1. The Digital KOL: A New Paradigm
David Lee Scher, MD, FACP, FACC, FHRS
Director, DLS Healthcare Consulting, LLC
Clinical Associate Prof of Medicine
Penn State College of Medicine
@dlschermd
Blog: The Digital Health Corner

3. Who is the customer?
• Physicians?
• Other HCPs?
• Consumers?
• Patients?
• Caregivers?
• All of the above?

4. Digital Technology as a Patient Advocacy Tool
“Patient advocacy regards any activity which
ultimately benefits a patient. Using that definition, it
can apply to caregiving for an individual patient, to
groups that develop policies and advice that help
patients, to government groups that develop
legislation to improve systems or processes for
patients”
----Trisha Torrey

5. Five Imperatives of a Digital Pharma
Strategy*
• Physician KOLs
• Business partners
• Apps
• Social media
• Data sharing
*The Digital Health Corner 9/26/2014

6. What is a Digital KOL?
• Physician expert in the focused field, but not
the usual suspects
• Social media leader
• Champions of patient engagement and role of
digital tools

7. Why Digital Physician KOLs?*
• Physicians are at intersection of Digital and
Healthcare
• Digital tools need clinical outcome studies
• KOLs provide insight into clinical and process
workflows
• Patient engagement necessitates a clinician
• A different type of KOL needed today
*The Digital Health Corner 10/20/2014

8. KOLs as a Bridge to Digital Business
Partners
• Medical device/remote patient monitoring
companies
• Patient engagement tool companies
• Digital marketing partners
• Mobile clinical trial companies
• Academic institutions

9. Social Media

10. Social Media: Who do People Trust?

11. Source: MedData Group, June 2014

12. Social Media*
• 85% of oncologists and PCPs use social media at least
daily to scan or explore health information
• 65% say it improves their care delivery
• 14% contribute information daily, 46% weekly
• 58% perceive SoMe as way to get current high
quality information
*J Medical Internet Research Sept 2012

13. Twitter: The Healthcare Hashtag Project:
Tweet Chats
#HCLDR
#BCSM
#ARNS
#OTalk
#BRCA
#hcsm
#hpmglobal
#hcsmca
#diabeteschat
#HealthcareChat
#BTSM
#ChatRosacea
#hpm
#BrainTumorThursday
#khchat

14. General
• #digitalhealth
• #PatientsInvolved
• #FOAMed
• #CDCwhistleblower
• #patientsincluded
• #SuicidePrevention
• #GeriMedJC
• #IARC
• #GeneticTesting
• #MeaslesTruth
• #EndSuicide
• #TX4VaxChoice
• #SERMOasksOz
• #HIT100
• #mHealth

15. Diseases
• #IwishPeopleknewThatDiabetes
• #BCSM
• #ChildhoodCancer
• #Migraine
• #BRCA
• #MenHaveBreastsToo
• #BTSM
• #BrainTumorThursday
• #Lyphoma
• #malebreastcancer
• #Suicide
• #Diabetes
• #PainSomnia
• #ClusterHeadaches
• #TesticularCancer

16. Patients are Social

17. Can We Measure Healthcare Conversations in
SoMe?

18. Can We Measure Healthcare Conversations in
SoMe?

19. Physicians in SoMe: 2015’s biggest
health story was broken by a doctor –
not a reporter

20. Physicians Connected to Each Other*

21. Measles outbreak raises question of
vaccine exemptions
Liz Szabo, USA TODAY8:45 a.m. EST January 23, 2015

22. Tweets re: Childhood Diseases and
Vaccines:Docs vs Media

23. Twitter: Docs vs Media

24. Can Social Media ‘Reach’ be Measured?

27. Social Media: Role of Physician KOLs
• Physician KOLs know their role and regs, same
as traditional KOLs
• Disseminate accurate information
• Attract followers to them and industry
• Become bridges to patients (close the
Pharma-patient loop)

28. Health and Medical Apps

30. Five Pitfalls of Designing a Medical App*
• The motivation for the app development is
misguided
• Lack of clinician involvement
• Poor attention to usability
• Not knowing the healthcare landscape
• Not building to regulatory specifications
*The Digital Health Corner 1/31/2013

31. Uses of Mobile Apps
• Provider education
– New drug/device awareness
– Reference tool
• Patient education
– Disease state awareness
– Rx to OTC
– Medication adherence
– Social networking

32. Uses of Mobile Apps
• Marketing to Providers
– Direct communications tool
– MARKETING ON DEMAND (PUSH -> PULL model)

33. Sensors
• Implantable Sensors
• Wearable Sensors
• Biochemical sensors: glucose, pulse ox
• Positioning sensors
• Environmental sensors

34. Proteus Digital: The Ultimate Adherence App

35. Mobile Apps Bridge Divides
• Can bridge health literacy divide
– Disease state and drug education
– Improve communication with HCPs
• Can bridge digital divide
– Smartphones will be health tools and incidentally
phones

36. Medical Apps: Role of Physician KOLs
• Consult in design process: HCP/patient
UX/workflow
• Design/lead mobile clinical trials
• Publish/present studies of mobile health tools

37. Clinical Trials

38. Mobile Clinical Trials

39. Clinical Trials on Mobile

40. Mobile Clinical Trials

41. Apple’s ResearchKit

42. Mobile Clinical Trials: Role of Physician KOLs
• Advisors re: recruiting venues
• Clinical investigators
• Disseminate trial results to peers digitally

43. Identifying Digital Physician KOLs
• Analytics companies: MDigital Life
• Blogs
• Non-profit orgs
– Patient advocacy orgs
– HIMSS

44. The New Paradigms in Pharma
Traditional
• ‘Push’ business model
• Print education
• Liaison/rep face to face
• Increasing lack of access
• Co$tly
Digital
• ‘Pull’ business model
• Digital interactions using AI
• Customized interactions
• 24/7 timeline
• Efficient

45. The New Paradigm: Role of Digital KOLs
• Help industry transition
• Disseminate content via digital interactions,
SoMe
• Liaisons with digital business partners

46. THE TOP 41 HEALTH-ORIENTED SOCIAL
MEDIA INFLUENCERS
• BRAD EINARSEN
• DIRECTOR, DIGITAL INSIGHT
• MAY 29, 2015 INSOCIAL
•
•

47. SUMMARY
• Digital Pharma needs to adopt new
paradigms for marketing and education
• Traditional KOLs have been successful
• Digital Pharma requires a new breed of
physician KOL
• The technology is here…the processes aren’t
• The future is NOW

48. “If you ask me a question I don’t know, I’m
not going to answer”
------Yogi Berra