AMM Conversation

TOPIC: Pharma Forecast 2021 

LENGTH: 42:12

PANELISTS: Jim DeLash and Lori Holland-Hancock

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Three of AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, kicks off with highlights of the AMM Virtual Roundtable that explored what 2021 will hold for Pharma and the emerging trends in  medical media.

Our panelists today:

Jim DeLash is the US Marketing Director of Customer Experience for 

Vaccines @ GlaxoSmithKline.

Lori Holland-Hancock is Director of the Multi-Channel Integration Team for Oncology @ Merck.

• 1:17 Lori discusses more industry partnering, being more nimble, and the pharma being part of the solution — with regard to advancing the science and a vaccine — during the pandemic age

Resources: Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next: RJ Lewis and Amy Turnquist of eHealthcare Solutions discuss the growth of native advertising, the opportunities publishers will have in a cookie-less future, and other emerging media trends for 2021.  The easiest way to know when the next season drops is to subscribe or follow the podcast.  

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

With disruption comes opportunity, especially for those who can move quickly to innovate and adapt. As the pharmaceutical industry pivots marketing strategies in response to reduced access, a moratorium on in-person conferences and events, and new digital/virtual platforms, how will this impact medical media strategies in 2021 and beyond?

Season Three of AMM Conversation dives deep into format and function, everything from programmatic usage and native growth, to traditional best-sellers and the role of multimedia. Join us as we explore how industry leaders are responding to current circumstances and rewriting the rules for HCP engagement and ROI.

AMM Conversation, official podcast of the Association of Medical Media.

TOPIC: The "New Normal" in Medical Media  

LENGTH: 44:10

PANELISTS: Eugene Lee and Jim Woodland, CMI/Compas; and Sima Sherman, Sherman Medical Marketing Group 

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Two of the AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, concludes with a final discussion of the "new normal" in medical media. In this episode, we are joined by a trio of medical media experts discussing how the industry is coping, adapting, and excelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our panelists today:

• Eugene Lee, Chief Operating Officer at CMI/Compas, where he is responsible for the global operations of media business leadership, media planning and media strategy disciplines across all clients. Eugene has been with CMI/Compas for over 25 years and is an AMM board member. 

Resources: Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next: Be on the lookout for Season Three of the podcast this fall. The easiest way to know when the next season drops is to subscribe or follow the podcast.  

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

TOPIC: The New Normal in Medical Media  

LENGTH: 35:18

GUEST: Dora Shankman, President & CEO, DPS Strategic Media Enterprises, LLC.

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Two of the AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, explores the "new normal" in medical media. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dora Shankman, a well-known name in healthcare marketing and advertising. Dora discusses how she and her clients are coping, adapting, and excelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Resources: Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next:  Ep. 5 will be the final episode of Season Two, and will feature further conversation about the new normal in medical media with Sima Sherman of Sherman Medical Marketing Group, as well as insights from Eugene Lee and Jim Woodland of CMI/Compas.   

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

TOPIC: The New Normal in Medical Media  

LENGTH: 35:38

PANELISTS: Benji Kayne, MedscapeLive!

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Two of the AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, explores the "new normal" in medical media. 

In this episode, we are discussing how the industry is coping, adapting, and excelling during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Our guest is Benji Kayne, Vice President of Experiential and Learning Events at MedscapeLive!. Benji joined MedscapeLive! in February, having previously produced events for Google. With the rapid onset of the pandemic, the MedscapeLive! team deftly pivoted more than 150 in-person experiences to an all-virtual events platform in a matter of weeks.

Listen in as Benji discusses the challenges and successes of producing medical events in the virtual space.

Resources:  Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next:  Ep. 4 features further conversation about the new normal in medical media with industry veteran Dora Shankman, President and CEO of Shankman Marketing and Media Resources.   

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

TOPIC: The New Normal in Medical Media  

LENGTH: 41:26

PANELISTS: Denis Conlon, Alejandro Alvarez, and Sumner Mering of Elsevier's Global Commercial Sales and Marketing Group 

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Two of the AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, explores the "new normal" in medical media. 

