Envisioning 2.0

Please note that a version of this post appeared on the blog HealthCareVox.

Early last month, I announced that I had launched a new initiative called the Path of the Blue Eye project.  It is designed to foster greater collaboration and knowledge sharing among people in the health marketing communications field.  It was a risky move, but it appears to be paying off.

We are still in the early days of the project, but I’m very pleased that nearly 200 people from companies and organizations like Johnson & Johnson, AIDS.gov, Novartis, Shire, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, OrganizedWisdom and Digitas have joined the movement via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

In addition, we launched a blog, titled Walking the Path, and invited people from across the health industry to contribute.  Once again, I have been delighted by the response.  In addition to myself, five well-regarded experts, including Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, David Harlow and Nedra Kline Weinreich, have agreed to develop content for the Weblog.

What does all of this activity suggest?  Well, it means that the Path of the Blue Eye project is getting stronger each day.  It’s real, serious and here to stay.

However, as I expected, it is taking a lot of work.  In addition to fulfilling my client responsibilities, we are building a collaboration hub and forging partnerships with a range of organizations.  Something’s got to give.  Today I’m announcing that as of this post I will no longer be writing Envisioning 2.0.

As you can imagine this was a difficult decision.  I started writing this blog in January 2006 when the health blogging world was a lot smaller than it is today.  I have been (and remain) hugely appreciative of all those who have diligently read, commented on and shared my content over the years.  You all played a big role in helping make Envisioning 2.0 what it is today.

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A few months ago, I mentioned an initiative that I’ve been working on that’s been stretching me to the limit and beyond.  Today, I’m pleased to announce that the Path of the Blue Eye project has been officially launched.

The goal of this initiative is to bring people working in health marketing communications together.  I’m trying to help to break down the silos that exist between industry sub-segments (e.g., PR, advertising, digital marketing) and geographic regions.

I’ve decided to launch the project a bit differently.  Once you go to the Website you’ll understand what I mean. Some may react negatively to the approach, while others will think it’s interesting. Whatever your reaction, know that  I believe so strongly in what I’m doing that I don’t mind literally going for broke in order to grab people’s attention and interest them in working together toward a common cause.

Together, we are stronger.  Not only will we be better prepared to serve our clients and others, but the general public will benefit as well.

I hope you decide to join me on this journey.  Learn more about my thinking on this project by visiting the official blog.

kmmad

Last year, I wrote a blog post regarding Nobel Prize winner James Watson’s remarks about the intelligence of people of African descent.  Overall, I didn’t expect the post to generate a great deal of attention, as I wrote it in order to get an issue that had been bothering me off my chest.  I was pleased to see that a few other bloggers and pharmaceutical marketing publications picked up the post and commented on my thoughts.

However, the blog post generated more than words.  Last year, John Mack, author of the Pharma Marketing Blog, approached me with an idea: What if we took some steps to highlight the accomplishments of African Americans and other minority groups in the life sciences?  I was immediately intrigued by the idea, as it was a direct response to my request that we “show people why they are wrong by citing examples of the quiet, unheralded contributions Blacks are making in business, science, education, law and other areas.”  Mack also introduced me to Craig DeLarge of Novo Nordisk, who agreed to participate in the project.

Today, I am proud to announce that we have launched a blog, “Life Sciences Profiles of Color,” which is designed to:

-Highlight the achievements and contributions of people of color in the Life Sciences industry, and

-Encourage and inspire young professionals and students who are considering a career in our industry.

To make this project a success we need your help, please consider:

-Submitting your story and granting us permission to post your image and responses on this blog

-Recommending others you think should be featured on this blog

-Sharing news about this blog with your colleagues throughout the industry

Over time, we hope to expand our efforts by creating opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to communicate, network and collaborate.

I hope you’ll take the time to learn more about the Life Sciences Profiles of Color project.  We are looking forward to hearing from you.  To learn more about the blog and the project, please click here.

Last month, I attended the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.  One highlight of the meeting was a video produced by my friends at Scribe Media illustrating the history of healthcare.  Great stuff.  Click here to view.

I will be taking a break from blogging until the first week of June.

Those interested in reading some of my content during this period can head over to HealthCareVox.  I’ve set up my blogging software to post a series of popular posts on social media, the biotech industry and other topics.

I’d like to take this time to thank all those who read, comment and share content posted on this blog each week.  Your ongoing support and readership is appreciated.

I’ll see you in June

I’d like to apologize to my readers for the recent problems you may have been having accessing this blog. Over the past week or so, prblogs.org has been having some server issues, which has resulted in the blog being unaccessible from time to time. Thank you for your patience and for reading this blog.

A few weeks back, I reported that influential medical blogger, Medpundit had exited the blogosphere.  Well, it turns out that she’s decided to return.  Welcome back!  I’ll be adding her back to my RSS feed library post-haste.

I’ll be taking a brief blogging break next week due to travel. I’ll be back the first week of June.

I’ve got some special events coming up that I’m pretty excited about. These include:

-The final post in my long-running interview series on race and medicine featuring NitroMed.

-More posts in my FDA and the Pharmaceutical Industry series, including an interview with John Powers, MD of the FDA.

-A new series, titled “Communicating Consumer-driven Healthcare.” In this series, I’ll be exploring the following questions:

1. What will it take to “train” the public to be better consumers of healthcare?

2. What types of communications tactics are appropriate for communicating messages about consumer-driven healthcare?

(P.S. If anyone is interested in submitting a guest article on this series for publication on Envisioning 2.0, please contact me at info [at] envisionsolutionsnow [dot] com.

Thanks to all my readers for making this blog so much fun to write!

See you in June!

Medpundit announced that she is closing the doors of her blog today. She will be missed. A few other medical bloggers have suggested or announced that they have or may stop blogging at some point, including:

-Kate Steadman, Healthy Policy
-”Maria,” Intueri
-Jacob Reider, MD, Family Medicine Notes

I included some of these wonderful bloggers in my report on healthcare blogs, published last month. Does the departure (or potential departure) of these bloggers make the report obsolete? I think not. The healthcare blogosphere will continue to expand and grow in influence with or without their voices. However, any loss is felt and their voices will be missed.

Blogging will be light this week, as I will be traveling on business over the next few days.