New HealthScape(TM) Solution Provides Metrics Covering Healthcare

                     Purchases, Attitudes and Behaviors



    CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. and NEW YORK, July 23 /EMWNews/ -- Wolters Kluwer

Health and The Nielsen Company today announced the Healthcare Consumer

Informatics Alliance, providing healthcare-related manufacturers and media

companies with a comprehensive understanding of consumer behaviors and

attitudes to enable more effective and efficient product messages, sales

and media planning.



    -- The Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance has developed data

solutions that help marketers and media agencies understand why consumers

purchase prescription, over-the-counter and other health-related products

that they do.



    -- As consumers are faced with increased responsibility for making

their own healthcare decisions as well as a wider array of choices and

influencers, this alliance provides marketers and their agencies with

valuable consumer- centric information.



    -- The first platform, HealthScape(TM), combines de-identified patient

prescription-related transaction data with consumer purchasing, attitudinal

and behavior information to provide deep insights into therapeutic market

activity, patient trends, consumer segmentation and targeting

opportunities.



    The two companies created the HealthScape(TM) platform to evaluate and

measure the patient as a consumer of health-related products and services.

The result bears an entirely new class of healthcare informatics --

combining Nielsen's knowledge of the consumer health and media space with

Wolters Kluwer Health's expertise in prescribed pharmaceuticals --

providing new insight and metrics for healthcare marketers. As today's

healthcare consumers are faced with an increased level of choices and

influencers in making those choices, the two organizations reveal a more

comprehensive view of what drives healthcare related purchases through the

alliance and pooled data resources.



    The initial product offerings developed by the alliance directly link

health related purchases to important influencers such as managed care, TV

and Internet advertising, in-store merchandizing and physician

recommendations. These new consumer informatics help explain why patients

purchase specific prescriptions and consumer health-related products, plus

provide marketers and media agencies with key metrics to inform and

optimize their strategies.



    "The healthcare industry including manufacturers and media companies

are confronted with tough questions on how to efficiently target and

influence patients and shoppers with limited marketing dollars," said Matt

Dumas, Managing Director for NielsenHealth. "This alliance provides a

consumer- centric view of the patient and the marketplace with metrics that

bring a new kind of accountability to healthcare marketing."



    "The sphere of influence in healthcare has been steadily expanding from

a purely prescriber-centric model to a more patient-centric one as

consumers become increasingly responsible for their own care," said David

Martin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Wolters Kluwer Health.

"Informatics created by our alliance provide an understanding of not only

what patient purchasing patterns are, but what is driving those patterns.

This information is critical for the industry to better develop and deliver

appropriate product messages."



    The Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance brings together some of

the most well-known data sources in the industry utilizing advanced privacy

and technology capabilities to facilitate the integration. Nielsen data

assets include television and online ratings, consumer packaged goods

marketing information and others. Wolters Kluwer Health brings

de-identified longitudinal patient and dispensed pharmacy data. A joint

consulting team, with members from both companies, is currently in place

and available to service clients.



    First Solution -- HealthScape(TM)



    The two organizations today also announced the launch of

HealthScape(TM), the first offering in the Alliance's co-developed set of

solutions. The HealthScape(TM) platform reveals the total landscape of

influencers impacting healthcare related behavior through the integration

of patient prescription related transactions with consumer purchasing,

attitudinal and behavioral information. HealthScape(TM) integrates

Nielsen's consumer OTC and CPG purchasing and behavioral data from

Homescan(R) and Scantrack(R) with Wolters Kluwer Health's anonymous patient

longitudinal and transactional data from Source(R)Lx and Pharmaceutical

Audit Suite (PHAST). The resulting datasets provide deep insight into

therapeutic market activity, patient trends, consumer segmentation and

targeting opportunities.



    HealthScape(TM) addresses business challenges surrounding the following

issues:




    -- Rx to OTC Switching Patient/Consumer Compliance & Persistency

    -- Patient/Consumer Segmentation & Targeting of specific sufferer groups

    -- Concomitant usage of Rx and OTC products Rx/OTC/CPG

    -- Market Basket Analysis Source of Volume Analysis

    -- Rx/OTC Market Measurement

    -- Managed care impact on OTC/Rx pricing and volume

    -- Health & Wellness targeting

    -- Shopper targeting



    HealthScape(TM) solutions are available immediately. To learn more

about the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance or the HealthScape(TM)

solution platform, visit

http://www.nielsen.com/solutions/nielsenhealth.html or email the Alliance

at [email protected] or [email protected].

    About Wolters Kluwer Health



    Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshohocken, PA), a division of Wolters Kluwer,

is a leading provider of information and business intelligence for

students, professionals and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied

health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. Major brands include

traditional publishers of medical and drug reference tools and textbooks,

such as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Facts & Comparisons(R);

electronic information providers, such as Ovid, Medi-Span(R) and

ProVation(R); and pharmaceutical information providers such as Adis

International and Source(R). Wolters Kluwer Health has annual revenues

(2007) of $1,044 million (761 million euro) and employs approximately 2,700

employees globally. For more information, visit http://www.wkhealth.com.



    About Wolters Kluwer



    Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing

company. The company provides products and services globally for

professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial

services, legal, and regulatory sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues

(2007) of 3.4 billion euro ($4.8 billion), maintains operations in over 33

countries across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific and employs

approximately 19,500 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in

Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com for

information about our market positions, customers, brands, and

organization.



    About NielsenHealth



    NielsenHealth is a Nielsen Company service focusing on healthcare

related issues facing manufacturing, retail and media clients. The group

takes a "consumer-centric" approach to critical targeting, marketing

effectiveness and media related healthcare issues integrating The Nielsen

Company's proprietary data and methodologies in the consumer and media

space. For more information, please visit,

http://www.nielsen.com/solutions/nielsenhealth.html.



    About The Nielsen Company



    The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with

leading market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media

information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and

BuzzMetrics), mobile measurement (Nielsen Mobile), trade shows and business

publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately

held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New

York, USA. For more information, please visit, http://www.nielsen.com.



    Media Contacts



    The Nielsen Company: Jennifer Frighetto (847) 605-5686



    Wolters Kluwer Health: Robert Dekker (610) 234-4533