Client

Oracle

Oracle is the largest business software company in the world. Through its Health Sciences business unit, Oracle helps pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies – as well as integrated delivery networks and healthcare organization – discover, develop, and market innovative products and services that prevent and cure disease, enhance quality of life, and meet shareholder expectations.

Situation

In April 2004, former President George Bush announced an executive order that called for healthcare providers to adopt Electronic Health Records (EHR) by 2014. As part of this Federal initiative, the Bush administration created the Office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator – tasked with developing a strategic plan to achieve that objective.

Oracle wanted to ride the wave of growing interest in EHRs and promote its critical role in supporting the interoperability required for effective EHR initiatives at the healthcare industry’s premier IT event – the annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, attended by more than 25,000 healthcare and IT professionals. To cut through the product-focused media clutter of this vendor-packed event, O'Keeffe – Company proposed that Oracle pursue an innovative disruptive research initiative focused on the medical community's perception of the feasibility of EHR implementation in the United States.

Challenges

Oracle's objectives for the survey were to:

• Raise visibility of the vital role that Oracle and its technology offerings play in EHR initiatives, including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) prototypes
• Cut through clutter at HIMSS, which typically features more than 500 vendors
• Enable Oracle to frame the market in Oracle-centric terms, by placing the company at the epicenter of EHR-related dialogue

Solution

O'Keeffe & Company, on behalf of Oracle:

• Developed and conducted a disruptive research study, "Temperature Check – Healthcare Provider Community Perceptions on the Road to Electronic Health Records," focused on the state of EHR implementation in the United States and the feasibility of the 2014 EHR timeline
• Launched an online survey, which provided content for the report, to 10,072 healthcare business and IT executives
• Crafted a stand-alone report presenting and analyzing the results and a press release as the go-to-market tools, leading with findings that indicated the majority of providers were committed to implementing EHRs and had confidence in the U.S. meeting the 2014 EHR implementation target
• Conducted extensive media outreach in advance of and post show—freeing Oracle executives to focus on sales and marketing at the event
• Achieved coverage in nearly 40 publications, ranging from healthcare and public sector trades to business publications, including Investor's Business Daily, InformationWeek, Health Data Management, Federal Computer Week, and Government Health IT
• Positioned Oracle as an industry thought leader in the healthcare market
• Garnered interest from the HHS Office of Health Information Technology, Health Resources and Services Administration, which requested permission to reference the study results in upcoming public forums, such as presentations to House of Representatives staff, as a way to encourage community health centers to lead the charge for EHR implementations