NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEBBASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES
Newton Interactive Inc., a provider of digital solutions for the healthcare industry, has won a Standard of Excellence WebAward for its corporate Website, www.new toninteractive.com. “Winners of the 2001 WebAwards represent some of the best Web sites on the Internet today,” says William Rice, president of W e b M a r k e t i n g Association, the organi zation that sponsorsWeb Awards. More than 800 sites from around the world entered the con test.The judging, by a team of inde pendent Internet professionals, was based on design, innovation, con tent, interactivity, navigation, ease of use,and use of technology.The 2001 WebAward competition format allows Websites to compete head tohead with other sites within their industry as well as against a stan dard of excellence. Newton also wonan eHealthcare Leadership Award for the branded consumer site,WelChol.com. Newton Interactive has been identified as one of the top “New Jersey’s Finest” companies for 2001 by Business News New Jersey, and named an Inc 500 company for two years in a row, a Forbes Fast 500 company and , f o r three consecutive years, a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 technology company. Patient Care for the Nurse Practitioner now EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE Patient Care for the Nurse Practitioner, published by ThomsonHealthcare Magazines,a division of Medical Economics Co., is now available exclusively online. As of the January 2002 issue, Patient Care for the Nurse Practitionerreplaces the monthly print publication, giving nurse practitioners access to vital clinical infor mation with greater frequency and depth. ” The mission of Patient Care for the Nurse Practi tioneris to encourage critical thinking, support clini cal practice,and assist professional growth that helps NPs provide quality patient care,” says the publication’s editor Debo rah Kaplan. “The online platform enables us to offer timely informa tion and more robust content, such as links to other credible sources of information,education al opportunities, and special reports.” Popular departments, includ ing Professional Practice, an exclu sive column by Sally Miller, Ph.D., and Drug Therapy Q&A, featuring expert advice on pharmacological and prescribing information, are included on www.patientcarenp.com. Special reports planned for 2002 will focus on gastroenterology, neurology, cancer in primary care, and preventive cardiology. Registered users have access to online educa tional supplements. In the pipeline are units on low dose OCs, new treatments for male and female sex ual dysfunction, and an update on managing menopause and hormone replacement therapy. Awardwinning editor Ms.Kaplan serves as editor of the Website. Nurse practitioners are offered free registration and may request email alerts of news items and new information. Consumers now have a robust reference tool to research medications — an online drug database available on Anthem Prescription Management’s Website at www.anthemprescription.com. “Now, if consumers need information about a medication quickly, they can log onto our Website and find it,” says James Lang, PharmD, Anthem Prescription’s president. “Whether the pharmacy is open at that moment or not, con sumers can get answers to their ques tions about medications. We know medications can be confusing, with soundalike names and complicated storage and dosage requirements.This new database can help the public research medication questions they may have. The Website database isn’t meant to be a substitute for talking to physicians.” Consumers can access the database through Anthem Prescription’s home page, where they are presented with three options: Better Information Means Better Choices, Drug Information, or Online Drug Information. Database searches can be initiated even if only a portion of the drug’s name is known.Information is available for generic and brandname drugs.The Website also offers a pronunciation guide, drug descriptions, and common uses, who should not use the drug, how to safely use and store drugs, proper dosing,what should be avoided when taking a particular medication, possible side effects, potentially dan gerous drug interactions, and where to get more information. The database is funded by Consumer Health Interactive. Comprehensive Resource on MORETHAN 4,000 MEDICATIONS Available to Consumers Consumers can get answers to their questions whether the pharmacy is open or not. Newton Interactive WINSWEBAWARD Online platform offers timely information to nurse practitioners. Deborah Kaplan Newton’s Adjuvant Learning Center, part of its awardwinning Website, is a flexible, scalable, modular system of services — curriculum and technologybased learning tools that, together, are able to deliver high quality, costeffective, customized training. 87 PharmaVOICE M a r c h 2 0 02 Emedia Innovex, a leading commercial solutions provider to pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, has launched iQLearning.com,an Internet service portal that provides a wide range of healthcare information resources and services to physicians in the U.S. “Already,more than 24,000 physicians have regis tered with iQLearning and membership continues to increase,” says Scott Clark, VP of Innovex eHealth Solutions Group, a division of Innovex. “iQLearning uses the most current Webbased technologies to provide physicians a full range of medical services in a secure,online environment.” Market research indicates that about 90% of physicians in the U.S. have access to the Internet.This research indicates that pharmaceutical companies may increase their investment in Internetbased mar keting by 20% to more than $500 million by 2003. iQLearning.com enables Innovex, a unit of Quin tiles Transnational, to extend the reach and frequen cy of its salesforces. Quintiles’ other U.S.based