Princess Health and New Marketing Campaign "To Build Emotional Ties Between Merck and Consumers". Princessiccia

Princess Health and New Marketing Campaign "To Build Emotional Ties Between Merck and Consumers". Princessiccia

Merck public relations

Gusty 06:55 Add Comment

The NY Times reported that Merck is embarking on a big $20 million marketing campaign to "help burnish its corporate brand rather than sell its products."
Len Taconi, executive director for corporate communication for Merck, said, "It's an important time for people to know who Merck is and what we stand for as a company."
Robert Passikoff, President of Brand Keys, described by the Times as "a brand and customer-loyalty consultant," said "Merck would be wise to make sure it has more friends than disgruntled patients. Ultimately, you're better off having a tighter emotional bond to your customer base." The Times also reported that the "campaign will try in several ways to build emotional ties between Merck and consumers."
Of course, Merck is a firm that has been around for a long time, and has produced many important products that we physicians have been happy to use> Merck certainly seemed, at least through the start of the 1990's, to be one of the great American companies.
However, in the last year, Merck has come under substantial fire for putting marketing before science, and in particular for manipulating scientific evidence about its formerly hot selling drug Vioxx, now withdrawn from the market.
For example, we have posted about how Merck tried to "neutralize" Vioxx opponents; about how Merck tried to downplay negative results of studies about Vioxx; about how Merck had a New England Journal article reporting a key trial of Vioxx ghost-written; and about how Merck marketed Vioxx as a general-purpose pain reliever in the absence of evidence that it any better in this role than a variety of cheaper drugs, while again down-playing data about its adverse effects.
So perhaps rather than trying to "build emotional ties," in my humble opinion, if Merck wants to regain the profession's and the public's trust, it should rededicate itself to doing valid, honest research about its products, and then presenting its results clearly and honestly. Merck should promote evidence-based health care, rather than spending $20 million on emotion-based marketing.

Princess Health and New Marketing Campaign "To Build Emotional Ties Between Merck and Consumers".Princessiccia

Princess Health and New Marketing Campaign "To Build Emotional Ties Between Merck and Consumers".Princessiccia

Merck public relations

Gusty 06:55 Add Comment

The NY Times reported that Merck is embarking on a big $20 million marketing campaign to "help burnish its corporate brand rather than sell its products."
Len Taconi, executive director for corporate communication for Merck, said, "It's an important time for people to know who Merck is and what we stand for as a company."
Robert Passikoff, President of Brand Keys, described by the Times as "a brand and customer-loyalty consultant," said "Merck would be wise to make sure it has more friends than disgruntled patients. Ultimately, you're better off having a tighter emotional bond to your customer base." The Times also reported that the "campaign will try in several ways to build emotional ties between Merck and consumers."
Of course, Merck is a firm that has been around for a long time, and has produced many important products that we physicians have been happy to use> Merck certainly seemed, at least through the start of the 1990's, to be one of the great American companies.
However, in the last year, Merck has come under substantial fire for putting marketing before science, and in particular for manipulating scientific evidence about its formerly hot selling drug Vioxx, now withdrawn from the market.
For example, we have posted about how Merck tried to "neutralize" Vioxx opponents; about how Merck tried to downplay negative results of studies about Vioxx; about how Merck had a New England Journal article reporting a key trial of Vioxx ghost-written; and about how Merck marketed Vioxx as a general-purpose pain reliever in the absence of evidence that it any better in this role than a variety of cheaper drugs, while again down-playing data about its adverse effects.
So perhaps rather than trying to "build emotional ties," in my humble opinion, if Merck wants to regain the profession's and the public's trust, it should rededicate itself to doing valid, honest research about its products, and then presenting its results clearly and honestly. Merck should promote evidence-based health care, rather than spending $20 million on emotion-based marketing.

Princess Health and Marketing Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Marketing Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Princessiccia

deception marketing pharmaceuticals

Gusty 06:12 Add Comment

Joseph Friedman, a neurologist here in Rhode Island, wrote an op-ed in the Providence Journal that documented yet another story about apparently deceptive marketing, this time of devices. He recounted his discovery of a marketing campaign for the device used to shunt fluid for patients with the relatively rare condition of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
He first saw a segment on a television magazine show on NPH, and then "an avalanche of TV advertisements about the disorder." Then patients with previously diagnosed Parkinson's Disease began to show up in his office, wondering if they didn't have the much more rare condition, NPH. Since the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease is usually clear-cut, and NPH is very uncommon, these ads may lead to a lot of unnecessary tests. Furthermore, as Dr. Friedman pointed out, "patients suffer twice: first, when they wonder if they've been mistreated for 10 years by their clueless doctor; then, when they're disappointed to learn that they haven't been misdiagnosed."
Dr. Friedman forcefully conceptualized the issues: "what I think: that the dirtbags who run the shunt company, the increasingly politicized U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the executives who run television are willing to create false hope if it creates a market."

