TinEye is great if you want to know where an image is from or if you need a better version. You can upload an image and find where the hi res download is available. That is pretty neat, but it doesn’t help you if you are trying to learn about the content of the image itself.

Goggles is great when you’re on the go. It can currently identify famous landmarks, paintings, and even allow you to translate a sign through optical character recognition (OCR). Simply snap a picture and you immediately know what you’re looking at and why it is important.

This week, Google took it to the next level with a desktop version – Search by Image. It allows users to search places, art, and even animals by image instead of keywords. Users can search by uploading an image, dragging and dropping, or pasting the image URL into their search bar. It is also available as Chrome and Firefox extensions.

So now, if during your vacation planning you see a random picture of the perfect place to snorkel, you don’t have to ask everyone on message boards, travel agents, or scour images for hours. Simply drag the picture into your search bar and voila – you’re heading to Hawaii.

Hopefully, with increased awareness and usage of Goggles and Search by Image, Google will make good on their plans to beef up the capabilities beyond famous places, famous things, and OCR. They stated they plan to evolve it so that you can search by pictures of plants, cars, and pretty much anything.

Now, don’t get too worried. They aren’t using it for facial recognition, and think about how it could empower patients!

Imagine your son was just bit by a scorpion. What should you do? Is it poisonous?

Step 1: Take the little guy’s picture

Step 2: Drop the picture in the search bar

Step 3: Find out if an antivenom exists

Step 4: Start first aid and get him some Anascorp!

This could also help locate poison ivy or identify the cause of a rash. Even further, patients who may not remember why they take a certain medication or aren’t sure what it does could simply snap a picture of the pill, device, or packaging and be directed to the product site. That is, if Google recognizes the picture.

If you weren’t paying attention to the images on your website before, you might want to get started…

It may seem like an uphill battle. How could a patient change the way a physician prescribes? Believe me, I’ve heard it many times before. “We don’t focus on patients,” and “Our only real target is physicians – patients don’t matter.” Really? That sounds like a great strategy – for 1997. Let’s keep up with the times, people. Consumers are hungry for information. It doesn’t matter what the category. My dad used to choose whatever the local mechanic recommended, but now he won’t even buy a new headlight without searching ratings, reviews, and shopping engines. People want to be fully informed before making a decision. Show me the CARFAX!

So why would we think healthcare is any different? People want to make the right decision when it comes to health and safety, and they will do the research. So why fight it? It isn’t hard to give people what they want. It doesn’t require a multi-million dollar ad campaign. You just have to be there when they are looking for you (even if they don’t know they are looking for you).

1-800-flowers can run commercials all day long and I may never feel the need to order flowers. However, a search ad is very likely to get my attention when it appears for the term “same day flower delivery” on October 7th (my Mom’s birthday). This is exactly how it works in pharma. Consumers develop symptoms/are diagnosed/need a refill and immediately start searching. These are the opportunities you must pounce on. They are looking for you. They want your help.

Encourage them to seek diagnosis. Prompt them to ask questions. Help them save money.

If you don’t, your competitor will. I have a great case study, but first something I stumbled upon while writing this post. I asked a coworker to pick a random disease and then I started searching. “how can I stay awake?” “narcolepsy treatment.” “ghb coupon.”All roads should have led to Xyrem. But they didn’t. They led to Nuvigil. Even a search for “xyrem coupon” led me to Nuvigil. The icing on the cake – Xyrem.com won an eHealthcare Leadership Award in 2008 for “best website.” People want to be empowered, and they will use the tools you make for them. But only if they can find them…having a great site does nothing for you if people can’t find it!

Let’s get back to my original question. Can patients influence prescribing habits? Well, I work with a smaller brand in a marketplace dominated by several blockbuster drugs. This smaller brand can’t afford a big consumer campaign, but they do make sure they reach the right people at the right time. Year after year they continue to prove that smart paid and organic search campaigns get results. Results that are driven by patient requests. Patient requests for a brand that those patients had never heard of before they started searching.

This brand dominates natural search, continually being the only brand on the first page for key disease-state terms. This natural search presence plus a strategic paid search campaign has resulted in highly qualified patient traffic that continues to increase every year. More than 20% of their traffic in 2009 printed a coupon and 30% of those prints were redeemed. Need more proof? The brand did a 3rd party study and found this interesting stat:

In 2009, 10% of their prescriptions were driven by patient requests.

Not bad for the annual cost of a handful of sales reps.