Rethinking the Starting Point for HCP Engagement

For decades, HCP targeting has followed a familiar sequence: analyze historical claims, rank HCPs by volume, build a target list, and focus engagement on the names at the top.

It is a well-established model, but it rests on several assumptions: that the prescriber is the decision-maker, that a claim accurately reflects an event of care, and that past volume is the best indicator of future relevance.

But what if those assumptions only show part of the picture?

That is the question at the center of my upcoming presentation at Reuters Pharma Customer Engagement USA. It also points to a wider points to a wider question. Are we doing enough to ensure that every patient is given the opportunity to get the best treatment?

Claims don’t equate to a patient's experience

A claim is a billing record, not a clinical record. It can tell us who was paid and for what, but it cannot always tell us what is happening to a patient. If you have ever built a targeting plan based on claims data, you are relying on these fundamental beliefs:

1.    A diagnosis code shows what was billed, but it does not necessarily provide a complete picture of what is happening clinically.

2.    The absence of a code does not mean that an event of care did not happen. Important moments can occur through referrals, laboratory testing, clinical conversations, and specialist follow-up without appearing clearly in a traditional claims-based view.

3.    Your claims data provides you enough coverage to build a strategy.

When teams build the list, direct their people and resources toward it, measure the resulting activity, and refine the model, it becomes a self-fulfilling loop. The process can look successful, but we must ask ourselves: did our strategy begin with the right HCPs?

Why claims-based HCP targeting can miss relevant HCPs

As a patient moves from the first signs of disease through diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management, different HCPs may influence their care at different moments. The HCP most visible in historical claims may not be the HCP influencing the next decision.
Looking beyond billing events and drawing on richer clinical and diagnostic data can bring more of the patient’s care into view. It can also challenge assumptions about who matters, when they matter, and why.

Are we confusing the journey with the experience?

To rethink HCP engagement, we first need to distinguish the patient journey from the patient experience.
The patient’s journey captured in retrospective data tells us who the patient saw and what was billed. The experience is wider. It includes how the patient interacted with care, as well as the routes that were available but may not have been used.
That distinction raises a different strategic question. Instead of asking, “Who writes the prescription?” we should instead strive to ask, “How does this patient get treated?”
Starting with that question may reveal relevant HCPs, therapy-relevant diagnostic signals, and opportunities to engage that would otherwise remain blind in the traditional view. During my session, I will explore what this patient-first approach means in practice, including how clinical intent can be used in developing a more relevant view of the HCPs involved in care.

More data is not the same as better insight

Too often the default response is: “I need more data.” But more data without the right context, expertise, and question can create more confusion. For example, a laboratory result is just a number unless it is interpreted within the context of the disease and the patient’s care. 
The adoption of AI adds another dimension to this challenge. While it can help teams work across increasingly complex data with greater speed and scale, AI alone can’t determine which signals matter for your strategy?
The ways in which AI can support a patient-first approach, and where clinical context and human judgment remain essential, is one of the questions I will explore in Philadelphia.

From diagnostic data to more relevant HCP engagement

More data is not the same as better insight.
Understanding where eligible patients may be missed before treatment decisions are made creates an opportunity to connect engagement more closely to the clinical reality.
Diaceutics’ Intelligence and Engagement solutions turn diagnostic results into timely, targeted HCP insights, helping teams identify where eligible patients are being missed and act before treatment decisions are made.
Our goal is not simply to create another list, but to begin with a simple question: “How is this patient treated.” Only then, can we understand the HCPs most be involved in their care.

Join the conversation in Philadelphia

I will explore these questions in my talk “Patient First, Doctor Second: Rebuilding HCP Targeting Around the Patient Experience” at Reuters Pharma Customer Engagement USA on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, from 2:10-2:30 p.m.
The session will challenge traditional assumptions about claims-led targeting and ask what changes when we start with the patient experience. I will also consider the role richer data, clinical intent, and AI could play in reshaping HCP engagement. Come with your questions, and be ready to ask whether your targeting strategy is starting in the right place.
Book a meeting with the Diaceutics team to discuss how our Intelligence and Engagement solutions turn diagnostic results into timely, targeted HCP engagement, helping teams identify where eligible patients are being missed and act before treatment decisions are made.