iPad Sales Apps

Imagine your doctors being able to interactively place a device, understand patient selection and rotate a 3D model of your product, all from a device the size of a legal pad...

Infuse Medical is an expert at developing Enterprise applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With the media release on Tuesday, we are now able to offer our services building multi-touch interactive applications for the iPad. These can be used by field reps, at tradeshows or in any application where a large interactive portable display of content would be appropriate.

We have the iPad developers kit and are ready to help accelerate the transfer or your product and technology knowledge to your target audience. Contact Us at the link above for more information.

Apple M.D.

Jason Wilk, a blogger from Southern California posted this tidbit on Tiny Comb a few weeks back:

While the whole tech news world sits around waiting to see what the official deal with the Apple tablet is and if anyone is going to buy this thing, Apple has been quietly ensuring the instant success of their tablet device. How? Apple has been going around targeting their first major paying customer for the device, which is not the average consumer, but the Healthcare industry (sorry fan bois, you're not first priority here). This is a move widely overlooked by the media, since Apple has generally tried to own the consumer arena, and besides the film industry, hasn't dominated enterprise. Well, now that they own the music, mobile, laptop and every teenager market, the medical industry is the next up to take over. [What's my intel? My Dad plays golf with Cedas-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks].

It's an interesting reflection on the growth of mobile computing in Healthcare. With the unveiling today of Apple's iPad, we are catching a glimpse once more of what Apple does best, watch the early innovators, view their pitfalls from a distance, spend inordinate amounts of time on product development, UI configurations and manufacturing technologies and release a superb execution of the original product. The healthcare industry has used tablets, laptops, terminals, Palms, Treos to transport information. The desire was there, but the hardware fell short.

The iPhone was nothing "new" in concept, but it was successful because of it's execution of the concept. It remains to be seen, but I imagine we will see the same success with the iPad, those predicting it's doom argue that the space has "long seen manufacturers toying with the category." Toying with the category provides 3lb, 8inch tablets with clunky OSs that cost upwards of 1500 dollars. Apple is providing what everyone has been asking for: a portable, lightweight, fully capable, internet accesible, contemporary UI enabled machine. The have the opportunity to rewrite the "tablet" category just as they have rewritten the portable digital music player and internet enabled phone categories. Their patience and uncompromising drive to excellence in execution sets them apart in the world. But this isn't about Apple as a company. This is about Apple in healthcare:

There are some 7,000 "medical" iphone apps available for download. One of the most compelling is part of the Boston Scientific for their Latitude Patient Monitoring Program [Fast Company]. Essentially the system allows a physician access to the patient monitoring network that already exists, putting ECG and other patient info in their hands. It gets us one step closer to a pacemaker discovering an arrhythmia and notifying the physician on the fly of the need to take action. It is just one example of a need that has only been left unfilled by a systemic infection of poor execution. Apple nailed the iPhone platform and is responding to what the healthcare industry wants next, a bigger screen.

Imagine a nurse having access to a central government database of health information (I said imagine...) through a tablet PC that is small enough to carry to every patient's room. She can check meds, check vitals, order meds and provide a level of service heretofore unseen in clinical medicine.

Imagine that every doctor you see has information to everything that the last four doctors have talked with you about (welcome to managed care). Imagine a nursing station with a series of monitors that show patient data, each of which could be plucked and carried to the patients room at a moments notice. If doctors need to show an interactive informed consent presentation, they can, on the fly, and have the patient sign the screen. If field representatives for device manufacturers need to show intricate animations in HD video, they can, without ever having to pull out a laptop. Now Apple has created a piece of hardware that runs a piece of software that connects to the world a package so convenient and affordable that the pipedreams of yesterday can become a clinical standard of care tomorrow. And it doesn't stop there...

Honesty in Promotional Education

I read an interesting piece this morning, posted by psychiatrist Dr. Carlat, on the honesty of promotional education vs. traditional industry sponsored CME. In short Dr. Carlat receives an invitation to what he thinks is a traditional CME rubber-chicken dinner with a company bank-rolled physician, Dr. Wieden, extolling the virtues of a particular drug. And he was nearly there: both the chicken and the presenting physician would have a similarly inflexible perspective, but the event itself was clearly labeled as a promotional event:

"This promotional educational activity is brought to you by Janssen®, Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is not certified for continuing medical education. The speaker is presenting on behalf of Janssen® and must present information in compliance with FDA requirements applicable to Janssen®."

