JNJ BTW

Earlier today, our Janssen L.P. company provided some perspective on a series of articles that have appeared about their relationship with Dr. Joseph Biederman and Massachusetts General Hospital to Janssen’s corporate website. I thought those who are following this matter would find this of interest.

By Patty Hickey, Executive Assistant, Johnson & Johnson, Corporate Communications

For some time now, we’ve been working closely with The Heart Gallery of New Jersey. This year, the Heart Gallery launched its newest project to focus attention on local children who are in danger of aging out of the foster care system and at risk of losing their last opportunities to become members of loving, stable families. Through this initiative, some of our country’s best-known photographers have given their time to photograph these children as part of an effort to help them find homes.

I’m proud to say that because of this initiative, many of these children have since been placed in loving families and an exhibit of some of these photographs are now on display at our Corporate Headquarters until the end of January.

Though it’s been a great year, there is more work ahead and as the holiday’s approach I start to reflect on the past year and count my many blessings, but I also think about the many children who remain in the foster care system for which the holiday’s can be bleak. These children face many challenges throughout the year going from foster home to foster home with very little belongings, so for the 4th consecutive year our department has taken on the challenge of obtaining gifts for these kids such as pajamas, hat scarves, gloves, an outfit and a toy to bring some holiday joy into there lives. As a volunteer for The Heart Gallery I am overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of my fellow co-workers and friends. Times can be tough for everyone but if we all took the advice from this wonderful poem by Audrey Hepburn when asked to share her ‘beauty tips’ she wrote the following:

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season.

In recognition of World AIDS Day 2008, Rob Halper posted the following video on the company’s support of mothers2mothers to the Johnson & Johnson health channel on YouTube.

As my colleague Shaun Mickus described some time ago, (here and here) mothers2mothers is a program provided throughout Africa, designed to help HIV-positive pregnant women care for themselves and avoid transmission of the virus to their babies — and I think the video provides a great sense of this program and how it works.

Earlier today, Kathy Widmer, the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Healthcare, had a bit more to say about all that they have learned over the past few days – and how they are trying to figure out how to put those learnings into practice.

From Kathy:

I’ve met some AMAZING people over the past week. I’ve been traveling in Europe with a photographer visiting some of the charitable programs and partners we support. I take such trips from time to time as a way of chronicling this work, and then sharing it with employees and others. So far, we’ve visited about a dozen programs in five countries, with each visit more fascinating than the next.

Yesterday, for instance, we met with Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque Enfants du Monde, a Paris-based group whose sole mission is to help disadvantaged children suffering from serious heart issues by financing their operation at Necker Hospital in Paris and coordinating their stay in France with a “host” family. Roughly one child in 100 suffers from heart issues where only surgery can save them. In many instances, these children don’t get the necessary surgery because it’s too expensive for their families.  

Each year, Mécénat brings about 100 children (some as young as a year old!) from 42 countries to Paris for open-heart surgery. The children travel to France without their parents, and are “hosted” for 6-8 weeks by volunteer families who care for them and pay their everyday expenses (there are 240 such families throughout France!). All other expenses for air travel and the surgery itself are covered through various sponsors, including Johnson & Johnson, which has supported Mécénat for more than a decade. Over the past 12 years, more than 1,300 children’s lives have been saved.  

During our visit, Dr. Francine Leca, a highly charming, charismatic cardiac surgeon who performs many of the operations, met with two Parisian host families and two angelic little girls – one from Cameroon, the other from Laos. The 12-month-old Cameroonian girl had surgery a few weeks ago, is recovering well, and will be going home soon. The four-year-old Laotian girl had arrived in Paris JUST two days ago. She has a hole in her heart that is preventing healthy oxygen flow, and will receive surgery soon. I spent time watching the interactions of the Laotian girl with her new temporary parents … it was one of the most AMAZING acts of love I’ve seen. Take a look…

Literally, the host couple had only met this girl at the airport two days prior, but their outpouring of love for her was incredibly palpable and emotional. This couple has hosted several children over the past few years, and both are pros for sure. The girl was a bit stunned by it all, not truly understanding why these new people were showing so much affection for her, and wondering where her mommy and daddy were. As the visit went along, though, she took to her surrogates in a way a child connects with her biological parents. By all measures, a poignant and inspiring moment.

On so many levels, this program represents acts of breathtaking kindness and love from which we can all benefit.

Learn more at http://www.mecenat-cardiaque.org/about_us_eng.php.
 

By Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing, McNeil Consumer Healthcare

This weekend, a lot was said about Motrin on Twitter and in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of conversation that we here at McNeil had hoped to be at the center of.

For those who haven’t been following this, it all began when we ran an advertisement online over the weekend that talked about babywearing - which is a term that we used to describe carrying a child in a sling or wrap.

