Method for direct-to-patient marketing and clinical trials recruitment with outcomes tracking and method for confidential appointment booking
Generally, the present invention is directed to marketing techniques and more particularly to direct-to-patient marketing for medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, and biotechnology products. The approach presented here may also be applied to the recruitment of patients for clinical trials evaluation including tracking outcomes after treatment. An embodiment of the invention includes the steps of finding potential patients, qualifying potential patients, connecting potential patients to preferred physicians, and tracking the patient's progress through the appointment phase and tracking outcomes.
1. An electronic method performed on a computer for booking appointments for a client's medical product or therapy for a patient via a marketer's web site, comprising:
a. finding potential patients who are suitable candidates for a specific medical condition including the steps of;
b. interactively qualifying interested parties utilizing predetermined criteria
c. referring the qualified interested party to at least one preferred health care professional capable of offering the client's specific product comprising;
1) electronically querying by a computer, in advance, with preferred health care professionals which can provide medical services utilizing the client's product or therapy,
2) electronically querying by a computer a further database of said preferred health care professionals providing the patient with a preferred health care professional most appropriate to the patient;
in advance of booking appointments, electronically contracting, by a computer, with preferred health care professionals to obtain pre-approved appointment slots which may be scheduled by the marketer; and storing said data in marketer's data base;
electronically querying the patient to schedule an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the data base of pre-approved appointment slots; and
scheduling an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the database of pre-approved appointment slots.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said preferred health care professional providing step is based on the professional most geographically convenient to the patient.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said preferred healthcare professional providing step includes providing by a computer professionals' names based on objective criteria associated with selection of professionals stored in a database.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said qualifying step includes:
interactively querying the interested party as to the potential patient's current medical treatment with respect to subject matter of the web site.
5. An electronic method performed on a computer for booking appointments for a client's medical product or therapy for a patient via a marketer's web site, comprising:
a. finding potential patients who are suitable candidates for a specific medical condition including the steps of;
1) posting an informational website with information relevant to the specific medical condition;
2) providing by a computer interactive technical assistance reachable via the site to assist interested parties with questions relating generally to said specific medical condition,
b. by a computer qualifying interested parties utilizing predetermined criteria;
c. by a computer connecting the qualified interested party to at least one preferred health care professional capable of offering the client's specific product comprising;
1) contracting in advance with preferred health care professionals which can provide medical services utilizing client's product or therapy,
2) by a computer querying a database of said preferred health care professionals
3) by a computer providing the patient with a preferred health care professional most appropriate to patient;
in advance of booking appointments by a computer, contracting with preferred health care professionals to obtain pre-approved appointment slots which may be scheduled by the marketer; and storing said data in marketer's data base;
querying by a computer the patient to schedule an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the data base of pre-approved appointment slots;
scheduling an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the database of pre-approved appointment slots;
issuing by a computer a confirmatory communication from marketer's database to preferred health care professional, referring to the patient by indirect data so as not to transmit name identifiable patient data over a communications channel, confirming that the time slot provided by contract is now engaged and blocking that slot from further use;
in response to said confirmatory communication, allowing the health care professional to query by a computer the marketer's secure portal and obtain patient data corresponding to that patient for said time slot;
monitoring by a computer the secure portal to confirm that the health care professional has accessed and retrieved the patient data.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said preferred health care professional providing step is based on the health care professional most geographically convenient to the patient.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein said preferred health care professional providing step includes providing health care professional names based on objective criteria associated with selection of professionals from the database.
8. The method according to claim 5 wherein the finding step includes:
in response to a contact by the interested party, interactively by a computer, collecting information from said interested party concerning as to how they found the web site; and periodically optimizing the website by modifying its contents in response to survey information to increase a probability that interested parties searching the internet for information about the specific medical condition will be directed to the site.
9. The method according to claim 5 wherein the qualifying step includes:
interactively querying the interested party as to the potential patient's medical condition with respect to subject matter of the web site;
1) interactively by a computer querying the interested part as to the potential patient's current medical treatment with respect to the subject matter of the web site; and
2) verifying that specific alternative medical options for treating the patient's medical conditions, not supported by the client's product or therapy, have been considered.
10. The method according to claim 5 wherein the connecting step includes:
upon obtaining patient consent, recording by a computer patient information in marketer's database and making patient information available only to preferred health care professionals by way of a secure portal.