Why Boston Is Poised to Be the Hub of Patient-Centered Healthcare

A cross section of 50 members of the Who’s Who of Boston-area healthcare gathered on June 25 at our invitation for a spirited discussion around a rallying call to “Make Boston the Nexus of Patient-Centered Healthcare.” The evening provided an exciting perspective on how many patients are managing their health outside of the formal healthcare system.

Cosponsored by North Bridge Growth Partners and organized by Future Forward, the event’s centerpiece was the panel moderated by Scott Kirsner, Innovation Economist at The Boston Globe. This roundtable discussion among trend setting entrepreneurs and leading policy makers in self-directed health and wellness included:

• David Dickinson from Zeo, an online sleep-management company
• Jason Jacobs of FitnessKeeper, which is focused on tracking, measuring, and improving fitness
• Joseph Kvedar from the Center for Connected Healthcare, which does research in technology-enabled healthcare delivery  
• Frank Moss of the MIT Media Lab, specializing in new-media medicine
• David Rose from Vitality, that makes devices to improve medication adherence
• Sonny Vu of AgaMatrix, the company that made the first iPhone-based blood glucose monitor

The lively conversation focused on the opportunity to make Boston the hub of patient-centered healthcare, just as Silicon Valley is the nexus of technology-based innovation. The group identified some important advantages that the Boston area has in supporting this trend:

• A strong digital-technology community, including entrepreneurs and developers
• World-class medical expertise and data capabilities, such as researchers, practitioners, and Big Data from research and clinical trials
• An active venture-finance presence with a strong track record in funding therapeutic, device, and diagnostic companies

We were indebted to the audience for their dynamic participation in helping make the exchange a success. We were also fortunate to have representatives of many of the major players in patient-centric health present, including:

• Digital and mobile health startups and later-stage companies, such as OhmUniverse, PrescribableApps, Healthrageous, and Humedica
• Payers and employers, including BC/BS of MA and AthenaHealth
• Academic medicine and policy experts, such as BU, and MIT Media Lab’s New Media Medicine group
• Pharma professionals, including Biogen-Idec and extrovertic
• Investors, including Rock Health and North Bridge Venture Partners 

The group’s collective findings are best expressed in the image above. It shows the Boston-area healthcare ecosystem that has developed over the last several years. Scribed courtesy of CollectiveNext.

This conversation is far from over. We will continue it in upcoming posts, where we’ll focus on the substance and implications of patient-centered health, including:

• What’s Goin’ On?: Who is managing their own health?
• Rage Against the Machine: Giving consumers healthcare control and independence
• Love the One You’re With: Opportunities for providers, payers, and pharma

Check back with us periodically and, in the meantime, thanks for letting us share.

Bill

2 concerts and a plate of bones.

Whether it was poor timing or some inner party animal instinct, I managed to lock myself into two consecutive nights of concerts.

Both bands would feature loud guitars, a healthy dose of ‘80s-style synthesizers, pulsing bass lines, and did I mention loud guitars? Yet, they’re different.

One band is relatively new - the mean age of their members was about 26. The other, a band that’s been around for about 30 years, whose members are geezers and could technically be the fathers of the kids in the first band. These bands are quite unalike, yet each has qualified as ‘kickass’ in my opinion.

Without prejudice.

We had spare tickets to these shows and offered them to friends. No takers.

“I don’t know these bands, but I don’t think I’m gonna like ‘em,” was the typical response. This, was without hearing a single note from either band.

Much prejudice, it seems.

When I asked a colleague if he wanted to see one of these bands, he promptly googled them and told me, “I see that they’re classified in Wikipedia as a shoegaze band. What on Earth is shoegaze?!” Then he didn’t think he was going to like them. His reasoning made my head explode. “I think they’re before my time, before I was born.” I’m pretty sure people shouldn’t be benchmarking new music on the basis of their birth date.

You see, I have a voracious appetite for new experiences – not just music – and I believe that every one should be constantly on the look out for new and different things.

