Adobe Digital Publishing

The medical manufacturing, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have a real opportunity for improved patient and healthcare provider engagement through tablet applications. Apps can help life science organizations in myriad ways – including establishing positive, ongoing brand relationships between health care professionals and patients, accelerating the sales cycle and delivering higher recall rates to drive revenue and build market share, leveraging mobile marketing channels to expand reach of brand and content, and maximizing organizational efficiencies. The following types of apps are showcased in the App of the Week video, which features medical and dental apps.

• Sales apps can quickly deliver product information to busy healthcare professionals and increase the effectiveness of the sales process
• Medical journal apps using interactivity can provide more comprehensive professional development for health care providers
• Patient education apps can drive brand awareness and deepen patients’ health care knowledge, allowing them to take better control of their health care

The Digital Landscape

• Everyone’s Going Mobile

Today’s environment is rapidly evolving, driven by the proliferation of devices people use to consume content -  both at home, at work and on the go. Not too long ago, healthcare professionals and consumers depended solely on their desktop computer or laptop to access online information. Now, a growing number of healthcare providers and consumers are likely to seek out content across a multitude of devices on a daily basis.

• Patients are Researching on Devices

Patients want to be in full charge of their medical and health care decisions and are researching and learning about disease, disease management and therapies on their own.  Tablet applications offer the opportunity to more effectively inform patients and establish product preferences.

• Health Care Providers Rely on Mobile Technologies

We know that healthcare providers are using devices while at work. Surveys conducted for the pharmaceutical industry in mid-year 2011 found that 64 percent of doctors have a smartphone, while 27 percent of primary care providers and specialists say they have a tablet.

In the past year, pharma investments in smartphone apps, social media platforms, and wireless devices have grown 78 percent, according to Ernst & Young’s Annual Global Pharmaceutical Report.

Ownership of devices by pharma/health sciences industry is 5X general population.  1 in 5 physicians plans to purchase a device in next year (Epocrates, survey, 2010)

Sales Apps
Today, sales reps are under increasing pressure to represent more products in less time. Historically, reps had seven to ten minutes with a physician, and now they only have two to four minutes. In addition, they are responsible for a broader array of products. Essentially, they need to entice the physician with more compelling information in less time.

Roche has armed their 31,000 sales reps with iPads in the last year. As tablets make their way into the enterprise as sales tools, sales teams can integrate all customer-facing information into one tablet app, such as white papers, product information, and surgery videos, reducing the cumbersome materials associated with the sales cycle. At the end of the sales meeting, the salesperson can also order patient brochures and other ancillary materials for the doctor without leaving the app, streamlining the sales process.

Product Detailing
Tablet apps can quickly and cost effectively deliver product information to busy health care professionals. In a survey conducted with 100 physicians, two-thirds had viewed details on a tablet device, and 68% reported being very satisfied with the format.

In this week’s app of the week video, we show a product detailing app for dental implants, which includes video tutorials and product specs. Product detailing is richer when Digital Publishing Suite features are applied to the app. For example, 360 degree rotation allows the dentist to see devices from all angles. After the sales rep shares information with the customer, the dentist or oral surgeon can download the app from the app store and refer to the tutorials as needed.

Medical Journal Apps
More than 30% of physicians have an iPad, which far exceeds the national average. This shouldn’t be a surprise — health care professionals are constantly on the go and need access to up-to-date information. Journals from medical associations and companies keep medical professionals on top on the latest advancements.

The high resolution iPad (both the earlier and the new version) allow health care providers to see a high level of detail. In the medical field, microscopy is instrumental in understanding disease formation and therapeutic mechanisms. In addition, videos are the most effective way to model interactions on the cellular level. Therefore, not only do tablet apps engage health professionals on their preferred devices, but they allow journals to more clearly communicate technical, peer reviewed information – especially for people who are constantly in motion.

Patient Education Apps
When patients have health care questions, they often seek it out on their own. In fact, approximately 80% of patients seek out health information on the web. The tablet is a great way to connect with and educate patients, especially since people tend to spend more time consuming content on tablet devices than they do on the web.

In this week’s app of the week video, we show the Mayo Clinic’s app designed to educate the general public about research being performed at the clinic. The articles use videos, pinch and zoom photos, and interactive quizzes to show how diseases progress, and how the therapies designed at the Mary Clinic help slow or stop disease progression.

