Profomedia – ProfoMedia

Does Social Media work?

We discuss the corporate focus on “digital”, and ask the unthinkable – does Social Media actually work any longer?

it started as a way for corporates to engage better, with their prospects and customers. What was obvious was that the classic CEO-style of interview – was not getting traction – and we felt that there needed to be a more engaging style of delivery.

Better still – if we can add some completely different and disruptive elements, to get attention – hence the use of the music setting in the Interview here. Sitting at the grand piano is a great way to chat to people, who get comfy snuggled in the curve of the piano itself. The above Interview is the first of a series we are doing, called “Podcasts around the Piano”, for that reason.

And so we talk. We “chat” about social media. Have we reached a tipping point? In the same way that Conferences and Trade Fairs that focus on the fact that their delegates and/or vendors are “digital” – well the reaction now is “so what?”

Of the four latest Healthcare Conferences in London that we ourselves have covered in the last few weeks alone – the most engaging – were the ones that did not sell technology, but talked about a specific clinical benefit.

What we have found over the last 12 monads, is that the rush to meet face/face has not diminished in its appeal. That face/face selling is still seen as the key to closing. And that online interaction, whilst expedient – is still what it always was – simply that. Simply expedient.

So we are asking the question; like in all things in life, and as Irina says in her video here – she does prefer going shopping in a place called a High Street.

Is it time to rethink our strategies of how we engage with our market, and that social media might need to become social awareness?

IS FINANCE JUST ABOUT TECHNOLOGY?

We sit in on the recent Future of Finance Conference at London Wembley, from the expert people at IQPC, and congratulate them on a great bringing together of like minded people.

I push open the revolving doors at the Hilton and walk across the soft carpet. It is quite silent, very few people. There is no signage of the conference but it’s obvious the way to go is upstairs. I follow the escalators up two floors and there we are. The girls at the Conference Reception smile, hand me my badge – “sorry, what was your name.. BLOSS?”…. And suddenly, dressed in a royal blue suit and smiling broadly, Richard Walls, Event Director, strides across.

“Richard, great to see you! How was the journey?”

We have never met before in our life. But that does not matter. We are among friends now. IQPC may not have been the first, in these post Covid days – but they were the first that mattered. And if there were some misconceptions, some blind alleys, this Conference was everything that a meeting of minds should be. Groups of varied and disparate financial business leaders mixed with vendors of solutions who had seen all this before, were experienced, who knew the game, knew what to say.

There was a feeling of relief, that we could finally share experience together in a way that was never possible in the far more blunt Zoom and Teams environments. It was not a large event – some 50 or so delegates, and a dozen vendors, but there was never a sales or pushy environment, this was almost Scandinavian in the focus on simple discussion leading to business discussion.

The programme was mixed – but focussed on technical as opposed to commercial.- And even when two of the speakers had to cancel last-minute – there was such goodwill in the audience and protagonists, for others to step up and join the debate.

It was very well organised and structured; the Day One afternoon revolving Group sessions allowed us all to cherry pick the areas of knowledge that we wished to look at. This was a meeting point of shared knowledge. I particularly liked the practical points that Kevin from Siemens Gamesa alluded to, and David Myers’s from Brewin was equally practical in his comments.

Typical was the early morning round table on Day Two, which looked principally at ESG – a concept that few of us had ever considered. It was tough start to the day. After an hour, Richard Walls leant forward from the back and said “we are covering a lot of questions that we had not thought of; we need to plan additional days like this”.

Yes, they do. People nodded their head in agreement at this comment. There was little mention of the impact of people and personnel in the financial changes that were being discussed, the cultural differences that “looking into the future” that cultural differences will bring.

But that again, did not matter.

I got the distinct view that, given enough time – we could have solved the worlds problems. It was a throwaway but so relevant thought on my part.

A Text arrived on my iPhone. I walked away from the huddle taking coffee. My co-Director, Irina, messages me she had just arrived at the Ukraine/Moldova border, from her home in Kiev. Safe at last. Among friends.

