Posted by Brian Berg Google+
To better understand the types of medical mailing lists available on the market today, you must first understand how the mailing list is compiled. Medical Mailing Lists can be categorized in two ways; consumer’s mailing lists of people suffering from an ailment, or a licensed professional’s mailing list of people employed in a medical profession.
Ailment, OTC Drug, and Rx Mailing List Compilation
This mailing list includes self-reported information on a variety ailments, OTC (Over the counter) drugs used for the treatment of ailments, and prescription drugs used for these ailments. All mailing list information on the mainstream market is HIPPA compliant as the only information that can be captured and resold for direct mail marketing purposes are those that are self-reported by the sufferer themselves. So you can imagine that for every ailment sufferer that willingly self-reports their illness or prescription usage, there are a much larger database of sufferers that never make it onto a mailing list that’s found within the direct marketing industry.
Licensed Professionals Mailing List Compilation
This mailing list includes those licensed professionals who register themselves with the state in order to hold a license and practice their profession. Therefore, the licensed professionals mailing list is only as good as the state reports. Should someone change professions, this change in profession doesn’t register with the state until time of renewal. The assumption is made that the vast majority of doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who get into the practice, usually stay in this profession until retirement. Each year, most states require most professionals to renew their license making it easy to identify and omit those professionals getting who are no longer practicing. Additionally, it’s worth noting that when someone on the mailing list relocates to a new address, so long as this person fills out a National Change Of Address and the mailing list owner passes their mailing list against the NCOA database, the new address field would be corrected and accurate.
Dentist Mailing List
One of the more popular mailing lists is Dentists from the ADA. This mailing list includes who are members and non-members of the ADA. The selects on this mailing list include the type of practice, demographic information such as age and income, and some education information such as the dental school and graduation year. The mailing list also includes the preferred mailing address of the dentist. The ADA requires a sample mail piece before using the list. DO's from the AOA is a good source for hospitals targeting specific professionals within the hospital, HMO and PPO decision makers, nursing home management decision makers, group medical practice by group size, and pharmacies and pharmacists.
This is certainly not all but gives you an ideal of the mailing list data available from the AOA. Other popular health professionals are audiologists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, counselors, dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental radiographers, dieticians, massage therapists, midwives, nursing assistants, nursing home administrators, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists and assistants, opticians/optometrists, paramedics, pharmacists, physician assistants, physical therapists and assistants, practical nurses, RN’s and LPN’s, social workers, speech/language therapists, and veterinarians.