In this episode, we are joined by a trio of medical media experts discussing how the industry is coping, adapting, and excelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our panelists today are from Elsevier: 

• Denis Conlon is VP of Marketing for Elsevier's Global Commercial Sales and Marketing Group; 

Resources:

Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next:  Ep. 3 features further conversation about the new normal in medical media with MedScapeLive!'s VP of Experiential and Learning Events Benji Kayne.   

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

TOPIC: The New Normal in Medical Media  

LENGTH: 28:12

PANELISTS: Matthew Holland, John C. Carter, Joan-Marie Stiglich

HOST: Jason E. Carris

Season Two of the AMM Conversation, the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media, explores the "new normal" in medical media. In this episode, we are joined by a trio of medical publishing experts discussing how the industry is coping, adapting, and excelling during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Our panelists today are from Healio and its parent company, The Wyanoke Group: 

• John C. Carter is Chief Operating Officer of The Wyanoke Group. Healio, Healio Strategic Solutions, Healio Live and SLACK Incorporated are wholly owned subsidiaries of The Wyanoke Group. John has been with the company since 1982.

Resources:

Find additional medical media resources via AMM's Knowledge Exchange Center.

Next:  Ep. 2 features further conversation about the new normal in medical media with Denis Conlon, Sumner Mering, and Alejandro Alvarez from Elsevier's Global Commercial Sales and Marketing Group.   

Contact us:  AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

Length: 26:42

Dr. Fou, formerly the Chief Digital Office at Omnicom and a recognized ad fraud expert, joins the AMM Conversation as we wrap up our exploration of data privacy and medical media. Dr. Fou is an MIT-trained scientist who has more than two decades of experience working with healthcare clients. He’s taught digital strategy at NYU and Rutgers. His clients run the gamut of marketers, publishers, and ad tech firms.

Dr. Fou said he considers 2020 a transition year for data privacy, with regulators taking notice that privacy issues should be taken more seriously. As consumers better understand the ways their data is being used and abused, he says government will move to, at least, “put guard rails around data privacy.”

Like others interviewed in this podcast, Dr. Fou is concerned about the lack of federal regulation. “Here in the U.S. we have yet to even start enforcement,” he said, adding there are a lot of ways companies can “game the system and not comply with regulations when they are passed.”

Bad actors in digital media/marketing “never follow rules anyway,” he explained, “so I don’t see any new regulations causing a decrease in fraud.”

Interestingly, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and the consumer backlash to the invasion in privacy was “not a lesson that (Facebook) is going to learn from because it is at odds with their business model,” he said. “If privacy legislation is at odds with business models, big tech companies likely are going to continue with their business until they get caught and get fined. … It’s going to be very hard to enforce any new regulations.”

He said the Covid-19 pandemic might provide opportunities for data companies to exploit the rules. Apple and Google teaming on a contact tracing app is “right at the cutting edge,” Dr. Fou said, “but consumers will have to decide on their own. The question remains if we trust these big companies. … Apple has a long track record of having sensitivity to consumer privacy.”

Medical media has always had a higher level of respect to physician and patient privacy, he said, but the advent of ad tech platforms brought about a number of unexpected outcomes and unintended consequences. He described a time during his digital marketing days when NPI numbers were exposed in the URL of the web page, a problem that was quickly fixed once identified.

Dr. Fou also described in detail his definitions of “good publishers” and “bad actors” in digital media, with respect to protecting the advertisers. “Good publishers go above and beyond and take proactive steps, such as not serving ads when they know a bot is on the website, or filtering for known bots coming from data centers. They protect the advertisers,” he said.

The bar should be raised in medical media. “Everyone is conscious of it and is trying to do the right thing,” he said. “But what other steps can you take? Instead of having 30 or 40 third-party trackers on your website, you might want to only have five.  

He encouraged medical media to “keep evolving with your data privacy. Be proactive, and do not wait for legislation.”

Connect with Dr. Fou: LinkedIn or Twitter @acfou

References:

• Check out Dr. Fou’s research slides and presentations.

