Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13017

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Hansell S.
This Blood Test Is Brought to You by…
New York Times 2008 Mar 3
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/this-blood-test-is-brought-to-you-by/

Full text:

As we consider the entry by Google and Microsoft into the medical records business, a vision of where this may all be going is presented by a San Francisco startup called Practice Fusion.
The company’s concept: Give doctors a free service that will automate their offices – both administrative functions, like appointments, and patient medical records. The catch: The software displays advertising aimed at the doctors and their staff.

Here is where it really gets dicey: The ads shown are related to the content of the medical records. So when the doctor reviews your cholesterol test results, he may see an ad for Lipitor.
Ryan Howard, the chief executive of Practice Fusion, said it can do this without violating the privacy of patients. Its advertising system doesn’t collect the names or other personally identifiable information of patients, he said.

Software given free to doctors by Practice Fusion will schedule appointments and keep patient records. The catch: There are ads on every screen.Google’s system, which is just entering testing with patients from the Cleveland Clinic, for now doesn’t display any advertising, although it may do so in the future. But Practice Fusion participates in Google’s AdSense program, which can display ads on its screens that are tied to the words that appear.

If people thought that having Blockbuster ads featuring their photos on Facebook was intrusive, I wonder what they will think about having stent ads appear next to the CT scans of their hearts.
To the doctors, however, this may not be any more intrusive than the myriad other ways that drug companies vie for their attention: hiring attractive sales representatives who hand out sticky notepads, catered lunches and trips to educational seminars at lush resorts.

As some of these giveaways are being cut back, there is all the more interest among drug companies in finding new ways to get their messages to doctors. Mr. Howard suggested that he may have found the perfect advertising medium for them.

“You may be able to advertise on a health care Web site, but how often does a physician really go there?” he asked. “I know the doctor is on my app every day.”

Practice Fusion launched its service three months ago and now has 200 physicians. Right now roughly 10 percent of physicians have moved their patient records from paper to computers. Mr. Howard says cost is one reason, and so he hopes his free, ad-supported service will find a wide audience.
Mr. Howard won’t say how much he expects to earn from advertising, but here is one benchmark: Doctors can get the software without ads for $250 a month.

Ads targeted to doctors, in fact, can sell for $100 per thousand impressions and more, said West Schell, the chief executive of Healthline, one company that is selling ads for Practice Fusion.
“The relationship between doctors and patients is crucial,” Mr. Schell said. “In that dialog, the advertisers want to be present.”