Allied Health Professionals Are Primed For eDetails
Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) are a ready audience for eDetails because they haven't been overwhelmed by promotional attention, and they welcome new information about meds but don't write the volume of prescriptions that would warrant the cost of an in-person detail. Although NPs and PAs are only responsible for 3.5% of the total prescriptions in the US, pressure from health plans will increase the amount of primary care delivered by these allied health professionals, including scripts for pain management, birth control, depression and anxiety, infection, and hypertension. Pharma firms -- not just brands -- should build long-term relationships with NPs and PAs now to influence prescribing and build momentum for compliance programs.

Health Plans: Reach Out To Members With Chat
Live chat can help health plans engage and influence their members online. Chat and collaborative browsing technologies enable customer service representatives to reach out to members who are having difficulty with online transactions or are looking for validation of their decisions. Plans can increase disease management enrollments and Web site registrations, avoid cross-channel service snafus, and improve their dismal online member satisfaction scores with the help of vendors like Proficient Systems.

Consumers Need A Leg Up Onto The Hospital Quality Data Bandwagon
Hospital quality is all the rage, but consumers don't take full advantage of the data available to them. Even consumers who were recently hospitalized didn't research quality before scheduling their treatments. They relied on their doctor's suggestions alone and neglected to verify anecdotal accounts with online data. To help consumers make good choices, plans should teach their members how to evaluate quality, make online quality comparison tools user-friendly, and give consumers a reason to take quality information seriously.

Did You Miss John Rowe's 2004 Consumer Forum Speech?
Forrester's 2004 Consumer Forum was about creating great cross-channel customer experiences. John Rowe, chairman and CEO of Aetna, brought a healthcare industry perspective to the discussion. His experiences have shown that it is important to provide information to Aetna's members, but to let the member initiate the conversation. After a health event, Aetna has taken a more proactive approach to cost-containment, using technology to keep clinicians apprised of a patient's condition before critical care is necessary.

We are very interested in your feedback on our research. Do you have topics to recommend, data you would like to have, or technologies you want assessed? Drop me a line at bradholmes@forrester.com so we can connect.



Brad Holmes
VP and Research Director,
Healthcare and Life Sciences

Research Referenced In This Issue Chat For Health Plans (35656) Clinical Trials' EDC Endgame (33344) eDetailing Breaks Pharma's Marketing Boundaries (35672) In Search Of Cross-Channel Excellence (35508) Influencing Health Behavior Online (35420) Scenario Design: A Disciplined Approach To Customer Experience (35020)    Search Sharpens Doctors' Diagnoses (35309) Who Cares About Hospital Quality Data? (35295)

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