Public health, healthcare innovations and marketing

Citation

Mukherjee, A. (2014), "Public health, healthcare innovations and marketing", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-09-2014-0050

Public health, healthcare innovations and marketing

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Volume 8, Issue 4

The last issue of 2014 contains five interesting articles from authors in different parts of the world. These articles address important developments in three related and associated themes: public health, healthcare innovations and marketing. The three pillars of the triad need to support each other as healthcare policy and management becomes more complex, integrated and interdisciplinary. With the Ebola outbreak in West Africa emerging to be a public health emergency of international concern, stem cell biologics and personalized medicine holding the future for Big Pharma, and health policy struggling with diabetes patient beliefs and healthcare cost containment, research into these areas can make enormous contributions in connecting the pieces of the puzzle.

We start this issue with a research paper by Sanjit Sengupta and Hui-Ming (Deanna) Wang titled “Information sources and adoption of vaccine during pandemics”. This paper investigates the effects of different information sources on consumer health behaviour during pandemics. Using data from a mall and street intercept survey collected from 321 adults in a large western US city during November 2009, the authors analyze beliefs, attitudes and intentions of consumers with regard to adoption of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. They develop and test two alternative models on the role of mass media and personal information sources on the attitude towards the disease and the intention to get vaccinated. The study finds that mass media and personal sources of information simultaneously impact perceived threat from disease (attitude) and the intention to get vaccinated during a global pandemic. Personal information sources are more effective than mass media sources in impacting both attitude and intention. While the impact of mass media weakens from the attitude stage to the intention stage, the impact of personal information sources increases from the attitude stage to the intention stage. The contribution of this paper to health policy makers and marketers is to draw implications on how mass media and personal information sources could be better utilized to counter future global pandemics.

The second article of this issue is a research paper by Anja Hitz and Lea Prevel Katsanis titled “A consumer adoption model for personalized medicine: an exploratory study”. In this paper, the authors aim to identify factors linked to the potential acceptance of personalized medicine by consumers. The proposed conceptual model is based on Roger’s diffusion of innovation model and the work of Duguay et al. on transgenic biopharmaceuticals. The study design involves an exploratory, cross-sectional survey and uses a Canadian national online panel of 307 respondents. The results suggest that the most important factors leading to consumer adoption of personalized medicine are knowledge, relative advantage and compatibility with existing values. The level of homophilous traits is found to be negatively related to the acceptance of personalized medicine. Marketers will need to provide documented evidence of its benefits over existing therapy based on improved efficacy and reduced side effects. Further, concerns about higher price, product distribution and drug reimbursement policies may limit the acceptance of personalized medicine. This is the first study to examine the potential adoption and acceptance of personalized medicine by consumers.

The third article titled “Exploring illness beliefs about diabetes among Individuals with Type 2 diabetes - an Indian perspective” is a research paper authored by Rema Lakshmi, Palanisamy Ganesan, Ranjit Mohan Anjana, Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam and Viswanathan Mohan. Diabetic management lies primarily in the hands of the patient, which signifies the need for understanding the various dimensions of individuals’ illness beliefs. While past research from abroad has stressed the need for understanding the patient’s perspective in effective illness management, the lack of studies in the Indian context calls for further research in this area. The aim of this paper is to explore illness beliefs among adults with type 2 diabetes, studied in a clinical setting in the Indian context. Drawing upon the self-regulation model, the authors deploy semi-structured interviews to understand the beliefs about diabetes among individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. A total of 70 individuals with type 2 diabetes are included, taking into account the disease duration, urban-rural, age and gender distinctions. Data are analyzed using content analysis method. The results of the analysis reveal numerous sub-themes related to the perceived consequences of diabetes, control or cure issues, timeline and emotional issues as experienced by the subjects. There is a dearth of research work that explores the illness beliefs that patients’ hold about diabetes, as discussed in the Indian context. It is expected that the insight provided by this study can help the government bodies, healthcare organizations and practitioners design and develop interventions from a patient-centric view. Additionally, such a patient-centric approach will enable individuals to achieve their treatment goals.

