Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Fascinating (and scary) article about ads and EMR's

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2013/01/21/bisa0121.htm

A couple of my favorite quotes:
"Because EHR data give marketers the ability to target messages in a more granular way to the specific physician, it?s very effective for marketers, Padron said. For example, the system can identify the condition a physician is looking at and automatically pop up a drug that can treat it. Plus, he added, in the EHR, advertisers can be assured that it?s a physician who is looking, unlike online sites that may not authenticate whether a user is a doctor."

"41% of physicians using an EHR had a cloud-based system in 2011....A cloud-based system is necessary for EHR advertising, because a system hosted on a local server in the office doesn?t give the access advertisers would need to push ads onto the doctor?s computer."

"there has been such a high demand for EHR advertising that Practice Fusion hired an in-house ad sales team to work directly with the advertisers."

"In the past 1? years, the idea of EHR-placed ads went from a low level of awareness in the marketplace to a point in which more than 85% of the major pharmaceutical companies are running ads with Practice Fusion....Practice Fusion has an ad-free version of its EHR that physicians would pay a monthly subscription fee to use. Gursky said less than 1% of Practice Fusion?s clients use the ad-free system."

expect something similar here in AC?

Huh? why should we expect something similar in AC? I don't think there are going to be any ads in the cloud version. In fact, given all that I know about the users of AC from reading these user boards, I can't imagine there being ads in AC.

With regards to the article... I'm getting a little fed up with marketers and advertisers trying to invade every area of life.

I don't know, I use Google all the time, for personal & professional searches. I read an online newspaper. And I never look at or click on the non-helpful and generally irrelevant ads in the right column. The on-line advertising industry is going to have to come up with a much more intrusive model to bother me. If the software I'm using is good and less costly, I don't care about ads.

John, if those ads did not work, Google would be bankrupt. We have had discussions here already about drug reps. A number of our colleagues regularly interact with these folks and have voiced opinions stating how informative they are about new drugs. I strongly disagree, and refuse to see them, feeling that they are dishonest and intrusive. Yet, they clearly make a lot of money for the pharmaceutical industry or they would no longer exist, and all providers would only use The Medical Letter or UpToDate to make treatment decisions. The technique in the article is another extension; one more way to assure that a physician writes for a specific, brand name drug regardless of its benefit over less costly and/or more effective options. And I think it will work just fine.

adds in AC maybe not, maybe so
new owner so could a full subscription price no ad version be available along with a less expensive/free ad infested version be in consideration?
I don't think Pri-med bought AC for it's current inherent cash flow.

David, I am sure that online ads work, as you said there is plenty of income earned by Google. But do context specific ads work, presumably what we might see in a "sponsored" EMR?

I agree that when I am looking to buy an item, I almost always start with an internet search, and I click on a lot of sponsored links. But if I am reading a reference article, or completing a patient encounter, will I be clicking on ad links? I realize this may be typical for the average, bored internet-browsing office worker, but I am focused & running at a fast clip in my office, so unlikely for me.

I think I won't succumb to web ad wandering in EMR software I use. However, an intrusive pop-up would be the last straw.

I have found ads placed in material which I am reading to be especially annoying. I'm sure they register me as clicking on them, but its by mistake. Its why I stopped using Yahoo email and went to Google mail. Now G-mail is putting in some ads and I of course find it very annoying.

I would really hate for the specialized software tool that i use each day to display the never-to-be-sufficiently-darned ads as I'm trying to work.

Historically the pharmaceutical industry has maintained that targeted marketing to doctors is effective. Doctors generally claim that it is not. Each of us individually says "I would never be influenced" by a pen or a lunch or a trip or an ad. Meanwhile, Big Pharma remains convinced. They invest millions to reach us. I think we have to respect that commitment; they must be seeing results, or they wouldn't continue to make the investment. The article describes ads embedded in the EMR as "the 'holy grail' of marketing opportunities". I find it a pretty appalling prospect to open your EMR and see ads which are targeted, based on the diagnoses of your patients and your past prescribing habits.
I don't foresee that happening with AC; it is one reason that I would never use Practice Fusion.

Wayne - browser plug-ins such as ad-block and flask-block are your friend. Not only do the prevent the ads, but they speed your browsing up as a side-benefit.

Every once in a while, when I am on a virgin machine that hasn't been properly setup yet, I am reminded of what other people suffer through regularly. Awful experience.

I can relate. Going on youtube without adblock plus is the most frustrating thing. Having to watch 5 minute advertisements for 30 second video.

I'm not sure the distinction between an ad and a "consult" is as clear as it used to be. Pri-Med is very good at marketing, disguised as "education" and consultation -- and to be fair, it is both. But the game I play with myself and colleagues when I go to a Pri-Med lecture is "which drug company sponsored this particular talk".

Everyone tells me the "future" is the "Cloud". AC has a cloud version, I believe, but being old fashioned, I still want the server under my own roof.

However, it seems quite likely that future development of AC will be in the Cloud version (by Pri-Med) and the locally hosted version will continue for a while, but allowed to slide into irrelevance and decrepitude.

In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if AC-7.0x will only be a Pri-Med/Cloud version (with very clever ads that are very cleverly disguised) and AC 6.xx will be the last one we can have in our own offices.