DMD Intelligence

DMD’s Lab Report: The Art & Science of Healthcare Email explores insights, trends, and obstacles affecting healthcare email. From strategy to creative, deployment to reporting, we aim to address the most pressing issues healthcare marketers face.

In the Lab Report, we aim to keep healthcare marketers apprised of significant changes surrounding email marketing. As Virginia becomes the third state to enact state-level data privacy legislation, this news is worthy of “front page” status for April’s edition.

On March 2, 2021, Virginia governor Ralph Northam signed into law the “Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act” (CDPA). It follows in the footsteps of California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a second California law—the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)—and Nevada’s SB220.

Virginia’s law introduces new wrinkles into the current U.S. data privacy landscape. Here are some key points for healthcare marketers to consider.

Last year around this time we presented on data privacy trends, regulations, and predictions for 2020. Some of those predictions didn’t materialize for various reasons; COVID-19 included. State and federal legislators had a lot on their plates, so less urgent policies were put on hold.

However, we did see a trickle-down effect from California’s proactive stance on data privacy. An increasing number of organizations—including those in healthcare—are stepping up to meet consumers’ data privacy demands. These companies are not waiting for legislative action. Rather, they’ve anticipated the inevitable and understand the benefits of establishing trust with their target audiences.

Our recent webinar, “Data Privacy 2021: The Journey Continues,” reflected this growing trend in data privacy legislation. Here are some key highlights of the presentation, which focused on state- and federal-level legislation, how data privacy impacts healthcare marketers, and what to expect in the coming months.

2020 represented an unprecedented year for many reasons. 

COVID-19 loomed large in everyone’s life and proved to be greatly influential for healthcare marketing. DMD’s analysis of the more than 32 million emails deployed from October 31, 2019 to October 31, 2020 revealed informative trends. These emails were sent to U.S.-based physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants, nurses, and pharmacists on behalf of pharmaceutical companies and brands.

Our 2020 Email Year in Review report summarizes year-to-year trends, delves into engagement metrics influenced by COVID-19, and provides a look to what may be ahead for healthcare marketers in 2021.

Innovation requires creativity, originality, and forward thinking. At DMD, we continuously develop new solutions to help our clients reach more of their healthcare business goals. One of the distinguishing characteristics of DMD’s prowess in this area is our in-house engineering teams. By pioneering new technologies and new capabilities, our internal teams have been instrumental in creating new opportunities in digital marketing that our clients can use for competitive advantage.

I sat down with Matthew Raggard, Vice President of Product Development, to get his insider take on a recent important achievement; the award of a patent for DMD’s AIM (Audience Identity Manager) XR technology.

Today, there is one critical factor for ensuring the digital multi-channel marketing strategy is effective: the email address. To truly engage healthcare providers wherever they are online, and deliver a consistent and engaging experience, marketers know they need an approach that incorporates many digital channels. It is equally important to deliver that experience to the right audience. 

On Wednesday, March 25, I’ll be presenting the webinar “One Digital Key to Rule Them All,” demonstrating how email addresses can help you achieve more in your multi-channel digital marketing. Read on for background on what I’ll be covering during this live event.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is now the law of the land. California is home to 12% of the country’s consumers, as well as 12% of physicians. Avoiding California is not an option for most healthcare marketers.

On October 10, 2019, the California Attorney General released draft regulations intended to provide clarification around the implementation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These regulations offer important guidance to companies that license personal information such as email addresses.

Chris Paquette is the co-founder and CEO of DeepIntent, a marketing technology company that operates a specialized programmatic marketplace to improve communication between healthcare brands, patients, and verified healthcare professionals.

Chris draws on his multifaceted expertise to bring a uniquely valuable perspective to healthcare marketing. After graduating from Binghamton University with a bioengineering degree, Chris launched his martech career. Prior to founding DeepIntent, Chris was a Data Scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he developed systems that leveraged bleeding-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve patient experiences and outcomes. Chris co-founded DeepIntent in 2015; under his leadership, the company has grown from a mere idea to a global operation that proudly serves several major pharmaceutical and Fortune 500 companies out of its offices in New York, California, and India.

Outside of the office, Chris is an avid traveler and enjoys the outdoors; some of his favorite hikes were in Southeast Asia and Chilean Patagonia. Chris currently resides in New York City with his fiancé, Kelly.

Jon Bigelow is Executive Director of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, representing health communicators across advertising, marketing, medical communications, medical publishing, and digital media. He keeps Coalition members informed on evolving regulations and legislation that may aid, or impede, the free flow of accurate and credible medical information.

Jon previously was CEO and President of KnowledgePoint360 Group, a leading provider of multichannel medical communications, digital and strategic consulting, benchmarking services, and workflow solutions with 18 agencies across the U.S., U.K., and Germany. Earlier, he was President of Cliggott Publishing; founding Editor of a series of innovative controlled circulation clinical journals; and President of the Association of Medical Media. He provides strategic support to businesses and serves on boards at two companies and an ocean sciences laboratory.

In the last nine months, the data privacy landscape has evolved at an accelerated pace--and shows no signs of slowing.