CSI pitches kiosks as vehicle for drug ads

Bob Sullivan, the executive vice president of Sparks-based Computerized Screening Inc., was working long days on the East Coast last week, hoping to make contacts with folks who control advertising budgets at pharmaceutical companies.

Those contacts are critical for CSI as it renews its bid to roll out its sophisticated Health Station technology into retail pharmacy locations.

The digital, freestanding kiosks measure blood pressure and heart rates, track other vital signs such as pulse oximetery and temperature and allow consumers to store their medical histories at the kiosk.

That level of sophistication, however, doesn't come cheap, and CSI has found that retail pharmacies are reluctant to pick up the full tab.

That's where advertising comes in.

As Sullivan visits pharmaceutical companies, his pitch is this: Traditional media are highly inefficient tools for pharmaceutical companies.

The drug makers don't know who is receiving their messages, and they don't know whether the audience is acting after they get the message.

Advertising on the Health Station, CSI says, is directed at an audience that is clearly interested in health.

And it's a captive audience for the few minutes that consumers use the station to measure their vital signs.

It's possible, the company says, to custom- deliver advertisements depending on the tests conducted by the user.

A consumer taking his blood pressure, for instance, might see an ad for a blood-pressure medicine.

CSI said last week it will offer a test site to pharmaceutical advertisers.

That way, Sullivan said, companies can see how sales of an over-the-counter drug in a store with Health Station advertising compare to sales in a store without the ads.

Sullivan said pharmaceutical advertisers have liked what they've heard when CSI executives are able to get in front of them.

Getting in front of decision makers has been the hard part, he acknowledged.

But he said CSI views the development of advertising revenue as a critical element in its effort to expand the base of Health Station machines installed in retail locations.

Currently, about 400 of the high-end machines are installed.

(The company has another 2,500 basic models machines that measure only blood pressure, pulse and weight installed around the nation.) While widespread movement of the Health Station technology into retail locations depends on advertising sales, CSI has found success from institutional users everything from medical clinics in remote rural areas to facilities operated by major corporations including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing and Maxwell House.