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The registration will open in late November on PMSA's website, www.pmsa.net. The early bird rate of $795 for this two full-day Symposium is available until January 5, 2009, after which the program cost will be $895. Please watch our website closely for additional details.

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Patient-Level Data Suppliers: Is Data Dumping Trashed?

By Daniel J. Feldman, PhD, President

Almost every manufacturer and consultant in the pharmaceutical industry is touched by pharmacy- and claim-level data, and over the last decade, it would be nearly impossible not to notice the explosion of patient-level data and the analytics that capitalize on their availability. It would be equally challenging to ignore the mergers, acquisitions, deals, and spin-offs that make the patient-level data suppliers mirror the manufacturer industry that they so adeptly support. The most recent announcements to rock the data world are the SDI-Verispan merger, the Wolters Kluwer Health acquisition of UpToDate electronic medical records, and IMS’ enhancements to its LifeLink portfolio of patient-level products.

With all this talk about more data, it is reasonable to wonder if PMSA members will soon be flooded. What good is the best-prepared banquet if you don't have the utensils to consume it?  Will these suppliers provide the forks alongside the feast? Below are the responses of these suppliers and the overall themes of their responses.

SDI Theme: Partnerships
According to Andrew Kress, CEO of SDI, the answer is unequivocally “yes,” and insists that the model of SDI is “data agnostic” and that their job is “to provide an evidence-based framework for answering questions, adding more analytics and marketing sciences people who know the most about any given therapeutic area, and putting them as close to the clients as possible.” He told PMSA that he envisions a role of SDI similar to that of marketing agencies that support marketing brand leads, with his consultants sitting in the meetings alongside the management science brand leads. Kress presented this challenge: “Manufacturers [first] need to ‘walk the walk’ in identifying suppliers as ‘partners,’” by actually inviting them to brand meetings and including data suppliers in the broader business questions.

Wolters Kluwer Health Theme: Advanced Analytics
Laura Jirele at Wolters Kluwer Health reports, “We have seen a growing trend of our industry partners seeking answers, not just a ‘plate’ of data.” To provide the proverbial “fork”, Wolters Kluwer Health is working to develop new analytic models with user-inspired tools to view their integrated data in a way that quickly provides relevant answers to business questions. “As budgets get thinner, the need to optimize the marketing dollar increases. The best way to do this is through more advanced market analytics using the many sources of available data. Longitudinal claims data provide exciting opportunities for insights on the entire sphere of influence -- the patient, the provider, and the payer.”

IMS Theme: Easy-to-use Applications
Lisa Stockwell Morris, PhD, global director for IMS LifeLink, tells PMSA, “Commercial analysis professionals should not consider these new longitudinal metrics additional workload, but a true competitive advantage for those who know how to derive the right insights.” By making patient-level data easy for clients to implement, “IMS integrates core products and workstation availability with the resources and expertise to guide decisions and business applications when applying patient-level metrics to brands.”

SDI expects their data and tool integration to be completed by the end of this year or early in 2009. The acquisition of UpToDate by Wolters Kluwer Health is currently targeted by the end of the year pending regulatory approval. IMS LifeLink is currently available to customers.

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PMSA Website Update - Create Your Profile and Wiki

Social networking is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday business life, especially with the advent of new technologies. PMSA is capitalizing on this trend and is working on adding member profiles (like LinkedIn™ and Facebook™) and an industry-specific Wiki tool (like Wikipedia™ ) for management scientists. Soon you will be able to post your topics and solutions to common industry questions, as well as create and update your profile and contact information, connect to colleagues, and share your innovations with the PMSA community year-round. Why wait for the annual conference?

Check back to the website soon and often for updates …

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Contact Information

Pharmaceutical Management Science Association
c/o Best Meetings Inc.
2626 E 82nd Street, Suite 270
Bloomington, MN 55425
Phone: 952-858-8875 or 800-958-8875
Fax: 952-858-8950
Email: barb@bestmeetings.com

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