Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer Health Form Alliance to Measure Healthcare Landscape

New HealthScape(TM) Solution Provides Metrics Covering Healthcare Purchases,
Attitudes and Behaviors

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. and NEW YORK, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer
Health and The Nielsen Company today announced the Healthcare Consumer
Informatics Alliance, providing healthcare-related manufacturers and media
companies with a comprehensive understanding of consumer behaviors and
attitudes to enable more effective and efficient product messages, sales and
media planning.
-- The Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance has developed data
solutions that help marketers and media agencies understand why consumers
purchase prescription, over-the-counter and other health-related products that
they do.
-- As consumers are faced with increased responsibility for making their
own healthcare decisions as well as a wider array of choices and influencers,
this alliance provides marketers and their agencies with valuable consumer-
centric information.
-- The first platform, HealthScape(TM), combines de-identified patient
prescription-related transaction data with consumer purchasing, attitudinal
and behavior information to provide deep insights into therapeutic market
activity, patient trends, consumer segmentation and targeting opportunities.
The two companies created the HealthScape(TM) platform to evaluate and
measure the patient as a consumer of health-related products and services. The
result bears an entirely new class of healthcare informatics -- combining
Nielsen's knowledge of the consumer health and media space with Wolters Kluwer
Health's expertise in prescribed pharmaceuticals -- providing new insight and
metrics for healthcare marketers. As today's healthcare consumers are faced
with an increased level of choices and influencers in making those choices,
the two organizations reveal a more comprehensive view of what drives
healthcare related purchases through the alliance and pooled data resources.
The initial product offerings developed by the alliance directly link
health related purchases to important influencers such as managed care, TV and
Internet advertising, in-store merchandizing and physician recommendations.
These new consumer informatics help explain why patients purchase specific
prescriptions and consumer health-related products, plus provide marketers and
media agencies with key metrics to inform and optimize their strategies.
"The healthcare industry including manufacturers and media companies are
confronted with tough questions on how to efficiently target and influence
patients and shoppers with limited marketing dollars," said Matt Dumas,
Managing Director for NielsenHealth. "This alliance provides a consumer-
centric view of the patient and the marketplace with metrics that bring a new
kind of accountability to healthcare marketing."
"The sphere of influence in healthcare has been steadily expanding from a
purely prescriber-centric model to a more patient-centric one as consumers
become increasingly responsible for their own care," said David Martin, Vice
President of Sales and Marketing for Wolters Kluwer Health. "Informatics
created by our alliance provide an understanding of not only what patient
purchasing patterns are, but what is driving those patterns. This information
is critical for the industry to better develop and deliver appropriate product
messages."
The Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance brings together some of the
most well-known data sources in the industry utilizing advanced privacy and
technology capabilities to facilitate the integration. Nielsen data assets
include television and online ratings, consumer packaged goods marketing
information and others. Wolters Kluwer Health brings de-identified
longitudinal patient and dispensed pharmacy data. A joint consulting team,
with members from both companies, is currently in place and available to
service clients.
First Solution -- HealthScape(TM)
The two organizations today also announced the launch of HealthScape(TM),
the first offering in the Alliance's co-developed set of solutions. The
HealthScape(TM) platform reveals the total landscape of influencers impacting
healthcare related behavior through the integration of patient prescription
related transactions with consumer purchasing, attitudinal and behavioral
information. HealthScape(TM) integrates Nielsen's consumer OTC and CPG
purchasing and behavioral data from Homescan(R) and Scantrack(R) with Wolters
Kluwer Health's anonymous patient longitudinal and transactional data from
Source(R)Lx and Pharmaceutical Audit Suite (PHAST). The resulting datasets
provide deep insight into therapeutic market activity, patient trends,
consumer segmentation and targeting opportunities.
HealthScape(TM) addresses business challenges surrounding the following
issues: -- Rx to OTC Switching Patient/Consumer Compliance & Persistency
-- Patient/Consumer Segmentation & Targeting of specific sufferer groups
-- Concomitant usage of Rx and OTC products Rx/OTC/CPG
-- Market Basket Analysis Source of Volume Analysis
-- Rx/OTC Market Measurement
-- Managed care impact on OTC/Rx pricing and volume
-- Health & Wellness targeting
-- Shopper targeting

HealthScape(TM) solutions are available immediately. To learn more about
the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance or the HealthScape(TM) solution
platform, visit http://www.nielsen.com/solutions/nielsenhealth.html or email
the Alliance at HealthScape@nielsen.com or info@source.wolterskluwer.com.
About Wolters Kluwer Health
Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshohocken, PA), a division of Wolters Kluwer, is
a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students,
professionals and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy
and the pharmaceutical industry. Major brands include traditional publishers
of medical and drug reference tools and textbooks, such as Lippincott Williams
& Wilkins and Facts & Comparisons(R); electronic information providers, such
as Ovid, Medi-Span(R) and ProVation(R); and pharmaceutical information
providers such as Adis International and Source(R). Wolters Kluwer Health has
annual revenues (2007) of $1,044 million (761 million euro) and employs
approximately 2,700 employees globally. For more information, visit
http://www.wkhealth.com.
About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing
company. The company provides products and services globally for professionals
in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal, and
regulatory sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2007) of 3.4 billion
euro ($4.8 billion), maintains operations in over 33 countries across Europe,
North America, and Asia Pacific and employs approximately 19,500 people
worldwide. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com for information about our market positions,
customers, brands, and organization.
About NielsenHealth
NielsenHealth is a Nielsen Company service focusing on healthcare related
issues facing manufacturing, retail and media clients. The group takes a
"consumer-centric" approach to critical targeting, marketing effectiveness and
media related healthcare issues integrating The Nielsen Company's proprietary
data and methodologies in the consumer and media space. For more information,
please visit, http://www.nielsen.com/solutions/nielsenhealth.html.
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading
market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information
(Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics),
mobile measurement (Nielsen Mobile), trade shows and business publications
(Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is
active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For
more information, please visit, http://www.nielsen.com.
Media Contacts
The Nielsen Company: Jennifer Frighetto (847) 605-5686
Wolters Kluwer Health: Robert Dekker (610) 234-4533
SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Health

Jennifer Frighetto of The Nielsen Company, +1-847-605-5686; or Robert Dekker
of Wolters Kluwer Health, +1-610-234-4533