Patent Application
20150379233
Healthcare information drives the goals and practices of many different categories of healthcare participants. These include pharmaceutical companies looking to raise awareness of newly launched products or to raise market share for established brands; health insurance companies who are participating in state-run public exchanges, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and who need to raise awareness of their services among the uninsured; and retail and pharmacy chains who are looking for local area competitive positioning and who want to drive increased repeat business.
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to leverage healthcare information to achieve the goals of participants on a broad scale, such as through mobile advertising to potential customers.
While methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media are described herein by way of examples and embodiments, those skilled in the art recognize that methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for targeting pharmaceutical advertisements are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and description are not intended to be limited to the particular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Any headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used herein, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to) rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.
Applicants have discovered a way of targeting pharmaceutical advertisements which leverages geographically-referenced health condition and/or health prevalence data and geographically-referenced healthcare plan information, including formulary information corresponding to healthcare plans, to target advertisements for a target drug in a target geographic area.
At step 102, healthcare plan information corresponding to each geographic area in the plurality of geographic areas is received. The healthcare plan information can include information regarding healthcare plans corresponding to residents in each of the geographic areas. For example, the healthcare plan information can include the plan provider and/or plan type for residents in each of the geographic areas. The healthcare plan information includes formulary information corresponding to at least a subset of the residents in each of the plurality of geographic areas, the formulary information specifying the availability of one or more of drugs. For example, the healthcare plan information can be the percentage of residents in each geographic area that are eligible for a particular drug. This percentage can take into account the formulary information associated with the healthcare plans for the residents in each geographic area.
The formulary information can include a list of generic and brand name drugs that are preferred by the healthcare plans in the healthcare plan information and can specify the availability of one or more drugs. For example, the formulary information can specify the availability of one or more drugs for each of the healthcare plans in the healthcare plan information. The formulary information can also include additional data such as copay costs for assorted drugs, provider costs, patient costs, etc.
The formulary information can include multiple lists, or tiers, of drugs and corresponding coverage amounts for each list, or tier. For example, the formulary information can specify that Healthcare Prescription Plan XYZ has four tiers of drugs with varying levels of coverage. Tier 1 drugs may be completely paid for by the insurance provider with no out-of-pocket costs for the patient. Tier 2 drugs may require a co-payment of 10% of the price of the drug. Tier 3 drugs may require a co-payment of 50% of the price of the drug. Tier 4 drugs may be completely uncovered and require full payment by the patient. Many variations are possible, and these examples are not intended to be limiting. Formulary information can also include drug classes and specify generic versions of various drugs, which can fall into different tiers than name-brand versions. The formulary information can include formulary information which has not been implemented yet but which is scheduled to be implemented in the future. For example, the formulary information can include a list of changes for the upcoming year or other future period of time.
At step 104, a target geographic area for a target drug is determined based at least in part on a combination of the health condition information and the formulary information. Additionally, multiple target geographic areas for multiple target drugs can be determined based at least in part on a combination of the health condition information and the formulary information. For example, if each of the geographic areas are states, and the target drug is Ambien™, then an analysis of the share of market of Ambien™ in each state can be conducted to identify states where demand is high but share of market is low. If those states include New York and Texas, then the resulting target geographic areas and target drugs can be, for example, Texas:Ambien, New York:Ambien, etc.
The target drug can be selected or entered by a user, or can be automatically determined based on a combination of the health condition information and the formulary information.
At step 105, a representation of the target geographic area for the target drug is transmitted. This representation can include any combination of textual and graphical elements. For example, a map can be transmitted with the target geographic area (or areas) highlighted, colored, or otherwise emphasized. Additionally or alternatively, a list including the target geographic area (or multiple target geographic areas can be transmitted).
