Accurate physician lists are essential to companies looking to market products and services to doctors. The primary physician list users are typically businesses that supply goods and services directly related to physicians and medical practices. Examples of such businesses are pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, EHR and medical software, practice management software, medical devices and equipment, CME programs, office supplies, payers, ancillary service providers and facility management services.Businesses targeting individuals with high net worth and disposable income, such as luxury goods, club memberships, real estate, automobiles or travel services can also promote their products and services to doctors with the help of a good physician database.

Selecting a Physician List

To ensure a successful marketing campaign, it is wise to spend some time selecting a good list of physicians. A quality list maximizes your promotional budget and dramatically cuts down the time and resources spent on rectifying wrong records.

Is bigger better when it comes to the size of the physician database? Not necessarily. According to the AMA, there are more than 814,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. While the objective is to reach out to as many physicians as possible, a database that claims to have millions of physician contacts may in fact contain records of other healthcare providers such as nurses and office administrators. It is important to clarify that the database you are purchasing contains only records of practicing physicians.

A highly targeted physician database can help you reach out to the right audience and reduce wastage. A physician list that contains records such as specialties, patient volume, practice size or even prescribing information can help you narrow down your targets and reach the right audience.Like all databases, physician lists change as doctors move, retire or pass away. An inaccurate database will cost businesses time and money, so it is important that a physician database is kept fresh and current. For example, SK&A, a healthcare data solutions provider, updates and verifies its database by phone every six months.

Physicians are not always the decision makers when it comes to procurement. In medical practices that are owned by or affiliated with hospital or healthcare groups, purchasing may be performed by procurement departments. In this case, a hospital database may be more useful and relevant than a physician list. A good hospital list can provide marketers with information such as hospital administrator names, hospital specialty, and the number of clinics owned.

Marketing Campaign Deployment

With the availability of mailing addresses through physician lists, marketers can capture the attention of their targets with creative direct mailers. Although direct mailing has a higher cost compared to electronic channels, it reaches targets without internet access or are not active internet users.

Although there are limited creative options, fax is a quick and relatively low cost method to broadcast special offers, product announcements and recalls, or other urgent messages. Not only is it cheaper to deploy than direct mailing, it can reach targets in a shorter time frame and can be easily deployed.

According to Manhattan Research, doctors spent as much as eight hours a week online in 2010, and are becoming increasingly mobile, with 81 percent of physicians owning a smartphone in 2011. Email marketing is a great way to reach these physicians, as they can access emails on the go. There are multiple advantages of using emails as a marketing channel. Emails are relatively cheap and fast to deploy. Campaigns can be highly creative and targeted, and results can be tracked and reported easily.