How to Choose the Right Point of Care Media Vendor

Written by: Cheryl Reifsnyder, PhD and Steve Thomas, Director Solutions Management, Veradigm

In healthcare, every second counts: The difference between a timely treatment and a missed diagnosis can have a significant impact on a patient's health outcome. That's why point-of-care solutions, such as electronic health records (EHRs), have become such unsung heroes. Point-of-care solutions seamlessly integrate advanced technology with day-to-day medical workflows to ensure precision, efficiency, and improved patient care.

Point-of-care solutions can also provide opportunities to reach targeted providers via a channel they use daily-their EHRs. Targeted, timely awareness messaging at the point of care can help you reach the right provider at the right time, directly within their existing workflow.

Benefits of point-of-care marketing solutions in healthcare

Point-of-care marketing has the potential to improve healthcare providers' access to information relevant to themselves and their patients. By providing targeted and timely product information within the EHR workflow, point-of-care messaging helps ensure providers have access to the latest information surrounding medical treatments, technologies, and pharmaceutical products.

When providers have easier access to relevant product information, they can make better-informed treatment decisions. This, in turn, helps improve the quality of patient care and patient outcomes. Providers benefit from improved operational efficiency; biopharmaceutical companies benefit because point-of-care messaging fosters better communication with healthcare providers.

The changing healthcare landscape

Point-of-care technology has radically changed the healthcare landscape-and those changes have been further augmented by the increasing scope of telemedicine. Virtual care is currently making healthcare more accessible and more convenient; 92% of physicians incorporate routine follow-up visits into their virtual care offerings while 57% use the platform to discuss lab results and treatment options.

Point-of-care messaging can complement telemedicine by ensuring healthcare providers have access to targeted, relevant information during their virtual appointments. Point-of-care advertising can act as a powerful tool to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry. Integrated within providers' EHRs, these solutions can help raise provider awareness of therapies available for their patients and enhance the clinical decision-making process.

Point-of-care messaging can be used to deliver timely information on treatments, medications, side effects, research, patient education, best practices, and more, so healthcare professionals can make the most informed decisions possible. Better-informed decisions can lead to improved patient outcomes.

By providing timely and relevant product information directly within the EHR, point-of-care advertising streamlines the flow of information, so healthcare providers no longer have to seek out product information using other channels. Point-of-care messaging can help save time for physicians, so they can increase their focus on patient care.

At the same time, point-of-care messaging solutions are designed to comply with strict regulatory guidelines, to ensure that the information provided is accurate, unbiased, and beneficial to patient care. For instance, Veradigm Digital Health Media displays messaging in an iframe window that is separate and clearly distinguishable from clinical and practice management EHR workflows. No biopharma or device advertisements appear during the prescribing workflow, as is consistent with applicable law.

Considerations when choosing a point-of-care media vendor

Of course, not all point-of-care media solutions are created equal. Choosing the best vendor is essential to ensure that their solution will advance healthcare communications and improve patient care. Three of the most important considerations are reliability, reach, and technological capabilities.

Reliability

The ideal point-of-care media vendor will provide consistent, reliable messaging delivery. Consistent delivery requires a partner with access to a robust EHR infrastructure where messages can be targeted to physicians with specific needs and patient profiles.

Another crucial component of vendor reliability is their compliance with HIPAA and all other applicable government laws and regulations. The EHR advertising landscape has many legal, regulatory, and compliance-related requirements; working with an inexperienced vendor puts you at risk of unknowingly overstepping regulatory boundaries-and medical, legal, and regulatory review of advertising content remains the client's responsibility.

Membership in the Point of Care Marketing Association (POCMA) can be a sign of a more reliable vendor. That's because POCMA members must agree to follow the organization's bylaws and ethics policies, as well as commit to compliance with all applicable governmental laws and regulations.

Reach

A media vendor's reach is important to consider because reaching the right healthcare professionals at the right time can make all the difference to the potential impact of your messaging. Correctly timed messaging can help facilitate relevant discussions between patients and healthcare providers, significantly boosting the impact of your content. Point-of-care messaging can uniquely position content, tailoring information to the specific needs of individual patients and providers. This positioning is why point-of-care messaging can be so effective in helping to improve patient care and patient outcomes.

Of course, perfect timing is insufficient if the vendor does not also have a large user base and a user base that includes the provider specialties you specifically desire to reach.

Questions for potential vendors: What does the "reach" they're offering really mean? Many EHRs primarily cover acute settings; some EHRs may not be able to reach the medical specialty of interest to you. Some EHRs do not even offer promotional messaging. Make sure you select a point-of-care media vendor with a meaningful market share that is verified by a third party, a vendor capable of delivering your brand's approved promotional messaging to providers of the relevant medical specialty, at the appropriate point during their EHR workflow.

Technological capabilities

The final key consideration when selecting a media vendor is their technological capabilities. For instance, how is their messaging targeted? Do they target providers in specific therapeutic areas? Can they use de-identified real-time EHR data to deliver even more highly targeted awareness messaging?

It's also important to explore the types of messaging a media vendor can provide. Two main types of messaging can be displayed within EHRs: promotional and financial. Promotional messaging is used to drive brand awareness among healthcare providers. This type of messaging can be hyper-targeted, appearing during the EHR workflow before the provider makes prescribing decisions.

Financial messaging is not intended to increase the provider's awareness of your brand or to educate them about your brand. This type of messaging appears after the medication has been selected, usually taking the form or printable or electronic coupons.

Another important consideration is to understand what extent of reporting a media vendor provides. You may be investing a significant amount of time and money on your digital point-of-care marketing campaign; reporting can help ensure you know the impact of your messaging. Some key performance indicators to consider include the number of impressions made, coupon redemptions, prescription analytics, and physician level data.

Evaluating potential point-of-care media vendors

Point-of-care messaging provides brands with a unique opportunity to deliver timely and relevant information to healthcare providers while they are actually interacting with patients. However, it's critical to select a point-of-care media vendor who has the experience, the user base, and the technological expertise to be a reliable partner.

Veradigm Digital Health Media can help deliver your messaging to one of the largest EHR provider audiences in the U.S. Veradigm Digital Health Media delivers awareness messaging at multiple points during the patient/provider encounter. Digital Health Media also allows you to leverage de-identified real-time EHR data to deliver highly targeted messaging specifically to providers of interest.

Contact us today to learn more about Veradigm Digital Health Media-and how we might fill the role of your ideal point-of-care media vendor.

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