Welcome to the Dose
Welcome to The Dose. The Dose is an entirely new broadcast, digital and print format in a subject area that affects every one on the planet. Including you.
It's widely known that patients forget 80% of what their physician tells them as soon as they leave the office. They then take what has been prescribed without knowing why, what it does, what the potential problems are and, importantly, what alternatives there might have been.
There is therefore a great need for The Dose and by delivering The Dose through all main media formats, we will ensure that all target audiences have access and that we maximise the advertising revenues to optimise investor ROI.
The Dose’s mission
“Demystifying Medicine and Medicines”
Broadcast Format
The Dose will be a weekly program that is aimed at a wide family audience. Each program will be an hour long including commercials.
The Dose will be shot in front of a live audience with three main presenters. The program will cut from the studio location to VT features to illustrate key issues. Members of the live audience will be asked to give their experiences as well.
Each episode will examine the following:
One particular illness or therapeutic area – e.g. Parkinson's Disease
Explain how the disease manifests itself through the use of imaginative demonstrations – The Dose will avoid using boring computer animations
Focus on one drug that is used to treat Parkinson's Disease – e.g. Comtess and, again, use allegorical sketches to show how the drug works at combating the disease
An interview with a celebrity who has had to live with the disease – e.g. Michael J Fox
An issue related to the provision of healthcare – e.g. the Obama Healthcare Reforms
A news section: what's hot and what's not and what's on the horizon
Target Audience
Women are traditionally the care-givers in the family, so this program will be of interest to them primarily. However, the target audience for the program will be both men and women between the ages of 25–55.
The reason for this is that men need to become more involved with the provision of their own healthcare (as well as that of the family as a whole), so this program will set out to have appeal for them as well. Ultimately, the aim of the program is to both entertain and inform.
Target vignettes:
Worried well - mum as carer for her kids and parents wants to know more about what problems her children might encounter, how to get the best treatment for her parents and wants to know more about the drugs she is taking. She spends significant cash on healthcare and would respond quickly to advertisers
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Men in denial - one of the major drivers of disease progression and in fact mortality in men is the classic denial, 'it won't happen to me'. This leads to none presenting to doctors at the right time. The Dose will help to overcome the inertia and get men to see their doctors earlier; it might even get them talking about health issues at the water cooler. A classic late adopter, once this target has bought in, they will be loyal customers to potential advertisers
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The new healthcare consumer - demanding, inquisitive and not satisfied with 'just a prescription'. These people are professionals who want more and are willing to challenge to get the best. High disposable income and widely networked
The Tone
There is a tendency for healthcare programs to be rather worthy and precious. The Dose will break that mould.
The tone of the program will be light-hearted and enthusiastic. It will endeavour to be positive when discussing the treatment of various disorders, objective and informed when discussing the featured drugs and challenging when tackling the issues that affect the drugs' provision.
It will dare to open up the 'black book' that has never been shown to the public before. The program will minimize the use of talking heads interviews with 'eminent' clinicians (providing 'academic gravitas') and morbid features of miserable patients to lend misplaced emotional weight to the program. People don't want to be depressed by their TV; people want to be motivated by their TV and made to feel that their situation is not hopeless.
Print Resources
Magazine
To support the broadcast format and extend the reach, The Dose will also be delivered through a monthly print magazine, with additional revenue stream opportunities, high OTS and good retention value, including all physicians' offices and waiting rooms.
Point of Sale
There is also the potential to partner with key retail outlets - e.g. Walgreens - to provide POS materials from The Dose.
Digital Resources
Web Site
The Dose website will support the print and broadcast platforms with the additional opportunity to download fact sheets and information on the current topic(s). Additional revenue streams will also be available through banner ads and sponsorship.
Social Media
The Dose will use the networking ability of Facebook and Twitter to ensure that the word is spread wide and quickly.
Guidelines – What The Dose is
Entertaining as well as informative
It's always much easier to remember jokes than sermons. The Dose will set out to make complex concepts memorable and understandable without treating the viewer as an idiot.
Inventive
The Dose will aim to explain scientific theory using every-day analogies (e.g. plumbing, car services, bungee-jumping) as opposed to the usual computer-generated graphics. One of the central aspects of the program will be its bizarre stunts to explain dry concepts such as a drug's mode of action.
Crusading
The Dose will address the grittier issues affecting drug prescribing, especially issues such as postcode rationing, cost-effectiveness, the provision of healthcare in the US generally, comparisons with other systems in the rest of the world, etc.
Iconoclastic
The Dose will take the side of the viewer and, as such, will not shy away from challenging those individuals or institutions that may be seen as barriers to treatment (e.g. the Food and Drug Administration, the AMA, the pharmaceutical industry, etc.)
Independent
The Dose will have complete editorial control.
Guidelines – What The Dose is not
Nanny-knows-best
Healthcare programs have tended to be condescending in tone using language which assumes that the audience needs to have every technical term dumbed-down. In an age when a high proportion of healthcare information is acquired by the patient or carer themselves directly from the internet or other sources, the relevance of this approach is diminishing.
