Blog archive - April 2012

Posted the ATA link the other day, but wanted to post this as well along with our pre-event survey link for interested parties.... The telehealth industry can be convoluted and confusing despite significant efforts by the industry. As a result, success in telehealth hinges upon proper understanding and identification of the markets, as well as an awareness of voice of the customer basic questions, such as who are the customers and what are their needs? Meet Frost & Sullivan’s leading Connected Health analysts at ATA 2012 at Booth 1703 To share and explore the Top 20 Telehealth Markets Click Here to Participate in Frost & Sullivan’s Pre-ATA 2012 Survey We also invite you to participate in the above survey. Current users and vendors’ perspectives are welcome. The survey should take only about five minutes of your time. Resulting research will be shared with all survey participants. We look forward to meeting you at ATA 2012.

Multiple people from our Connected Health group will be at the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) meeting in San Jose, as Frost & Sullivan is a Media partner for this event. We also will be at booth 1703 in the Expo and surveying on trends in telehealth. Hope to see you there. Feel free to contact Daniel Ruppar for scheduled meeting opportunities through our main number 210-348-1000.

Is technology changing the doctor-patient relationship? As preventable medical conditions such as obesity continue to grow so does the need for patient involved healthcare. The doctor-patient relationship is critically important to bridging the gap between passive patients and informed medical consumers. Innovative technologies are the enabling factor for this, but are they succeeding — and how long will it be before we start seeing significant changes? Moderator: Zachary Bujnoch, Senior Industry Analyst, Frost and Sullivan Panelists: James White, Vice President, Connected Hospital, Alcatel-Lucent Gene Frantz, TI Principal Fellow, Texas Instruments William Reid, FACHE, VP, Product Management, Numera Alexandra Von Plato, Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer, Digitas Health and Razorfish Health Intro: Jill Gilbert, Producer, Digital Health Summit

There was great attendance and discussion at our event in San Diego around telehealth and mobile health solutions in healthcare. The panel session “mHealth: Are You Ready to Be a Driver of the Future?” featuring executives from Airstrip, Blue Highway, Welldoc, and the Global Hospital Virtualization Program was an exciting one for the conference addressing mobile health, which is of high interest and visibility in the industry currently. One point of discussion was - why is this now a key point for mHealth in medicine? Airstrip Technologies CEO Alan Portela discussed how with the shift to outcomes based medicine, the shortage in physicians, and increased patients with needs for chronic disease management, physicians must become mobile professionals. With that they need immediate access to needed information and decision support regardless of location in order to be able to manage their patient load. Essentially mHealth has become a mission critical technology to bring data to the caregivers wherever they are, versus physicians having to go to one certain place in order to be able to access information for patient care. From the panel, another key point in mHealth is getting the health system to fully understand and realize the ROI of the use of mobile technology in the practice of medicine – which is not just about dollars but more importantly is about outcomes. Portela discussed how the real time transfer of EKG information from an ambulance to the hospital through their solution can enable a cardiologist to diagnose and ready the cath lab before the patient presents, and therefore through that faster cycle time, result in better outcomes, less ICU time, and other direct benefits to the patient and system. Blue Highway CEO Al Di Reinzo gave the example of a seizure patient where first responders can have an EEG read remotely, and therefore be able to make more informed medication decisions on-site prior to transfer, resulting in lower patient risk, and better outcomes. Regarding the continued changes in consultation through mHealth, Danny Petrasek, Director - Global Hospital Virtualization Program, discussed that 50-80% of medical problems can be diagnosed through a conversation, thus presenting an opportunity of a massive volume of care which could be taken on remotely through new options in IT enabled approaches. A shift in increasing remote consultation, especially with the ability to bring diagnosis further in terms of penetration in to the home, brings with it both direct and indirect cost savings. Overall, the panel did an exemplary job addressing major critical issues in mHealth. Due to the advancements in IT and mobile technology over the last several years, telehealth is now at a point of evolution where it can make a transformative difference in the practice of medicine, as well as business models, to deliver an overall continuum of care through connected health solutions.

By Jessica Jeffcoat, Research Analyst, and Holly Lyke-Ho-Gland, Research Lead, Growth Team Membership™ (GTM) Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Team Membership™ (GTM) recently completed its 2012 survey of sales executives globally. The executives were asked to identify their most pressing challenges for 2012. GTM will focus its best practices research to address the prominent issues identified in the survey. Sales Leadership in 2012—A Snapshot Implementing lead generation strategies is the primary challenge of sales executives. A lack of personnel is the root cause of the primary challenge. In comparison to 2011, staffing levels will remain static while budget levels are expected to increase moderately in 2012. Companies attribute 20 percent of their sales to distribution channels and partnerships. In the main, Sales uses social media to identify and qualify leads. LinkedIn is the primary social media platform used by Sales, and is typically used to improve sales reps’ knowledge of customer needs and to boost brand recognition. 2012 Sales Leadership Survey Executive Summary The 2012 survey reveals that sales executives continue to wrestle with a perennial issue: improving customer focus. Specifically, sales leaders must employ more effective tactics to generate high-quality leads, map their sales cycle to customers’ purchasing behavior, and incorporate customer feedback into their sales strategies. To examine these challenges in more depth, the survey asked respondents to “root cause” their top internal challenges by indicating if they stem from issues with staffing, process, technology/systems, or strategic alignment. Sales executives attribute their challenges to two primary causes: limitations in staffing (limited resources and lack of knowledge) and processes (ineffective processes and inadequate communication). Sales executives are unlikely to see staffing improvements in the next year, as most respondents anticipate staffing levels will remain static in 2012. Budgets, however, are expected to increase moderately in 2012. Despite concerns over inadequate staffing and processes, nearly half (49 percent) of the survey respondents rate their function’s effectiveness as “above average.” Given social media’s prominence and its ability to give sales executives an additional window into customer needs and behaviors, the survey asked respondents about their use of social media. The majority of respondents (54 percent) indicate they participate in social media as part of their sales approach. More specifically sales reps are employing social media to identify and qualify prospects, collect information on customer needs, and maintain customer relationships. Sales executives predictably are using LinkedIn as their primary social media platform and are conducting individual searches and joining special interest groups to enhance their understanding of customer needs. While the majority of respondents actively participate in LinkedIn’s special interest groups, few sales executives moderate their own groups and thus do not take full advantage of LinkedIn’s ability to help boost brand recognition. In response to questions about their use of virtual and social media tools in sales activities, respondents indicate universal use of tele-presence and/or live streaming video to increase sales productivity. However, the majority of sales executives indicate they are not employing social media CRM systems (e.g., Nimble), monitoring platforms (e.g., Radian 6), or dashboards (e.g., Hootsuite or MediaFunnel). This is unfortunate given that these tools magnify the benefits of social media activities by collating customer information, which helps facilitate the creation of customer insights. In addition, more than half of the respondents do not use predictive analytics—the analysis of customer behavioral data to identify patterns and provide insights for customer interactions—which is a key customer analysis tool. It is noteworthy that most sales executives are not using these tools despite citing the need to improve their understanding of customer needs and behavior. Respondent Demographics There were 564 respondents. The respondents work predominantly for privately held (56%) rather than public (34%) companies. The majority of the respondents (69%) work in a business-to-business environment. Most of the respondents (39%) come from firms with revenues below $100 Million (USD). For a more detailed analysis of the survey results, including analyses by business model, please see the attached report. If you have questions regarding the survey, or are interested in learning more about GTM’s marketing best practices, please contact us at: GTMResearch@frost.com, follow us on @Frost_GTM, or visit us at www.gtm.frost.com