Some docs complain about the messaging, claiming they don't have time for that "nonsense." A few reviews on the iPhone app store suggest this is a common complaint:
"why must I be badgered with your alerts?"
"Paid for 'premium' subscription, getting nagging pharma clinical alerts that are rarely useful. Alerts don't go away unless you tap through them. If this is the case, should be free app."
According to the NYT article, "Epocrates is betting that the 320,000 physicians who use its apps, much like those who use Google and other advertising-supported data services, will tolerate some marketing to get the information they want at no charge." However, unlike Google, ads delivered directly to doctors while delivering care can have a much greater influence over their prescribing. If you are of the opinion that advertised drugs are usually more expensive and sometimes less safe than generics, then pharma paid DocAlerts (ads) are not in the best interests of patients and payors.
For pharmaceutical manufacturers, Drug information apps such as offered by ePocrates and ePrescribing may offer a new channel to influence physician prescribing at the point of care. “The beauty of the work we do with Epocrates is that we literally put ourselves in the palm of their hand,” said Dr. Freda Lewis Hall, chief medical officer at Pfizer.
Being in the doc's palm is one thing, but interrupting his/her workflow is another. When is it appropriate to "interrupt" physicians with commercial messages at the point of care? There are several more or less disruptive ways to provide messages in apps at the point of care, including:
- Ads appear via a splash screen when doc turns on PDA, smartphone, or iPad. The message not related to any prescribing transaction.
- Specific targeted messages are "triggered" by doc's drug lookup choice, demographic, and/or prescribing history and designed to influence doc's prescribing decision.
- Non-targeted messages delivered before, during, or after the prescribing process.
- ePrescribing: What Role Should Pharma Play?
- Ready or Not: Gearing Up for the Expansion of ePrescribing
Thanks!
[This post originally appeared in Pharma Marketing Blog.
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The value of the point-of-care touchpoint is so great that I suspect we'll see a lot of ham-handed attempts at leveraging it. It could be a while before pushback from consumers (in this case, physicians) brings the marketing down to what they feel are tolerable levels. Which raises the question: If the marketing is merely "tolerable" for docs, is it entirely missing the opportunity to add value?
ReplyDeleteFor more on point-of-care marketing (targeting the patient, not the doctor), I wrote a whitepaper on proximity marketing and the patient-physician touchpoint (http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/process/?ref=191).
Casey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and link to your whitepaper. I hope you responded to my survey and will encourage your colleagues to respond as well :-)