This week on Leading with Health, I talk about consumerization in healthcare and the role of healthcare marketing. How does the drive to make a profit impact the main issue of patient care? Here are the articles mentioned in the show:
- In another record year for pharma TV ads, spending soars to $3.7B in 2018
- Startups are selling you pills through Instagram. Why don’t they say which ones?
Highlights include:
3:05 – JM: “Our crazy, siloed, disjointed healthcare system has a really big disconnect right at the heart of it. And that is between those who want to provide CARE and those who want to MAKE MONEY.”
3:00 – JM: “Needs and wants are not that different, especially in healthcare.”
13:55 – “Jeremy Greene, director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, notes the inherent problem of not regulating help-seeking or informational advertising is that selling a medical or health product is ‘never just the drug or the X-ray machine or the lab test — it’s the claim that is attached to that drug,’ and information about the claim needs to be attached to product advertisements.” Source: Startups are selling you pills through Instagram. Why don’t they say which ones?
16:28 – “Advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers is an almost uniquely American phenomenon — New Zealand is the only other country in the world that permits pharmaceutical ads that target patients directly.” Source: Startups are selling you pills through Instagram. Why don’t they say which ones?
19:14 – JM: “There’s a big difference between using fear to let a customer know you understand their pain and using fear to magnify their insecurities.”
Leading with Health is the podcast where women dive into societal change through the lens of healthcare. Host Jennifer Michelle has a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology and is a certified EMT. As President of Michelle Marketing Strategies, Jennifer specializes in healthcare marketing. Jennifer is available to speak at conferences and also provides free marketing consultations. Contact her here.
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