Innovation in Electronic Health & Medical Records
November 2, 2022
Exec summary / TLDR
The growth in adoption and capabilities of Electronic Health Record (EHRs) & Electronic Media Record (EMRs) systems for healthcare providers is having a powerful effect on improving the diagnostic effectiveness of healthcare networks and quality of care for patients, while also opening-up privacy safe options for brands to leverage the insightful healthcare data for advertising. Many of the largest EHR & EMR systems do not have functionality for ads on the platforms, but on-platform branding capabilities are evolving in addition to data and follow-up-messaging opportunities that can reach healthcare providers or patients at scale. Critically, there is a need for greater interoperability across EHR & EMR systems to improve complex diagnostic capabilities and make the platforms more patient-centric, which is likely to improve cross-platform advertising opportunities for brands, yet there are significant standardization roadblocks given the fragmented EHR & EMR industry. Large tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Oracle and Google are entering the space, which will drive rapid innovation in data management & AI capabilities, while innovations such as blockchain, The Metaverse, and 5G+ tech are reshaping telehealth and online experiences in ways that will alter the patient-to-healthcare professional (HCP) relationship. In order to provide and capture the most value from these evolving EHR & EMR systems, healthcare brands will need to keep a close eye on key areas of innovation and design advertising campaigns around supporting patients and HCPs in this unique environment.
Background
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) & Electronic Media Records (EMRs) have become integral elements of the patient-to-healthcare professional (HCP) relationship as tools to improve system efficiency, provide diagnostic support, and exchange data. EHRs & EMRs are now used by 92% non-federal hospital systems & 72% of office-based physicians according to 2019 data from HealthIT.gov. This has been driven by US federal & state legislation, advancements in the rise of med-tech + telemedicine, AI innovations, cultural trends such as the responses to COVID, and the need for medicine to better respond to diversity.
The momentum of evolution in the EHRs & EMRs space and its growth potential is substantial (5.5% annual growth rate from 2022-2030). With increasing adoption, and as large companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Oracle enter the market and challenge traditional players, there will be increasing pressure to innovate, which will improve EHR & EMR functionality, accessibility, and security. Many barriers still exist such as a lack of interoperability, complex diagnostic capabilities, and patient access to data that will only be solved with new innovative technologies and processes over many years. The rise of 5G+ tech, quantum computing, AI, Web 3.0, and the Metaverse will also have profound effects on the EHR & EMR landscape as they reshape the healthcare industry and digital media.
Trends of The Future
To provide clarity and de-risk the future of the EHR & EMR landscape for media professionals, we have broken out the innovation trends into five categories along with final thoughts on how marketers can capture value from the space in a transparent, ethical, and patient & HCP centric way.
The 5 categories are:
- Interoperability & Standardization
- AI & Machine Learning
- Wearables & Virtual Assistants
- 5G+ Tech, Blockchain, & The Metaverse
- Advertising Opportunities
Interoperability & Standardization
Current State: There is no national standard or law that ensures data interoperability between EHR systems. However, this does not mean complete stagnation on standardization, as California privacy laws are helping by developing patient data standards and 2022 Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program Requirements is increasing adoption of EHR. A handful of companies, such as Epic and Cerner, dominate the market and have created their own walled gardens, which creates the inability to have consistent formats to share data and causes confusion for medical professionals. “Standardization is also the biggest barrier to scaling the limited promotional opportunities that exist today, as every opportunity is customized to individual or small networks of EHRs,” according to Kristen Tappan, SVP of Media at CMI Media Group. Data standardization would improve system efficiency, effectiveness of the EHR systems collectively, reduce HCP & patient struggles, and increase promotional opportunities.
POV on the Future State: Interoperability & Standardization of EHR + EMR data systems will continue to be a needed source of innovation as the largest players in the space do not have an incentive to make the systems more accessible as it could threaten their market-share. Advancement of projects like OpenNotes, where patients have greater access to their EHR information, and Oracle’s purchase of Cerner, show signs of change in EHR & EMR systems becoming more interoperable, but without a national standard the solutions will likely not breakdown the data silos in the near-future.
