HCPs are going to be more accepting of ads in professional environments is the finding of a study of 156 HCPs (62% physician, 38% others). We assume the scope was global since the report does not say otherwise -- this becomes important later.

The study was comprised of ten questions against five topics:

When asked if they prefer professional ads in professional environments the crossed lines are easy to see. Most HCPs are ok with ads in professional environments and most (67%) do not prefer them in general environments.

If you ask most people if they want to see ads they will say no. However, it's common knowledge that content costs money to produce so by and large most people are ok with it. 

When asked if they minded being targeted for pharma ads, 62% of HCPs were ok with it on professional sites but 67% were not ok with it on general sites.

In the negative responses to general sites is a strong suspicion that patients will see the ads, at least from the quotes in the Healio report.

An HCP worried that patients won't understand the HCP-oriented information.

An HCP obviously thinking that everyone will see the professional ad and that it is written for patients rather than HCPs.

An HCP who is against DTC in all forms and generally anti-pharma thinking that the ads will be targeted not at HCPs but at patients. We wonder if the global HCPs are even more anti-DTC because of their local regulatory regimes. 

This is a great study and looks like it was well done (with perhaps a small "n" value). HCP advertisers are encouraged to take a look. Yes, the information helps Healio (an HCP publisher) but it's useful nonetheless. 

Readers should remember that people are notoriously bad at self-reporting actual behavior even if they can generally report opinion. Any marketers using both endemic and full-audience outlets should compare their own data to see which works best.

PPD issues some reports earlier this year which we reported on (here, and here) and now they have a new one (based on new data, we checked) for rare disease trials. 

This 32-page report is packed with data for this audience. We are focusing on two things in this story, but anyone involved with rare disease trials, especially distributed or decentralized (depends on who you ask) should take a look.

The report features data on which technologies trial sponsors want to use, and which they would use again. The results don't speak well of presumably consumer-grade wearables even though patient monitoring as a task is strong.

When asked what technologies they want to use wearables are at the top of the list:

However, when asked what technologies they would use again, wearables are way down the chart:

This is definitely one of those things that makes you question consumer products in clinical trials, even though we really really want to use them (keep the tone at least somewhat professional -Ed.).

When asked what resources they used to share knowledge about their DCTs, respondents start with HCPs at conferences.

Interestingly, "online forums" included Facebook and we suspect groups and other elements were being conflated with the platform.

When asked what platforms they used on social media, respondents again said, of course, Facebook.

These two findings were interesting for both DTC sponsors and health marketers alike. The report itself has a lot more data on DTCs and is recommended for anyone in that field. 

Ad Age and The Harris Poll surveyed 1,047 Americans to find out how they refer to Twitter, I mean X (don't talk to the audience... but same feelings -Ed.). 

The rebrand is clearly taking time to catch on, but it's likely that Musk will maintain the new name, as he wants it to signify the platform as the "everything" app. In their favor is that Alphabet caught on over Google and Meta is gaining traction over Facebook. 

However, in both of those cases the companies had many offerings whereas Twitter, ahem, X, only has the one and has decimated its development team. Whether users will come around remains to be seen, but early indicators are not promising.

The current approach to building digital health products and services often doesn’t account for many of the essential players and the opportunity to enable the communal reality of how care happens. 

Rock Health reports that there are over 11 time more unpaid caregivers than paid:

There is an opportunity to design products and services that reflect these realities—of multi-person, multi-role, multi-generational care networks—and can more easily facilitate the connections between families, communities, and providers.

Rock Health highlights three principles for care experiences:

In a linked article from their partner The Holding Company they show potential design for these tools.

The article underscores a growing divide between advertisers' hefty investments in digital platforms and the actual media consumption habits of U.S. adults. With 74.6% of ad budgets poured into digital outlets, only 62.1% of consumers' daily media time aligns with these platforms. Specific disparities spotlighted include Meta's outsized ad revenue relative to usage, the underfunded potential of Connected TV (CTV) despite its significant user engagement, and the minimal ad investments in digital audio and radio in contrast to their consumption rates. These imbalances provoke questions about the efficacy of current ad strategies in reflecting real-world user behavior.

Patients have come to rely on fast, more casual communications with their doctors, like email. As a result, many physicians work two to four hours every evening on their patient emails after their shift is over, and that’s not sustainable. To combat this, health systems are starting to charge for emails.

It seems to be working.

But many fear that billing for messages will adversely affect medically and socially vulnerable patients. The article highlights a wide range of pricing (before insurance): 

Enter, AI. Could new technology help docs get a head start on comms and reduce some of the labor burden (that's not in the story, good question though -Ed.)?

As AI matures, we'll see its user interfaces mature, making its capabilities more accessible. In this article, Nielsen-Norman Group inspects Midjourney, and demonstrates ways to make AI-generated image creation more usable by combining text prompts with graphical user interface elements (GUI).

Electronic health records that deliver suboptimal user experience are more likely to lead to alert fatigue and less likely to catch errors that could impact hospital safety, University of Utah Health research shows.

On Tuesday, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia began considering arguments at a trial that asks the question "Did today's tech giants become dominant by breaking the law?" The case centers on whether Google illegally rose to dominance and stunted competition by paying companies like Apple to make its search engine the default on devices and platforms like iPhone. The trial is scheduled to last 10 weeks and will be a big test for the government's antitrust agenda because its theory of monopolization has impact for much of Silicon Valley.

Healthcare data and technology companies (such as Bamboo Health) are leveraging AI to create "scores" that can be used to help healthcare providers review controlled substance presciptions. Like a credit score can influence the terms of a loan, these scores can influence (and limit) the prescribing of narcotics, sedatives, and stimulants.

While the goal of reducing opioid and other prescription drug over-prescribing and misuse/abuse, this new use of data raises important questions about their use and impact on patient care — limited transparency of how the scores are calculated spark concerns that the scores might be limiting prescriptions for patients who truly need the care.

The U.S. advertising industry is projected to experience growth in 2023, with an expected increase of 5% to reach a total value of $360 billion. The driving force behind this growth is anticipated to be advertising on digital platforms, which is predicted to see a substantial increase of 64%. In summary, digital media is expected to play a significant role in driving the growth of the U.S. advertising industry in 2023.

Digital platforms, which include search, social, commerce, retail media and digital video platforms, will account for about 64% of all advertising in 2023.

A side effect of the Roe v. Wade is that New York (the state) is banning geotargeting by any company within 1,850 feet of hospitals. This is intended not only to affect ad placement but the more politically-charged consumer profiles or inferring health status.