Princess Health and Marketing Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Marketing Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.Princessiccia

deception marketing pharmaceuticals

Gusty 06:12 Add Comment

Joseph Friedman, a neurologist here in Rhode Island, wrote an op-ed in the Providence Journal that documented yet another story about apparently deceptive marketing, this time of devices. He recounted his discovery of a marketing campaign for the device used to shunt fluid for patients with the relatively rare condition of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
He first saw a segment on a television magazine show on NPH, and then "an avalanche of TV advertisements about the disorder." Then patients with previously diagnosed Parkinson's Disease began to show up in his office, wondering if they didn't have the much more rare condition, NPH. Since the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease is usually clear-cut, and NPH is very uncommon, these ads may lead to a lot of unnecessary tests. Furthermore, as Dr. Friedman pointed out, "patients suffer twice: first, when they wonder if they've been mistreated for 10 years by their clueless doctor; then, when they're disappointed to learn that they haven't been misdiagnosed."
Dr. Friedman forcefully conceptualized the issues: "what I think: that the dirtbags who run the shunt company, the increasingly politicized U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the executives who run television are willing to create false hope if it creates a market."

Princess Health and Guidant's Short Circuit, Reloaded. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Guidant's Short Circuit, Reloaded. Princessiccia

Guidant ICD manufacturing problems

Gusty 06:02 Add Comment

The NY Times reported that after Guidant discovered a defect in its implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) that allowed the device to short-circuit and fail, it continued to ship ICDs with the defect even after it had started manufacturing redesigned devices without the flaw.
Our post about the discovery of the flaw is here.
Guidant's statement about the matter was, "After making these improvements, Guidant sold product manufactured before the improvements because the reliability data showed that the original PRIZM 2 DR, like the enhanced version, was a highly reliable life-saving device. Current data continues to support the reliability of the product."
The Times reported, "some doctors said they would be dismayed if the company allowed them to implant a device with a known flaw that had been corrected in other units."
As I said before, the decision about how to treat a patient's illness should be up to the doctor and patient, and be based on the best available data, as well as the patient's values. For a company to withold data relevant to the decision, which just happens to be unfavorable to the company's product, is plain wrong.

Princess Health and Guidant's Short Circuit, Reloaded.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Guidant's Short Circuit, Reloaded.Princessiccia

Guidant ICD manufacturing problems

Gusty 06:02 Add Comment

The NY Times reported that after Guidant discovered a defect in its implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) that allowed the device to short-circuit and fail, it continued to ship ICDs with the defect even after it had started manufacturing redesigned devices without the flaw.
Our post about the discovery of the flaw is here.
Guidant's statement about the matter was, "After making these improvements, Guidant sold product manufactured before the improvements because the reliability data showed that the original PRIZM 2 DR, like the enhanced version, was a highly reliable life-saving device. Current data continues to support the reliability of the product."
The Times reported, "some doctors said they would be dismayed if the company allowed them to implant a device with a known flaw that had been corrected in other units."
As I said before, the decision about how to treat a patient's illness should be up to the doctor and patient, and be based on the best available data, as well as the patient's values. For a company to withold data relevant to the decision, which just happens to be unfavorable to the company's product, is plain wrong.

Princess Health and CPOE cybernetic miracles not yet achieved. Princessiccia

Princess Health and CPOE cybernetic miracles not yet achieved. Princessiccia

Gusty 06:28 Add Comment

Lest hospital executives believe that computers are going to be a cure-all for all that ails medicine, here's another sobering report on computerized physician order entry (CPOE):

Medical errors kill nearly 100,000 American each year, with lethal drug interactions accounting for most of these deaths. Computerization -- which hospitals have been slow to embrace -- was supposed to eliminate most problems, but new research published Wednesday indicates that even the best computer system can�t save you from a doctor�s catastrophic screw-up. Harmful medication-related mishaps cropped up in a quarter of all patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, one of the most high-tech hospitals in the country, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

"If you were on an airplane and a quarter of the time it crashed, that would be a problem," said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Nebeker, a physician at the VA Medical Center.

Even though the hospital's computers were supposed to protect against dangerous drug interactions, illegible prescriptions and bedside mix-ups, nine of the 937 patients studied died as a result of medication problems, the study found.

As a medical informaticist, I have always been somewhat skeptical about the "syndrome of inappropriate confidence in computers" and related beliefs in "computational alchemy." While clinical IT progress in undeniable and must proceed, one must temper expectations about the technology to realistic levels. This is especially true for those involved in clinical operations. (Similar issues occur in the pharmaceutical R&D sector, as I have observed). We are still in an era when, paraphrasing Chuck Yeager, who shot down a faster German jet in his propeller-driven P51 Mustang, "it's the [person], not the machine."

This study also suggests that when implementing clinical IT, it best be done right by those with experience in both medicine and computing, because if it's done wrong, even worse problems can result.