• HCPs trust information from peers more than reps
  • Patients can't always see the impact of their behaviour on their health
  • Doctors only engage with messages related to their own patients
  • Language barriers affect patient compliance
  • Different pharma markets have different needs
  • Patients trust information from other patients
  • HCPs don’t always engage with guidance
  • New guidelines don't translate into behavioural change
  • Sales strategies can be lost in execution
  • Patients only engage with relevant information
  • Complex protocols are a barrier to prescription

Select a challenge you’re facing in healthcare communications

A Fridge too Far

Filed under INSIGHT by on 08.09.11

It seems only fitting than one of my earliest blogs would be based on a kitchen appliance.

Samsung have been showcasing their newest fridge. It has WIFI and an 8 inch LCD screen with several really useful functions built in. For the family household, it will access a Google calendar to display on the screen, giving everybody visibility of swimming lessons and dentist appointments. It will hold memos that you write directly on the screen and then display for all to see. In the US it syncs with Pandora and plays music through speakers situated either side of the water dispenser, and (my personal favourite) it works directly with Epicurious to help you find recipes that fit neatly with the contents of your fridge. Excellent.

Now, I don’t mean to nit-pick, but it’s the final function that spoilt it for me. The fridge Tweets. Or rather, it has a Twitter function built in to the screen which you can check and write your Tweets from. I’m on board with the Calendar and Memo links to aid family life, and I absolutely love the interaction with Epicurious, but I struggle to get my head around why a fridge should facilitate your Tweeting activity.

At eBee, we are firm believers of insight-based innovation. As a result, we carefully avoid the temptation to use technologies we love in places that are irrelevant – that don’t fit a direct requirement of our users. Technology for the sake of it is not the game we’re in – fun as it may be, if it doesn’t answer a need then it’s not for us.

For me, the Tweeting fridge fits the irrelevant category. If we should be able to Tweet from wherever we are in the house, should my bedside lamp have the same functionality? And my bathroom mirror? My fireplace? My phone fulfils all my Tweeting requirements – I don’t have an unmet need in this area.

I still love the fridge, but for all the food and home related reasons – where it enhances my life in the kitchen, I value its tech.

 

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