Additionally, an advertisement for the target drug can be transmitted to one or more potential consumers of the target geographic area. Potential consumers can include individuals in a target geographic area, residents of the target geographic area, medical professionals who do business the target geographic area, such as doctors or nurses, or any other persons with ties to the target geographic area. The advertisement can be transmitted to devices of the potential consumers, such as in a mobile application or mobile web page on a mobile device, a browser web page on a computing device, or through some other means of communication, such as text message or email. Additionally, the potential consumers in the target geographic area can be selected based on demographic information, such as age, gender, income, location of residence within the geographic area, proximity to a doctor's office, proximity to a pharmacy, current location, etc. Additionally, results of previous advertisements or ad campaigns can be utilized to adjust or modify the determination of target geographic areas or ad delivery. For example, the results of a previous campaign for a specific target drug can be used to improve targeting of ads for that target drug in the future.
Each geographic area in the plurality of geographic areas can correspond to one or more of a state, a county, a zip code, a city, an address, a facility, or any other unit of area or geographical indicator. Optionally, a user can select how to define the geographic areas, such as through a user interface. Additionally, multiple tiers of geographic areas can be defined depending on user preferences and outlook for the marketing campaign. For example, a user can view a national map in which each of geographic areas corresponds to a state. After selecting a state, the user can view a state map in which each of the geographic areas corresponds to a county, and so on.
The target geographic area for the target drug can also be determined based on the total number of available ad impressions for each geographic area. For example, if an urban area offers a higher total number of available ad impressions than an otherwise comparable rural area, then the urban area can be selected as the target geographic area.
Additionally, step 201 can include evaluating the percentage of residents that have various potential target health conditions. These potential target health conditions can be provided by the user or automatically generated based on received health prevalence and health condition data. Additionally, different numerical metrics can be used in addition to or in place of a percentage. For example, a health condition prevalence index can be computed for each geographic area.
At step 202, potential target geographic areas are identified. The potential target geographic areas can be identified based on the percentages (or other numerical metrics) for each geographic area. A geographic area can be identified as a potential target geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the corresponding percentage of residents that have the target health condition for that geographic area is greater than a predetermined threshold. Alternatively, if the numeral metric is an index, a geographic area can be identified as a potential target geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the health condition index is greater than a predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold can be provided by a user through a user interface or can be automatically determined depending on the target health condition.
For example, as shown in
At step 402 at least one of the potential target geographic areas is designated as the target geographic area for the target drug. This designation of a target geographic area can based at least in part on a determination that the corresponding percentage of residents that have a healthcare plan which covers the target drug for that geographic area is greater than a predetermined threshold. Alternatively, if the numeral metric is an index, a geographic area can be identified as a potential target geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the health condition index is greater than a predetermined threshold.
The predetermined threshold can be provided by the user via a user interface. For example, a user can indicate that they are only interested in geographic areas where greater than 75% of the population has coverage for a particular drug. Additionally, coverage can include full or partial coverage, such as partial coverage which requires a healthcare plan beneficiary to provide a copayment for the drug. Users can customize the criteria for selecting a target geographic area based on healthcare plan information and the target drug, such as by specifying that residents whose out-of-pocket costs for the target drug are below a predetermined amount should be considered covered residents. Coverage does not require that all of the costs of a particular drug are covered by the insurance provider, and the definition of coverage can be customized by the user. Using the earlier example of a prescription plan with four tiers of coverage, a user can specify that they consider coverage to be any drugs that fall within the first two tiers (either free or a 10% co-payment). Alternatively, coverage can be defined based on out-of-pocket costs, such that drugs which have associated out-of-pocket costs less than a predetermined amount are considered to be covered. This predetermined amount can be user-defined.
As discussed earlier, it is possible to have more than one target drug which is designed to treat the target health condition. The healthcare coverage percentage for the additional target drugs can be determined as well. Turning to
Additionally, it is also possible that a second potential target geographic area meets the requirements for a target drug where a first potential target geographic area did not. Returning to
One or more user interfaces can be presented to the user to allow them to make selections, enter thresholds or criteria, filter or select the data received and organized by the system, and perform the steps described in the above-mentioned methods. For example, a map of the plurality of geographic areas can be transmitted to the user including indicators corresponding to assorted geo-referenced data, such as the percentage of residents in each area that have a particular health condition, or the percentage of residents in each area that have healthcare coverage for a particular drug.
