Understanding How Prescribers Use Their EHR in Administrative Workflow and Patient-Visit Workflow

This is the second in a series of brief commentaries describing purpose-built solutions that can help get your clinical messages into targeted prescribers’ EHRs. Today’s installment focuses on how HCPs function in the EHR in administrative and patient-visit workflows, and how brand teams can reach them in both settings.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are big business — and getting bigger. The market includes hundreds of EHR providers, and global EHR sales are estimated to grow nearly 13% per year between 2022 and 2027. In addition to generating sales by providing and maintaining software and SaaS services, many EHR providers have also developed revenue streams by selling the rights to deliver clinically relevant messages to prescribers in real-time through the EHR.

As the ability to reach HCPs through EHRs has expanded, a new group of messaging providers has sprung to life. These companies establish message-delivery contracts with multiple EHRs, bundle those contracts to create a multi-EHR network of reachable HCPs, and then sell that message-delivery capability to pharmaceutical brand teams as a key tactical part of the marketing strategy.

EHR in Administrative Workflow

First, HCPs use the EHR in administrative workflow; that is, they use the EHR to accomplish administrative duties such as exchanging secure messages within their health system, managing personnel and organizational processes, handling billing and insurance tasks, and delivering relevant clinical information to public health organizations.

It’s now possible to send messages to prescribers immediately as they log in to their EHR to tackle these administrative tasks, driving awareness and educating HCPs. This messaging strategy — which displays an image-based dialog box— benefits from focused prescriber attention because it is positioned upstream in the prescriber’s EHR workflow experience before a patient encounter.

Another messaging opportunity that launches at EHR login offers you unfettered access to HCPs within their existing EHR messaging inbox. With this in-box option, you can deliver targeted insights on packaging/ dispensing considerations, patient savings offers, hub promotion and education, and new indications and entrants. When the HCP clicks to open the message, they see brand-specific and clinically appropriate information. Multiple trigger options are available, based on HCP behavior and patient population.

EHR in Patient-visit Workflow

Second, HCPs use the EHR in patient-visit workflow. That is, they use the EHR to support care decisions for a specific patient in real-time while they are with that patient. Examples of the types of real-time patient-visit support components accessible within the EHR include the patient’s health history, past and current prescriptions, lab/test results, historical clinical notes, decision support tools, and ePrescribing capability.

The dream of every pharmaceutical marketer is to be able to communicate with prescribers while they are in patient-visit workflow — those key moments when they are making prescribing decisions with patients. And that dream is now a reality. Today’s technology makes it possible to deliver prescriber-specific behavior-based messages in real-time to HCPs while they are working in the EHR's e-prescribing module. You can deliver relevant clinical information that is triggered when the HCP begins to create an Rx for your brand or for a competitor brand.

Targeting can be based on prescriber's specialty, prescriber writing history (order habits), and prescriber practice State (inclusion or exclusion). This is an excellent strategy for new products, new claims, new formulations, new data, new patient savings offers, or brand support messages.

The Bottom line

It’s now possible to reach prescribers in both administrative and patient-visit workflows. These solutions can help get your clinical messages into targeted prescribers’ EHRs at just the right places and at just the right times. ConnectiveRx has deep expertise in EHR messaging coupled with the most extensive EHR network reach. Let’s work together to get this done. Visit us here to learn more.