Much of patient care occurs outside the physician’s office, including patient adherence to therapy, which obviously affects certain parameters in these P4P programs and ultimately reflects on the clinician’s performance and subsequent reimbursement. This is just one example of where a good patient relations program can help physicians and their practices excel in these P4P programs. It helps clinicians manage their patients better and improve patient outcomes and quality of life. Even simple programs — such as sending patients reminders to take their medications on time, show up for follow-up visits, or get their MRI or mammogram — can make an impact. This allows the physician to take a more proactive approach to disease management and preventive care, which is one of the main objectives of the P4P model.

At Brandkarma we have instituted the 80/20 rule, and no, it’s not the Pareto Principle, but rather our client communications principle of 80 percent listening and 20 percent asking the right questions. We often record client calls (with their consent) to see what percentage of time we are listening vs talking. I recommend going through that exercise. It can be enlightening!

At Brandkarma, we approach every situation with a client like a doctor approaching a patient. The foundation of medical practice, regardless of your specialty, is a good history and physical (H&P) examination — or what the advertising industry calls the research and discovery phase. With every patient, whether new or existing, doctors take a good history of what’s going well and what’s not going well. Then we conduct a thorough physical exam with other diagnostics that will lead us to a diagnosis.

When a client comes in with a very specific complaint or issue, at Brandkarma, we always try to conduct a thorough H&P. Once we come up with a diagnosis of the problem, then we formulate a treatment or solution.

Let’s say I’m a dermatologist in an urban city. Due to my long schooling, I have an insane amount of student loans. I work twice as hard, seeing dozens of patients a day, and my income is half of what it was 10 to 15 years ago. Pharmacists and insurance companies exhaust my office staff’s time advising us to switch to generics. And for the most part, I don’t blame them; although I still think a branded version is different from a generic.

With little insight into the business underpinnings of my profession, I need help building my practice, especially given the current economic climate. At the same time, I look to the laundry list of pharma reps who all tell me the same story: their product is better than the competition. At the end of the day, I write for one versus the other for various reasons. One, I’ve developed a relationship with a particular rep and the company she or he represents; and two, I’m more familiar with a certain brand so it’s easier to remember dosing, contraindications, etc.

So, when doctors aren’t in the mood and don’t respond well to another chart, spreadsheet, or a sell on data versus data, how do we as marketers react? How do we get their attention? We gather market research and show our clients. Then, after long chats and analyses, we’re directed to tweak a sales aid, update a flashcard, or revise an in-service. Yes, we’re attempting to hit the messaging, but are we really addressing the audience in the way they want to be addressed? Are we listening? Are we reaching out in a creative fashion? I say, we can do better—much better.

These modalities are acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. At Brandkarma we are vigilant in ensuring that one of these modalities operates whenever we are engaged in doing anything at all—from the simplest task to the most complex.

ACCEPTANCE
Whenever we are dealing with a situation or a task that one simply cannot enjoy doing, we at least accept that this is what we have to do. Acceptance means: this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly. For instance, I don’t know of anyone who would be able to enjoy changing a flat tire at night in the pouring rain in the middle of nowhere, let alone be enthusiastic about it. But we can bring acceptance to it. Performing an action in the state of acceptance means you are at peace while you do it, which relieves any underlying negative energy.

ENJOYMENT
The peace that comes from acceptance turns into a sense of “aliveness” when you actually enjoy what you are doing. What a novel idea, right? Joy is the dynamic aspect of being alive. Expansion and positive change is much more likely to come into your life if you can enjoy what you are doing already, instead of waiting for change so that you can start enjoying what you do; in other words, the “wait to start living syndrome.” We don’t ask our mind for permission to enjoy what we do, because all we would get are plenty of reasons why we can’t enjoy it. “Not now,” the mind will say. “Can’t you see I’m busy? There is no time. May be tomorrow you can start enjoying…” That tomorrow will never come unless you begin enjoying what you are doing now. This is a spiritual practice that brings empowerment and creative expansion into our work. We are very lucky to be in an industry in which we can enrich the lives of many others through our creative action and work.

ENTHUSIASM
Enthusiasm is the deep enjoyment of what we do, plus the added element of a goal or a vision to work toward. When you add a goal to the enjoyment of what you do, the energy-field or vibration frequency changes. At the height of creative activity fueled by enthusiasm, there will be enormous intensity and energy behind what you do. You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target—and enjoying the journey. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.”

The overwhelming majority of those who work in the financial industry are probably honest and hardworking; unfortunately, there are always the greedy wretches who will stop at nothing for their personal gains. Now, we are finally seeing the effects of years of unchecked abuses, and the subsequent payback that we must now commit to for years to come.

If you can imagine a pendulum that has swung to one side — in this case, complete anarchy in the industry and subsequent ripple effects globally — it’s bound to swing to the other side eventually, after heavy regulation and, unfortunately, limitations in free enterprise.

Similar behavior can also be observed in almost every other industry, including pharmaceutical marketing and advertising space. Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about the FDA’s warning letters to many of the top pharmaceutical companies — including GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck & Co. — in reference to their use of Google™ AdWords (or what some bloggers call “bAdWords”).

To date, the FDA does not have specific guidelines for digital advertising. Instead, it reverts back to the general guidelines that apply to all media — namely, that any representations about a drug’s indication and efficacy must be accompanied by a fair balance.

Often, due to fear of repercussions from the FDA and DDMAC, many of the internal legal and regulatory bodies within pharmaceutical companies have become ultra-conservative as a result (again, the pendulum swings too far to one side).

Many blame the FDA for not providing specific guidelines — instead, sending warning letters and reprimands. While this is a valid complaint, digital media is such a rapidly evolving technology, it has become increasingly difficult for federal regulators — along with company executives, marketers, and decision makers — not only to understand the scope of this arena, but to learn how to utilize it to regulate (from the FDA’s standpoint) or educate their audience without repercussions (from the marketer’s standpoint).

So what is the solution? I wish I had a crystal ball that could help us navigate this course, but I don’t. One thing seems clear: We should not completely avoid this new, virtual territory by abandoning the use of AdWords and social media campaigns, thereby allowing the pendulum to swing too far to one side.

Instead, what would happen if pharmaceutical companies refrained from making any efficacy claims in these ads, posting only the brand and generic name, in a return to the original “reminder ad”? Perhaps the campaign would not be as robust, but it would still be effective. And, if a product’s name shows up when searching for a particular disease state, don’t we trust today’s digitally smart and savvy consumers to draw their own conclusions?

Perhaps marketers will start laying the foundation of the disease state landscape through the branded name, infusing more descriptive language when introducing a new pharmaceutical into the marketplace. I also believe that given this heightened scrutiny, the use of unbranded disease state websites will increase; which raises another question about the use of “redirecting” URLs in AdWords. How will the FDA interpret this common practice in the future? I guess we shall wait and see. Or should we be more proactive and start trying to inch that pendulum a bit closer to the middle?