Tablets are the perfect medium to distribute and communicate accurate medical information – for sales teams, medical professionals, and patients. Check out the app of the week video to see this in action!

By Debra Bates-Schrott, President
Bates Creative Group

Publishing today means your audience must be at the center of everything you do. This may present a paradigm shift in your thinking as a publication (or maybe it’s old news, if so, good for you!), prompting the question – “Wait, isn’t my content the center of my universe?” Yes and no. Your audience has changed, their media habits have changed, and the way they engage with your content has changed. For instance, a report from the Pew Research Center (“State of the News Media 2012“) shows that “27% of the U.S. adult population now gets their news on smartphones and tablets.” The report also lists that “70% of desktop/laptop owners report getting news on their computers, half of smartphone owners (51%) use their phones for news, and a majority of tablet owners (56%) use their devices for news.”

What does this mean?
Change your thinking and start your strategy with:

1. Defining whom you’re talking to.
2. Meeting them where they are.
3. Giving them the content they want.
4. Designing it so they can’t put it down.

How can you put this perspective into practice? As creative people we always want to start with the fun part, “design so they can’t put it down.”  But design only gets better if we do the other parts first and embrace a strategic approach. The right strategy starts with questions – Who is the audience? Are they using tablets? What do they want from your content?

The tablet question is THE question now, because the tablet market is undeniably exploding, reaching more and more consumers every day. In fact, Rick Levine, Condé Nast’s director of editorial operations, stated at this year’s South by Southwest Conference that all of the Condé Nast titles from Vogue and Arch Digest to Vanity Fair will have a tablet version by the end of 2012. “We like this technology so much that by the end of the year every magazine will have a digital edition,” he said.

It’s more important than ever to get up to speed on designing your publication for the tablet. At Bates Creative Group, we’ve refined our expertise in transforming publications from a print magazine to various other media platforms, and mastered the process of making a magazine’s tablet app its flagship media piece – all while using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

Taken from our experience, here are the top eight considerations (you get the top ten when you hire us) to get your tablet vision and strategy headed in the right direction:

1. If there is no difference between a PDF and the functionality of your tablet app, you’ve missed the mark.
2. Your tablet app is not a “small version of your website.”
3. Whenever possible “show don’t tell.” The tablet is perfect to tell your story through the use of video and interactive graphics. Be considerate of article length. For instance, a story that seems an average read in a printed magazine may be overwhelming on the tablet.
4. It’s about “user experience” not reader experience. You cannot design apps without considering the tablet user.
5. Consider the dynamics of the horizontal and vertical formats.
6. Designing for tablets is a new way of thinking compared to print design.
7. Let your users make you proud by sharing your work. Social media has the power to grow businesses. Make it cool and get your tablet users talking about it.
8. During the planning stage, brainstorm how you can add interactivity to your content. Overlays and HTML 5 can make an app come alive.

Getting back to your audience – let’s say you build your tablet app and send it out into the world. How do you know if your design is a success? Measurement. Learn how the analytics work. It’s like a window into your audience. Learn from the data and interpret it so you can design better apps with user preferences as your first consideration. Learn what will drive the user from screen to screen and what drives engagement. This is a huge advantage of the app – real-time feedback on performance of your content, design and user experience. Now you can think of your publication as if it were in continual beta testing. This data should also drive everything from your editorial strategy to your photo selects. If you use this feedback effectively as a tool, you will undoubtedly keep improving your product and see your numbers climb.

This is very exciting time for publishers and designers. The world is open to us to explore and use new tools to deliver our stories as real experiences in amazing, memorable ways. I encourage all publishers and designers out there to keep pushing the envelope and to get your audience talking about your work.

Debbie Bates-Schrott, President, Bates Creative Group
Debbie is the founder and chief communications strategist of Bates Creative Group. For more than 20 years, she has led award-winning teams in creative art direction, branding, magazine design and marketing collateral development. Debbie’s more than 70 design awards recognize her exceptional work for organizations as diverse as Cisco Systems, the American Marketing Association, the Land Trust Alliance, the Pentagon Memorial Fund and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Debbie has a strong understanding of marketing communications and design issues, and is intimately involved with every client project. She has a proven ability to anticipate changing business situations, make a rapid and accurate assessment of the opportunity, and respond with creative communications solutions. Debbie thrives in high-pressure, dynamic situations. http://batescreativegroup.com/