KOL market reearch | Pharma Strategy Blog

New blog on the block

By MaverickNY on May 18, 2009

One of my old Pharma buddies sent me the link to an interesting new blog last week,called 'Thinking Pharma'.

It's actually a refreshing change to see an agency have an active blog sharing information rather than the usual tame advice to use social media without using it themselves, which is one of my pet peeves. Definitely one to watch out for.

Today's headline was a good head turner:

"Pharma corporations need to start with confronting the new communication reality of Web 2.0."

Well, I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment – it's all too easy to get bogged down in the tactical nitty gritty, but the reality of the big picture is much more about understanding wisdom of crowds, or in this case, consumers and patients.

I love the cartoons; even on a really busy and stressful day, they bring a little humour and levity into ones life. Richard Heale, the author, is an old hand from the agency side and yet his thinking is very interesting and different. Check it the blog for yourselves and see what you think.

America, healthcare reform and the white elephant in the room

By MaverickNY on May 18, 2009

The FT had a fabulous cartoon in it yesterday that just about summed up the US health care system:

Source: FT

It's all very well agreeing to curb spiralling costs, but quite how this will actually be achieved in unclear.

Ever since arriving in the US ten years ago, I've been fascinated and appalled by the dichotomy that exists in the system here. The FT put it succinctly:

"The President is right that costs need to be better controlled. Nobody disagrees. The US spends vastly more than any other country on healthcare, yet fails to insure tens of millions of its citizens. Expenditures are growing faster than inflation and faster than the economy’s trend growth. Yet judged by health outcomes the system gets mediocre results at best."

I'm not sure what the solution is either, other than no matter what is proposed, the venture will flounder in policy, apathy and compromise that pleases no one.

Perhaps the unthinkable equilibrium will happen, as described by Paul Kedrosky:

"In thinking about Barack Obama's recent personal revelation about the evils of deficits, as well as the edge of budgetary apocalypse situation here in California, I got to thinking about one of my favorite Herb Stein quotes:

'If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.'"

We can all agree that the deficit and extravagant spending on healthcare cannot continue for ever, but stopping either in its tracks may prove easier said than done. Unless we just fall over the abyss and avoid the future consequences of rising costs, an aging baby boomer population and new technologies.

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