com mercial and consulting service groups expect to use the iQLearning portal to communicate and conduct business with customers in an online environment. These service groups include Quintiles Late Phase, Quintiles Medical Communications, Quintiles Con sulting, and The Lewin Group. Physicians registered with iQLearning can partic ipate in live medical meetings, enroll in continuing medical education courses, request product sam ples, obtain productspecific medical information or edetailing,access email and review comprehensive information on drug indications, dosages and inter actions. Sales representatives can spend more time with physicians,directing them to pertinent areas on the iQLearning.com site. “Pharmaceutical companies understand that Internet technologies provide an efficient and cost effective supplement to the traditional sales call,” Mr. Clark adds. “iQLearning also has customer relation ship management capabilities or a `CRM backend’ that allows us to target, cross sell, and integrate all commercial offerings directed at physicians in a costeffective manner for our pharmaceutical, biotech, and healthcare customers.” Innovex eHealth Solutions Group LAUNCHESWEBBASED SERVICE Biogen Inc. has joined forces with Salu Inc., a developer of Webbased tools and services to help physicianspecialists improve patient care and prac tice efficiency, to reach out to neurologists. Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, Biogen is offering neurologists access to Salu’s med ical specialty hub, NeuroHub.This enables Biogen to reach neurologists and their patients with informa tion and educational materials about multiple scle rosis and Avonex, as well as infor mation about any forthcoming drugs. “Biogen’s leadership in the multiple sclerosis therapeutic area is a great fit with Salu because more than half of U.S. officebased neurologists are enrolled in Neuro Hub,”says Jim Steeb,president and CEO of Salu. “With this agreement, Biogen can integrate NeuroHub’s flexible and customizable tools and services into its overall physi cian communication initiatives.” “We believe the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in patient education, and through our relation ship with Salu we are pleased to make these com munications tools available to neurologists and peo ple with MS,” says Rob Perez, VP of the CNS business unit of Biogen. The partnership provides Biogen with a direct business channel to reach topprescribing neurolo gists and their patients.The agreement offers Biogen a set of services, including the creation of a Partner Resource Center on NeuroHub that provides physicians with new study data,drug updates, research information, online continuing medical education courses,patient education materials, and more. The agreement also provides Biogen with broader exposure for its current Internet initiatives, including its MS ActiveSource Website, which offers MS patients and their care partners support and information.Through the deal with Salu, MS patients can access MS ActiveSource directly from their doctor’s Website. Biogen, Salu UNITETO OFFER SERVICES to Neurologists URAC’s FIRST ACCREDITED HEALTHWEBSITES The nation’s first health Websites to attain inde pendent quality accreditation have been announced byURAC,ahealth accreditation organization.Thirteen ehealth Websites have been accredited by URAC, which measured the sites against rigorous standards for quality and accountability. The newly accredited sites are some of the nation’s largest and busiest health Websites, including WebMD, WellMed, InteliHealth, the Health Insurance Association of America,Healthwise,and Healthyroads. According to Garry Carneal,URAC president and CEO, URAC accreditation provides consumers with an important tool to identify health Websites that meet tough standards for quality. “We are very proud to be among the first to earn the URAC seal,”says Don Kemper,chairman and CEO of Healthwise Inc. ” There is no more authoritative measure of having earned the public’s trust.” “Consumers have made it very clear that they are concerned about privacy, security, and finding Web site information they can trust,”says George DeVries, president and CEO of American Specialty Health Inc. and Healthyroads Inc., another accredited site.”Meet ing the rigorous requirements for quality, account ability, privacy, and security within URAC’s Health Web Site Accreditation standards is an effective manner to respond to consumers’needs.” URAC also announced that another 15 Websites have begun the process of seeking accreditation,or have committed to do so.”By building on the efforts of Internet quality leaders, the URAC Accreditation Program is undoubtedly the best and clearest way for healthWebsites to demonstrate their compliance with ethical standards,” says Dr. Michael Rozen,presi dent of HiEthics Inc., a coalition of the most widely used Internet health sites and content providers. The URAC Health Web Site Accreditation Pro gram Standards are based in part on a 14point set of principles by HiEthics, offering standards for con sumer protection, including privacy, security, quality of information, fairness of transactions, and profes sional conduct. URAC standards are available at www.websiteaccreditation.urac.org, and include 53 specific standards and detailed descriptions of what Websites must do to achieve accreditation. URAC Accredited Sites: . A.D.A.M.,Inc. — www.adam.com . American Specialty Health Networks — www.healthyroads.com . Group Health Inc. — www.GHI.com . Hayes Inc. — www.hayesonhealth.com . Health Insurance Association of America — www.hiaa.org . Health International — www.healthintl.com . HealthHelp — www.hhni.com . Healthwise Inc. — www.healthwise.org . InteliHealth — www.intelihealth.com . Veritas Medicine — www.veritasmedicine.com . VHA Inc. — www.LaurusHealth.com . WebMD — www.webmd.com . WellMed Inc. — www.wellmed.com Scott Clark says through iQLearning.com, pharmaceutical companies