The next article of this issue titled “Selling stem cell based biologics and sales force alignment for the biomedical device industry” is authored by Ben Jaeger and Dennis Kopf. The purpose of this study is to discover best practices for selling stem cell based biologics and ensuring proper sales force alignment in the biomedical device industry. Within the medical equipment industries, approximately 58 per cent of sales territories are either too large or too small. The research is based on an immersion into the industry as well as several formal, semi-structured interviews and dozens of informal interviews of surgeons, medical staff and medical device salespersons and managers. Data are also collected and analyzed from wipricepoint.org. The factors analyzed by the authors are the number of discharges, average charge per procedure, median age, male/female patient ratio and total hospital charges per year. Findings show that secondary data can augment primary data collection to determine the most lucrative markets for salespersons to target their efforts. In addition, the data when combined with sales force-specific data can help optimize sales force alignment. Insights into the industry are also given such as how to overcome objections to the use of stem cell based biologics for spinal surgeries. Although much of the findings are specific to only one industry (medical device sales), the authors present a generalized process for analyzing a key source of secondary data that could be beneficial to any hospital-serving industry.

The final article of this issue is a research paper by Jared Frank and Muhiuddin Haider. With the aging of the US population and increasing costs of rendering services, both the Medicare population and Medicare expenditures, already at their highest levels in the history of the programme, are projected to rise going forward. As such, recent research has focused on Part A hospitals/facilities and the variations in costs submitted and payments received for treatment/services provided. This study with the title of “Comparative analysis of Medicare discharges following an acute inpatient hospitalization under MS-DRG 207” aims to address a recent concern entailing whether patients discharged to long-term care hospitals (LTCHs), which receive higher payment(s) as a result of serving a higher proportion of medically complex beneficiaries, are more medically complex than those discharged to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) or inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRFs). The main objective of the study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the Medicare patients discharged to a LTCH, SNF or IRF following an acute inpatient hospitalization under Medicare-severity diagnosis-related group (MS-DRG) 207. The likelihood of discharge by provider type is also examined by the authors to determine criteria informing patient discharge to a LTCH, SNF or IRF for treatment. For this purpose, demographic/clinical characteristics and actual hospital/facility costs are associated with a patient’s discharge location. A retrospective cohort study, based on secondary data analysis, utilizing Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File data collected by CMS for fiscal year 2011, October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2011, is used. The outcome variable for this study is discharge location. The independent variables of interest are age, race, gender, diagnosis code, diagnosis code count, length of stay and costs. Numerous analyses are conducted upon those patients discharged to a LTCH, SNF or IRF following an acute inpatient hospitalization under MS-DRG 207. Concerning those patients discharged to LTCHs, patients are not found to be significantly older, do not have the highest length of stay and have comparable diagnoses and diagnosis counts to those discharged to SNFs or IRFs. However, costs are significantly higher among discharges to LTCHs. Multinomial logistic regression analyses also indicate numerous associations between certain variables and discharge location. This study supports MedPAC’s recommendation that criteria be developed by Medicare to more accurately define medically complex, or the type of long-term acutely ill, patient(s) eligible for admission and/or treatment by certain provider types.

The articles report new research findings about a variety of contemporary issues on public health and innovation, ranging from pandemics to stem cell biologics and personalized medicine. I hope you will find these articles intellectually stimulating and insightful.

We acknowledge, with special thanks, selected IJPHM reviewers who have reviewed papers for the journal during 2007-2014:

Jayesh P. Aagja, Nirma University, India.

Ty Abernathy, Mississippi State University, USA.

Carolyn Adams-Price, Mississippi State University, USA.

Zafer Agdelen, Girne American University, Turkey.

Mona al-Amin, Suffolk University, USA.

Mohamad Aljofan, Monash University, Australia.

Fadi M. Alkhateeb, University of Charleston School of Pharmacy, USA.

Syed Saad Andaleeb, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Reinhard Angelmar, INSEAD University, France.

Bander A. Al Aqeel, University of Scranton, USA.

Helena Alves, University of Beira Interior, Portugal.

Sandhya Anvekar, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management, India.

Nicholas Ashill, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Amod Athavale, University of Mississippi, USA.

Muhammad Usman Awan, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Daniela Azêdo, University Hospitals of Coimbra, Portugal.

Jennifer Ball, University of Minnesota, USA.

Subir Bandyopadhyay, Indiana University Northwest, USA.

Adam Barak, United BioSource Corporation, UK.

Rian Beise-Zee, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

John Bentley, The University of Mississippi, USA.

JP Benya, Columbia University, USA.

Nilesh Bhutada, California Northstate College of Pharmacy, USA.

Sonja Bidmon, Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

Davide Bolchini, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, USA.

Flávio Brambilla, The Federal University of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil.

Roger Calantone, Michigan State University, USA.

Nuno Camacho, Erasmus School of Economics, Netherlands.

Norman V. Carroll, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

Janet Carruthers, Victoria University, New Zealand.

Franklin Carter, Penn State University, USA.

Ella Cartier, Howard University, USA.

Erin Cavusgil, University of Michigan, USA.

Ashish Chandra, University of Houston – Clear Lake, USA.

Hardeep Chahal, University of Jammu, India.

Enchi Chang, Perfect Translation & Compunet, UK.

Patrali Chatterjee, Montclair State University, USA.

Junsong Chen, China Europe International Business School, China.

Andrew Ching, University of Toronto, Canada.

Christina Chung, Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA.

Christopher Clark, Macquarie University, Australia.

Gerry Cleaves, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA.

Lanier D. Clinton, University of St. Thomas, USA.

Julie Coe, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

Alberto Coustasse, Marshall University, USA.

Marlon Dalmoro, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Denise E. DeLorme, University of Central Florida, USA.

Asoke Dey, The University of Akron, USA.

Roger Durand, University of Houston – Clear Lake, USA.

Ike Ekeledo, Montclair State University, USA.

Christine Ennew, Nottingham University, UK.

Burcu Toker Ersöz, Girne American University, North Cyprus.

Beth Ann Fiedler, University of Central Florida, USA.

Zach Finney, University of South Alabama, USA.

Neil Foshay, St Francis Xavier University, Canada.

Marianna Fotaki, Manchester Business School, UK.

Zach Frank, Washburn University, USA.

Scott Friend, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

Daniel Friesner, North Dakota State University, USA.

Liz gill, university of sydney, sydney, Australia.

Mario Giraldo, Universidad del Norte, Colombia.

Ronald Goldsmith, Florida State University, USA.

Fusun Gonul, Slippery Rock University, USA.

Stephen J. Gould, Baruch College, CUNY, USA.

Margaret J. Greene, Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA.

Deborah Gritzmacher, Clayton State University, USA.

Muhiuddin Haider, University of Maryland, USA.

John Hamilton, James Cook University, Australia.

Mahmud Hassan, Rutgers University, USA.

Angela Hausman, Xavier University, USA.

John Haza, Victoria University, UK.

Peter Hilsenrath, University of the Pacific, USA.

Anurag Hingorani, UTS, Sydney, Australia.

Gillian Hogg, Strathclyde Business School, UK.

David Holdford, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

Karen Hood, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA.

Bashir Huassain, North South University, Bangladesh.

Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota, USA.

Bruce A. Huhmann, New Mexico State University, USA.

Mehdi Hussain, University of New South Wales, Australia.

Kathleen Iacocca, University of Scranton, USA.

Sharan Jagpal, Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, USA.

Abhinandan Jain, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Anand Jaiswal, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Thani Jambulingam, St. Joseph’s University, USA.

C. Jayachandran, Montclair State University, USA.

Robert Jecklin, University of Wisconsin-la Crosse, USA.

Per Jenster, China Europe International Business School, China.

Jill Jesson, Aston Business School, UK.

Joby John, Bentley College, USA.

G. K. Kalyanaram, GK Associates, New York, USA.

Gregory Katz-Benichou, ESSEC, France.

Mark J. Kay, Montclair State University, USA.

Hyojin Kim, University of Florida, USA.

E.M. Mick Kolassa, Medical Marketing Economics (MME), LLC., USA.

Dennis Kopf, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, USA.

Archana Kumar, Montclair State University, USA.

Wagner Junior Ladeira, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Clinton Lanier, University of St. Thomas, USA.

Chunsik Lee, University of Florida, USA.

Yun Jung Lee, Aldelphi University, USA.

Ana Lenggana, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia.

Yam Limbu, Montclair State University, USA.

Joerg Lindenmeier, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Sooyeon Nikki lee- Wingate, Fairfield University, USA.

Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Alisson Eduardo Maehler, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Mary K Madsen, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, USA.

Neeru malhotra, Aston Business School, UK.

Kimball P. Marshall, Alcorn State University, USA.

Maysoun Dimachkie Masri, University of Central Florida, USA.

John McGinnis, Montclair State University, USA.

Yahia Zare Mehrjerdi, Yazd University, Iran.

Ram Misra, Montclair State University, USA.

Santanu Mitra, Montclair State University, USA.

Mariko Morimoto, Emerson College, USA.

Rahul Mukherjee, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India.

Hiroshi Nakamura, Keio Business School, Japan.

Sushmita A. Narayana, indian institute of management, India.

Vivek Natarajan, Lamar University, USA.

Prithwiraj Nath, University of East Anglia, UK.

Anthony Ndiege, Montclair State University, USA.

Jack Newhouse, Saint Joseph’s University, USA.

Prathap Oburai, IIM Ahmedabad, India.

Ahmet “Ozzie” Ozturk, Marshall Univ. School of Medicine, USA.

David P. Paul III, Monmouth University, USA.

Vivek Pande, University of Wisconsin – la Crosse, USA.

Jason Perepelkin, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Mary Beth Pinto, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Manuel Pontes, Rowan University, USA.

Luis san Vicente Portes, Montclair State University, USA.

Vandana Prajapati, Maharshi Dayanand University, India.

C.V. Priporas, University Macedonia, Greece.

Samuel Rabino, Northeastern University, USA.

P.S. Raju, University of Louisville, USA.

P.M. Rao, Long Island University, USA.

Bill Roach, Washburn University, USA.

Michel Rod, Carleton University, Canada.

R. Rohini, Institute of Clinical Research, India.

Brent Rollins, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, USA.

Warren Salmon, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.

Marydol Santarriaga, University of Colima, Mexico.

Shamindra N. Sanyal, Institute of Engineering & Management, India.

Nilgun Sarp, Ankara University, Turkey.

Paul scipione, State University of New York, Geneseo, USA.

Dennis J. Scotti, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA.

Kabir C. Sen, Lamar University, USA.

G. Shainesh, IIM Bangalore, India.

Mansour Sharifzadeh, Cal Poly Pomona, USA.

Kim Bartel Sheehan, The University of Oregon, USA.

George P. Sillup, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, USA.

Julie Z. Sneath, University of South Alabama, USA.

Daniel Simonet, American University of Sharjah, UAE.

Ramendra Singh, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India.

Hermann Sintim, Montclair State University, USA.

Eugene Sivadas, University of Washington, Tacoma, USA.

Mickey Skiba, Monmouth University, USA.

Sinem Somunoglu, Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Turkey.

Surasak Soonthorn, Sirindhorn College of Public Health, Thailand.

Deborah Spake, University of South Alabama, USA.

Leigh Sparks, University of Stirling, UK.

Han Srinivasan, University of Connecticut, USA.

George Stone, North Carolina A&T State University, USA.

Michael Stros, Aston University, UK.

Bill Stroube, University of Evansville, USA.

Elnora Stuart, University of South Carolina Upstate, USA.

Dilaver Tengilimoglu, Gazi University, Turkey.

Ralf Terlutter, Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

Norman Tessell, Norman Tessell and Associates, LLC, Pennsylvania, USA.

Omer Topaloglu, Texas Tech University, USA.

Bill Trombetta, Saint Joseph’s University, USA.

Demetrios Vakratsa, McGill University, Canada.

Isaac Wanasika, University of Northern Colorado, USA.

Alex Wang, University of Connecticut-Stamford, USA.

Yawei Wang, Montclair State University, USA.

Hong Wei He, University of East Anglia, UK.

Daniel west, University of Scranton, USA.

Sue Weston, Montclair State University, USA.

Anthony White, KSU, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Jennifer A Whitty, Griffith University, Australia.

Ying Xie, Washington University in St Louis, USA.

Bing Xu, California State University Dominguez Hills, USA.

Yajiong Xue, East Carolina University, USA.

Venkata Yanamandram, University of Wollongong, Australia.

Yanli Zhang, Montclair State University, USA.

Willi Zimmermann, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Judy Zolkiewski, Manchester Business School, UK.

Nashat Zuraikat, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Avinandan Mukherjee