DIABETES MANAGEMENT FOR ALL PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

As part of our series of Case Studies for The HETT Show (www.hettshow.co.Uk) – we look at the rise of the Nipro Diagnostics company in Diabetes healthcare and ask, – from a standing start (with the new 4SURE portfolio), in just a few years, has their time come to be a major UK player?

For many people like you and I, the realisation that many people with diabetes do not have their condition out of choice, is a hard one to accept. And yet its management requires a complex understanding.

Let’s try and set the scene. In the last 10 years, the cost of treating Diabetes in the UK, has almost doubled. Looking at it another way – some 13% of all the NHS spending, is diabetes related. It is the largest slice of spending in the NHS cake. And for type 2 diabetes there is no shortage of blame. Everything from the UK government’s lack of practical steps – through to you and I for eating the wrong food and an ever increasing sedentary lifestyle .

Or maybe, there is no blame? Maybe, despite the fact that 10 years is a long time, and long enough to change both personal and NHS day-to-day processes, is it only now that we need to take a deeper look?

Is it therefore time? Time to reassess, and look again at what do we really need, now, to bring the diabetes epidemic under control and into the 21^st century with technological advancements?

10 years ago, and with a Nipro global headcount of some 29,000 people – the NiproDIAGNOSTICS company was not a known player in the UK. Two years ago, they set out to furtherfocus their attention to help people living with Type 1 diabetes, by launching the 4SURE range of glucose meters and partnered with the revolutionary Diabetes:M App. With the aim of being the single one stop shop for every person requiring blood glucose monitoring, Nipro set about bringing into a needy market, a combined process that was affordable for the NHS, and easy to understand for you and I.

Tom Atkinson, Country Manager of Nipro Diagnostics UK, looks corporate cool – with a fashionable soft northern accent, dressed in an open white shirt, he leans into his screen and talks fluidly about his Insulin Pharma background, and the wish to be part of a complete solution.

“What we understood from day one, was that we have to work the same way as our patients. They don’t want a meter that the NHS cannot afford; they want one with Bluetooth connectivity.And they want an App, which has got to be their Dashboard – everybody wants an App. Our big plus is that access to our new innovative technology, is obviously free, along with the Starter Pack from their diabetes clinic – which includes their initial consumables.”

We talk about the pandemic. It is an irony that, at a time when the NHS and health service provision has been desperate for so many – the essential acceptance overnight of remote diagnostics and monitoring by NHS nurses, has been a game changer for the better, for Nipro.

“Clearly, we had not forecast a pandemic”, continues Tom, “but it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before common acceptance and a desire for remote diabetes monitoring. What has helped, is that our meters have an accuracy rate of 99.3%, and we are the fastest growing provider of diabetes solutions”.

The corporate ethos of a sales pitch is creeping into the discussion, and I don’t have a problem with that. What is equally evident is the pride of helping the ordinary person with diabetes, just being available, at the end of a phone line if a patient needs help or advice. But that does not address the basic issue of human behavior. A diabetes meter can only be reactive to a patient’s condition.

Not necessarily. By giving the patient an affordable, information-driven, platform to manage their condition, patients themselves can change their lifestyles armed with the facts and see the benefits of their condition improving by relating to their life choices.

Tom interrupts; “yes, this is true – we are “part” of the solution – but for the patient, we are the major part – as it’s our technology they are using every day and we are the link between them and their own clinic or doctor, as we are providing the vital remote monitoring bridge to keep a patient in touch with their HCP so they can monitor their glucose levels remotely in real time and change their medication and other variables, there and then, if needs be”.

The focus of the discussion goes back to that of patient-provider relationship. “We don’t want diabetes to be the affliction for everyone – but we do want to provide the all-embracing solution for those that need it”. Tom looks at his watch. We have been engaged in academic discussion for nearly an hour, and it is Friday afternoon, end of July. He is taking his family on holiday.

I closed my screen and take a moment of reflection. Innovation is not necessarily about technology. The patient also has a role to play. The Innovation at Nipro is the approach, taking the fear-factor, the newness, and combining it to tech that simply delivers, and communicating that to the person in the street.