Comments on: Startup Profile: HealthTalker Wants to Harness the Power of Patients to Spread the Word About Prescription Drugs http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2007/07/20/startup-profile-healthtalker-wants-to-harness-the-power-of-patients-to-spread-the-word-about-prescription-drugs/ Business + Technology in the Exponential Economy Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:30:41 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Melissa http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2007/07/20/startup-profile-healthtalker-wants-to-harness-the-power-of-patients-to-spread-the-word-about-prescription-drugs/comment-page-1/#comment-36553 Melissa Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:52:54 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/20/startup-profile-healthtalker-wants-to-harness-the-power-of-patients-to-spread-the-word-about-prescription-drugs/#comment-36553 Andy's approach is innovative and absolutely rides the Web 2.0 wave which shows the power of user generated content. Another Boston area company is PatientsLikeMe (i don't work for them) that is connecting patients who share their disease information as crowd-sourcing way of searching for cures. -Melissa Community Manager http://www.insomnia123.com Andy’s approach is innovative and absolutely rides the Web 2.0 wave which shows the power of user generated content. Another Boston area company is PatientsLikeMe (i don’t work for them) that is connecting patients who share their disease information as crowd-sourcing way of searching for cures.

-Melissa
Community Manager
http://www.insomnia123.com

]]> By: Bob Harrell http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2007/07/20/startup-profile-healthtalker-wants-to-harness-the-power-of-patients-to-spread-the-word-about-prescription-drugs/comment-page-1/#comment-198 Bob Harrell Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:14:04 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/20/startup-profile-healthtalker-wants-to-harness-the-power-of-patients-to-spread-the-word-about-prescription-drugs/#comment-198 I think this is a great idea. While it is elegantly simple in concept, it’s also enormously challenging to pull it off in practice within the context of pharma, so the heavy focus on a “regulatory safe” framework makes sense. I think this could be a good way to tap into the "high trust/high touch" peer-peer Web 2.0 strategies currently being used in other verticals, but also address the specific needs/constraints of pharma (such as managing AE reporting, keeping messages on label, etc.) Said another way, hats off to you for bringing the right mix of cajones and prudence in order to marry what’s possible with the “art of the doable.” It’s always nice to see a new idea constructed in such a way that it might actually see the light of day in the marketplace. ;) Hopefully, practical approaches like HealthTalker for leveraging peer-peer and Web 2.0 within pharma will become more commonplace in the coming year. For the most part, it seems like we (pharma marketers across the board) are somewhat bunged up in our own shorts with Web 2.0 right now – doing a lot of reading and pontificating about it, but not actually DOING anything with our brands or customers. Good luck, and I hope the offering gets good traction with the consumer-driven pharma brands as all of us on the “client-side” turn our attention to ’08 brand planning! I think this is a great idea. While it is elegantly simple in concept, it’s also enormously challenging to pull it off in practice within the context of pharma, so the heavy focus on a “regulatory safe” framework makes sense.

I think this could be a good way to tap into the “high trust/high touch” peer-peer Web 2.0 strategies currently being used in other verticals, but also address the specific needs/constraints of pharma (such as managing AE reporting, keeping messages on label, etc.) Said another way, hats off to you for bringing the right mix of cajones and prudence in order to marry what’s possible with the “art of the doable.” It’s always nice to see a new idea constructed in such a way that it might actually see the light of day in the marketplace. ;)

Hopefully, practical approaches like HealthTalker for leveraging peer-peer and Web 2.0 within pharma will become more commonplace in the coming year. For the most part, it seems like we (pharma marketers across the board) are somewhat bunged up in our own shorts with Web 2.0 right now – doing a lot of reading and pontificating about it, but not actually DOING anything with our brands or customers.

Good luck, and I hope the offering gets good traction with the consumer-driven pharma brands as all of us on the “client-side” turn our attention to ’08 brand planning!

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