Driving In Traffic

Nedra over at Spare Change posted that she has been e-mailed by David Schatsky, the President of JupiterKagan. As I suspected, Jupiter does monitor the blogophere and is willing to participate in a public discussion. I look forward to hearing their response and participating in the conversation.

Thanks Nedra for keeping us up to date.

This morning I was looking at my feeds and came across this post from Nedra Weinreich over at Spare Change. 

Jupiter Research has just launched a new Social Marketing research service that will “provide marketers and site owners with recommendations on how to profit from the use of consumer generated content, blogs, podcasts and other emerging media tools.” Apparently they didn’t get the memo that there is already a long-established field called social marketing that uses marketing to bring about health and social change.

Given my recent launch of Dollar Philanthropy, where really my intention is to promote and assist organizations who are at the front lines of “doing good” in their communities rather than make money for me, I was distressed to see that the well established term “social marketing” had seemingly been used to refer to something that it is not.

As Nedra so succinctly describes, this is more than just a semantic argument.  In fact, the potential confusion of the terms will likely serve to reduce the effectiveness of each practice. 

Let me be clear, I’m not saying that blogs and other interactive media are not effective tools in social marketing (the old, traditional definition).  Obviously, they can be quite effective and very affordable. However, social marketing uses a broader range of tools and methods than just the computer/ interactive ones to produce beneficial social change. 

Jupiter’s definition is simply focused on using consumer generated content with a “word of mouth” marketing tone to push a product or a service through social media channels.  It’s really not a bad thing.  It’s just different.  To them, a “social marketing” campaign is just tailored to convince a person to purchase or subscribe.  Pushing the “greater good” is not really an outcome with which they are concerned.  If it happens— great!  Just the campaign is not tailored to promote this sort of behavior.

Honestly, I feel a bit sorry for the folks a Jupiter Research.  I think it was just a few weeks ago that they were being blasted in the blogosphere for poor methodology on a corporate blogging study they had conducted.  After much fuss, eventually everyone came to an understanding, but it produced quite a buzz.  Read about the background here and here and here (just to name a few- click on the links in the posts to read more). 

Interestingly, Fard Johnmar’s post and podcast on the lessons learned in this exchange between JR and the blogosphere pointed out that “Clarity is King”.  Jupiter Research seems to have learned that lesson– afterall, they have put themselves out there and have actually defined what they are talking about. Additionally, the previous event proved that JR does listen to bloggers. However, once again, JR finds the blogosphere poised to nip at their heels again. I’m sure the folks at JR are feeling:

If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

Gloom, Dispair, and Agony on Me. 

Buck Owens and Roy Clark, HeeHaw

It is my hope that no one is made the villain here and that both groups can cooperate to make the differences in the two practices and methodolgies clear.  I think that this would serve the “greater good”.  Additionally, the public discussion in the blogosphere could generate positive attention for both.

Technorati tags: Jupiter Research, Social marketing, Social media

Typically, it is not my style to discuss science-y medical stuff here at DIT. However, my heart leaped when I read this article: Most Common Type Of Muscular Dystrophy May Be Caused By Toxic Molecule

In high school I had a very close friend, Tommy, who had muscular dystrophy. His humor and his spiritual resilience taught me many things. He was such an inspiration that I along with a large group of my friends became actively involved in our local Muscular Dystrophy Association. We were summer camp counselors and volunteers for our local telethon. Unfortunately, Tommy’s health began to fail early in our senior year (his goal was to make it to graduation). Although he was unable to attend, he graduated. A month later this horrible illness took him.

So it is remembering Tommy that I think that tt would be wonderful if the researchers’ new discovery results in a treatment to suppress the toxin. It may not be a cure, but hopefully it would be able to reduce the disability and prolong the lives of individuals with this most common type of MD.

As Labor Day fast approaches, please remember the folks with MD. The telethon may be cheesy, but the cause is worthy. In all reality, the money raised there has probably helped fund the research leading up to this discovery and possible this research as well.

In keeping with the theme here: A “Bridge Out” sign means that there has been a failure and that we have to find a new way of getting where we want to go. The rise of consumer-driven health plans indicates that the era of managed care failed to control the increased cost and demand for care and that many things about the way we receive healthcare in the US.

