PEPFAR, Rooms for Better Use of Money?

There have been praises for the President Bush’s effort to help Africa to save people with AIDS and to reduce the HIV infection rate  (my post: President Bush Fights Aids in Africa)

Since 2003, the Bush administration and Congress had committed an unprecedented level of resources for HIV treatment and prevention, and thereby  treating 2 million people living with AIDS in Africa and supporting community outreach prevention programs that reached nearly 60 million people.

Dr. Joia Mukherjee, the medical director for Partners in Health, had a hard-hitting op-ed in Boston Globe.  He insisted that expanded PEPFAR promised by the President Obama should be fulfilled now despite economic crisis.

Interestingly, Washington Post journalist Craig Timberg suggests better way of using the PEPFAR money on his post, “Is PEPFAR really so great?”

Here are some of his points that facts on PEPFAR should be corrected.

• PEPFAR has put 2.1 million Africans on “life-saving drugs” is simply not true.
• There’s no obvious relationship between PEPFAR money and falling HIV infection rates.

Following on his above points, he suggests for better use of REDFAR money:

• Renewed emphasis on prevention programs that work – expanded services for male circumcision, much more effort to break up sexual networks by promoting partner reduction. Obviously the push for wider, more accessible treatment remains vital.
• Expending programs covering not only AIDS but also other programs to improve American medical systems: building medical schools, sending US doctors, and so on.

Social Media Use in Health Marketing

In healthcare marketing, where reputation is one of the most important attributes of success, creating and monitoring on-line reputation is critical.

More patients are using social media to get information on best doctors and hospitals, and to share their experiences and stories with the medical system.

Social media is a great tool to reach out targeted but large target audience at low cost.

Lee Aase from the Mayo Clinic, which has put lots of efforts to use social media once said,

As I approaches 0, ROI approaches infinity

Nevertheless, there is resistance to use social media in the healthcare marketing.

But whether health marketers embrace social media or not may decide their organizations’ destiny in 10 years.

Simply dive in and get involved.

Here’s a few tips to get you started.

1. Twitting

• Real-time conversation between patients and doctors.
• Used as short clinic newsletter – let patients know what’s happening in the clinic
• Send out “reminding messages” such as next visit, flu shot and/or dietary restrictions.

2. Facebook Page

• Platform to engage patients and let them engage with each other.
• Powerful places to share patient’s testimony

Best practices -Mayo Clinic Face Book

3. You Tube

• Educating patients
• Sharing patient stories

Best Practices -Go Insulin, an unbranded YouTube channel,

4. Blog

• Sharing patient stories
• Serving as a hub of others social media efforts

Best practice – Sharing Mayo Clinic

My Driving License for New Media

I have the most modernized and technology-advanced car in the world.

It allows me to communicate with people outside,

get connected with those who I have known and have not known before,

and promote myself at almost no cost.

It was, yet, in the garage without my attention

as I did not have a license to drive that car.

Then, I started taking the course, New Media Driver’s License, to acquire a license to drive my (and our) car. After learning about my car for almost 7 weeks now, I am quite comfortable to drive it.  I am almost prepared to acquire a license to drive various instruments of my car such as blog, twitter, facebook, and so on.

More importantly, my car-New Media-became a part of my life . I cannot imagine myself to take a journey of my life without new media.

I am going to present what I have learned in the last class of the course:

• About my car
• How to start the engine
• How to invite people to the car using key words
• How to increase mph with SEO

Here is my invitation for all of you to my (and our) car. Join to a new world. Everybody, regardless of age, is welcomed in this world.

Copied News from Press Release

• PR news wire: International Partnership for Microbicides Receives US $130 Million from UK Government and the Gates Foundation
• AFP: Gates Foundation gives 100 mln for anti-HIV gels
• Bloomberg: Gates Foundation Gives $100 Million for AIDS Gels

Let’s give praise to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its contribution!

Big news on AIDS in Africa last week was the Foundation’s $100 million donation to research into vagina gels which might help women protect themselves from HIV. Of course, it is news: It is big money from a big guy.

However, it should be a big news because the research results may give women the power to prevent HIV infection. In sub-Saharan Africa, the risks of HIV infection among young women are more than three times than among young men. In Africa, women have no power in sexual decision-making so that the use of condom cannot be controlled by women. In this regard, the development of HIV-protective vagina gels can be a key to empowering women to protect themselves from HIV.

Although most of news briefly mentioned the value of this research, the titles and headlines of all the news focused on the Bill Foundation. Of course, the news comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and its press release must have had to focus on its activity. However, news is not press release. It is news for readers, not for an organization. Why should I read the news just copied from press release?

I am a PR person, and I would be happy to see “excellent” publicity results: well placed key messages all over the news.
However, by the same token, I would like to read more news that is written from a reader’s perspective, not from a news generator’s perspective. What matters to readers is not what the organization is doing, but what its activity will bring to the society.