Academic
Just because drugs (and by that we mean ethical pharmaceuticals) are, by their nature, scientific in origin, does not mean the program has to be overly challenging and academically dry-as-dust.
Worthy
Too often healthcare issues are presented as being vaguely sacrosanct and the preserve of an informed few. They're not. They're the preserve of personal politics and, therefore, the public at large.
Episodes
Here is a list of the proposed episodes for the first series (we are optimistic there'll be a second series...)
The US Pharmacopoeia lists more than 8,500 drug classifications. There is therefore more than enough material to keep The Dose going for many series.
Each episode group will be created to deliver a mixture of highly topical diseases, acute and chronic issues, male and female problems and a mixture of age-related conditions, thus appealing to all potential audiences.
Also, there will be a few Special Episodes that will aim to concentrate on a major topic, explain the issues behind the topic and present the realities of the matter and how they affect everybody.
| Disease | Drug | Issue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alzheimer's Disease | Aricept | Introduction to drugs, their contents,how many names they have, etc. |
| 2 | Erectile Dysfunction | Viagra | Counterfeits and the internet |
| 3 | Ulcerative Colitis | Humira | Clinical Development – Phase I to III |
| 4 | Irritable Bowel Syndrome | Zelnorm | Using calprotectin to diagnose |
| 5 | Breast Cancer | Herceptin | Drug costs and margins |
| 6 | Animal Testing Special induding: Animal Liberation League, TGN 1412, the regulatory authorities' need, pharma response, et | ||
| 7 | Generics Special: What are they? What's the benefit? Who makes them? Who makes money form them? Counterfeits alternatives? | ||
| 8 | Osteoporosis | Evista | The Patient Information Leaflet – who is for really? |
| 9 | Contraception | The Pill | Breast cancer and the pill – fact or myth? |
| 10 | Depression | Prozac | Who gets treated? The patient or the doctor? |
| 11 | Muscle Spasm | Botulinum Toxin | Cosmetic quasi–science – take l'Oreal to task |
| 12 | Parkinson's Disease | Comtess | The "No Free Lunch" Campaign – who cares? |
| 13 | Hypertension | Amias | The Famingham study – its place in history |
| 14 | Hyperlipidaemia | Lipitor | Who wants to live forever anyway? |
| 15 | Multiple Sclerosis | Betaseron | Patient organisations – are they any good? |
| 16 | Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia | Flomax | Big Pharma CEOs and the banks – who are they working for? |
| 17 | The Health care Reforms Special – Is it a bad thing? Who benefits? Who Loses, Does corporate America support it? Why? | ||
| 18 | Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disorder | Roferon – A | H1N1 and the Spanish Flu |
| 19 | Insomnia | Stilnoct | Psychosomatic disorders and phantom disease (e.g gnut allergy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Migraine | Imigran | Stress and its effect on the human being. |
| 21 | Chronic Pain | Durogesic | Are opioids bad things? |
| 22 | Thromboembolism | Clexane | How does air travel cause DVTs? |
| 23 | Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disorder | Nexium | Is Nexium just marketing over substance? |
| 24 | Nausea | Zofran | The role of movement in nausea |
| 25 | Lennox Gastaut Syndrome | Inovelon | The problems of treating children with drugs |
| 26 | Constipation | Movicol | Drug ads on TV - whose bright idea was that? |
Creators
Kathleen Messmer
CEO / Executive Producer of Anvil Springs Entertainment, holds a degree in film production from San Francisco State University, one of the nation's top film schools and the only one in the U.S. that focuses on training producers.
She has worked in the industry for more than a decade on a wide range of films, big-budget and small, such as:
- The Astronaut Farmer with Billy Bob Thornton
- Fanboys with William Shatner and Carrie Fisher
- The Eye with Jessica Alba and Parker Posey
- Save Me with Judith Light
- The Anna Nicole Smith Story with Willa Ford
- Crash (TV) with Dennis Hopper
- The Dry Land with America Ferrera
- Ten Year with Channing Tatum and Justin Long
- Dream Boy with Rickie Lee Jones
- In Plain Sight (TV) with Lesley Ann Warren
- And Judy Blume's Tiger Eyes
She has also worked with Oscar-winning producers Robert Moresco and Paul Haggis.
David Impey
A writer and commercial consultant who has worked in and around the pharmaceutical industry. Whilst his background is commercial, he has been actively involved in global research and development projects and has seen the development, procurement and provision of healthcare from all angles across many countries.
He has been a writer and commentator on healthcare matters for nearly 20 years and has a reputation for taking nothing at face value and subjecting everything to his biting humour.
Paul Keirnan
Paul is a lifelong healthcare specialist, with almost 30 years' experience in pharmaceutical sales, marketing and communications. As a marketer, he has launched 4 major global brands for leading pharmaceutical companies and as a communications agency leader has supported the communications, PR and creativity for a raft of major medical and consumer brands.
Contact
Kathleen Messmer
Anvil Springs Entertainment LLC
PO Box 65294
Albuquerque
NM 87193-5294
Telephone: 1.888.538.9558