This week Wellpoint, one of the nation’s biggest healthcare insurance providers, has gone on record stating that in 2007 they will the first insurer to have consumer-driven health plans in all states and for all types of people (from major employers to small groups to individual plans).

“Our customers who choose these consumer-driven products will have new opportunities to lead healthier lives because of this first-of-its-kind national offering,” Wellpoint CEO, Larry Glassock

The press release also goes on to share:

“we’re empowering consumers through unique and robust online tools and incentives that encourage and reward them for choosing to live healthier lifestyles… Consumers who choose Lumenos will be eligible for extensive preventive care and personal health coaching, as well as smoking cessation and weight management programs. In addition, most consumers will receive financial rewards for completing various wellness programs.”

WOW! That sounds great, right?!?!?! Well, I always read these things and think about what my parents and my in-laws know about healthcare/ health policy and what they would think.

So for those of you who are not familiar with this new type of health plan, their implementation will produce significant changes in how care is reimbursed. Consumer-driven health plans are designed to shift some of the financial decision-making and responsibility to the individuals who consume healthcare services. Health savings accounts and high deductibles are key components to this new type of health plan. The thought behind all of this is to allow patients to determine how best to spend their healthcare dollars.

If you buy into traditional economic theory as applicable to the healthcare industry, this is not a bad way of trying to control skyrocketing costs. Since the price of services has a direct impact on demand for services, in theory , this type of plan has the potential to reduce duplication of services and unnecessary utilization of higher levels (more expensive) of care. In very simple terms, if patients are required to share some of the financial responsiblity of their care, then they are more likely to choose the cheapest, most effective care.

There are at least two very big ‘rubs’ to this plan. First, in order to to be able to make appropriate choices, consumers will need to know the cost of the care. While it seems easy enough, a physician or facilities’ billing rate for a service is significantly different than a contracted rate. And a contracted rate or allowable charge is significantly differerent than the acutal amount paid for services by an insurer or other third party payer. So healthcare consumers will need to understand all of these to be able to make the appropriate choices. Also healthcare providers will need to set up a system to be able to accurately inform the consumer the costs for a service. While this seems easy enough, it becomes increasingly complex when one understands that every, single, solitary insurance plan is different in regards to deductible, copay, contracted rate and reimbursement rate.

Second, in order to be able to chose the cheapest, effective treatment, healthcare consumers will have to know and understand their treatment options. This means that they will need to better understand the science behind their illnesses as well as the science behind the possible treatments. This would be a whole lot easier if we went back to the old world model of having healthcare providers that were able to develop rapport and a trusting patient-provider relationship. In the past, providers were given the time and opportunity to really partner with individuals, understand the complexities of care and develop a truly individualzed treatment that best fit the patient/consumer’s need. However, in the days of the 15 minute visit, this becomes increasingly difficult to do.

President Bush’s recent executive order pushing for many things including transparency of pricing information is an attempt to address the issue of understanding the financial aspects.

However, how do we make sure individuals have the information they need to be able to get the best treatment value? In reality, physicians and healthcare providers, because of their ability to understand and evaluate individual cases and circumstances, are the best resources for helping individuals make these decisions. However, they will likely need to develop new ways of doing this that are cost and time efficient. If healthcare providers do not develop these new ways, consumers/patients will be left to fend for themselves.

If consumers do not adequately educate themselves or access resources/advocates that will assist them, then this plan too is doomed. Costs will not be contained, health will not be preserved and access to appropriate, effective care will continue to be compromised.

Technorati tags: health policy, consumer-driven healthcare, Wellpoint, health economics, healthcare

Every morning before venturing out into Atlanta traffic it is essential that you tune in to your favorite news broadcast to listen to the litany of traffic ills and areas to avoid. In keeping with that notion, I’m starting a new category of Traffic Alerts to notify you of goods and services who pretty much have stolen my valuable time and effort.

I really don’t want this to be a rant, but admittedly I was pissed off yesterday and I certainly will alter my purchasing behavior (and have instructed The Hubby that his purchasing behavior will be altered as well) from here on out. So here’s the story:

6 weeks ago the lovely automated reminder system of my Norton Internet Securities program began to notify me that my subscription would be lapsing soon. Great! Very helpful! I then went to the Symantec site where they told me that my version could be renewed but no longer had technical support (The irony of this will soon be revealed). Thus decided to download an upgrade and was pointed to a page where I chose to upgrade to Norton AntiVirus 2006. I purchased and downloaded and all was fine.

