Wednesday, November 19, 2014

How pharma companies can delight doctors by creating white-labelled apps for them

Doctors are very valuable customers for pharma companies because they decide which brands they are going to prescribe to their patients. Because most brands are "me-too", pharma companies are forced to spend huge amounts of money on marketing, to try to persuade doctors to prescribe their brands ( in preference to the competition).

This means that most doctors start treating brands as commodities, because they are all so similar. This sets up a negative vicious cycle, where pharma companies compete with each other in trying to influence the most important doctors , who are called KOLs, or Key Opinion Leaders.

Rather than playing this game ( which can become dirty very quickly, because of the underhanded practises some companies indulge in), here's a clever solution which pharma companies can use to influence doctors positively and ethically, by helping them to help their patients !

Since I am an IVF specialist, I am going to talk about what pharma companies can do for gynecologists who treat infertility; but this value-added service would apply to all fields and all specialties.

Here's the solution - Pharma companies need to create intelligent apps , and white -label them for their key doctors.

How can an app help a pharma company to delight gynecologists and improve their management of infertility?

Infertility treatment can be complicated and it's important for the patient to follow the doctor’s advise precisely to ensure a successful outcome. Thus, if the patient forgets to take her HCG trigger  shot at the right time, the doctor will not be able to collect any eggs at the time of retrieval, and her chances of getting pregnant will go down to zero. This is every IVF patient's nightmare, and can be a huge price to pay for an oversight on her part !

This is why fertility clinics give their patients printouts of their treatment protocols, so they know what they need to do on each day. However, these are complex, and can easily overwhelm the poor patient.

This is why we have created a free intelligent android app for infertile patients called MyFertilityDiary ! All infertile patients have a smartphone, and this app has proven to be very popular with our patients.

Pharma companies can license this from us, and we can white label this for their key infertility doctors.

Their doctors can then prescribe their personally branded app to their infertile patients, and by helping them to manage their fertility treatment, they can delight their patients !

The unique heart of the app is the  Treatment Calendar. This has calendars for all the IUI and IVF treatment protocols, including the following:

Monitored cycle
Clomid for IUI
Clomid/HMG for IUI
Long downregulation with Lupron
Short downregulation
Antagonist cycle
Natural cycle
Frozen thaw
Minimal stimulation IVF

Patients  have the freedom to edit and modify this calendar , so that they can follow the exact treatment protocol as prescribed by their doctor . They can set alarms and reminders, so they remember their appointments and their medications.

Pharma companies can lock the brand names of their medications in this app, so that patients will use only the medications manufactured by their your company. This is why it makes business sense for them to invest in the app and give it away free to their key doctors. These doctors will appreciate the fact that they are seen as using the latest technology to help their patients to have a baby !

Using the app will help infertile couples to  become well-informed and better- organised , and this will  improve their chances of getting pregnant !

You can download the app free at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.olicious.fertilityfriend&hl=en


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