Are DTC TV Ads "Scaring" Patients?

A recent BBC article (“Medicine Information Leaflets ‘Too Scary’ says Experts”) illustrated how word choice and framing of side effects on drug inserts may sway patients towards not taking their medication. But why? The Academy of Medical Sciences report, which the BBC quotes, shares that patients may be confused, anxious, and/or off-put by the current…

Ling 101: Power and Agency

Welcome back! At this point, we’ve covered a good amount of ground on the basics of healthcare discourse analysis. Namely we’ve talked about how linguistics: is integral to good market understanding, can shape understanding with footing and alignment has rules that we can break or follow But what about power and control?

Ling 101: Rules of Communication

Are you ready to find out more about discourse analysis in healthcare? We’ve already discussed how linguistics is integral to good market understanding, and how discourse analysis helps shape that understanding with footing and alignment, but what else can we learn? In this Ling 101 mini-lesson, we look at understanding the in-office conversational rules, how we…

ONCs’ Top Tips for Attending ASCO 2017

Every year marketers, HCPs, and researchers gather at ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) to learn about the newest breakthroughs and developments in the war on cancer. With a large variety of progress across all cancer types, this conference is a great opportunity for individuals to stay on top of industry news. With a lot…

"I’ll Take my Prescription Medium-Rare"

Recently, the Texas Beef Council hired 4 seasoned pharmaceutical reps to start selling beef to promote a healthy diet to physicians. While you may initially think promoting red meat as a healthy food would be a bad (if not terrible) idea, it is arguably time to think again. “Arguably” meaning that meat-lovers might have finally…

VeriHistory Lesson: ASR, Big Data, and Accuracy

  The market research we conduct at Verilogue is a bit unique.  It relies on the linguistic analysis of actual recorded conversations between physicians and their patients/caregivers.  While having the audio is great for detecting tonality and sentiment, the real meat behind our analyses requires a highly accurate, verbatim transcript.How could we get the transcripts…