Within a few days, I noticed new pop-ups that continued to tell me that my subscription was about to expire. I figured that it was just the older version telling me and since I wasn’t using that version anymore that it was no biggie. Then last week I began getting error messages saying that I should uninstall and reinstall the antivirus program because it could not conduct it’s update process. Yesterday I set aside time to fix it.

So I located the original e-mail, went to the Symantec site where I still had a few days left on my 60 day window for downloads (otherwise I would need to pay $6.99 to extend that time). I then uninstalled and then reinstalled the program. Only to get the same exact message.

So then I went to technical support where I entered several questions and realized that I needed a Subscription Key– New keys come with upgrades and apparently they were supposed to send me one but didn’t. I surfed around and searched several other things to try to figure out if my authentication key (they sent me that) was the subscription key. I also searched to find out where and how to enter. I suppose I spent a little over an hour using their “Knowledge Base” only to answer “This was not helpful” to every page when asked for feedback.

I then I gave up and decided to ask for help. I soon learned that talking to a person required the charge of an outrageous fee. I was not all too keen on doing this since I did not have a code that, according to everything I read, they were supposed to send me. Thus I tried to use their submit a question to technical support to get them to send me one. I’m not even sure how I got to this form. I’ve tried to recreate it since then so I can show you the form, but I can’t get there. Anyway, when I got to the form it seemed pretty straightforward, which was good because I was good an irritated at this point. However, they require that you enter your country…well…. the United States or any variation of our country was not on the list. Since this was a required field to submit the question, I chose the United Kingdom figuring that at least there would be no question that I needed my answer in English. I then pressed submit. And…. the form went no where. I refreshed and pressed submit again no less than 5 more times (waiting 5-10 minutes each time just in case traffic was bad). Another 40 minutes down the tube…

I eventually solved the problem by uninstalling all Norton products, resigning to the fact that it appeared that I had wasted my money on the upgrade with the two year subscription. I considered disputing the credit card charge because I had nothing to show for it, but would that be upheld just because I could not find the answer to my problem in their “Knowledge Base” or the fact that I wouldn’t spend more money to call a person?

After approximately 2 hours on their site, I feel like I’ve certainly had an extensive tour of their customer support site. My overall impression is that Symantec doesn’t give a crap about its customers. It certainly does not want to interact with them in any way. They are all about pointing you to simple solutions which cost more money and provide hope that the problem would be fixed (like paying for a new subscription) Additionally, they use every opportunity to divert your attention from their lack of service by asking you for feedback and asking you to help them improve the answers. Unfortunately, this only wastes more of your time.

The most frustrating thing is that you wander around in this maze thinking that eventually you will find an escape hatch. Well they have one— if you are lucky enough to find the page where it gives you the information for calling a human (I’m assuming you could get a person on the phone). However, you have to invest another nice chunk of change. Let me tell you this goes over well after you have spent well over an hour trying to find the hatch. Some customer service questions to consider:

• Why does Symantec/Norton tempt one to upgrade by using “no longer supported” when for all practical purposes their other products are not supported either? More money, perhaps?!?!?!
• When I am getting the run-around and extremely crappy service, why in Hell would I even consider the notion to spend more money with Symantec/Norton?
• Does Symantec/Norton really think their product is so special that it really has no competitors or suitable substitution products?
• Does Symantec/Norton use their customer service boondoggle to manipulate you into spending more money? (Yes, I spent a considerable sum with them already. However, for a little more than the price of the phone call with them (which will likely be crappy) I can download another product.

All I can tell you is that after yesterday, I certainly feel like Symantec doesn’t care about their customers.

So Commuters… avoid this area… alternate routes include: ZoneLabs and other CNET Recommendations.

Tags: Symantec, Norton Antivirus, customer service, antivirus software, Zone Alarm, Zone Labs

The times… they are a changing!  Drum roll please…..

The Centers For Disease Control have recently launched the web home for the National Center for Health Marketing and what do you know… the Director, Jay Bernhardt has his own blog.  (Thanks to Nedra at Spare Change for letting me know about the launch of the blog.)