AI & Machine Learning
Current State: Although there has been great advancement in the past 5-10 years, the EHR & EMR systems are designed with somewhat clunky technology that was built in a patchwork manner with often inefficient user-interfaces (UIs). Medical professionals often experience “alert fatigue” with EHR systems that are misinterpreting diagnoses and causing delays. The systems have difficulty understanding the cross-effects of drugs and diseases, which is limiting their use cases and benefits. There is also a growing need to factor in social determinants of health (ex. Demographics, education, climate exposure, etc.) that are difficult to access, which is leading to uneven and inaccurate diagnoses.
POV on the Future State: AI & Machine Learning will be a key area of innovation in the EHR & EMR space in the near and foreseeable future with Apple, Google, Oracle, and Amazon likely to make big waves in their cloud computing and machine learning capabilities as they expand their reach into healthcare, such as Google’s Care Studio software for HCPs that now has new searchable features by condition. New projects such as MedKnowts are also utilizing AI to create better EHRs. EHR & EMR systems will be expected to customize patient health responses when making decisions and medical professionals will push EHR & EMR companies to make the UIs easier to use while also being able to make accurate cross-effect diagnoses, which will rely on increasingly sophisticated AI to process the generated data. As alert fatigue lessons, the EHR environment will become more suitable for promotional messaging, with fewer distractions. Everything provided (promotional or non) within the workflow should be designed to be helpful and increase HCP productivity.
Wearables & Virtual Assistants
Current State: Many tech-enabled wearables, such as Apple Watches, can help people regularly track their health & medication behaviors and virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa are creating opportunities for patients to get customized health information from home. Telehealth advancements are creating new needs to share large levels of patient data directly from home, virtually, and/or from public locations. There is no universal system to integrate wearables data directly into EHR & EMR systems, with large hurdles around interoperability. HCPs currently want voice enabled data entry to free up their hands and the wearables market is expected to grow rapidly from a consumer standpoint (Compound Annual Growth Rate of 18% from 2021-2026) .
POV on the Future State: There will be many advancements in the Wearables & Virtual Assistants space over the next 2-3 + years that will enable patients to better track their health behaviors at home, coincide with the rise of Telemedicine, and free up more time for HCPs to focus on treatment in medical settings. Although there will be a significant increase in the health tracking capabilities there will continue to be obstacles to integrating this data into EHR + EMR systems, which will limit its use in diagnoses & advanced procedures until large-scale interoperability is established. Both start-ups such as Tyto Care home diagnostic tools & established companies such as the acquisition of home-health company Signify Health by CVS should make home healthcare more possible and increase the use cases of Wearables + Virtual Assistants in EHR & EMR systems. In the meantime, marketers can look to wearable partnerships outside of the EHR space to help patients understand their conditions and track their health needs or share branded communications based on relevant data triggers.
5G+, Blockchain, & The Metaverse
Current State: 5G+ capabilities are vastly increasing data capture and processing capabilities of healthcare systems in addition to enabling telehealth advancements such as video & remote surgeries. The use of blockchain tech in EHR & EMR is just beginning with several EHRs incorporating it to ensure security, scalability and confidentiality. The Metaverse on the other hand, creates an open & interactive digital ecosystem that has significant use cases for healthcare – some initial use cases involve surgical training and reproductive health . The Metaverse is currently underutilized in EHR, but with rapid advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) Tech and consumer adoption, this is an area of growth in healthcare, particularly for Telehealth.
POV on the Future State: Blockchain, The Metaverse, and 5G+ tech will greatly affect the dynamics between patients and healthcare providers by expanding Telehealth, data, and virtual patient-to-doctor interaction capabilities. The greatest effects from these changes on healthcare will not be felt for years to come with the focus of the next 2-3 years being the nascent use of this new tech to improve patient access to healthcare given the open-border and open-access opportunities of digital environments. For EHR & EMR, 5G+ tech and blockchain will continue being integrated to improve the flow, accuracy, and security of data, with advancements such as Souldbound Tokens (SBTs) possibly enabling greater identity control. Although the Metaverse is likely years away before reliable integrations can be established with EHR & EMR systems, examples of what this world could look like such as the launch of the DeHealth: The World’s First Healthacre Metaverse and House Calls VR give a glimpse of this future.
Advertising Opportunities
Current State: There are numerous EHR & EMR advertising opportunities, with the main areas broken out below. Many HCPs and patients find advertising presented during the EHR process to be intrusive given the sensitive nature of the space and the need for a vitally important job to be done, which creates a need for brands to focus on supportive, educational, and minimalized messaging rather than with traditional branding efforts. The ability to anonymously and privately target EHR & EMR users by disease state exists, with the prospect of greater patient control over health data in the future giving opportunities for patients to lead their own data conversations with organizations.
- Healthcare Portals
- Prescription Information
- Texts & Messaging
- Diagnostic Support & Alerts
- Education & Updates
POV on the Future State: The future of advertising around EHR & EMR systems to patients, HCPs, and pharmacists is bright, but this should be met with a good dose of caution as the channel will operate differently from other digital media channels such as display and video given the job-to-be-done nature of the EHR & EMR systems. To capture the most value while adhering to this sensitivity, brands should treat EHR & EMR as its own media channel complete with a unique creative message dedicated to providing support & education, limited messaging frequency to avoid oversaturation, and a multi-touch messaging strategy tied to reaching potential customers from when they first access the patient portals to supporting regimen adherence.
A multi-touch messaging strategy should be tailored to advertising locations within the workflow. The login screen may offer less intrusive opportunities for general branding, while messages within patient charts or prescription lookup pages should leverage EHR data to ensure relevance for both the HCP viewing and the patient they’re currently seeing, such as using HCP specialty and real-time ICD10 data to serve an Oncologist branded messaging explaining NCCN guidelines relevant to that patient’s specific cancer diagnosis. Post-Rx, consider sharing patient savings or support resources either with the physician in the EHR or directly with the patient via opt-in patient portal or SMS integrations.
Additionally, messaging opportunities for brands will expand such as increased text message-based patient support and the evolution of Augmented Reality (AR) advertising opportunities that can be directly embedded into web-based platforms such as through 8th Wall, which will create the ability to develop branded 3D experiences into the EHR & EMR process. This can create the ability show an HCP how to apply a medication in real-life scenarios with digital mapping that can match a patient’s unique body or showcase the innerworkings of the human body overlayed on a patient to provide detailed understandings of their condition, all of which can be launched from a mobile device. The anonymized data brands have access to will grow near exponentially as the EHR & EMR systems expand their capabilities and privacy-safe patient-owned and/or low-cost options become more available to medical professionals and brands.
“Pharma brands must recognize that EMR/EHR marketing is the equivalent to walking into a doctor’s back office or the examine room while they are with a patient and asking for a few minutes of their time. With that context in mind, the objective should always be about providing value and information that can help them in the moment. Therefore patient education information, patient starter kit resources, formulary coverage or savings information would be the most critical. Taking assets from other channels and sizing them for EHR projects a tone-deaf approach to this type of marketing.” – Troy Miles, SVP, Media
“In my opinion, adoption of these new, innovative technologies cannot fully come to fruition until there is consolidation, aggregation, and standardization of EMR & EHR platforms. Ad Networks, Mobile Ad Networks, and DSPs experienced a similar life cycle to become what they are today, and for Brands to fully take advantage of their capabilities (i.e. scale and data targeting). Until that begins to happen, Brands will need to continue building strategies around each individual EMR provider and the specific audience it reaches.” – Candice Piecora, Director, Media
Conclusion
There is no shortage of innovations in the EHR & EMR industry with rapid system evolutions on the horizon, leaving healthcare brands in a race to stay ahead of the competition in capturing value from the growing healthcare and data capabilities. Marketers should prepare for these changes by treating EHR & EMR systems as a unique media channel and ensure they not only understand the ad-tech options but also the associated patient & HCP mindsets in order to be supportive rather than intrusive. Brands should look at the rapidly advancing data capabilities as rich sources of consumer data with the potential to engage patients and HCPs directly around their healthcare needs and provide solutions in real-time. As more companies enter the EHR & EMR space and lower-cost options become more available, on platform advertising options should increase in tandem. The effects of blockchain, The Metaverse, and 5G+ tech that are likely to profoundly affect the internet as whole will also impact the EHR & EMR landscape, with the greatest consequences not likely to be felt for years to come.