With healthcare reform at the forefront right now and healthcare costs on the rise, it is a necessity that the healthcare industry uses every technology at its disposal to cut waste and maximize resources.

So without entering the fray on the larger question of reform, let's explore how something as common and widely accepted as CRM technologies are being employed to improve marketing, improve care and reduce costs.

Physician Targeting in Pharma

Historically, most pharmaceutical companies marketed through physician targeting by assessing the number of total prescriptions and new prescriptions each physician wrote per week data purchased from information vendors. The physicians are then "deciled" into 10 groups based on their prescription writing patterns. Higher-decile groups—those that have prescribed highly in the past—are then targeted for more promotional calls.

This traditional strategy sounds logical enough—and it is culturally ingrained in most organizations—but there are several problems with it: