There are many different types of health conditions and illnesses, and their journeys to wellness are never quite the same. But one universal commonality is that once patients understand what kind of illness they have, they move into the mind-set of wanting to know how to best treat it, deal with it, and get back to "normal" life. The long course to diagnosis is suddenly over and the patient is left with the need to expedite their road to health.

Pharmaceutical companies are used to taking a broadly defined target market and slicing and dicing it a number of different ways. But are they prepared for the next wave of strategy required in today's communications environment -- microstrategy?

Instead of these for-sale framed pictures on the wall, I imagined this hospital using some of the space to mount a few flat-screen monitors with compelling questions, information, and spotlights on what makes them unique.

Focusing exclusively on "prescriptions filled" as a measure of DTC advertising impact can miss important early-stage diagnostics of DTC brand business strength. These early stage diagnostics tend to be "advertising-driven" behaviors which, when viewed sequentially, represent an individual's pathway to becoming a customer.