Navigating the Challenges of In-EHR Messaging

By Peter Schnitzler, Managing Director, Point-of-Care Media, a subsidiary of Point-of-Care Partners

The appeal of in-EHR messaging is clear: it’s an opportunity for manufacturers to deliver informational content (e.g., patient savings offers, treatment-specific education, or adherence support) directly within a provider’s electronic health record (EHR) workflow to potentially inform decisions as they’re being made.

Despite its allure, in-EHR messaging remains an underutilized and often misunderstood channel in pharmaceutical marketing. Many brand teams struggle to navigate a highly fragmented landscape as policies and capabilities vary widely by EHR. For example, while some of the largest EHRs don’t allow overt pharmaceutical messaging within their core workflows (e.g., Epic and Oracle Health), others do. Understanding and optimizing the landscape of opportunities available leads to measurable success.

As if navigating the content rules of EHR messaging networks wasn’t enough, compounding the challenges of in-EHR messaging is the need to grapple with a complex web of compliance regulations from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Food and Drug Administration, and Federal Trade Commission. Here, all the same basic requirements of pharmaceutical marketing apply, with additional requirements related to user consent, data stewardship, and more.

Between understanding nuances across EHRs and proving campaigns remain compliant, in-EHR messaging can start to feel more technical and constrained. When there’s uncertainty as to how to effectively navigate these challenges (or knowing what is most effective), the result is a media channel that many marketing teams either avoid entirely or minimize.

Fall is typically the most urgent buying season for life science EHR marketers because that’s when many engage in brand planning for the next year. So, timing is good! Whether you’re testing the waters or looking to sharpen your existing approach, this practical guide will offer clarity and insight to help you better understand and responsibly leverage in-EHR messaging to ensure your next campaign is thoughtful, effective, and appropriately executed. It covers:

• The current landscape of EHR platforms that allow promotional messaging.
• Common ad types and delivery mechanisms.
• Key compliance considerations.
• Tips for evaluating campaign performance and strategy.

Solving the Provider Reach Jigsaw Puzzle

Epic and Oracle Health (Cerner)—two of the most widely used EHRs in the United States—have strict policies that don’t directly permit in-workflow pharmaceutical promotional messaging. These platforms prioritize clinical neutrality, leaving implementation decisions to local health systems, and this stance has set the tone for much of the inpatient space. However, outside of these systems there’s a sizeable group of outpatient-focused EHR vendors that do allow for messaging in various forms. As a result, there are still many chances to reach the providers of tens of millions of Americans.

Therefore, it’s worth the effort to closely study the provider reach jigsaw puzzle. An estimated 300 million Americans have some form of EHR, and EHR media suppliers offer a unique marketing opportunity to reach many crucial moments of brand consideration. These suppliers facilitate brand messaging in systems where they can be ethically and compliantly delivered when they matter most. Sponsored messages are most often available within EHRs commonly used in small to mid-sized practices, outpatient clinics, and specialty care—settings where most retail and specialty pharmacy prescribing happens.

Of course, complexity exists here also. Research shows that non-EHR software firms such as ConnectiveRx, OptimizeRx, and RxNT all credibly offer digital messaging access to hundreds of thousands of providers. But since they compete with one another, they’re reluctant to openly share network details. This can be frustrating for pharma marketers looking to differentiate their unique versus overlapping reach.

Bottom line: scale is still very much on the table once all connectivity is considered. Life sciences marketers who understand which platforms are accessible, how messages are delivered, and what targeting parameters are available can take advantage of meaningful reach. It may not be “everywhere” but it’s far from fringe.

Are You Educating, Informing…or Just Interrupting?

It can be tempting to repurpose graphics and collateral from other advertising channels for in-EHR campaigns, but this approach often fails to consider the provider experience. An ad featuring a smiling couple may work well in the waiting room but may not be tonally or clinically appropriate during an oncology consultation.

