Complex Cohort Identification Fuels Real-Time HCP Targeting

A large manufacturer preparing for the launch of its new oncology therapy sought a deeper understanding of the specific disease state. The company’s market access team wanted to track specialist referral patterns and determine the average time between diagnosis and treatment. The manufacturer also needed to identify patients who were potentially eligible for its product, along with their prescribing providers. Working with Norstella, the company:

Identified high-risk patients using integrated real-world data
Mapped specialist referral patterns and treatment timelines
Enabled real-time HCP targeting with AI-powered insights

Key Results

Enabled Real-Time HCP Targeting at Scale

Challenge

As the oncology therapy treats two separate conditions, the manufacturer realized it would need to stratify patients by tumor type and disease progression in order to identify the right patient cohorts. The pharma company also hoped to determine the top treating providers by specialty in order to guide its HCP education and targeting efforts.

The manufacturer reached out to Norstella, who recommended leveraging its integrated real-world data assets, powered by NorstellaLinQ, to accomplish its goals. The longitudinal claims, labs, and EHR data would allow for broad identification of patients impacted by each condition, along with stratification by tumor type.

Solution

First, Norstella data analysts worked to capture a five-year historical record of patients diagnosed with the cancer in question. The team used diagnostic and procedure codes from claims and EHR data to extract this population, along with lab test results that revealed tumor biology. As claims do not always specify a diagnosis, the team used data curation to comb through unstructured clinical notes within its EHR data—surfacing ten times as many patients as claims data alone.

Next, the team created complex patient segments to sort patients based on where they were in their treatment journey. Segmentation included criteria such as surgery, diagnosis timeline, tumor grading, and disease progression. The analysts worked closely with the manufacturer on category definitions to best pinpoint its patients of interest.

Outcome

With NorstellaLinQ, the manufacturer delivered more than 2,000 actionable Trigger Alerts and identified 800 newly diagnosed high-risk patients. There was a 90% provider match rate for confident, targeted outreach and improved alignment between brand strategy and field execution.

“Since we moved from another vendor and started working with Norstella, we’ve seen over $800 million in ROI,” the company’s associate director said. “It’s by far the most impactful project I’ve ever been a part of, and I was impressed by the strength of Norstella’s real-world data and the creativity of their clinical and AI teams.”

Alerts guided HCP conversations based on real-time eligibility and patient status. The initiative not only supported tactical execution, it validated the brand’s highrisk profile definition and opened doors for expanded use cases. Norstella’s depth of data unlocked clinical insights from EHR, labs, and claims that were not available through claims alone, and alerts were aligned to brandspecific inclusion/ exclusion logic. Triggers were delivered within three to six days of a clinical encounter and supported future applications including segmentation, nonpersonal promotion, and omnichannel strategy.

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Frequently asked questions

Everything You Need to Know

How does real-time HCP targeting improve oncology product launches?

Real-time HCP targeting helps pharmaceutical companies identify providers treating eligible patients, enabling more timely outreach, stronger field execution and better alignment between commercial strategy and healthcare provider engagement.

How did Norstella identify eligible oncology patient cohorts?

Norstella combined longitudinal claims, EHR data, laboratory results and unstructured clinical notes to identify patients, stratify them by tumor type and disease progression, and build highly specific patient cohorts for commercial targeting.

What are AI-powered Trigger Alerts, and how do they work?

Trigger Alerts notify commercial teams when patients meet brand-specific eligibility criteria or important clinical events occur. These real-time insights help sales and brand teams engage the right healthcare providers while patients are still eligible for treatment.

Why are unstructured clinical notes important for patient identification?

By analyzing unstructured clinical notes alongside claims and EHR data, Norstella identified 10 times more patients than claims data alone, providing a more complete view of disease progression and treatment eligibility.

What results did the manufacturer achieve with NorstellaLinQ?

The manufacturer delivered more than 2,000 actionable Trigger Alerts, identified 800 newly diagnosed high-risk patients, achieved a 90% provider match rate, improved alignment between brand strategy and field execution, and reported more than $800 million in ROI after switching to Norstella.