Forget your OLD Knowledge of Marketing and PR

Forget the past even the most successful campaign you have done.

The existence of new media has changed every aspect of marketing and PR.

We do now differently communicate each other,  build relationships, get information and buy things.

An online thought leadership and viral marketing strategist, David Meerman Scott, warns us to abandon the old rules of marketing and PR. How? Read his book, “the New Rules of Marketing and PR” and his post “thoughts on the marketing Ps.” I also dugg the article to spread the information.

In fact, following the new rules of marketing and PR is for you to survive in this changing world. Otherwise, young people may challenge your career soon. Many young students are almost ready to use their knowledge of new media to provide innovative methods of adding value to your client service. The below is the article released through PR.com.  This exemplifies what the young is doing now to meet the requirements for PR practitioners in a Web 2.0 world.

Future Marketing & PR practitioners at MSU are equipped to challenge the OLD rules of communications

(East Lansing, MI, February 28, 2009)  There are more than 30,000 PR practitioners and students studying public relations. Some of them may be experts in social media and have already started talking to consumers directly rather than journalists. The majority of PR people, yet, stand in a crossroads between old media and new media. However, more students seem to be ready to breathe in the social media world and adjust to the new rules of PR.
The Michigan State University has been taking the lead on teaching students how to maximize PR using social media. The University has offered a course entitled “New Media Driver’s License” since last January. More than 40 students majoring in advertising and PR are taking the course. David Meerman Scott’s book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” is a required reading for the course.
“The book, New Rules of Marketing and PR, changed my previous views on public relations,” says a student taking the course. “The book provides an easy guideline for every social media tool. More importantly, it broadens readers’ perspectives on target audiences and how to reach them.”
A student majoring in advertising says, “Advertising has been criticized as being expensive. However, the book, New Rules of Marketing and PR, let us recognize that advertising is not necessarily expensive in a Web 2.0 world.”
The New Media Driver’s License course instructed by Derek Mehrabahn, CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing, covers various new medias such as blog, twitter and facebook through individual engagement with these tools.

Follow the jump for more information
About the Course The New Media Drivers License Course”: http://www.thedigitalbus.com/new-media-drivers-license/
About the Book:  http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/books.htm
About David Meerman Scott: http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/bio.htm

Contact information: Hyegyu Lee (Hyegyulee@gmail.com)

Now, do you want to be an expert of new media?

Ask David: Subscribe to his RSS feed and follow him on Twitter.

Data Visualization using Google Motion Chart

After I watched Hans Rosling’s TED presentation in our “Media Relations” class, I bbecame a BIG Fan of Dr. Hans. I looked for more information on his works, and found that I could also make my presentation in a similar way as my hero did.

Google offers a free “gadget” called “Motion Chart,” based on which it was developed using the technology that Hans developed.

This is my first attempt at a motion chart. It compares Korea’ spending social welfare and cancer screening rate. The color and size of the points indicate cancer types and the number of new cancer cases per year. In order to make this beautiful chart, all I had to do was to install the Motion Chart gadget and enter data into Goolgle Spreadsheets. I should have published my Motion Chart here, but somehow I kept failed although I did successfully on my Korean blog.

Health communicators, in many times, make the public overloaded with data which our target audiences may not be able to understand at all. We need to be able to visualize data, interpret trends and get insights. Motion Charts allows you to animate your data.

Thanks, Hans ☺

GSK Keeps Making Promises: Fulfilled or Unfulfilled?

I posted last week on the GSK’s movement to cut prices of their products in poor countries.

Then, I found a very similar story from GSK on “Health Blog” run by the Wall Street Journal.  An interesting point is that this post was written exactly LAST YEAR (2008, Feb). It says

GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s biggest makers of HIV drugs, said it is cutting prices of its HIV drugs in the world’s poorest countries, marking its fifth rollback since 1997 […]
[J.P. Garnier, Glaxo’s soon-to-retire CEO said] that “I never wanted to just close my eyes to the fact that 80% of the population won’t be able to afford the drugs.

More interestingly, most of bloggers commented to this post not very much positively.

A blogger named “Colorado Kid” said,

Oh the hypocrisy of JP Garnier, is not only laughable, but sad! Back in 2001 you must remember how GSK kept HIV meds away from Africa, not allowing Generic manufacturing of their meds to the ones that needed them most! Why? Greed pure and simple! You criminal Garnier, you belong in a US Federal Prison with a well endowed HIV positive cell mate!

One Anoymous said

JP Garnier is a fool…he knows that what he says is a big lie and he believes it anyway.

My question is whether GSK fulfilled its promise they made last year, then making another one this year. Otherwise, is the company just keeping lying to us? No news dealing with the GSK’s promise this year including the Wall Street Journal, has updated on the company’s previous promises last year. I wish traditional media covers their stories with more knowledge on the history of issues.