Originally published in Point of Care Marketing Association (POCMA) as part of a featured post featuring EHR Experts.
Understanding the EHR Landscape: A Guide for Marketers
The EHR landscape presents both significant opportunities and complexities for healthcare marketers. As Maria O’Mara, SVP of Business Development at ConnectiveRx, notes, “There are over 600 different EHRs within the United States. It’s a fragmented market.” This fragmentation is crucial to understand when approaching an EHR marketing strategy. O’Mara expounds on the significance:
“Each EHR is going to have different capabilities and varying comfort with allowing pharma access to their closed system. This can make it challenging for pharma to navigate the waters. But those who take the time can see meaningful results. The channel provides a unique space to reach HCPs and key decision makers when they are actively making treatment decisions.”
Data Access and Privacy Considerations
Regardless of which EHR partners marketers select, privacy and compliance play a major role in shaping access. HIPAA requirements restrict the extent of data that EHR vendors can provide. Maria O’Mara explains, “Some EHRs may be open to pharma messaging, but they often draw the line at sharing PHI or allowing tags like cookies within their systems. These platforms are built first and foremost to serve healthcare providers (HCPs), which remains their top priority.”
These restrictions underscore the EHR’s role as a high-trust environment, requiring marketers to navigate privacy considerations thoughtfully. As O’Mara notes, “The great news is that pharma has options. They can choose to focus solely on environments where detailed data is available, or they can prioritize maximum reach and impact. We’ve developed solutions to support both strategies.”
[Case Study] In-Workflow Messaging That Supports HCP Decision-Making
The intuitive nature of EHR messaging is further illustrated through in-workflow solutions that actively support HCP decision-making. Maria O’Mara provides an example:
“Where we have partnerships with certain manufacturers, we are now building custom solutions. One example of a custom solution that was built was for a brand that was going through a formulation change. We supported that update through our e-prescribing solution. When the doctor selected the old NDC [National Drug Code], we delivered a message that informed the HCP of the new therapeutic dose. A link to the dosing chart was also included so that the HCP had the information at their fingertips. The alert provided the HCP pertinent information necessary to prescribe the medication. It ensured the HCP didn’t have to go out of the workflow to answer any questions s/he had and reduced the amount of pharmacy call backs as the old formulation was no longer stocked.”
Optimizing Workflows & Enhancing Patient Care
This integration streamlines clinical tasks and minimizes errors, ultimately freeing up HCPs to spend more time with their patients.
“That message is front and foremost helping to automate. It’s helping to facilitate the prescriber’s practice. They have more time in front of their patient versus having to go look something up on Google. If we can get to a place with Pharma where that’s what it’s about, then you’re providing value to your physician, and then more physicians are gonna want to be engaging,” adds O’Mara.
Benefits of In-Workflow Messaging within the EHR
This approach to in-workflow messaging within the EHR offers distinct benefits:
- It addresses clinical problems and prevents errors.
- It enhances the efficiency of HCP workflows, allowing more time for patient interaction.
- It provides physicians with the information they need without disrupting their focus.
This type of integrated messaging doesn’t simply promote products or services; it creates real value. While an audience-centered approach is widely discussed in marketing, it is often fully realized within the EHR channel. Brands leveraging the EHR establish themselves as contributors to the patient experience. By fostering this intuitive integration, brands in the EHR space move beyond traditional promotion to become genuine partners in the healthcare experience.
Having explored the technical and operational aspects of EHR marketing, we can now examine the strategic advantages that make this channel uniquely powerful.
Read the full article and learn more about how brands are using the EHR as a marketing channel to support HCPs at critical moments.