Saturday, April 17, 2010

Emerging Markets: What Columbus Didn't Do

EMERGING MARKERS CHECKLIST

Too often when companies enter into emerging markets, they frequently fail to fully characterize the value chain. Yes, those markets are growing. Yes, they represent a population with newly minted coins clinking in their pockets. Yes, the government is encouraging investment. Those Old Developed Markets look much like they looked to Columbus as he said good-bye to Spain and set for the New World.

Talent pool

When Christopher Columbus landed in America, he thought very little about the local talent pool. He assumed the locals knew little of the sophisticated technology that he was going to bring. But the question for Columbus was how much was he going to spend once he got there? How much of his R&D was going to be coming from the old world or was he going to invest adequate resources on the new ground?

When entering emerging markets it is important for companies to understand how much intellectual capital they are going to import and how much they are going to generate locally. There is always a certain amount of comfort in knowing that the home fires are being stoked and the fruits of the scientists from the main office will be coming into the new territories.

However, understanding and tapping into the local talent pool is often a valuable cost-effective of accessing smart lower-cost labor. Quite often local talent is hungry to get the imprimatur of a foreign capital company on their resume, and may be dissatisfied with the opportunities available in local companies.

Accessing this R&D talent pool is also an excellent way of gaining critical on-the ground understandings of the ins and outs of local regulations.

Collaboration with Universities/Research Centers

As real estate agents say, location, location, location. Accessing that local talent pool also goes to where facilities are located. The closer the location to major universities and other research operations, the easier it is to attract talent. This location fact is true whether a pharma company is planning to be in New Jersey or in China. Many of the big multi-national pharmaceutical companies, e.g. AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis, Roche and Pfizer, have R&D centers located in Beijing and Shanghai where it is easy to attract local scientific talent. While these companies also have operations in other cities, the critical mass achieved around these two major cities.

Regulations

Understanding local regulations are critical to safe, sound, government-improved operations. What kinds of permits are required for laboratories? What kind of inspections need to be done to start and to maintain facilities on an on-going? The essence for operations is being able to comply with on-the-ground oversight, and this compliance can be even more challenging as local regulations evolve.

Patent Laws

Many companies shy away from establishing cutting edge research operations in emerging markets because of concern about loosely filed and loosely followed patent laws. Losing control and ownership of innovations that rightly belong to the company continue to be a major concern. One way that companies address these issues is by using R&D to make incremental improvements to existing compounds and products rather than developing something entirely new. In so doing, the risk is less because the products are generally protected elsewhere, and yet the development team can still contribute to the innovation of life cycle management process.

By understanding these critical components, companies can best maximize their allocation of scant resources and live more productivity off their new markets.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Indecent Exposure

How do you feel about the security of your data in your Personal Health Record?


I heard a someone comment today on doctors dictating their work while performing an operation so they don't have to take notes later. The only problem is when the doctor says "the patient suffers from a contextual contusion" and it becomes "the patient suffers from sexual confusion." This comment goes into your Personal Health Record and someday you have to explain to an employer's insurer looking for pre-conditions or the Government Agency that is considering you for a Presidential appointment, you really had a hematoma and not an identify crisis.


When it ended its service, Revolution Health said that it will destroy all PHRs on file. If a patient has watched the television criminal dramas, NCIS or Law and Order, believing that electronic records are fully expunged is akin to believing that the Tooth Fairy aids good oral hygiene.


Credibility and security is crucial. One small, apparent success is the partnership between Google Health and the Cleveland Clinic. Doctors input patient data into PHRs that patients can import into their own secure Google Health account. Ideally, if patients move away from the Cleveland Clinic, they could take their health records with them. The issue of standardization for Health Care IT (HCIT) still remains. Like the infamous technical VHS vs. Betamax or more recent Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD wars, aligning on a technical standard must Darwiningly happen.


For anyone interested, the opportunities for HCIT implementation are ensuring patient engagement, developing easy, time-saving but robust graphical user interfaces, and providing a common secure technical platform.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

RIP Revolution Health

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) made available $26 billion for Health Care Information and Technology Systems (HCIT) and the advantages to companies in productivity and optimization of profitability are well recognized.

However, challenges come in exploiting this information to ensure better patient outcomes and to create engaged and enhanced physician-patient partnerships. What happens when the best technical finery is set up for the dance and the partners fail to fox trot?

The recent demise of Revolution Health is a good example of what happens when hundreds instead of millions of patients sign up to fill out their Personal Health Records (PHRs). Founded with great fanfare by Steve Case of AOL fame, the PHR aspect of Revolution Health failed to gain any patient traction. General Manager Marjorie Martin said that “most patient rely on their physicians to do their record-keeping. They don’t feel the need to make a change. And it is still a fairly laborious process.”

Facilitation of HCIT will also involve developing access portals that go beyond checking CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) diagnostic codes and utilizing cutting edge mobile hardware (viz. IPads and Smartphones). Educating physicians is also critical. According to the American Medical Association, 50% of US physicians are 55 years old or older and will be at retirement age in ten years. As these doctors age into retirement, the US could have 40,000 less doctors for, according to current demographics, a burgeoning population of 42 million more Americans. The burden is creating a system for that will enhance productivity for a smaller medical delivery cohort.