Client's sitting on a treasure trove of patient data. How can we market this?

3 replies
One of my client's is a company that provides tools & software to doctors, so they can perform functional evaluation tests for their patients. Hurt your knee in a car accident? Use this tool to measure knee strength. Damage a nerve in your arm? Use this other tool to measure grip strength. Etc. Once the doctor performs the evaluation on the patient, a TON of patient data about the injury is entered into the software & the doctor can then download a pdf version of each patient's functional evaluation report. (Here's a sample report: netmarketingllc.com/Client/myfiles/sample_test.docx)

So, my client has all of this patient data for all of their doctors just sitting in their system. Patient names, Addresses, Birthdate's, Gender, tons of details of the injury, etc. I mean literally tens of thousands of patient test results (all secured to HIPAA standards).

Which leads me to my question...what's the best way my client can go about using this data to provide marketing research & reporting back to their doctor's about that doctor's patients as an add'l service? Curious on your thoughts?

I was thinking of setting up a dashboard in their website (the doctors already have an account section they can log into), which provides details of where their patients are coming from (group the address info into charts or maps), split by gender/age/injuries etc, but that's the best I can come up with so far. I'm drawing a blank on taking it a step further. Those may be nice features but may not be something I feel the doctor's would be willing to pay add'l money for the use of the service. I'd love to come up with some amazing way to utilize this data to ensure doctors see the value of it & purchase it as an add-on. And of course, when speaking about a doctor, seeing the "value" translates to them using this data to book more appointments.

Any advice you could provide, I would greatly appreciate!

Thanks
#client #data #market #patient #sitting #treasure #trove
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    I'm not a lawyer, but that would probably be totally illegal because of HIPAA regulations. You cannot go around sharing patient data willy-nilly.

    Speak with an attorney before you go any further down the road with this idea. As a former executive with an Inc. Top 1000 franchise business in the medical field, I wouldn't do it.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10674020].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Goalie35
    Hi Jason. Thanks for you reply. I really appreciate the advice.

    I just spoke with a friend, who's also in the medical industry & he had the same response...consult a lawyer first. So before proceeding, that'll be my next move. And in the end, I may find it's too much risk, but I'm still interested in at least trying to flesh out the idea.

    The patient data wouldn't be exposed to anyone other than the doctor directly treating the patient. So if "Patient A" belonged to "Doctor A", "Doctor B" would never have access to "Patient A"'s data. When I researched rules on marketing patient data, I found the following HIPAA rules:

    It is legal for a company or your doctor to communicate to you if the advertisement, mailer, brochure, or other communication is:
    • About a drug, product or service that is covered by your plan if the communication comes from your insurer
    • Related to your illness or treatment
    • Involved in the management or coordination of your health care, or recommends alternative treatments, therapies, health care providers or settings of care
    So, like I said, a consultation with a lawyer is definitely my 1st stop, but it looks like the potential's there to offer this patient data back to their respective doctor's, as long as it follows HIPAA guidelines.

    Thanks again.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10674071].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    When you ask that lawyer about your plan, make sure and ask him about the risk of a class action suit against either your company or your doctor clients. Maybe other areas are different, but here in Florida the abundance of class action and personal injury lawyer ads make me yearn for the old days of ads about tobacco and booze...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10674199].message }}

Trending Topics