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Analytics in Latin America

If you run an e-commerce site or use AdWords to direct traffic to your business' webpage, chances are you're interested in knowing what visitors to your site are clicking on, what content interests these potential customers and what avenues brought them there. The more you know about how people engage with your site, the better you are able to design successful advertising campaigns to help grow your business. In Latin America, online advertising is growing as more and more small businesses initiate an online presence and publicize their efforts through search and display advertising. But less than 5% of web properties throughout Latin America rely on analysis tools to improve their website's performance. Last week, our offices throughout the region hosted several Analytics-themed events to give agencies and other clients a better look at several Google measurement tools that provide people with the means to analyze their site's flow of data, interest and readership in order to build a better advertising campaign. In Mexico City, advertisers got together to learn about <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#">Insights for Search</a>, <a href="http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/06/introducing-google-ad-planner.html">Ad Planner</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/insight-into-youtube-videos.html">YouTube Insights</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">Analytics</a>, <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/01/sitemaps-faqs.html">Sitemaps</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/splash">Website Optimizer</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.doubleclick.com/">DoubleClick</a> tools. Presentations were designed to give companies an in-depth look at the Google tools that can be helpful for planning their marketing budgets during an economic downturn. Being able to measure data on what content interests people and where consumers are searching for information can help advertisers be more selective about how they invest ad budget. Since the great majority of consumers go online for information before making a purchase, the goal of the seminar was to familiarize advertisers with tools that can increase the reach of their campaigns, while giving them a better idea of what works and what people are searching for. Meanwhile, our Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik visited São Paulo and Buenos Aires to speak to clients about web analytics and how to make the most of online marketing through analyzing metrics (check out his recent post on <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/stop-bouncing-tips-for-website-success.html">bounce rate</a> for related information). Avinash made web analytics fun and accessible with colloquial comparisons (referring sites as 'BFFs'), and demonstrated how to <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/make-sense-of-your-site-tips-for.html">optimize a website's performance</a> with changes in color and layout, among other things. He was accompanied by Google's Latin America managing director Alexandre Hohagen, Brazil's country manager Alex Dias, and Argentina's country manager Adriana Noreña at a succession of events revolving around web metrics and website optimization. <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FJoscelin.Cooper%2Falbumid%2F5317535977028402929%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="267" width="400"></embed> The response and interest from customers and agencies to all of these events was indicative of the huge need for metrics and the ability to track ROI for their marketing investments, especially during these difficult times. For more information on Google Analytics tools, check out the <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/">Google Analytics Blog</a>, the <a href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/">Website Optimizer Blog</a> and the <a href="http://conversionroom.blogspot.com/">Conversion Room blog</a>. Posted by Alfonso Luna, Marketing Director, Latin America

Analytics in Latin America

If you run an e-commerce site or use AdWords to direct traffic to your business' webpage, chances are you're interested in knowing w...

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Sham Studies and the Commercial IRBs that Approve Them, and Sham IRBs and the Government Department that Registers Them