By considering the experience (and timing), EHR messages can achieve goals like reinforcing a clinical action already underway, helping close a gap in care, offering a copay card at the right time, or even reiterating a therapy’s efficacy for a patient likely to have adherence challenges.

Therefore, unlocking the power of in-EHR messaging truly starts with understanding the workflow—not just the media buy.

Relevance Is Everything: Constructing Messages That Matter

A well-timed, well-targeted message can play a role in a provider’s clinical decision-making process. However, there are several aspects of creating relevant messaging that must be evaluated in order to achieve this goal, including segmentation, logic, and frequency.

Today’s EHR platforms and aggregator networks can support a high level of precision without violating HIPAA. As a result, individual National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) can be used to identify which providers are seeing the types of patients relevant to a given campaign without accessing protected health information. From there, segmentation can be refined even further using available, de-identified criteria like:

• Disease state.
• Insurance coverage.
• Prescription history.
• Demographics (such as patient age ranges).

Based on these criteria, brands can set very specific inclusion logic. For example, logic can be configured to only deploy a message when the provider is seeing a commercially insured adult patient with a qualifying diagnosis. It’s equally important to set the right exclusion logic to help prevent misfires that can damage trust or create risk. For example, campaigns can be configured to not display if the patient:

• Receives care from ineligible providers, such as pediatricians.
• Falls outside of the indicated age range.
• Has contraindications or comorbidities that make the treatment inappropriate.

Without those filters in place, a campaign might appear compliant on paper but miss the mark in practice.

This level of granularity also enables retrospective performance review. Your campaign might have reached providers who saw 100 patients who met your criteria, but what if only two scripts were written? A discrepancy like that can raise a flag that maybe the message wasn’t compelling or the logic needs adjusting. You might learn that adding an age range filter would have better aligned the content to the clinical moment.

Another critical factor when ensuring relevance is frequency capping. Just because a provider sees the right kind of patients doesn’t mean they should see your message every time. Repetition can dull impact or cause fatigue, so setting sensible thresholds helps preserve message integrity and respect for the provider’s attention.

Recognizing that relevance is not only about technical accuracy is a key step toward ensuring messaging isn’t just permitted but is appropriate, timely, and aligned with clinical needs.

Compliance: Respecting the Rules, Not Just at Launch

Compliance must be evaluated and maintained throughout the life of an in-EHR messaging campaign, which requires marketers to work closely with internal medical, legal, and regulatory teams (as well as media partners) to ensure everything stays in bounds—even as things change.

Some key areas that require ongoing attention:

• Network-level consent: Just because one EHR allows a message today doesn’t mean it always will. Be clear as to which networks have approved your campaign and what content types are permitted.
• Dynamic compliance monitoring: Indications shift, new side effects emerge, and regulatory expectations evolve. Any of these could mean your original message needs to be reviewed or revised.
• Operational collaboration: Your operations and compliance teams can’t be an afterthought. Bring them in early and keep them in the loop.

Analytics: Don’t Be Fooled by a Polished Dashboard

When reviewing campaign reports provided by EHR messaging suppliers or media buyers, keep in mind that those reports typically reflect the metrics they choose to show and in the formats they prefer. This can make it difficult to know what you’re really looking at or if those numbers tell the whole story.

Here are a few caution flags:

• Not all data are created equal: Engagement can be defined and measured differently from supplier to supplier.
• Correlation is not causation: A spike in prescribing doesn’t automatically mean your campaign caused it. Without test and control logic, it's just a guess.
• Numbers can mislead: High impressions are important but be sure to know if they occurred at the right time. For example, were they delivered during meaningful clinical moments or just on system login screens?

The right questions make all the difference.

Supplier dashboards can be helpful starting points but independent analysis is the best basis for true understanding. Using a statistically validated test and control methodology helps prove whether your campaign influenced behavior or simply coincided with it. Think of it like Airbnb photos: everything in a listing might look beachfront until you arrive and realize you’re across the highway. Context is critical to knowing if your messages are actually where you intend them to be: Who saw the message? When? How often? What happened afterward? Get in position to see for yourself.

