CME provider tries to target what you treat

A firm is mining insurance claims in an attempt to gear specific educational programs to the physicians most likely to want them.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Feb. 23, 2004.

The next time you synchronize your handheld computer with your server, you may see this message -- "If you see a 64-year-old patient with a history of fractures, what do you do?"

The message will be sent via ePocrates' medical information database software and is intended for physicians who are most interested in continuing medical education on osteoporosis.

Advanced Concepts Institute, a business unit within the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, will use the ePocrates messaging system to find out if it can successfully target physicians for particular CME topics based on their patients' insurance claims history.

They also want to know whether messaging physicians via handhelds is an effective way to promote CME. If such a practice catches on, physicians may find a number of CME offers targeted to issues more suitable to their practices.

"A lot of CME offers that go out to physicians are a complete blanket mailing," said Erin L. Murphy, senior research analyst for ACI. "Why offer osteoporosis CME to pediatricians? We're trying to reduce noise. This will go to primary care physicians who are treating adults and [to] ob-gyns."

The research group is using claims data from Aetna, scanning it for patients with particular problems, then targeting the patients' physicians to receive CME related to those conditions. Eli Lilly and Co. is sponsoring the study.

The physicians targeted will be further limited to ePocrates subscribers, since that will be the only software used to contact physicians during the pilot.