Richard Fine and Nathan Frank sent us a set of their new products the other day. The guys have evolved since they launched their original Help I Have A Headache pack and their new range covers cuts, sore feet, sneezes and tired eyes. Taking the products back to basics and presented in plain English, they are wrapped in compostable materials: molded paper pulp and bio plastic from corn resin. They also fit perfectly in that narrow cabinet in your bathroom. With the attention to detail plus the cute messaging throughout the packs we can’t wait for our next little sting [...]

Help Remedies have teamed up with Ricky’s, the iconic chain of  New York City beauty supply shops, to produce a series of bizzare, eye-catching window displays. Seven different advertisements have been assembled which help to announce the release of Help Remedies’ latest line of health care products.
One of the 8 displays featured a man in high heels who walks on a treadmill for eight hours at a time, advertising Help’s blister pads (called simply “help, I have a blister”). On 13th street, people sleep in the store window all day to promote Help’s sleeping medication (”help I can’t sleep”).

By stripping [...]

Popular venture capitalist Fred Wilson has posted the video of the (rather lengthy) talk he gave at Google on which markets he expects the internet will disrupt next. He starts the talk with the impact of web and explains that attractive start-ups today are ones that offer services for less than five times the current market price. He says that this may lead to lower revenues but as expenses should be significantly lower, profits should be greater.

So what businesses does he predict will be impacted? He says that any businesses that can be end to end digital will be [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Colin Nagy (PSFK/Attention) led a discussion with Help Remedies‘ founder Richard Fine and Hello Health’s Dr. Jay Parkinson and Dr. Sean Khozin about “Building Healthy Brands With Heart”. The panel touched upon the different ways their ventures were setting out to innovate an industry resistant to change. Richard Fine talked about how Help Remedies is attempting to change the way we think about medicine and first aid. Richard’s aim with creating Help was to simplify medication, from packaging to ingredients. His range stands apart from the myriad “dual-action”/”24-hr relief”/”fast-acting” products on the market – most recognizably, [...]

Shipping containers – noteworthy for their modularity, durability and availability – have long provided material and inspiration for designers and architects looking for new ways of envisioning and constructing our physical environment. We’ve seen these steel behemoths transformed into everything from pop-up shops to dwellings, giving second life to objects that would otherwise simply take up space. Adding to that list of creative reuse is Containers 2 Clinics, an ongoing project that seeks to bring healthcare services to underserved communities in developing countries around the world. Their website explains the thinking behind their mission:
A shipping container, once retrofitted for use [...]

We’re looking forward to having Colin Nagy, PSFK contributor and Director at Attention moderate our Building Healthy Brands With Heart panel at PSFK Conference New York on April 2. He will lead a panel featuring Richard Fine (Help Remedies) and Sean Khozin & Jay Parkinson (Hello Health) that will discuss the improvement of communication in the healthcare industry, and between brands and users in general, through the incorporation of technology and social media.
First, who are you and what do you do?
I’m Colin Nagy and I’m a Partner at Attention.
In my spare time, I’m a contributing editor at Flavorpill, a regular [...]

Citing the rising cost of healthcare in the United States, several insurers have taken a page out of travel guides for “medical tourism” and begun toying with the idea of sending their patients abroad for routine surgeries. In essence, these large providers with recognizable names – Aetna, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross Blue Shield – are attempting to create global health systems by buying up networks in far flung locations from Thailand to Costa Rica. In an effort to cash in on the significant savings – some estimates place the number at $33 billion – insurers are prepared to go the [...]

We’ve previously written about Brooklyn’s Dr. Jay Parkinson and his subscription based Hello Health platform, and now the NY Times directs us to a new web service named American Well that hopes to institute many of these same innovations, but on a larger scale.  The company’s first customer is the Hawaii Medical Services Association which will launch their online house call service – available to everyone in the state – on January 15th.  The idea is to provide patients a low cost option to expensive office visits and easier access to physicians for simple consultations that don’t require meeting face-to face. [...]

Help is a startling fresh approach to simple everyday healthcare needs like plasters and headache pills. The packaging is simple, clear and oh so ’straight to the point’. We spoke to the founder, Richard Fine about why he decided these types of products needed a make-over and the power of adding humanity to a business.
Plasters and headache pills don’t seem to be products that need a make over.. .why this product and why now?
I agree just prettying stuff up would be a little superficial but I do think American medicine and healthcare needs a fundamental rethink. Over the-counter medicines are [...]