Dive Brief:
- As physicians have begun to take advantage of sending notifications to patients through their EHRs, some vendors have started enabling alerts for organizations that want to reach physicians via EHR software, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and iHealthBeat.
- Historically, the healthcare industry has tried to limit the access outside groups have to physicians and consumers, particularly pharmaceutical companies. For example, with studies like this one suggesting the prescriptions for a given drug increase when consumers see drug ads, policymakers have expressed concern that direct-to-consumer-advertising has an undue impact on prescribing patterns.
- One of the pioneers in sending sponsored alerts to physicians is EHR vendor Practice Fusion which, in partnership with Merck and other medical organizations, offers clinical decision support updates based on third-party clinical guidelines. These alerts, which are delivered in context based on a patient's medical history and health indicators, identify sponsors like Merck as funding sources but do not include the sponsors' marketing messages or corporate logos, notes Practice Fusion CEO Ryan Howard.
Dive Insight:
On one hand, when other revenue is used to reduce the cost of EHR implementations for physicians—and those sponsored alerts were carefully curated—it could help practices hurting for the cash to adopt an EHR. That's how Practice Fusion grew into the industry high-flier it is today. On the other hand, it's still not clear what limits are appropriate in policing those communications. It’s likely that federal regulators may soon have something to say about the matter.