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What
Every Marketing Manager Should Know:
A
successful DTC campaign will:
- have wording
and "patient-friendly" medical illustrations
based on sound patient education criteria
- be integrated with
every aspect of the product launch and patient
education materials.
Your
message must guide consumers through the two main
stages of their health care:
- The Consumer Stage—Consumers
need practical information they can understand.
It must convince them to seek appropriate
help.
- The Patient Stage—Once
consumers become patients, they need product-specific
information that motivates them to manage
their disease and medications effectively.
But remember:
Even the best integrated program will be useless
unless the content meets all the criteria
for sound patient education
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Half
of patients prescribed antihypertensives stop
taking them within the first year.
Consider
the costs in lost prescription refills and treatment
of medical complications such as coronary artery
disease, congestive heart failure, stroke and
renal failure.
The
color of a medication can influence whether a
patient takes it.
Green tablets and capsules
have been found to be better received by patients
who suffer from anxiety. Yellow is more effective
with depressed patients.
Routine
immunizations may cause hair loss in rare cases.
The problem is most frequently
associated with the Hepatitis B vaccine, and appears
to affect more women than men.
Even
if a patient admits to missing any medication
during the previous day or week,
he or she will tend to over
estimate the actual rate of compliance by 17%.
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Consumer
Health Information Corporation
can help you effectively integrate your messages for consumers
and patients at every stage—from the Patient Labeling for
the DTC ad…
to the DTC  collateral
materials… to compliance packaging
for the product launch starter kit… to all the product-specific
patient information programs. |
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Is
Your DTC Message Integrated with Your Patient Education Program?
Are
you developing your product's DTC materials piecemeal? Are
patients and consumers receiving mixed messages from your
company?
For your product to achieve its maximum
ROI, your DTC materials must:
- be developed according to proven
patient education principles
- deliver a consistent "consumer-friendly"
message
- be integrated with all your product-specific
patient information
Dr.
Dorothy L. Smith
"Integrate your message…enhance patient
compliance…increase sales."
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Many companies are throwing away dollars
and jeopardizing their ROI by distributing materials that
deliver inconsistent messages. Don't take this risk. "DTC
materials are the first link in a total program that can improve
patient compliance with your product," said Dr. Dorothy
L. Smith, President of Consumer Health Information Corporation.
"Skillfully
integrating the DTC collateral materials with the patient
education program will target the 10% of prescriptions never
filled, the 33% never refilled, and the 50% of medications
taken incorrectly."
"Unfortunately,"
Dr. Smith added, "most of the DTC Patient Labeling and
collateral materials we review are written at the grade 12-16
reading level. Since the average American reads at the grade
6-8 level, most people will never be able to understand the
message."
"In
our recent survey of DTC ads... even in DTC materials that
at first glance look consumer-friendly... we found terms like
anorexia, hepatitis, jaundice, cirrhosis, nodules,
elevated alkaline phosphatase, and bilirubin. This
type of wording will probably frighten many consumers and
you are shooting yourself in the foot when you use it."
Who
Would You Turn
to for Advice?*
| Personal Doctor |
99%
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| Family and friends |
77%
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| Nurses |
73%
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| Other health care professionals |
70%
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| Pharmacists |
60%
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| Voluntary health organizations |
59%
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| Medical professional associations |
51%
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| Health insurance plans |
39%
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| Consumer groups |
33%
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| * Percentage
of those with personal physician reporting "Yes" |
Patient
Noncompliance Takes a Big Bite Out of Every Corporation's
Bottom Line
From
a comprehensive employee education program developed
by Consumer Health Information Corporation
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Patient
noncompliance with prescription medications has a profound
impact on every corporation's bottom line. Noncompliance is
one of this country's largest and most expensive disease categories—totaling
more than $100 billion each year in medical costs, absenteeism,
accidents, and lost productivity.
The meter
keeps on running.
- A worker is injured because he does
not know how to manage the dizziness caused by his antidepressant
medication.
- A retiree stops taking his high
blood pressure medicine, then has a stroke or requires kidney
dialysis—either of which may have been preventable.
- A mother fails to give her child
an antibiotic for the full course of treatment and the middle
ear infection comes back—requiring more time away from
work and more doctor and pharmacy costs.
Effective employee education is the
key to stemming these costs. In order for an employer to get
the maximum return on its health care expenditures, it is
essential that employees learn how to take greater responsibility
for their health care at home and at work.
Where
Does the Consumer Look
for Medical Advice?
"Who
would you look to for information to help you make decisions
about your medical treatment?"
That question was asked in a nationwide
survey, "Public Opinion of Patient Safety Issues,"
conducted for the National Patient Safety Foundation at the
American Medical Association.
Surprisingly, consumers said that—after
their personal doctor—they would turn to family
and friends before seeking advice from nurses, pharmacists,
or other health care professionals. Only a fraction would
look to health insurance plans or consumer groups for information.
The take-home messages are:
- Consumers will continue to decide
who they turn to for advice.
- Consumers need to be convinced to
seek information from more qualified sources than family
and friends.
- Consumers must see your DTC and
patient information materials as reliable, dependable information—not
advertising.
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