can provide physicians with uptodate information about their products and services anytime, anywhere. Jim Steeb says Biogen and Salu are a great fit. Emedia 88 M a r c h 2 0 0 2 PharmaVOICE Diabetes patients seeking a dynamic role in their own care can now log on to Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s interactive Web site, www.novotrackus.com, which offers both management tools and personalized educational materials to reinforce the advice of their healthcare teams. “We launched NovoTrack in the United States in response to the growing number of Americans suffering from diabetes and at risk for its associated complications,”says Martin Soeters, president of Novo Nordisk.”Our goal is to help people understand the need to careful ly manage their diabetes and to help them take control of this potentially devastating disease.” Diabetes has become an epidemic in the U.S., with about 16 mil lion sufferers, 5 million of whom remain undiagnosed. Novo Nordisk markets a number of diabetesrelated products, including NovoLog, InDuo, Innovo,NovoPen 3, NovoFine, and Prandin. Novo Nordisk developed NovoTrack with Geoffrey Gates, M.D., a specialist in diabetes care at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. Dr. Gates was key to the creation of NovoTrack’s userfriendly educational materials and interactive design. “We use the technology of the Internet to give each person a course in diabetes care that is relevant to his or her unique circum stances and attitudes,”Dr. Gates says.”By answering the questions at registration,patients are designing their own individual courses to help them get the best care for themselves.” NovoTrack also offers patient management tools designed to assist both patients and their healthcare teams.The tools include blood glucose targets as well as cholesterol, weight, and bloodpressure monitoring aids. Guided by simple icons, patients can quickly view their diabetes status to better assess areas of concern. Using NovoTrack’s Personal Scorecard feature, participants can keep track of lab and blood glucose test results, physical examination findings, and doctor appointments. Novo Nordisk launches interactive DIABETES MANAGEMENTWEBSITE Martin Soeters says the goal of the interactive Website is to help people take control of their diabetes. ANTHEM PRESCRIPTION MANAGE MENT LLC, Mason,Ohio, is a national pharmacy benefits manager serving mul tiple health plans and employer groups across the U.S. For more information,visit anthemprescription.com. BIOGEN INC., Cambridge, Mass., is a biotechnology company.For more infor mation,visit biogen.com. THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT INSTITUTE, Bethesda,Md., is a nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in informing consumer lifestyle choices and healthcare decisions.For more information,visit hii.org. INNOVEX,Research Triangle Park,N.C.,a unit of Quintiles, provides commercial solutions and offers sales and marketing services designed to accelerate the suc cess of pharmaceutical,biotech,and medi cal device products. For more information, visit innovex.com. MEDICAL ECONOMICSCO.,Montvale,N.J.,a medical publishing company,publishes Patient Care for the Nurse Practitioner. For more information,visit patientcarenp.com. NEWTON INTERACTIVE INC., Pennington, N.J.,provides technologybased services that facilitate knowledge sharing, information exchange,and education within the healthcare industry. For more information, visit newtoninteractive.com. NOVONORDISKPHARMACEUTICALS INC., Princeton,N.J., is a healthcare company and a leader in diabetes care. For more information, visit novonordiskus.com. SALU INC.,Granite Bay, Calif.,provides a range of specialtyspecific products and services to physicianspecialists to help its members deliver quality care, operate their practices more efficiently, and increase revenue. For more information, visit salu.com or call 888288SALU. Follow up And the winners are … The Health Improvement Institute has announced the winners of the 2001 Aes culapius Awards for excellence in health related Websites. Girl Power! Website, develope and maintained by Social and Health Services, Rockville, Md., for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention received the top honor for its Website, www.girlpower.gov. This Website was developed as part of the Girl Power! Campaign in an effort to support young girls in making positive choices for themselves, such as resistance to the use of alcohol, tobacco,or drugs. “We hope that the awards will encour age excellence in communicating health information to the public, and that con sumers will find them a useful guide,”says Dr. Peter Goldschmidt, president and founder of the Health Improvement Insti tute. “We urge World Wide Web sites to enter the competition each year to show the public that they continue to meet standards of excellence.” A panel of judges, representing the healthcare, television and, multimedia fields, evaluated entries.The annual award, in its 10th year, is named for the Greek god of healing, Aesculapius. Winners of the Award of Excellence for healthrelated Websites included: . Office on Women’s Health, HHS — www.4woman.gov . SAMHSA’s National Clearinghouse for Alcohol & Drug Information (PREVLINE) — www.health.org . HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion — www.healthfinder.gov . United Network for Organ Sharing — www.unos.org . National Council of La Raza — www.nldi.org . Center for Substance Abuse Preven tion’s ForReal — www.forreal.org Readers can find Aesculapius Award winners on the Institute’s Website — www.hii.org — and link to awardwinning sites. The Institute is accepting entries for the 2002 Aesculapius Awards. For more information or to obtain an entry form, please contact: Health Improvement Insti tute, 5272 River Rd., Suite 650, Bethesda, Md. 20816; phone: 3016521818; email: [email protected]. INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT