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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

Innovative Efforts to Improve Medication Adherence

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Last week, commuting to work on the DC Metro, I stumbled across a New York Times article talking about how some health care groups are paying patients to take their medications in an effort to improve adherence.

For years, people have been talking about medication adherence or the lack thereof and of course we hear the often repeated billion dollar number to characterize the costs associated with avoidable hospitalizations or lost productivity at work. While we might be becoming immune to the billion and trillion dollar figures increasingly found everywhere, there are still a few simple numbers that continue to stand out when it comes to treatment compliance:

  • As many as half of all patients do not take their medications as prescribed.
  • Upwards of 25% of patients never fill their prescriptions at all.
  • Even for those patients who have health insurance and no treatment co-pays, non-adherence rates for almost 40%.
  • Many doctors have too many patients and too little time - the average office visit lasts just fifteen minutes.  (more...)

Posted in Chronic Disease, Disease Awareness
By Katherine Maynard | No Comments »

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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

Chronic Monday: Diabetes and Behavioral Economics

Monday, March 8th, 2010

This is the first in our series titled "Chronic Monday," which will highlight pertinent issues in the chronic disease community.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, learning that you are about to develop diabetes isn't enough to trigger the behavior changes necessary to stave off the disease.  Compounding the challenge for prevention advocates is this statistic: approximately one of every three adults in America are prediabetic, but less than 10 percent of them are aware of it. As many of us already know, diabetes is one serious disease with life threatening implications. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 65% of people with diabetes will die from heart disease or stroke. (more...)

Posted in Chronic Disease, Disease Awareness, Public Health
By Katherine Maynard | 1 Comment »

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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

What Makes a Great Relationship?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

In the February 2010 issue of PM360, a magazine targeted at marketing decision makers within the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device field, I had the great opportunity to share some comments on what it is that creates a great working relationship between an agency and their clients.  Take a look at my thoughts and I welcome everyone's feedback on this critical topic of relationship building in today's business climate.pm360

To see the full article and read the comments from other industry professionals, visit the PM360 site. (more...)

Posted in PR Industry
By Katherine Maynard | 2 Comments »

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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

Mass Migration Online Presents Powerful Opportunities to Influence Consumer Experience

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Manhattan Research released findings from a study that confirmed what many of  us in communications know to be true -  online channels have significantly more influence over consumer health decisions and actions than traditional channels like print, T.V. and radio . Even more interestingly, the study claimed that editorial content still has significantly more influence on consumer health actions than various forms of social media, reinforcing the need for a compelling story if you want your messages to resonate with your most influential audiences.

But the continuing mass migration online (more than half of adults under the age of 65 now search the Internet for health information) presents powerful opportunities to influence the consumer experience, one of the last areas where companies can truly differentiate themselves among increasingly discerning and information savvy audiences.

Increasingly, successful communications programs will keep the customer experience front and center by fostering meaningful engagement whether that means real time feedback, nimble customer service or relevant education and content that help patients navigate the many choices they need to make throughout the continuum of their treatment and disease management process. (more...)

Posted in New Media, PR Industry, Technology
By Katherine Maynard | No Comments »

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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

Living Proof Event

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Some good news to share - Bill and Melinda Gates swept into town last night to say thank you - to the U.S. taxpayer. At a talk last night in D.C. they spoke about the success of their Living Proof Project, a series of global health initiatives that are demonstrating measurable results by saving millions of lives. The Gates stressed the importance of U.S. funding of global health projects and actively sought to illustrate the results of the investments made and to illuminate the importance of public/private partnerships. To name just a few of the advances made:  (more...)

Posted in Community Involvement, Disease Awareness
By Katherine Maynard | No Comments »

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kmaynard
Katherine
Maynard

Web Managers Roundtable Brings the Buzz

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Last week, I attended a great talk by Tony Byrne, founder of CMSWatch. Sponsored by one of the best kept "secrets" in town, the Web Managers Roundtable, Tony's talk focused on evaluating the ever expanding world of social media software — an area that is undoubtedly causing the biggest buzz in digital media these days.  So I sat down and prepared to learn more about everything from Pluck and Ning to JIVE and Drupal to eBlogger and Six Apart.

While new tools are being released almost everyday in a mad dash to help us connect with one another in new ways, I think what we need to remember is to take time to figure out what we want to accomplish from a business standpoint.  As Tony pointed out, there are a number of good tools for networking and others that foster collaboration, but very few tools provide us the ability to effectively network and collaborate.  A simple example of this is Facebook and the fact that they have no file storage.

These products are part of an emerging, yet immature marketplace without any real practice standards. Pilot testing a project takes on a whole new meaning and will prove to be invaluable as you work to create and customize the communications framework that best serves your organization.

As we continue to have clients that grapple with "how to" in the online world, and as the line between personal and business blurs, it is critical to take a step back, take a deep breath and really try to figure out what your business objectives are.  Then you must plan for your success - how you will continue to keep the conversation going, ensure that your content remains dynamic and up-to-date, and figure out internally who will actively cultivate the growing two-way relationship of your company with its audiences.

Also interesting was that according to recent studies, age is not necessarily the accurate predictor of the adoption of social media applications - it really depends on how social a person is off-line. Imagine that.

Katherine Maynard, Executive Vice President

Posted in New Media, Technology
By Katherine Maynard | No Comments »