Up Next: This concludes Season One of the AMM Conversation podcast. Season Two of the podcast will explore the new paradigm of medical media, in light of restrictions placed on U.S. businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Expected guests include: Matt Holland (Healio Strategic Solutions), Kristin Carty and Denis Conlon (Elsevier), and Dave Emery (Kantar).

Contact us: Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].

Length: 29:24

Guest: Jon Bigelow, Executive Director, Coalition for Healthcare Communications

Host: Jason E. Carris 

Jon Bigelow is executive director of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication. The coalition membership includes medical publishers, advertising agencies, marketing firms, scientific communications firms, point of care content providers, and digital platforms.

As big data and data security have grown in the past decade, the federal government has been “reluctant to get involved,” says Bigelow, past president and current board member of the Association of Medical Media. He says many of the companies involved in data are monopolies, yet the government has “not taken the same anti-trust stance as it did previously with Standard Oil, the railroads, or Bell breakups.”

Companies that harvest and monetize data “have been allowed to self-regulate” as the government has, for the most part, played a “passive, hands-off role. But the anger has been building the past few years.” 

He notes concerns with security breaches and digital platforms, like Facebook, that have allowed the use of personal data for purposes the consumer never intended. “The Cambridge Analytica event was a big deal.”

Data privacy policy was largely driven by the European Union and its GDPR, which “essentially added more specifics to the definition of what is personal data, instituted a very rigorous opt-in mechanism, and provided, at least initially, severe penalties,” he says.  

In 2019, California passed the first sweeping legislation (CCPA) in the U.S. aimed at protecting consumers’ data. “It was very quickly designed legislation,” Bigelow says. “To this day, it is still being clarified by their Attorney General. ... It is enforceable as of July 1, 2020.”

CCPA improved mechanisms for consent, but has “more of an opting-out emphasis,” he says, “so that a consumer has the right to know what data is being collected, where it was collected from, what is being done with that data, by whom, and the ability to opt-out.”

The big problem is the potential for every state to create its own privacy law(s), which is almost “untenable” from an industry perspective. “The second big issue is the burden on the consumer/user,” Bigelow says. “You don’t really know what you are agreeing to… to think simply clicking ‘I Agree’ is consent is laughable.”

Bigelow does see light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of much-needed federal regulations vs. a patchwork of state laws. Despite the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., there appears to be bipartisan agreement that “one, something needs to be done to protect the privacy and security of individuals data; and second, it needs to be done at a federal level. This is one of the few areas where there is consensus.”

Medical media should take note of work from Privacy for America, an industry group attempting to establish broad principles for a privacy law, of which many of the principles are being used in the dozens of bills circulating the Beltway. The principles would act as federal guard rails, the same as safety standards for automobiles, Bigelow explains. Key pillars of the effort:

• Create a Data Protection Agency, staffed with experts and focused on data privacy.

When asked about the privacy questions the coalition’s membership is asking: “For medical publishers and media placement firms, the big issue was with the Colorado legislation. … Advertising agency concerns were on the cyber security side, in terms of who is liable when data is breached. … Scientific communications firms are concerned with the use of algorithms to try to discern patterns in the data that might not be visible. Example: identify patients with a rare disease and being able to target communications to them or include them in a clinical trial. … The publication planning world is very much under pressure to get all clinical trial results into the literature very quickly, including negative results, and include full data sets. There is a lot of concern whether, in fact, they can put the full data sets in the public purview.”

Bigelow says he thinks the government’s view of data as a “public good” is changing for the positive, even though it might narrow an individual’s right to privacy. Whether it is Google and Apple tracking individuals’ movement during Covid-19 or clinical trials for rare disease research, or new safe harbor laws for rare disease research, he says data as a public good “is an issue that is going to be re-evaluated.”

Resources:

• Check out the Coalition for Healthcare Communication website for news, resources, and events related to healthcare marketing.

Subscribe: Add the AMM Conversation to your playlist on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you enjoy podcasts.

Next: Ep. 4 will conclude the data privacy discussions.

Contact us: AMM Conversation is the official podcast of the Association of Medical Media. Send questions and comments about this podcast series to [email protected].