For example, lately I’ve taken to the idea of nose-to-tail eating, which means I’ve been going out of my way to try every type of offal I can find. Heck, before last night’s concert, I pigged out on roasted bone marrow with ramps.

I knew I liked bone marrow, but I had no idea what a ramp was, so I ordered it. (It’s a wild spring onion and you can see the little bulbs embedded right into the marrow).

(My mouth is watering just looking at that picture)

We all need to go out and try everything weird. If not weird, something that makes you a tad uneasy, and takes you out of your comfort zone.

So what’s the point of all this, then?

Run towards ideas that are unfamiliar or different from what you currently believe or understand. Have a voracious hunger for new ideas.

Despite its original context in the film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko’s seminal speech has a universal truth to it:

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

Greed is very good for marketing, in the sense of the pursuit of ideas and creativity. Eat up everything around you – in pop culture, in automotive design, in furniture aesthetics, in product packaging, in films, I gastronomy–all of it.

I believe that so many solutions for pharma marketing lie outside pharma marketing. And the only way we’re ever going to find them is when we start paying attention to things about which we have no idea.

-Des

Please Welcome Our Latest extrovert to the NY Office.

As part of extrovertic’s recent rebranding brainstorming, each of us was asked to “bring in something that you feel represents extrovertic.”

I brought in a bulb.

But not just any bulb—an amaryllis bulb.

You’re probably wondering, “What does an amaryllis bulb have to do with extrovertic?"

A bunch of reasons come to mind:

        ·      It blooms big, with multiple flowers

        ·      It’s determined. An amaryllis is one of the easiest flowers to grow. The bulb of this one couldn’t even wait to get to work. It’d already started to sprout before we put it in soil and watered it

        ·      It’s unstoppable. An amaryllis can keep on growing and blooming for years with minimal care. This is the second time this one’s bloomed. I just trimmed off the wilting stalk and it grew another stalk that then flowered

        ·      It’s popular. Because it’s so easygoing and cooperative, there’s a worldwide demand for them

        ·      It’s diverse. They flower in different colors (red, white, pink, salmon, and orange) as well as with different stripes

The way I see it, we at extrovertic operate the same way. It’s who we are. What we do. And how we work. Is it genetic? The environment? I don’t know. I’ll leave that to the Watson and Cricks of the world to unearth.

But I leave you, kind reader, with a perennial question: Why not grow your brand with extrovertic?

-PVB

Regardless of What You Call the Business, It's Evolving

Interactive Marketing Trends

What an amazing time it is to be in the healthcare/pharma/advertising/marketing strategy/digital/social media/relationship marketing/closed loop marketing/consulting business.

Every day brings new challenges. New solutions. New technologies. New surprises. New potential. New growth.

This is not your father's healthcare/pharma/advertising/marketing strategy/digital/social media/relationship marketing/closed loop marketing/consulting business.

It's certainly not the world of advertising I grew up in. And thank god for that. (Actually, I didn't know then what I was missing.)

Then, creative was strictly left to the creatives. We were tasked to develop smart print/radio/TV/direct mail. Later, there were banners/Web sites/emails...

Today, everyone has to be creative. And I mean everyone. Because the charge of an agency today is to create more than just great ads and online messages. It's about creating strategically smart, compelling, holistic, cross-platform programs that strike just the right chord with patients/caretakers/professionals. That connect with them at just the right place in their hearts and moment of their journey. That maximize engagement, incite doctor-patient dialogue, invite more positive and healthful behaviors, better adherence and spread overall good karma.

Then, the creative brief was the domain of the planners and creatives.

Today, everyone needs to get involved, because everyone can bring their unique perspective to the party, and the earlier they do it, the better.

And today's version of "everyone" is different from tomorrow's, as we try to keep up with the ever-evolving tableau of insights/technologies/solutions/regulatory issues...

As I said, it's an exciting time to be in the healthcare/pharma/advertising/marketing strategy/digital/social media/relationship marketing/closed loop marketing/consulting business.

Which by next week, will probably have an even longer name.

-Mark