The thing that I found fascinating was not so much the existence of a promotional event, but Dr. Carlat's response to it:

"Is this the kind of promotional education that will replace industry sponsored CME? Probably. It's something I feel a little bit better about. It's honest. It's clearly advertising. It doesn't put Dr. Weiden in the awkward position of trying to defend the integrity of a supposedly academic article that is really advertising..."

I think this represents an important and necessary change in the mindset of some physicians (definitely not all). It also validates the work we have been trying to do as an agency. We want to help our clients honestly extoll the clinical benefits of their product, but without engaging in the guise that has become CME. In a past life I sat through too many scientific sessions to remember in the spine and orthopedics space. Every surgeon got up and expounded on the "incredible results" that they were seeing in their non-randomized retrospective data collection on a single device from a three surgeon group. Every graph showed MVAS scores that were only slightly better than the 14 presentations preceeding it. It was like sitting in a late night comedy club, where everyone is in on the joke and nobody laughs when the punchline is delivered. The doctors' integrity was shaved a little bit every time they were on the stand and disclosure guidelines were doing anything to help the digest the elephant in the room.

I am glad to see more companies shifting from a medical education to a promotional education foucs. It allows manufacturers to educate their customers without guile, it gives the physician customer a certain level of cynicism that should be present in any buying decision (think used cars) and it creates an opportunity for CME to remain therapy focused. To steal Dr. Carlat's concise words:


"Let the drug companies advertise their wares transparently, just like any other type of company. And keep CME pure."

*UPDATE* – What's old is new again, here's a similar viewpoint from Medscape's Dr. Steinman, published in 2004 describing the need for two separate types of medical education.

What is SCORM?

Sharable Content Object Reference Model (which says a lot without revealing too much). In short, SCORM is a standard that defines the order that learning objects (like a slide, interactive learning object, video or quiz) are presented (defined in XML) to a user and involves code to track their learning in a database. Why it's so important is that when authoring the course, if it's SCORM compliant it can usually go seamlessly into a SCORM compliant LMS. It's a bit like how a USB works...you can plug mice, hard drives, cameras etc. etc. into the same USB port and they work. They all have different inputs, put the little output plug and the data structure are the same. In short, SCORM, like USB, is designed to just work.

And it does. Most of the time, but that's a post for another time.

One of my favorites

This is one of the best books I've ever read and should be required reading in every b-school, d-school and q-school in the country (yes, even golfers need to know about branding)

The Brand Gap

View more documents from coolstuff.

Can you get that on my blackberry?

There are two distinctions that need to be made about creating content for use on various mobile devices (smartphones et al.).

1. The first is in regards to playing video files from the phone’s built in media player. Each phone can play stand alone video files, much like a DVD player would. There is no interactivity available except for the play/pause, rewind, fast-forward functionality inherent to the phone’s software. The phones differ greatly in terms of resolution, which dictates the amount of information that can be appropriately played on a small screen. Blackberries and Treos have smaller screens, making any text or minute detail very difficult to read. (The Blackberry Storm is an exception, but is not widely used in the business community. For the purposes of this discussion we will take as example the very popular 8000 and 9000 series of phones, specifically the Curve, Bold, Tour and other derivatives.) The Apple iPhone/iPod Touch have nearly twice the physical screen size of the Blackberry and Treo products, allowing for a very clear display of nearly any content.

In Summary: We can create videos that will play across all platforms. In doing so we plan to the lowest common denominator in terms of resolution and screen real estate. The Apple hardware allows larger, higher resolution videos which convey more information. The Blackberry screen, although it has the same pixel count as the iPhone, is 2/3 of the physical size, making the image crisp, but quite small.

2. The second distinction is in regards to developing interactive content for the different platforms. By interactive, we mean content that the user can manipulate in a number of ways to share a message or gain a desired result. Each mobile platform has characteristics that either do or do not lend themselves to interactive development. The platforms are all very different, not only in terms of hardware, but also in the operating system, computer language used, interactivity available, and user interface.

Apple – The iPhone/iPod Touch platform allows the highest degree of interactivity with the easiest deployment (iTunes), security and rev control (built into the development environment). For customers looking to create engaging immersive sales tools, we recommend the Apple platform as it is leaps and bounds better than anything out there, both in terms of hardware capabilities (what the device can do) and software capabilities (what we can display and interact with). For companies where the iPhone does not make sense, the iPod touch can be used as a very powerful detailing aid, possessing all of the interactive functionality without the challenges mobile phone contracts, carriers and IT integration.