We have occasionally posted about the activities of for-profit contract research organizations (CROs). These are commercial entities that conduct human research, including clinical trials for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device companies. More clinical research is being done by such CROs rather than by academic investigators. CROs seem to operate under the radar of most physicians, academics, and policy makers, but sometimes stories surface that raise questions about them. For example, we discussed the trials by SFBC International (now <a href="http://www.pharmanet.com/">PharmaNet Development Group</a>) in Miami that enrolled immigrants, often undocumented, under questionable circumstances and in Montreal that resulted in the transmission of active tuberculosis (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/consequences-of-sfbc-internationals.html">here</a> and links backward); and the trial by <a href="http://www.parexel.com/">Parexel International </a>in London that put most of its subjects in intensive care (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/08/parexel-blues-again.html">here</a>, with links backward). Last year, as we discussed <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/06/clinical-trials-torture-economy.html">here</a>, two articles questioning the ethics of research done under the auspices of CRO appeared in two major medical journals. In academia, human research is supposed to be overseen by institutional review boards (IRBs). Research done by CROs is also supposed to be overseen by IRBs, but the IRBs that do so are often also commercial. Despite concern that commercial IRBs may be tempted to lower their standards to get more business, commercial IRBs have flown even lower under the radar than have CROs. However, last week, a story appeared about how a "sting operation" tested one commercial IRB with amazing results. Here are excerpts from <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123811179572353181.html">the article by Alicia Mundy in the Wall Street Journal</a>, <blockquote> The sting, detailed at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Thursday, involved the creation of a fictitious company and a fake medical device, a surgical adhesive gel. The sham firm then applied to three for-profit oversight groups -- called institutional review boards, or IRBs -- for approval to begin a clinical trial using their adhesive on human subjects. Two IRBs contacted by the GAO's sting operators -- Argus IRB of Arizona and Fox IRB of Illinois -- rejected the Adhesiabloc proposal because of unanswered safety questions. 'We realized it was a terrible risk for the patient … It is the worst thing I have ever seen,' an Argus IRB reviewer said, according to a slide shown at the hearing. <a href="http://www.coastirb.com/">Coast IRB </a>LLC of Colorado Springs, Colo., did approve a study for the fictitious adhesive gel, 'Adhesiabloc.' </blockquote> The GAO also ran an experiment to see if the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)would register a truly dubious commercial IRB <blockquote> The committee, working with the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigatory arm, named the CEO of the fake IRB Truper Dawg, after a staffer's three-legged dog, now deceased. Other fake names included 'April Phuls' and 'Timothy Wittless,' which lawmakers said should have signaled irregularities to HHS. The department registered the IRB. </blockquote> On one hand, these anecdotes suggest, along with the stories discussed above, that CROs and the commercial IRBs that are supposed to oversee them deserve further scrutiny. Beyond that, one wonders if it is good for society for human research, including experiments involving drugs and devices, to be done by commercial firms dependent for their income on the companies that make these drugs and devices, overseen by other commercial firms also dependent on these same companies. The fundamental conflict is embodied by <a href="http://www.coastirb.com/page.asp?id=2&name=About">Coast IRB's self-description</a>: <blockquote>as an advocate and a catalyst for an ever-stronger pharmaceutical industry, ethically and economically. </blockquote>which also <blockquote>recognizes the vital importance of our role in protecting individuals in all clinical studies and in continuously raising the bar on professional standards. </blockquote> How can the company be an "advocate" for the industry while simultaneously protecting the people exposed to the industry's still experimental drugs? See also <a href="http://www.gooznews.com/archives/001363.html">comments</a> on the GoozNews blog.

Sham Studies and the Commercial IRBs that Approve Them, and Sham IRBs and the Government Department that Registers Them

We have occasionally posted about the activities of for-profit contract research organizations (CROs). These are commercial entities that co...

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Google's newest venture

Today we're excited to announce <a href="http://www.google.com/ventures">Google Ventures</a>, Google's new venture capital fund. This is Google's effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies. By borrowing the best practices of top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms and bringing to bear Google's unique technical expertise and brand, we think we can find young companies with truly awesome potential and encourage their development into successful businesses. At its core, Google Ventures is charged with finding and helping to develop exceptional start-ups. We'll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven't thought of yet. Central to our effort will be our fellow Googlers, whom we view as a critically important resource to help educate us about potential investments areas and evaluate specific companies. Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will. If anything, we think the current downturn is an ideal time to invest in nascent companies that have the chance to be the "next big thing," and we'll be working hard to find them. If you think you have the next big idea, or if you just want to to learn more, please see our website at <a href="http://www.google.com/ventures">www.google.com/ventures</a>. Posted by Rich Miner and Bill Maris, Managing Partners, Google Ventures

Google's newest venture

Today we're excited to announce Google Ventures , Google's new venture capital fund. This is Google's effort to take advantage ...

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Email in Indian languages

It's hard for me to imagine going without email for a day. It's such an easy and convenient way to communicate with my friends and family. However, there was one limitation that bothered me: my family members and friends who prefer to communicate in Hindi did not have an easy way to type and send email in their language of choice. I am extremely happy to announce the launch of a new feature in Gmail that makes it easy to type email in Indian languages. When you compose a new mail in Gmail, you should now see an icon with an Indian character, as the screenshot below shows. This feature is enabled by default for Gmail users in India. If you do not see this function enabled by default, you will need to go the "Settings" page and enable this option in the "Language" section. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstLBgUyY_JXwH63X1omhN2cNyGEG1-LVUUrGGOrQ_QXh8B2ieNZ8hHUULWhNq4p2YlHpBo24vLcDZQ8zkud6ZSv7t9mAbweNYGvFAl1g_Y_LTp-3YOaMjBJr40EGpFocOR6Om_hfdAsl0/s1600-h/Picture+9.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317661304302876594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstLBgUyY_JXwH63X1omhN2cNyGEG1-LVUUrGGOrQ_QXh8B2ieNZ8hHUULWhNq4p2YlHpBo24vLcDZQ8zkud6ZSv7t9mAbweNYGvFAl1g_Y_LTp-3YOaMjBJr40EGpFocOR6Om_hfdAsl0/s400/Picture+9.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 129px; height: 83px;" /></a>When you click the Indian languages icon, you can type words the way they sound in English and Gmail will automatically convert the word to its Indian local language equivalent. For example, if a Hindi speaker types "namaste" we will transliterate this to "नमस्ते." Similarly, "vanakkam" in Tamil will become "வணக்கம்." We currently support five Indian languages -- Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam -- and you can select the language of your choice from the drop-down list next to the icon. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatWE5QtvJCZsPebssVjm85eIItSGHpbPYETSTyt0jt6BwPxUjFBqsu1hntHgEA0GHVwSGvfQfcyf3fBywIY-vCfo_WhbGo2uPceX0cbejRieYN_eIiXZLJHTAbqJxjZTJlFWsLP6q49-q/s1600-h/Picture+10.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317661527755911698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatWE5QtvJCZsPebssVjm85eIItSGHpbPYETSTyt0jt6BwPxUjFBqsu1hntHgEA0GHVwSGvfQfcyf3fBywIY-vCfo_WhbGo2uPceX0cbejRieYN_eIiXZLJHTAbqJxjZTJlFWsLP6q49-q/s400/Picture+10.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 178px;" /></a>We built this new feature using Google's transliteration technology, which is also available on <a href="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/">Google India Labs</a>, <a href="http://www.orkut.com/Signup.aspx">Orkut</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Floginz%3Fd%3D%252Ftrans-enable.do%253Fr%253D926417%2526tlang%253Dhi%26a%3DADD_SERVICE_FLAG&alinsu=0&aplinsu=0&alwf=true&hl=en&ltmpl=hindi&skipvpage=true&rm=false&showra=1&fpui=2&naui=8">Blogger</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/indic_transliteration.xml">iGoogle</a>. I hope you find this feature useful to communicate with those of your friends and family who prefer to write in their native language, and it will be available soon to businesses and schools using Google Apps. Now back to replying to all those Hindi emails I got from my family and friends today! Posted by Chandramouli Mahadevan, Software Engineer

Email in Indian languages

It's hard for me to imagine going without email for a day. It's such an easy and convenient way to communicate with my friends and ...

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Will The True Incidence of Healthcare IT-Caused Patient Adverse Outcomes Please Stand Up?

The article <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/301/12/1276">Health Care Information Technology Vendors' "Hold Harmless" Clause - Implications for Patients and Clinicians</a>, Ross Koppel and David Kreda, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2009; 301(12):1276-1278 (JAMA) has caused much discussion in healthcare IT circles. I have become aware of discussions centered on issues such as: <ul style="font-family:arial;"><li>The factors besides vendor design flaws and defects that contribute to the unsafe and ineffective use of health information technology,</li></ul><ul style="font-family:arial;"><li>The degree of effect caused by end user organization customizations,</li></ul><ul style="font-family:arial;"><li>whether a focus on legal or regulatory action is misplaced </li></ul><ul style="font-family:arial;"><li>Whether such regulation could "stifle innovation", and</li></ul><ul style="font-family:arial;"><li>Other interesting and stimulating related issues. </li></ul>These discussions miss the forest for the trees, unfortunately. They are all speculation. I could just as easily - as a thought experiment - argue and rationally support a point of view that vendor defects, shortcomings, ill conceived user interfaces etc. are the greatest cause of HIT problems, that a sole focus on regulatory action is the best path, and that regulation would not stifle innovation but promote it by forcing complacent, lazy companies protected by the current status quo to become competitive, to hire the very best and brightest and most experienced who they now forgo as "too disruptive, too expensive, lack the latest programming skills", etc. None of this speculation really matters in the big scheme of things. What does matter is the fact that we now have before us a "grand confounder" - the anechoic effect caused by vendor contracting - that throws into doubt existing assumptions about HIT-caused errors. Who among us can now say what the number of physician observed defects really is, what the rate of HIT error really is? I've had several of my colleagues already tell me since the Koppel article that they know of HIT caused errors and even patient adverse consequences, but they are afraid to speak out. What is the morbidity and mortality change associated with use of HIT vs. paper? Who really knows? There is a significant, perhaps high likelihood that the current state of HIT contracting, and the muting effect it creates, combined with fear of retaliation by potential objective HIT reporters (a.k.a. whistleblowers) makes any such estimation highly questionable at best. Speculation is irrelevant. What we need is a return to the rigor of medicine - to science - in HIT itself. That can only happen in an environment where users are free(er) to share their observations and findings about HIT problems. Such one-sided, safety adverse HIT contractual clauses must end. -- SS

Will The True Incidence of Healthcare IT-Caused Patient Adverse Outcomes Please Stand Up?

The article Health Care Information Technology Vendors' "Hold Harmless" Clause - Implications for Patients and Clinicians , Ro...

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The Retirement of a Generic Manager

A frequent theme on Health Care Renewal has been the adverse effects of health care leadership by <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/01/pfizerwyeth-merger-and-sacrificing.html">generic managers </a>with no background or experience in health care, and no intuitive understanding of its values. This type of leadership arose after some health care economists called for abolishing the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/consequences-of-breaking-physicians.html">supposed physicians' "guild,"</a> and transferring power over health care to managers as a way to control health care costs. This has not lead to control of health care costs. The recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/31wagoner.html">coverage by the New York Times </a>of the sudden retirement of the CEO of General Motors suggests that the notion that organizations should be run by generic managers is one whose time ought to be past. Wagoner presided over a dramatic decline in the fortunes of GM. <blockquote> Mr. Wagoner presided over some of the biggest losses in G.M. history. In 2002, the company had predicted that it would earn $10 a share by the middle of the decade. Instead, G.M. lost $30.9 billion in 2008, when its per-share loss translated to more than $50 a share. G.M. stock, an economic bellwether that sold above $35 only three years ago, closed Friday at $3.62; it has fallen as low as $1.27 in the last year. In 1994, when he took charge of G.M.’s North American operations, the company made up 33.2 percent of auto sales in the United States. Last month, G.M. represented only 18.8 percent of American car and truck sales.... </blockquote> The problem may have been, in part, that Mr Wagoner was never a "car guy." <blockquote> 'It’s a pretty unceremonious ending,' said John Casesa, an industry analyst and managing partner of the Casesa Shapiro Group. 'G.M. lost its way in the ’70s, but the company didn’t know it until 20 years late. The hole was much deeper than he realized when he became C.E.O.' And, Mr. Casesa said, Mr. Wagoner’s finance background might have been a poor fit: 'The most successful auto companies are run by people who came out of the revenue-generating functions — manufacturing, design, marketing — making cars and selling cars.' Mr. Wagoner, the analyst said, 'skipped the whole apprenticeship that most auto C.E.O.’s experience.' </blockquote> The notion that a finance guy should run a car company makes not much more sense than the notion that a finance guy (or marketer, accountant, or lawyer) should run a hospital or a drug company. Yet now most health care organizations are run by such generic managers. Is it any wonder that while such generic managers have made a lot of money, they have been unsuccessful in controlling health care costs, much less solving any other aspect of the the health are crisis?

The Retirement of a Generic Manager

A frequent theme on Health Care Renewal has been the adverse effects of health care leadership by generic managers with no background or exp...

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Getting your Medicare records in Google Health

Google Health is working with the <a href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/">Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)</a> on a pilot program in Arizona and Utah that lets Medicare beneficiaries import their Medicare claims data into Google Health. The pilot is one of several CMS programs to test out how the government can give beneficiaries secure access to their medical data online. Before I came to Google, I worked at the <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/hhs.gov');">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services</a>, which houses CMS. At the time, the idea of giving beneficiaries access to their own Medicare claims data in electronic format was just that — an idea. Today, it's becoming a reality. And given the more than $19 billion investment the government is making in Health IT as part of the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/');">stimulus package</a>, now is the perfect time. As a part-time caregiver to my mother who has a serious chronic illness and someone who just lost both elderly grandparents in the past four months to illness, I can see the benefit of having all of my family’s medical information organized in one place. When Google Health <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/peek-into-our-search-factory.html" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/peek-into-our-search-factory.html');">launched</a> last year, I promptly set up accounts for my mother and both grandparents. But at the time, I found it frustrating that I was not able to access electronic copies of my grandparents' Medicare claims — where most of their medical data resided. The Medicare Arizona and Utah pilot is designed to give beneficiaries choice in the tools they use to manage their medical records online. Google Health is one of four personal health records (PHR) that beneficiaries can choose from. While only traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries with a primary residence in Arizona and Utah are eligible to participate, this includes nearly 1.1 million beneficiaries living in those regions. For beneficiaries who choose to participate, it's important to know that Medicare does not have access to information in your Google Health Account — Medicare will only be sending data to your Account. Beneficiaries who participate in the pilot will still have access to data imported into their Google Health Accounts after the pilot concludes at the end of 2009. And with the recently launched Google Health <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/google-health-helping-you-better.html" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/google-health-helping-you-better.html');">sharing feature</a>, any beneficiary enrolled in this pilot can now share this data with family members and doctors in their care network. If I had this type of electronic access to my grandparents' medical records during my family's medical crisis, it would have been a huge help to me. I applaud CMS for taking this big step towards empowering consumers with access to their own health records. If you're a Medicare beneficiary living in Arizona or Utah and are interested in participating in the pilot, you can <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/medicarephrchoice.html" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/google.com/intl/en-US/health/medicarephrchoice.html');">get started here</a>. Posted by Missy Krasner, Product Marketing Manager, Google Health

Getting your Medicare records in Google Health

Google Health is working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on a pilot program in Arizona and Utah that lets Medicar...

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