AlignMap

Would someone with a thermometer check whether hell has frozen over?

I just finished posting More Patient Compliance Myths Debunked, in which I endorse points made by  the chief scientist of the Aardex Group. Last week, or goodness sake, I published The Post Is Not Brought To You By Pfizer – It Just Seems That Way.  If that title alone isn’t enough data for a diagnosis, consider this excerpt:

Gosh, this is difficult.  Well, I may as well just come out with it – at the risk of appearing to be a shill for Pfizer, I must admit that the points made by European brand manager, Chris Venn, at eyeforpharma’s recent Patient Compliance Europe 2008 conference, as reported in Patient compliance programs: Learnings from the trenches, are valid, insightful, and useful.

That’s right – Mr. Venn is pushing ideas that are congruent with my own.

I know, what are the odds?

Now, I’ve happened  onto Dose Of Digital, a  blog produced Jonathan Richman, who previously “led some of the compliance initiatives for Arimidex, a breast cancer treatment, at AstraZeneca, a card-carrying member of Big Pharma.

The blog is dedicated to “help[ing] figure out how healthcare can leverage some of the digital technologies available today.”

Well, that’s nice.  What impresses  me, however, is Richman’s willingness to point out the glaringly obvious – such as compliance is a complex and complicated issue.  And Mission Accomplished claims for a single compliance methodology should be held suspect. Does that sound familiar?

Check out the content and, especially, the tone of this excerpt from Glorified Alarm Clocks:

So, if Mr. Rose says it isn’t a “reminder problem” and that most devices are “glorified alarm clocks,” how is his device which includes services such as “reminder calls” and “weekly emails” not a reminder device that’s a “glorified alarm clock?” The answer is that it is. This device is a glorified alarm clock. Just because it doesn’t ring and sends an email instead doesn’t change this fact. Using digital, such as email, doesn’t inherently make your product better or change it’s basic function.

If reminders worked, then simple beeping alarms would have solved the compliance problem long ago. The way I look at this is for a serious disease like breast cancer, isn’t opening your eyes each morning enough of a reminder that you have a disease that could kill you at any point? I’d think that might remind you about your medication. If reminders worked, wouldn’t the fact that you could die be reminder enough?

The reality is that compliance isn’t a reminder issue. It’s a complex psychological issue. People don’t take their medications for a number of reasons many of which include the patient’s decision that the drug isn’t helping them or isn’t necessary. Very few patients are informed enough to truly make this decision (they’re called doctors though) and yet it happens every day. People aren’t convince themselves that the risks outweigh the benefits or that they are feeling fine, so they must be “cured.” Point is, it’s something different for everyone. Very few people actually stop because they simply can’t remember.

Now, zip over to Dose of Digital to read the rest of Glorified Alarm Clocks.  Yes, now. Just hustle back here after you finish.  While I await your return, I’ll be humming the Jeopardy tune that played while each contestant scrawled his or her “Final Jeopardy” answer, in the form of a question.

Da, da, da , da da, da, daaa, da, da, da, da, dah!, da, da da da da, da da, da, da da, da, …

Is that post cool or what?   If I published those paragraphs here under my name, I’m willing to wager it would fit so well that no one would think it anything but one more of my politely phrased rants. As far as I know, Mr Richman and I were not separated at birth, he is not my evil twin (which leaves the possibility that I’m his evil twin), there has been no mind meld. I think  we may be kinda like those identical cousins in the Patty Duke Show.¹

One parallel post can,  of course, be an aberration, but this is a blog that I’m going to watch closely. In any case, I am excited about the notion that a blogger, especially one with a heavy duty corporate background, seems to be pushing a patient compliance agenda that mirrors some of the ideas I promote at AlignMap. Heck, if a few more bloggers and corporate types come into (ahem) alignment, we could have us a movement.

1. Mr. Richman may not, by the way, agree with my assessment of our similarities. And, even if he does see our  points of view as congruent, he may not necessarily view that as a positive.↩