Blackberry – Research in Motion has a number of limitations compared to the Apple platform. The hardware is not as advanced, more specifically screen sizes are much smaller and the resolution is not as high. These physical constraints limit the amount of information that can be reasonably displayed on the device. The devices also lack the interactive touch screen capabilities that allow for immersive interaction with 2D and 3D elements within an interactive presentation. The Blackberry phone hardware itself requires scroll and click interaction. This can limit that amount of interaction available and the type of interactions that take place. The Blackberry syncing software works well, however the

Palm/Treo – The Treo phone is a palm product and is built on the palm OS. The phones lack high resolution screens, both in terms of pixel count and color, which significantly reduces the quality of video playback. The phones also have a limited interaction pattern due to their keyboard configuration.

In Summary: We must build a custom program for each platform. The various platforms are not equal in terms of functionality for developing interactive presentation materials; more specifically, a feature that works wonderfully (such as an interactive 3D model) on an iPhone will not work as well, or at all, on another phone. A Blackberry application that takes advantage of the scroll ball cannot be “ported” to an iPhone or Treo. Each program must be custom built. This is not developer bias, but a condition of the various operating systems and hardware capabilities involved.


We have built programs for the various hardware platforms, and have seen first hand the limitations and challenges.
For Blackberry users, the current best solution is development of short mobile video clips that highlight specific technological or therapeutic topics that require additional visuals (video, animation, graphs, diagrams, etc.) Blackberry applications are an option, but the functionality and navigation is quite limited. The best use of Blackberry Apps is to combine static and video images in the same application.
For Treo users, the current best solution is also development of short mobile video clips, although the quality is inferior to the Blackberry.
The Apple platform, while it typically requires a hardware invesment (in iPhones or iPod Touches) has the greatest degree of freedom, interactivity and media rich display. Unfortunately many companies do not want to purchase the hardware ($199/iPod Touch) and do not want to wade into these waters.

A deeper discussion is available here: http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/developers-eye-view-smartphone-platforms-565?source=fssr

Are you feeling lucky? (Or Clint Eastwood's Guide To Social Media)

It used to be that when you wanted a second opinion after visiting with a doctor you would call a relative. This relative would oftentimes be older, and disbelieving of most, if not all, medical treatments. This relative would probably look like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, and would undeniably decry everything the doctor has said. Today things are a little different. Search engine queries have replaced phone calls, and your great uncle Clint Eastwood has transformed into a harlequin colored serif font with an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. (Maybe not that much has changed after all...)

Today most pre- and post-consultation conversations take place online through forums, facebook pages, twitter accounts, blog posts and online answer sites. The conversations that were once relegated to back room and hushed telephone calls are now taking place in full view and on permanent record. To be sure, social media has huge consequences for MDR's, CAPA's and is introducing enormous regulatory challenges for companies of all sizes. For today I want to narrow my focus to the benefits of online conversations and ways that device makers can participate, even if only at a distance.

One of the things that we constantly talk about is identifying the key knowledge gaps for your core audience. Key knowledge gaps are the things you wish your audience knew about your product/technology/service/quality/brand position but don't. Social media is providing an invaluable insight into key knowledge gaps that plague patients, and to a lesser degree physicians and sales personnel. Below are examples of facebook group pages around specific diseases and conditions:





Patients are creating a community outside of the controlled channels of FDA regulation and labeling. This isn't new, nor is it news. What is interesting about these groups are the insights they provide into how manufacturers can participate in the conversation. One way is as an observer. The sacro-iliac disease facebook group is a prime example of a group looking for resources and information. Patients are sharing information that they Googled, including ultrasound treatments, PT vs Surgery, effectiveness of injections, etc. They are discussing the continuum of care based on shared experience and anecdotal medical information. Identifying patient's concerns through social media is one avenue for identifying which education materials directly address specific concerns, broader clinical experience and specific product differentiation.

Observing social media is just one way of identifying key knowledge gaps. Bridging those gaps, and participating in the conversation without poisoning the water, is another subject all together. For one of the better tongue and cheek ways to engage the internet about a sensitive subject, check out Abbey Moor's genius collaboration with Youtube phenomenon Rhett&Link.