It was meant to engender sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their kids, but did so through an attempt at humor that missed the mark and many moms found offensive.

Now as you can imagine, we certainly didn’t mean to offend moms through our advertising. As a mom of three girls, I understand many of the comments made and agree that we know what’s best for our kids and for ourselves.

On behalf of McNeil, I’m sorry if you found this advertisement insulting. We are are in the process of removing it from our website. Unfortunately, it will take longer for us to remove this advertisement from magazines as several are currently on newsstands and in distribution.

One bright spot is that we have learned through this process - in particular, the importance of paying close attention to the conversations that are taking place online. It has also brought home the importance of taking a broader look at what we say and how it may be interpreted

Nov. 14th is World Diabetes Day, and in honor of that event Rob posted a few videos this week on the Johnson & Johnson health channel on living with diabetes — including the following clip:

Though much has been said about what Amy Tenderich described as the “army of well-informed patients” who are poised change the healthcare system, for the most part, companies are still on the sidelines. Asked why that is, I often point to the highly regulated environment we work in. But that isn’t the only reason — most companies still need to get their arms around just how people form and use communities online to talk about health and improve their healthcare outcomes. It is only by understanding just WHO is online, WHAT they are talking about and WHY they are turning to others online that we can begin to figure out a way to join in.

With that in mind, a few weeks ago Margaret Gurowitz and I invited a few people who use social media tools to a meeting we hold each year for communications professionals from throughout Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies.

First off, Lisa Emrich from Brass and Ivory and the Carnival of MS Bloggers talked about blogging about living with MS and what that has meant to her. We then turned to Alice Krueger who talked about how through Second Life, people can connect and form relationships which ultimately helps them improve their lives:

Part 2:

We closed with Kim McAllister from Emergiblog who talked about how she got involved with blogging and how she used her online connections to better manage a family health matter.

In all, it was pretty powerful stuff — and underscored how social media isn’t just a playground, but an important tool that people are turning to to better manage their health and improve their lives. For those of us in the business, it’s time to start paying more attention to how these communities work and then determine how best to engage and get involved.

Rob posted a few videos this week on the Johnson & Johnson health channel on YouTube on living with bipolar disorder — including this one on the importance of families and loved ones staying involved and supportive:

By Susan Odenthal, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Johnson & Johnson

I’ve been working with the Office of Strategy & Growth since it began its efforts to identify new opportunities for Johnson & Johnson. The good news is that, in a $4 trillion global healthcare market, there is roughly $2.8 trillion dollars of opportunity in areas where we aren’t currently competing. But the bad news is that there is roughly $2.8 trillion dollars of opportunity, and finding those places within it that make sense for Johnson & Johnson takes effort.

So it felt good earlier this week to declare a new space for future growth - wellness and prevention. It’s gratifying to me personally because we - people from within the Office of Strategy & Growth and others “borrowed” from throughout Johnson & Johnson — have worked very hard over the last 10 months to define the opportunity and define a strategy. But mostly, it’s gratifying to me because I have come to appreciate how important the healthcare space is before disease is diagnosed - to individuals, to employers, to payers, to governments - to everyone participating in the struggle to find a way to get efficient healthcare for all the people who need it.

Because the fact is that healthcare is much more efficient before people get sick. Our research tells us that every dollar invested in wellness and prevention returns $5 to $6 in healthcare and productivity savings. There will not likely be a shortage of people with serious illnesses any time soon, and there will always be plenty of room for innovation in pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics. But the problem is that there are too many people dealing with chronic disease that could be prevented, usually with lifestyle changes like better diets, more physical activity, and limiting the use of tobacco. Those are the people we want to reach with our wellness and prevention effort.

In our “journey to wellness,” we’ve met a lot of people who might surprise you with their idea of being well. That’s because, as we’ve learned, wellness is defined very personally, and it doesn’t take the absence of illness. Wellness seems to be a synergy between a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual states.

People have different motivations for working at wellness. We met a young woman who stays fit, active and healthy, who’s trying to help her mom deal with diabetes, and who is working to ensure she’s not destined for the same disease. For some people, wellness is relative. We met a gentle old grandmother who deals with daily aches and pains, and occasional forgetfulness, but who considers herself well because she’s not confined to a wheelchair like some of her fellow churchgoers she tries to help. And, we met a man with diabetes who measures his wellness by how many doctor visits he makes - he once went to the doctor two to six times a week, but now goes only once every four months and considers himself well.

One of the interesting by-products of this “journey” is the conversion of some of my own colleagues into what you might call “wellness evangelists.” We’re all thinking twice about what we eat, and there are a lot more pedometers in place and miles to run before we sleep than there were when we started. I’m hoping the passion is contagious, and that it is something we will see catching on with people who can really benefit from lifestyle changes for the better.