Systems and methods for providing an inducement to purchase incident to a physician's prescription of medication
Systems and methods for providing targeted content to a patient who has received a prescription for medication. The systems and methods generally provide the content prior to the Point of Sale (POS) of the actual prescription allow patients to review the content and possibly act on it prior to actually obtaining the medication. Depending on embodiment, the content may be provided by a pharmacy at or around the time of dispensing or by a physician at or around the time of prescribing.
1. A method for inducing a patient to purchase a medication, the method comprising:
providing an electronic prescribing provider computer, said electronic prescribing provider computer being attached to the Internet and having content selection software running thereon;
providing an auxiliary computer, said auxiliary computer being attached to the Internet and periodically transmitting content to said electronic prescribing provider computer, said content providing an inducement for said patient to purchase a medication;
providing a physician's device;
having a physician enter prescription information into a physician's device, said prescription information indicating a medication to be prescribed to a patient in said physician's care;
at least a portion of said prescription information being sent from said physician's device to said electronic prescribing provider computer;
said selection software receiving said at least a portion of said prescription information and selecting content for said patient based on at least a portion of said at least a portion of said prescription information without said electronic prescription provider computer communicating with said auxiliary computer;
said electronic prescribing provider computer causing said content to be made available to said patient prior to said patient obtaining said prescribed medication.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said prescription information includes at least one of the following types of information: National Drug Code (NDC); patient's age, patient's gender, patient ID, patient contact information, diagnostic code, physician identifier, or prior patient behavioral data.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least a portion of said prescription information sent from said physician's device to said electronic prescribing provider computer is sent via a physician's server in communication with both said physician's device and said electronic prescribing provider computer.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said physician's server includes content requesting software which communicates said at least a portion of said prescription information to said content selecting software.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said causing said content to be made available to said patient comprises said content being electronically transmitted to a patient access computer.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein said causing said content to be made available to said patient comprises said content being electronically transmitted to said physician's device.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said causing said content to be made available to said patient comprises said content being electronically transmitted to a pharmacy computer.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein said content and said prescription are both provided to said patient by said physician.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein said causing said content to be made available to said patient comprises said content being provided to a patient in conjunction with a prescription for said prescribed medication.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase said prescribed medication.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a brand name of said prescribed medication.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a generic version of said prescribed medication.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a medication which is not said prescribed medication.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a product in addition to said prescribed medication.
15. A method for inducing a patient to purchase a product incident on their being prescribed a medication, the method comprising:
having a physician enter prescription information into a physician's device as part of prescribing a medication to a patient;
providing a physician's server being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving communication from said physician's device;
providing an electronic prescribing provider computer server running content requesting software and being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving information from said physician's server;
providing an auxiliary computer running selection software, said auxiliary computer also being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving information from said electronic prescribing computer;
said physician's device sending at least a portion of said prescription information to said physician's server which in turn sends at least a portion of said prescription medication to said electronic prescribing provider computer;
said content requesting software forming a first data structure including at least a portion of said prescription information received by said electronic prescribing computer and transmitting said first data structure to said auxiliary computer;
said selection software receiving said first data structure and from at least a portion of said first data structure selecting content for said patient, said content providing an inducement for said patient to purchase a product due to said medication being prescribed to said patient;
said selection software sending a second data structure to said electronic prescribing provider computer, said second data structure being indicative of said content;
in response to said second data structure being received, said content requesting software causing said content to be made available to said patient prior to said patient obtaining said medication.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein said obtained information includes at least one of the following types of information: National Drug Code (NDC); patient's age, patient's gender, patient ID, patient contact information, diagnostic code, physician identifier, or prior patient behavioral data.
17. The method of claim 15 wherein said physician's server causes said content to be printed.
18. The method of claim 15 wherein said content is provided to a patient in conjunction with said prescription.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein said content and said prescription are both provided to said patient by said physician.
20. The method of claim 15 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a brand name of said medication.
21. The method of claim 15 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a generic version of said medication.
22. The method of claim 15 wherein said content comprises an inducement to purchase a product in addition to said medication.
23. The method of claim 15 wherein said electronic proscribing provider computer also sends at least a portion of said prescription information to a pharmacy computer.
24. The method of claim 15 wherein said electronic proscribing provider computer also sends at least a portion of said prescription information to a patient access computer.
25. A method for inducing a patient to purchase a product incident on their being prescribed a medication, the method comprising:
having a physician enter prescription information into a physician's device as part of prescribing a medication to a patient;
providing a physician's server being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving communication from said physician's device;
providing an electronic prescribing provider computer server and being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving information from said physician's server;
providing an auxiliary computer running selection software, said auxiliary computer also being attached to the Internet and periodically transmitting information from said electronic prescribing computer;
said physician's device sending at least a portion of said prescription information to said physician's server which in turn sends at least a portion of said prescription medication to said electronic prescribing provider computer;
said selection software receiving said at least a portion of said prescription information and selecting content for said patient based on at least a portion of said at least a portion of said prescription information without said electronic prescription provider computer communicating with said auxiliary computer;
said electronic prescribing provider computer causing said content to be made available to said patient prior to said patient obtaining said prescribed medication.
26. A method for inducing a patient to purchase a product incident on their being prescribed a medication, the method comprising:
having a physician enter prescription information into a physician's device as part of prescribing a medication to a patient;
providing an electronic prescribing provider computer server running content requesting software and being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving information from said physician's device;
providing an auxiliary computer running selection software, said auxiliary computer also being attached to the Internet and capable of receiving information from said electronic prescribing computer;
said physician's device sending at least a portion of said prescription information to said electronic prescribing provider computer;
said content requesting software forming a first data structure including at least a portion of said prescription information received by said electronic prescribing computer and transmitting said first data structure to said auxiliary computer;
said selection software receiving said first data structure and from at least a portion of said first data structure selecting content for said patient, said content providing an inducement for said patient to purchase a product due to said medication being prescribed to said patient;
said selection software sending a second data structure to said electronic prescribing provider computer, said second data structure being indicative of said content;
in response to said second data structure being received, said content requesting software causing said content to be made available to said patient prior to said patient obtaining said medication.