The Variability of Patient Care

Back in May, Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine published an article by John Glaser, CIO of Partners Healthcare in Boston.  He is now CEO of Siemens Healthcare's Health Services unit, and a thought leader you might want to watch.  We thought this article was particularly relevant because it discussed the two types of care that EMRs need to account for, sequential care which follows certain processes and iterative care or the discovery/ diagnosis of disease.

Why is this relevant to pharma marketers?  Because industry marketers need to think differently!  They need to comprehend that electronic barriers are going to impede their product's prescribers and subsequently adoption of their product. And depending on the product, many marketers are only focusing their messaging on that iterative care piece.  But the real dollars are in the sequential care processes that follow the initial diagnosis. This we believe is where many companies and their agencies need to be focusing their message development.

We think this article begins to help marketers understand the issues going forward and offer some examples of other industries that adapt to situations.  Glaser says, "We may be able to learn from other settings in which iterative and sequential activities are occurring simultaneously —for example, soldiers in combat situations, pilots landing planes in the Hudson River and scientists conducting experiments. These settings must also balance the information technology needs and the implementation mindset."

Even Neil Versel at FierceEMR said, "Ever notice how so many examples of how EHRs can improve care focus on diabetes? That's because diabetes care has many clear protocols, copious amounts of scientific evidence that gets included in clinical decision support and clear quality measures."

Our summary point to all of this suggests, EMRs will have a tremendous impact on the future of product selection for prescription medicines and medical devices.  If you do not know a lot about this now, you may want to learn more quickly.