One of the wonderful things about government websites is that they do an excellent job of defining purposes, functions, processes and best practices.  Just listen to this for a definition of Health Marketing:

Health Marketing involves creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions using customer-centered and science-based strategies to protect and promote the health of diverse populations (CDC, 2005).

or this:

Health Marketing is a multidisciplinary area of public health practice.  This innovative approach draws from traditional marketing theories and principles and adds science-based strategies to prevention, health promotion and health protection.  Drawing from fields such as marketing, communication, and public health promotion, health marketing provides a framework of theories, strategies and techniques that can be used to guide work in public health research, interventions, and communication campaigns.

I know it is not rocket science to come up with a definiton of what health marketing is all about.  However I do appreciate the efforts required for the NCHM leaders, expert advisors, and legal wonks to reach a consensus on the official defintion that will provide an opportunity for good policy and practice to emerge.  Their efforts also give a starting point for discussion. Agreeing, disagreeing , castigating  and/or lauding  are important processes in refining the area and becoming better at improving the health of individuals through education.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we all have a big sip of the NCHM kool-aid and march forward.  In fact, the NCHM admits that health marketing is "a new area of practice that is still being defined."

At this point, I think the emergence of this new area of governmental focus points to the fact that health marketing is growing discipline with special considerations that separate it from traditional marketing practice.  I also think that the launch of this new site and blog indicates that there is great potential in health marketing to help individuals become healthier and more active participants in their own healthcare.

Tags: health marketing, healthcare marketing, health promotion, National Center for Health Marketing, Jay Bernhardt

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On July 24, 2006, Senator Harkin (D-IA) introduced legislation that would amend the Public Health Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to set standards for medical diagnostic equipment and to establish a program for promoting good health, disease prevention, and wellness and for the prevention of secondary conditions for individuals with disabilities, and for other purposes.programs.

In my work with individuals with psychiatric disabilities, this kind of attention and support to their wellness is very much needed. Many of these people lack access to preventative medical care. They also typically have very unhealthy lifestyles that increase the rates of chronic health problems such as obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Also places that care for individuals with psychiatric disabilities lack the funds to purchase equipment, supplies and space to conduct those programs that they need most– like smoking cessation, nutrition education, and exercise equipment and facilities.

This legislation sets up a competitive grant process for public agencies and nonprofit organizations to access funds that can be used to:

• develop programs or activities for smoking cessation, weight control, nutrition, or fitness that focus on the unique challenges faced by individuals with disabilities regarding these issues;
• establish preventive health screening programs for individuals with disabilities to reduce the incidence of secondary conditions; and
• create athletic, exercise, or sports programs that provide individuals with disabilities (including children with disabilities) an opportunity to increase their physical activity in a dedicated or adaptive recreational environment

In my work writing materials (Solutions for Wellness and Nutrition for Americans) to educate individuals with psychiatric disabilities about changing their lifestyle through nutrition and activity so that they can be healthier, I know of the difficulty of accessing funds to actually have classes on this topic. If passed, this legislation could help to set up pilot programs to promote wellness in this population. I personally think that this could be a wonderful start in helping individuals with psychiatric disabilities to become more active participants in their own care.

To date there are no co-sponsors of this legislation. However after posting this, I will be writing my Senator. If you feel so inclined, I hope that you would write yours too. Click here to find your’s.

Tags: US Senate, Tom Harkin, S 3719, psychiatric disabilities, public health act, rehabilitation act of 1973, health promotion, wellness promotion, legislation, health legislation

The two Truths for today are:

• The smallest action to help others can make a big difference.
• Viral Marketing works!

Thanks to a colleague at Our Pal’s Place, I’ve learned about a new way to raise some funds for us by using Goodsearch.com to conduct my internet searches.

As Russ said, “This is such a no-brainer. We all do this anyway. We just need to use them.” And that is the beauty of it. I do a lot of internet searches for work, for blogging, and for personal use. So how cool is it that I can get a penny or so donated for every search I do?!?!?!

GoodSearch uses Yahoo! Search technology and this means that the searches are good quality. I’ve used this several times over the last week and have been satisfied with the results I was given. So — in short– don’t worry about the quality!

