Healthcare provider (HCP) engagement in healthcare has historically been a one-way street¹—conferences, journal advertisements, and visits from a sales rep. Even as life science brands push into digital strategies, many still rely on generic national provider identifier (NPI) lists, institutional targeting, or other tactics that focus on breadth of reach, often sacrificing personalization. The result is that a significant portion of these campaigns rarely intersect with the clinical realities that shape day-to-day decision-making.

Clinicians are overburdened with high patient workloads while being inundated with information. Broad-based messages that land outside their current patient needs are often overlooked or ignored altogether, and that costs precious marketing dollars. That said, life science marketers are recognizing that they must adopt more sophisticated ways to reach their audiences focused on their brand objectives and key performance indicators. Marketing that is actionable, relevant, and well-timed to clinical decisions will be the key advantage for brands, especially those in highly competitive therapeutic areas.

So how can marketers time brand messages to prescribers when it matters most? The rise of real-time data, advanced analytics, and sophisticated electronic health record (EHR) integrations² is making it possible during critical care windows when a prescriber is most likely to act. Forward-looking brand marketers are seeing that the chances of taking action increase dramatically when relevant content is at an HCP’s fingertips within the EHR workflow.

Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital tools can make HCP interactions more personalized and actionable. For instance, when a physician reviews a patient’s lab results in the EHR, AI-driven marketing can automatically and compliantly deliver relevant therapy options tailored to that patient’s health data. Similarly, if algorithms detect that a patient may be facing an increase in medication costs, the physician can be notified in real time and offer financial support resources to help the patient stay on their current medication rather than switching to a generic.

When HCPs receive contextual, actionable information that aids their decision-making right at the point of care, they can provide more effective care interventions earlier and develop a better relationship with the pharma manufacturer.

Harnessing real-world data for smarter decisions

How can life science marketers engage HCPs at the point of care with context-rich communications? They can start by working with solutions that compliantly capture and interpret real-world data. Every patient interaction generates valuable information, from prescribing patterns to lab results and treatment outcomes. Predictive AI-based tools can leverage this data to uncover insights that guide where, when, and how brand messages should be delivered for maximum relevance.

Let’s say a marketing team for a pharmaceutical brand to treat ulcerative colitis (UC) is looking to engage physicians treating patients with moderate-to-severe disease who are not well served by their current medication and who may need to progress to a second- or third-line therapy.

Using AI models and privacy-safe, de-identified real-world data, marketers for that brand can identify when patients currently treated for UC are experience symptom persistence and potential disease progression. Then, they can map those patients to their treating physicians, and predict when those patients are likely to have their next appointment.This creates a “dynamic” NPI list that allows the brand to focus marketing where and when it is most relevant, increasing the likelihood of brand conversion from each delivered impression.

This same approach could be applied across a variety of care milestones and brand situations. For example, if the UC brand above was instead looking for newly diagnosed patients, the AI model can be trained to look for undiagnosed patients experiencing potential UC symptoms. The brand can then deliver information that can prompt physicians to recognize and test for UC—giving the brand a key “first mover” advantage, should the patient be diagnosed.

These two examples show how leveraging real-world data³ and AI-based tools enables life science brands to provide clinicians with relevant, actionable insights exactly when they need them. This enables healthcare teams to make informed decisions more quickly and confidently. Shifting outreach from broad, generic messaging to timely, personalized communication not only improves clinician engagement but also supports better patient outcomes—such as higher adherence to prescribed therapies, earlier intervention, and more precise care.

The role of marketing in earlier intervention

It’s a marketer’s job to promote their brands. But with the increased accuracy from the advanced analytics and AI described earlier, marketers can play an enhanced role in accelerating life-saving interventions for patients.

Delayed diagnosis and treatment have a measurable and often severe impact on patient outcomes. For example, research shows⁴ that even a four-week delay in cancer treatment can increase mortality risk by 6% to 13%, depending on the type of cancer. Additionally, diagnostic errors contribute to tens of thousands of hospital deaths annually in the US, highlighting the importance of timely, accurate diagnosis.

Often, these treatment delays happen because either the patient and/or their treating physician don’t have access to key insights about confusing symptoms, or potential life-saving therapies during a critical treatment window. But when life science brands can deliver information more precisely,⁵ they fill that gap and better connect physicians and patients to the right treatment options. The point of care—including the EHR or other clinical decision platforms—can be a trusted source of knowledge—where HCPs gain critical, context-rich insights that directly inform patient care, and organizations gain a deeper understanding of real-world clinical challenges. Ultimately, timely and relevant insights will lead to clinicians prescribing the best therapies earlier, when those therapies can be most effective, leading to better patient outcomes.

By reimagining HCP engagement as a two-way channel for actionable intelligence, the life science industry can move toward a future where every clinical interaction is supported by the best possible evidence, creating lasting value for HCPs, patients, and the healthcare system as a whole.

Doug Besch is Chief Product & Technology Officer at OptimizeRx

References

1. Elrod, J.K.; Fortenberry, J.L. Direct Marketing in Health and Medicine: Using Direct Mail, Email Marketing, and Related Communicative Methods to Engage Patients. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020. 9 (15); 20. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7491113/

2. Shreyash, M.; Sen, P.; Shah, E.J. Harnessing Digital Health Technologies and Real-World Evidence to Enhance Clinical Research and Patient Outcomes. Digit Health. 2025. July 23, 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12290384/

3. Joeris, A.; Zhu, T.Y.; Lambert, S.; Wood, A.; Jayakumar, P. Real-World Patient Data: Can They Support decision-making and Patient Engagement? Injury. 2023. 54 (3), S51-S56. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020138321010020

4. Lyratzopoulos, G.; Wardle, J.; Rubin, G. Rethinking Diagnostic Delay in Cancer: How Difficult is the Diagnosis? BMJ. 2014. December 10, 2014. 349. https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7400?utm

5. Fu, C.; Chen, Q. The future of Pharmaceuticals: Artificial intelligence in Drug Discovery and Development. J. Pharm. Anal. 2025. 15 (8) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095177925000656