What Do Marketers Get from an In-EHR Media Buy?

Many EHR media networks attempt to deliver on the promise of ease of use and measurable impact by leveraging a turnkey, “set it and forget it” campaign model with simplified reports on reach, impressions, and click-through rates. However, it is critical for life sciences marketers to understand exactly what providers see when interacting with your campaign and how to validate the metrics provided. Otherwise, it’s impossible to tell whether a campaign is truly delivering effective engagement.

Let’s break it down.

The Basic, Most Common Offering

Most EHR advertising partners offer packages that include:

• Banner ads or contextual messages shown during patient encounters.
• Patient-facing materials such as copay coupons or education delivered via printouts or patient portals.
• Reports summarizing specialty targeting, impression volume, and engagement metrics.

While all of this may sound good in theory, the devil is in the (unexamined) details.

What You Might Not Be Seeing

EHRs and media services networks vary widely in how they define “targeted” and “contextual.” While some campaigns are placed broadly by specialty, others leverage past prescribing data or ICD-10 codes to target at the encounter level. Reporting dashboards sometimes add digital touchpoints beyond EHRs to provider reach tallies, which can offer a less than accurate picture. Therefore, there are questions every marketer should be prepared to ask:

• Are these messages delivered during the clinical workflow—or before/after?
• Is the message shown during an electronic prescribing moment or simply whenever the EHR is open?
• Are you reaching providers who already prescribe your drug or those who might?
• Are competitor ads appearing in that same workflow? What does your message look like next to theirs?

Clearly, context matters. A generic sponsored awareness message placed next to functional clinical decision support during a complex prescribing decision can be jarring—or worse, inappropriate. If your content looks like a lifestyle banner ad, it runs the risk of doing more harm than good.

HIPAA Compliant Doesn’t Always Mean Well Designed

Targeting can be HIPAA compliant but still be poorly executed. It’s one thing to serve a message to a provider treating a patient with a relevant condition. It’s another to have that message be tailored to matter in the moment. Consider:

• Contextual vs. Banner Ads: Are you wedging a marketing asset into a frame or tailoring content to fit the provider’s decision-making process?
• Patient Resources: Are they actionable and timely or just generic handouts?
• Key Performance Measures: Are you optimizing for quantity (impressions, clicks) or quality (prescriber behavior change, script lift, message retention)?

Another wrinkle: small mistakes can add up quickly. EHR media are subject to the same rules and regulations as all other forms of pharmaceutical marketing. But unlike web advertisements or emails, pharma marketers can’t easily see their own campaigns. The data involved require additional documentation, licensing, and upkeep. Continuously maintaining accurate controls can be a heavy lift, leading some to conclude EHR media aren’t worth the effort.

Call to Action: We’ll Handle the Details. You Get the Results.

To help life sciences companies better navigate and capitalize on the complex world of in-EHR marketing, Point-of-Care Partners has launched a new subsidiary: Point-of-Care Media. Led by General Manager Peter Schnitzler, a healthcare information technology marketing veteran with deep expertise in provider engagement and EHR channel strategy, Point-of-Care Media offers benchmarking, analytics, strategic consulting, and execution support. The aim is to help pharma brands efficiently plan and scale EHR-based campaigns, demonstrate real-world results, and stay compliant while delivering relevant, data-driven messaging at the point of prescribing.

Whether you want full control or a hands-off setup, we can meet you where you are.

We provide transparency at every step as we help validate and normalize performance data and give your analytics team what they need to feel confident in what they’re seeing. This empowers you to stay focused on your brand’s strategic goals while we make sure the execution is solid, compliant, and grounded. Contact Point-of-Care Media , a subsidiary of Point-of-Care Partners, to learn about our analytics-based approach.

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