and tolerance for drug co-pays. How are you using mobile technology and social media to improve access?

Lynn Shepherd
SVP and practice leader, market access,
Vox Medica

Social media can make it easier to engage the professionals and volunteers to whom patients go to for help navigating the system. When we conceptualized MyMedicareCommunity.com, with the National Council on Aging and AstraZeneca, to serve as a “home” for a fragmented community of advocates, email was our primary promotional tool. Today, access to patient advocate bloggers and social networking tools offer faster ways to disseminate information while expanding the community. We continue to work with our clients to explore the level of engagement consumers want to have with their brands on formulary and cost issues, while also helping them to use social media. Similarly, we can apply new mobile technology platforms for our clients to get actionable, timely information to patients.

Kurt Mueller
Chief digital & science officer,
Roska Digital Advertising

Quick response (QR) codes are 2D bar codes that offer patients easy access to info about disease state management, insurance, treatment options, product demonstrations, coupons and rebates…all through smartphone cameras. Patients can use their camera phone to capture the image of the code from an ad, waiting room brochure or promotion and receive a coupon served right to their phone. The coupon can be redeemed at a register by scanning it directly from the screen of the phone. The same process can access insurance information, educational materials, even instructions from a physician.

Christine Armstrong
VP, creative director, healthcare,
IOMEDIA

In the event of the launch of www.HealthCare.gov, we are well aware that there will be urgency to communicate policy changes regarding insurance and coverage options. As electronic medical records (EMR) adoption increases, response times to patient inquiries to their HCPs will become critical to how they view and rate their healthcare providers. In a recent article, EMR services appeared to reduce HIV medication refill response time, emergency refills and errors. IOMEDIA’s contribution to these challenges has been to partner with HCPs to create online tools that offer patients the ability to manage their prescriptions, make appointments, link to resources and request responses to questions. Through a patient’s dashboard we can push specific alerts, information or offers than can facilitate Rx refills.

Ken Burkett, R.Ph., MBA
President and CEO,
One2One Health Media

At One2One, we believe that onerous co-pays and plan restrictions are just two factors contributing to the patient’s seeking assistance. Our clients create assistance that is instantly available to patients which provides financial assistance and prior authorization appeal assistance if needed. Our offers are disseminated by users of web enabled and smartphones. Patients connect instantly using their mobile to find our offers among postings in Facebook, Twitter and searches of healthcare blogs. Over 75% of our business comes from friends telling their friends, which creates a viral spread of offers, since these handhelds allow patients to get our assistance in real time—when they need it most.

From the August 01, 2010 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media