The system can also include interfaces to allow users to specify conditions, such as health conditions, healthcare plan conditions, drug coverage conditions, and various thresholds as described earlier. For example, a condition can be used to determine a percentage (or an index) of users that have a healthcare plan which covers a particular drug or a percentage (or an index) of users that have particular health condition. These conditions or measures can be stacked to identify a target geographic area, target drug, and/or target demographic as described earlier in the application and the results from applying these conditions can be shown in any of the interfaces described above, organized according to geographic areas.
Of course, the functionality described in
Specific health data is then grouped by larger health issue such as “cancer” (30). Defaults campaign settings (e.g. duration, budget, cost per thousand impressions—CPM) are specified (40). A grayed version of a map of the U.S. showing state and county outlines is rendered (50); a listing of the available health data measures is rendered (60); campaign details reflecting defaults are rendered (70); and campaign impression counts are rendered using an animated split flat display (80). Selecting a health data measure (120) triggers a number of updates to the interface. The data is quantized using a kMeans algorithm and these quanta are mapped to a pre-selected color palette (110) whereby the map is then re-rendered (50) using the new color scheme to show the spatial distribution of the health data. A health measure histogram is then rendered by depicting the frequency of the health measure quantized into 20 equal bins (140). Text which describes the national average and average for the selected geography is generated from the data (150). A pie chart indicating the number and percentage of geographic entities targeted is rendered (180). A concentration index chart is rendered (170) by averaging the population adjusted concentration rates for the targeted geographic entities. The health data can be filtered (180) which triggers re-rendered updates to (150, 160, 170, 50, and 80). Editing of the campaign details (130) updates the split flap display of campaign impressions: (80). Interaction with the map is supported by hovering over different geographic entities (90) which reveals an information display showing the health data rate, impressions available, and concentration index for that entity; and by clicking on the map which triggers a zoomed in view of the geographic entity (100). After adjusting the campaign and filters a description of the campaign may be exported for further processing (190).
One or more of the above-described techniques can be implemented in or involve one or more computer systems.
With reference to
A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 1000 includes storage 1040, one or more input devices 1050, one or more output devices 1060, and one or more communication connections 1090. An interconnection mechanism 1070, such as a bus, controller, or network interconnects the components of the computing environment 1000. Typically, operating system software or firmware (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 1000, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 1000.
The storage 1040 may be removable or non-removable, and includes magnetic disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs, CD-RWs, DVDs, or any other medium which can be used to store information and which can be accessed within the computing environment 1000. The storage 1040 may store instructions for the software 1080.
The input device(s) 1050 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard, mouse, pen, trackball, touch screen, or game controller, a voice input device, a scanning device, a digital camera, remote control, or another device that provides input to the computing environment 1000. The output device(s) 1060 may be a display, television, monitor, printer, speaker, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 1000.
The communication connection(s) 1090 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, audio or video information, or other data in a modulated data signal. A modulated data signal is a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired or wireless techniques implemented with an electrical, optical, RF, infrared, acoustic, or other carrier.
Implementations can be described in the general context of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media are any available media that can be accessed within a computing environment. By way of example, and not limitation, within the computing environment 1000, computer-readable media include memory 1020, storage 1040, communication media, and combinations of any of the above.
Of course,
Having described and illustrated the principles of our invention with reference to the described embodiment, it will be recognized that the described embodiment can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. It should be understood that the programs, processes, or methods described herein are not related or limited to any particular type of computing environment, unless indicated otherwise. Various types of general purpose or specialized computing environments may be used with or perform operations in accordance with the teachings described herein. Elements of the described embodiment shown in software may be implemented in hardware and vice versa.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of our invention may be applied, we claim as our invention all such embodiments as may come within the scope and spirit of the disclosure and equivalents thereto.
