A large Point of Care (PoC) Publisher client partnered with Symphony Health, an ICON plc company, to assess the effectiveness of an unbranded PoC marketing campaign for a treatment for cardiovascular disease, targeting hospital-affiliated physicians across the United States. The campaign leveraged printed condition guides designed to engage both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients at critical decision-making moments within the hospital setting. Using a facility address list provided by the PoC publisher and a collaboratively defined market scope, Symphony Health conducted a comprehensive analysis to evaluate campaign effectiveness.

• The campaign was targeted using third party facility addresses, requiring Symphony Health to carefully identify all exposed healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients using affiliations and longitudinal patient data.
• The PoC publisher aimed for a high level of statistical confidence in the results, which involved strict accounting for any potential confounding factors between the test and control groups.

1. Data integration

The Symphony team developed a tailored solution to identify patients exposed to the hospital campaign. Starting from third party addresses, Symphony applied fuzzy matching logic, utilising algorithms to calculate a similarity score between these client addresses and Symphony CustomerSource® facility addresses—accounting for variations such as typos, misspellings, and other inconsistencies. This data was integrated with our CustomerSource® HCP affiliations and Integrated Dataverse (IDV®) longitudinal claims data to identify HCPs and patients exposed to campaign.

2. Advanced analytical techniques

To measure the campaign’s effectiveness, Symphony applied a combination of statistical and machine learning (ML) methods. ML techniques were used to identify comparable patient groups based on a wide range of attributes, including:

• Demographics: Age, gender, and sex
• Medical History: Prescription, procedure, and diagnosis records
• Provider Information: HCPs visited in the recent past
• Promotional Activity: Client-provided data such as sales calls and sample distributions

Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was employed to pair test patients with control patients, ensuring comparability. A Z-test was then conducted to determine the statistical significance of differences in conversion rates between the two groups.

3. Campaign impact analysis

Following the campaign, Symphony conducted a patient conversion lift analysis using three key performance indicators (KPIs):

• New to Brand (NTB): Patients with no history of the specific cardiovascular disease treatment in the past 12 months
• Continued Patients: Patients with a history of using the specific cardiovascular disease treatment who continued filling scripts during the campaign period
• Switched Patients: Patients with other prior PCSK9 inhibitor market prescriptions who
  switched to the specific cardiovascular disease treatment during the campaign

This structured approach enabled a comprehensive evaluation of the campaign’s influence on patient behaviour and brand adoption.

• Significant Conversion Uplift: The specific cardiovascular disease treatment demonstrated a notable increase in patient conversion across all three categories—New, Switch, and Continue—with statistical significance exceeding 99%.

• Improved Prescribing Behaviour Across Specialties: All specialties showed meaningful positive shifts in prescribing patterns, with Cardiology and Endocrinology leading in overall prescription activity.

This case study demonstrates the power of targeted PoC marketing in hospital settings to influence both prescribing patterns and patient behaviour. The campaign, executed by a large PoC Publisher client and measured by Symphony Health, achieved statistically significant conversion lifts and enhanced engagement across key specialties. By combining precise data integration, advanced analytics, and condition-focused messaging, the initiative successfully navigated complex healthcare environments and delivered measurable impact. These results underscore the value of strategic PoC campaigns in driving meaningful outcomes for pharmaceutical brands and improving patient access to innovative therapies.