Wearables, Ingestibles, Implantables: The Inescapable Future of Healthcare

One of the 5 future healthcare trends discussed by a panel at the Lions Health 2015 Festival was "wearables, ingestibles, and implantables" (3 new buzzwords to add to my list!). Let's create an acronym: WII (not to be confused with Nintendo Wii).

As an example of what the future might bring, the image of a message from a doctor on an Apple Watch was thrown up on the screen at Lions Health (see image on left).

This got me to thinking of some of the issues regarding WII.

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How I Stopped Worrying About the Battery and Learned to Love My Apple Watch!

I've had my Apple Watch for about a week and I am beginning to grow attached to it (literally and figuratively). As I recently said on Twitter, paraphrasing actor Jonathan Goldsmith who portrays the "Most Interesting Man in the World" in Dos Equis beer commercials:

"I don't often wear a watch. But when I do, I prefer Apple Watch," says the most interesting PharmaGuy in the world. "Stay digital, my friends!"

At first, I thought I'd wear the watch all day just to see how long the battery lasted. At least one person I know returned his Apple Watch because the battery did not last long enough.

But I haven't had that problem. At the end of the day, my watch has at least 68% charge remaining.

Maybe that's because I'm not constantly using it to take self-portraits like the one shown here. Which is really cool, BTW.

How did I do that?

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Millennials Trust Pharma Social Media, Mobile Apps & Advertising a Hell of a Lot More Than Their Geezer Parents!

According to findings released today from the Fifth Annual Makovsky/Kelton “Pulse of Online Health” Survey, the percentage of Americans who trust pharma-sponsored social media "a lot" or "completely" increased from 17% in 2014 to 21% in 2015.

The same survey also revealed another trend: In 2010, 88% of Americans were willing to visit a pharma-sponsored Web site (e.g., a drug.com site), whereas in 2015 that percentage decreased to 80%.

Fielded in January 2015 to 1,015 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and older by Kelton, the Makovsky Health survey investigated consumers’ behavior and preferences for engaging with online healthcare information. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Meanwhile, a Prevention Magazine 2011 survey found that 49 percent of respondents who went online for prescription drug information reported seeking this information on a specific brand's Web site. As a consequence of this influence of the Internet, FDA is currently studying how consumers interact with drug.com websites (read this Pharma Marketing News article: Are Drug.com Websites "Fair and Balanced?").

Before commenting on the above results, let me summarize a few other “Pulse of Online Health” Survey results -- especially those related to mobile and wearable devices -- that may be of interest to you.

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