Hospitals find marketing tool

Following the lead of America Online, some hospitals and health care providers view CD-ROM mailers as an effective marketing tool.

Lancaster General Hospital mailed 60,000 CDs last summer to select ZIP codes to promote its redesigned Web site. To keep people from tossing it, the hospital included software for patients to track their health records, such as blood sugar tests and prescriptions.

The initial effort flopped - about 600 responses at first - but hospital officials are not giving up.

They say they are retooling the marketing campaign. They are distributing an additional 40,000 CDs to a more targeted audience: patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, new mothers who want to track their baby's health, and caregivers looking after elderly relatives. The CDs are being handed out at health fairs and at the hospital.

"I don't know that we promoted it as Strong as we could have," said Jim Mays, the hospital's Web administrator. "It didn't go as well as the other markets in the country."

Hospitals in other markets use a more targeted focus, said Mark Weinstein, president and chief executive officer of BioImaging Technologies Inc.

The public company, based in Newtown, Bucks County, is marketing the CD-ROM to hospitals, doctors' offices and pharmacies.

Mays estimates the hospital has gotten more than 1,000 responses from patients since it started pinpointing its market. Most of those responses came from people who were taking care of elderly parents who take a variety of prescription drugs. The CD allows users to fill out forms and print out reports they can bring to their doctors to track how well they have been doing between visits.

Bio-Imaging got the rights to the product by acquiring Delaware-based CapMed Corp. in December. CapMed developed the software for the CD and a keylike device that can plug into a standard port on all computers.

In addition to data, the key and the CD can store images, such as X-rays.

Doctors' offices are the most likely customers for the keys, while hospitals and pharmacies are better targets for the CDs, said Wendy Angst, general manager of the Personal Health Management Division of Bio-Imaging. That will help patients when they switch doctors or go for second opinions.

Hospitals and pharmacies can use the CDs to help customers keep track of prescriptions. Once the software is downloaded to a computer, users can set up pop-up reminders to appear when they need to take their pills.

Bio-Imaging sees health insurers as a potentially large market that will develop as more people use the technology to keep personal health records.

Patients with chronic diseases tend to reduce hospital visits and other medical expenses when they are more involved in their treatment, Angst said. For example, diabetics who keep regular tallies of their blood sugar and when they need follow-up visits are less likely to have serious health problems.

The more people use the technology, the better able BioImaging can prove to insurers that they need the software to reduce payouts, Weinstein said.

More than 90 million Americans suffer from chronic diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Bio-Imaging is charging $2 per CD as part of its initial sales plan to "seed" the market. So far, Bio-Imaging has distributed 400,000 CDs nationwide, Angst said.

Once people get more comfortable with the software, BioImaging hopes hospitals and doctors' offices will want to use the technology to allow patients to download medical records from Internet sites.

Angst said it would help patients who normally have to go to multiple departments to request their hospital records.

It also reduces work for hospital administrators, Mays said.

"I think all hospitals are working on streamlining that process," he said.