I love the fact that GoodSearch allows you to see how much has been raised for the organization. This is immediate feedback that what you are doing is making a difference. One thing I wish they had was a way to browse the registered nonprofit through categories or location. This would be helpful for people just want to turn their searches for good and don’t really have a specific nonprofit in mind.

So drop by GoodSearch.com and if you don’t have a charity in mind– pick Our Pal’s Place.

Tags: GoodSearch.com, nonprofit giving, Our Pal’s Place, philanthropy, search engine, internet, viral marketing

In the launch of Dollar Philanthropy, where I have offically outted myself as a blogger to family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances, I have discovered that there are a number of people who still look upon blogging with skeptical eyes. Many don’t understand the facination and others are convinced that blogging is just an outlet for angry, troubled, and hostile adults or that it is just something for kids.

With the announcement, I also received responses from a number of folks who had not ventured into the blogosphere, but who admitted that they had been curious. A few have been willing to suspend judgement and have agreed to tip their toe into the world of blogs. With that said, I wanted to take a few moments to wax philosophical about blogging.

so……….I think it is important for individuals to refrain from defining blogging by the individuals that do it. Instead, people should look at it as a technology and a tool that can be used to communicate information that can be accessed 24/7.

You Don’t Have to be Like Ann Coulter

Blogging can be used for other things besides boldly expressing your opinion. One example of this is a newly published blog, by an experienced blogger and 5th grade teacher, for her students and students’ families. Stoddert5 is the blog of Rachel Henighan who is returning to her Washington DC school after a fellowship in Mongolia. The tone of her blog mimics the intercom announcements I remember from school where the principal gave important information for the day. Rachel introduces herself and gives some important and interesting information about her life. She also describes what a blog is and how she plans on using the technology to add depth to the classroom experience.

She also encourages the blog to be a forum and clearly is using the technology as one part of her classroom communication strategy.

You can also use the blog as a way to communicate with me. The “e-mail me” link connects directly to my address. You can also “Post a Comment” that can be viewed on the site by all visitors. This might be a good way to support a student’s work. I will also be happy to post notes you need to communicate with other classroom parents.

Whatever is posted here on Stoddert5 will also be available in hard copy for families who have limited access to the internet. I am also happy to spend time helping family members learn how to navigate this blog if it seems too challenging.

“It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.”

This is just a BIG FAT LIE! If you are open to using blogging technologies in creative ways, you will learn that they have the potential of making communication much, much easier. They do this by:

• being available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This means that people can find information when they are looking for it.
• being syndicated which means that people subscribe to a feed (bloglines or newsgator) and get the information delivered to them at the time they are prepared to listen
• being a searchable archived set of content. This means that you enter the information once and the information is available as the need arises.

In my view, blogs are perfect for educating and keeping people informed. If you are buying this notion, then you will see how blogs can be used in many areas for many different groups. They can be used by:

• managed care companies for providing information about processes and plan updates
• teachers and schools for classroom and parent communication
• nonprofits for announcements, cause related news, fundraising events and donor communication
• healthcare organizations for introducing new providers, patient education and information about accessing services
• professional speakers and authors for giving people glimpses into you as a person and the topics on which you speak

So if you are new to reading blogs, considering starting a blog or are one of those people who proclaims that blogs are stupid, consider the technology and the creative ways you can use it.

Tags: blogs, teachers, classroom communication, healthcare communication, nonprofit communication, managed care, education, classroom, school

I’ve previously posted that I will be a moderator at the first ever Healthcare Blogging Conference in December.  Part of the conference will focus on the culture and opinions of healthcare bloggers.  To accomplish this, Dmitryi Kruglyak, the publisher of The Medical Blog Network, and Fard Johnmar at Envision Solutions, LLC have developed a survey to better understand how medical and healthcare bloggers think and what they think about the emerging role of blogs in the healthcare industry.

The results of the survey will be presented at the conference in December.  Furthermore, Dmitryi and Fard will be conducting this same survey again in the future to monitor change. 

If you are a medical or healthcare blogger please drop by to take the survey.  Click here to go to the landing page which tells you more about the survey.  Then scroll to the bottom to find the link that takes you directly to the survey.

Tags: healthcare, medical blogging, blogging survey, healthcare blogging, healthcare blogging conference, online survey