Wednesday, September 28, 2011 06:19:08
Technology as a Communication Tool – 2006
by Fine Healthcare
The advent of information technology, coupled with ever-advancing platforms for receiving, manipulating and disseminating either raw data or composite reports, has opened opportunities for gaining an improved understanding of the healthcare sector’s target markets, as well as avenues for drawing closer to them. Using these strategic insights, it is possible to target marketing communications more specifically and to greater effect than via the utilisation of a broader, blanket approach.
In fact, with today’s advanced messaging technologies, particularly SMS via mobile telephony and email communication over the Internet, it is now possible to personalise message content to ensure its relevance to individual recipients. The healthcare sector has begun harnessing these capabilities to communicate, one-on-one, with its audiences. Take, for example, the RemindMEd multi-media solution developed for Pfizer by Fine Healthcare and its associate company DigitalInk. Designed to drive optimal patient compliance, RemindMEd uses a permission-based database of patients and their prescription details. The database triggers a series of SMS reminders that inform the patient as to which medications need to be refilled and directs them to their chosen pharmacy. It also triggers daily emails to the pharmacy managers advising them of which patients are due to collect their medications in the forthcoming week.
Advanced communication technologies are also being leveraged as platforms for effective internal communication. For instance, Fine Healthcare has been commissioned to develop and implement sales incentive campaigns and other programmes that reinforce product knowledge through ongoing training by using electronic communication tools. These initiatives form a key component of an organisation’s overall marketing effort by providing minute-by-minute information updates, sharing best practice lessons learnt and motivating performance – especially among the on-the-road sales force.
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