Point-of-Care (POC) marketing is expanding rapidly with an annual growth rate of 22%. A 2025 report by a leading organization for Point-of-Care channel estimates that the total industry spend is estimated to be higher than USD 1 billion, after having witnessed a mammoth 171% increase from 2019 to 2023.[1]
With its ability to deliver personalized messages to healthcare professionals (HCPs) at critical decision points of healthcare journeys, Point-of-Care advertising is set to grow exponentially in the years ahead.
Let’s take a closer look at POC marketing and why it matters for pharma marketers.
What is Point-of-Care Marketing?
Point-of-Care marketing, as the name suggests, is advertising at the point where HCPs deliver care to the patients, that is, in the hospitals, examination rooms, and pharmacies. Point-of-Care (POC) marketing is used by pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations to promote new medications, therapies, and devices and is targeted at healthcare professionals.
POC marketing for HCPs is accomplished through trigger-based messaging delivered as images, texts, prompts, presentations, or video files displayed on a set of technologies HCPs use to deliver healthcare to patients. These comprise electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine or telehealth platforms, and electronic prescribing platforms (eRx).
Pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations reach out to HCPs using state-of-the-art technologies that leverage big data, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing (NLP), such as Doceree, to deliver the right message to the right HCP at the right moment.
Why POC marketing matters in today’s healthcare landscape?
POC marketing has become critical for pharma advertising as advanced technological changes have shifted the discharge of healthcare delivery to digital medium, such as EHRs and telehealth. Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst, declining HCP-pharma rep gatherings and accelerating the adoption of digital technologies. Together, they have radically changed the landscape of pharma advertising.
The expansion of telemedicine and virtual consultations also led to important prescribing and therapeutic decisions being made in digital settings, rather than in conventional in-person exchanges. In fact, HCPs now spend about 6 hours daily on POC platforms and approximately 16 minutes per patient on EHRs. Hence, it is a natural and logical choice to employ POC for effective HCP engagement and building brand trust.
Moreover, POC marketing makes it possible to deliver messages that are not only relevant to the clinical question at hand, but are also embedded within the HCP’s digital workflow, thereby facilitating informed clinical choices and, ultimately, superior patient outcomes.
Learn more about POC messaging in our white paper 7 Points of Point-of-Care Messaging.
Why POC advertising outperforms traditional HCP engagement
POC advertising outperforms traditional HCP engagement simply because it offers contextual, relevant, and trigger-based messages at the precise moment they are required by the HCPs. EHR POC advertising lets pharma brands position themselves within the digital context of HCPs by embedding their messages within EHRs, telehealth, and e-Rx platforms based on the patient profile of HCPs.
Thus, POC messages are appropriately timed, tailored to the HCP’s needs, and correspond to their patient’s clinical information.
For example, within an EHR:
- A message on recommended diagnostic testing might pop up when the HCP has viewed a patient’s medical history and is ordering tests.
- A message on drug to consider might pop up when the doctor is prescribing.
Since these POC messages are based on AI and NLP trained systems, they are highly accurate and provide much needed support to HCPs in decision making.
In contrast, traditional messages preceded or followed HCP-patient clinical encounters and lacked the precision that POC provides. Furthermore, traditional marketing was also sometimes promotional, irrelevant, and non-personalized.
Learn more on how POC marketing outperforms traditional pharma marketing. Read our whitepaper 7 Points of Point-of-Care Messaging.
What are the benefits of POC advertising for HCPs
POC marketing has demonstrated clear advantages in enhancing healthcare decisions at critical moments of HCP journeys. POC communications embed critical information into existing workflows, enhancing HCP decision-making and improving patient outcomes.
POC advertising helps HCPs in the following ways:
- Supports HCPs by delivering evidence-based medicine
- Provides clinical decision support
- Reduces cognitive load by integrating essential information within existing workflows
- Delivers timely, within-workflow updates, without disrupting patient consultations
- Facilitates faster decision-making
- Improves treatment affordability and adherence by delivering co-pay coupons
- Keeps HCPs informed about new drug launches and market withdrawals
What are the benefits of POC advertising for pharma marketers
POC advertising can go a long way in helping pharma brands strengthen their relationship with HCPs by helping them render better patient care. With in-built compliance safeguards for regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR, POC advertising allows brands to communicate with HCPs without any risks of privacy breaches or regulatory violations.
POC advertising help pharma marketers to:
- Build HCP-brand relationship
- Strengthen competitive positioning
- Improve brand recall
- Support compliance and credibility
Pharma marketers also benefit from POC advertising, as:
- Script lift is 32% higher with trigger-based messaging
- Script generation is 3x on POC than on other online mediums
Thus, POC marketing supports HCP clinical decision-making while maximising brand impact at the most critical touchpoints.
Learn how POC marketing can help pharma marketers build HCP trust by supporting them in their decision making. Read 7 Points of Point-of-Care Messaging.
When should brands use POC advertising?
Point-of-Care advertising generates its highest returns when it reaches pivotal clinical decision-making moments in the HCP journey. Pharmaceutical organizations and life sciences organizations must opt for POC advertising in the following cases:
- New product launches
- New indications or expanded use of drugs or medications
- Periodic surges in conditions to ensure brand visibility during established seasonal treatment windows
- Continuous brand reinforcement to maintain stable prescribing patterns
- Disease awareness to support HCPs in their practice and build brand value
The growing POC advertising market: trends & forecasts
POC marketing has shown monumental growth in the last few years. It has become an important channel that aligns clinicians’ priorities with brand goals. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) will further elevate POC’s performance.
A quick look at the POC market size and how it is projected to grow in the next few years:
- POC market size
- POC spend reached $803M in 2023, up 171% since 2019 [1]
- Total industry spend in 2025 is estimated to be higher than USD 1 billion [1]
- The POC market is growing at an annual growth rate of 22%[2]
- Forecast [3]
- Contextual advertising is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.3% from 2024 to 2030
How Doceree powers intelligent, compliant POC marketing
Doceree is the only marketing platform with patented patented Trigger™ technology that enables programmatic delivery of real-time messages triggered by clinical data in Point-of-Care workflows at scale. With 150+ direct integrations with leading EHRs & health systems, it enables hypertargeting of HCPs with hyperpersonalized and contextual messages, delivered with precision. Doceree’s AI-powered ESPYIAN identity resolution enables deterministic, consented signals to reach HCPs precisely while meeting HIPAA/GDPR and NPP requirements.
Learn more about POC, powered by Doceree.
References
- Point-of-Care Marketing Association & M3 MI. (2025, January). The changing healthcare landscape and the rise of POC marketing. https://cdn.sanity.io/files/kcpkz60z/production/84ec12b1a1db9e74e580209de9c43baa45237de9.pdf
- Kantar Media. (2016). MARS Consumer Health Study (commissioned by The Point-of-Care Communication Council). In The Evolution of Point-of-Care Marketing in Pharma (ZS Associates report). ZS Associates. Retrieved from https://pocmarketing.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Evolution-of-Point-of-Care-Marketing-in-Pharma-ZS-study.pdf
- Grand View Research. (2024). Contextual advertising market… 2024–2030. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/contextual-advertising-market-report