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.

I’m often asked about by my colleagues about what other companies are doing to take advantage of social media technologies. Now I do keep my own running list — and add to it periodically, but I was nonetheles pleased to come across a great compilation of examples of corporate use of social media by Peter Kim.

I was even more chuffed to see that Peter included a few Johnson & Johnson examples!

Marc’s post raises some interesting questions. JNJ BTW and the Johnson & Johnson health channel on You Tube pre-review comments before they are posted, and even though pre-reviewed comments are not necessarily SMC (social media correct!), I feel that it is justified, at least judging from some of the comments I have gotten on our You Tube channel. Even though the health channel includes videos on such sensitive health issues and disease states as obesity, cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease, I’ve been very surprised at just how many comments are offensive or downright obscene — and I don’t feel we need to give a voice to those. I don’t delete comments because I disagree with them, but I do have the following disclaimer on the site:

Comments on videos are welcome, subject to approval by the site owner. Off-topic, inappropriate, or offensive comments will not be posted, nor will product endorsements.

I’ve particularly had to enforce this with the video about Teenage Obesity and Weight Loss Treatments, on which you’ll find a whole slew of comments. On the positive side, I’ve also found there are also very inspiring comments, which I find very gratifying, like the one about psoriatic arthritis, made on the Dara Torres, Olympic Gold Medalist video. Overall, this is a learning process for companies engaging in social media.

A lot has been said recently about some things that Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies have been doing on the social web.

For instance, a few weeks ago the WSJ Health Blog and Eye on FDA both highlighted a new Facebook tool from our Vistakon company that would help remind members to replace and buy new contact lenses. This followed recent interest in the ADHD Moms page on Facebook that Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Pediatrics is hosting.

Though many folks have applauded these efforts, a few – like John at the Pharma Marketing Blog – have questioned whether any of these are really social networking.

As John put it:

Part of social networking is the ability of ordinary people like you and me — JNJ customers — to add comments to social networks set up by others. Usually when pharmaceutical companies host a social network channel, they turn off the comments for obvious and understandable reasons.

It’s a great point. Let’s face it – at this stage, many of these corporate efforts – particularly in the healthcare field — don’t quite match what you or I do when we use Facebook or Twitter or engage with others online. (Ok. To be honest, I still don’t use Twitter that often – I just have trouble figuring out where Marc Monseau ends and Marc Monseau, Company Spokesman begins… but that’s ANOTHER story.) While I would argue that what is being done is a good start, it nonetheless begs the question – why not more?

Well, as Tricia Geoghegan was quoted saying in the WSJ Health Blog post about the ADHD Moms page on Facebook, in the healthcare realm, this can be rather, um…. complicated.

Take the case of what we had to think through as we developed THIS little ‘ole blog.
In addition to our well-known consumer products, Johnson & Johnson also sells prescription medicines and medical devices — which are highly regulated products. That’s where things become complex. Among the many considerations we had to take into account as we tried to move from simply broadcasting messages to engaging in conversations, we had to sort out how we would handle comments that could include reports of adverse events (which legally must be reported to the FDA — something we routinely do) – and could include a discussion of so-called “off-label” or unapproved uses of our products, which we do not support or encourage.

Ultimately, the decision was reached, right or wrong, to create a comments policy that would encourage comments that would be “on topic” – as well as to not allow comments that could get us into legal or regulatory trouble.

These limits haven’t been such a big problem for JNJBTW (despite some suggestions to the contrary (link)) Since it is a corporate blog, JNJBTW tends to touch on corporate matters such as the company’s strategy and other corporate-wide initiatives – and so it is rare that we talk about products. After all, that’s something our operating companies are more familiar with.

But as Johnson & Johnson’s operating companies (and, based on what I’ve heard from others in the industry, their competitors as well) try to figure out how to get involved in the conversation, the question of how to manage these comments inevitably comes up.

Clearly there need to be some measures put into place to mitigate the risk of legal or regulatory liability. However, the more hurdles that are put into place, the less credible, useful or open those online efforts become, and in the end you may be left with something that could be criticized as being more akin to a traditional, one-way communications effort.

And so what we have ended up doing in many cases is take some small steps to get more comfortable with getting involved. We are also making sure we have processes in place to handle adverse event reports and that we have responsible people involved who can respond quickly to questions.

At the same time, projects like JNJBTW and the Johnson & Johnson health channel on YouTube are giving us some great experience.

Are we so immersed within the ocean of advancement that we have become numb to our own achievements?

“Science needs to be cool again!” Garry Neil, Vice President of the Corporate Office of Science & Technology for Johnson & Johnson said during a speech on the state of innovation in the biomedical industry earlier this year.

Ever since I first learned of Neil’s statement, I have been wondering when science stopped being cool. Today, we are surrounded by impressive technology that a few decades ago existed solely in science fiction. Computers and the Internet rule my daily life. I have access to vast sums of knowledge and information at my fingertips that only a few years ago, would have taken countless days to attain. Beyond my office door, women and men are applying science to developing cures to illness and figuring out ways to not only help us live longer, but enjoy a greater quality of life.

I grew up a few miles from New York City. During my most recent visit I realized for the first time since I was a young child how majestic the city really is. Similarly, I lived near Niagara Falls for a few years and completely lost track of the awe that Falls used to inspire in me. I use my computer all of the time and rarely stop to marvel at how impressive it truly is.

On the other hand, maybe we aren’t too immersed with science and technology. It’s possible that we just need to teach science for science’s sake and stop dumbing it down for children. Perhaps we should teach up to students and challenge them with the real life implications of science.

Something cool is happening everyday in biomedical research, and biomedical researchers are saving lives while simultaneously offering greater insight into the mysteries of life. George Church has established the Personal Genome Project to map the genomes of individuals in order to trace disease, family history, and discover the significance of individual genetic codes. Who knows what life changing research will emerge from his work.

Science never stopped being cool… we just need a power outage to remind us how cool our achievements actually are.