epocrates and DeepIntent announced on May 26, 2026, a partnership that makes the epocrates clinical platform programmatically accessible to demand-side platform (DSP) buyers for the first time. The deal positions DeepIntent as the first DSP to activate ad campaigns directly inside the epocrates clinician workflow - a distinction that carries practical meaning for pharmaceutical and life sciences advertisers who have long struggled to reach healthcare professionals (HCPs) at the moment prescribing decisions are made.

The announcement arrived during a week in which DeepIntent disclosed three separate point-of-care supply partnerships in quick succession, a pattern that PPC Land noted as part of a broader escalation in the company's effort to make in-workflow clinical inventory accessible within standard programmatic workflows. The epocrates deal was the first of the three to surface publicly.

What epocrates is and why it matters to media buyers

epocrates has operated since 1998 as a clinical reference tool for healthcare professionals. According to epocrates, the platform today actively serves more than one million clinicians - physicians, nurses, and pharmacists among them - who use it to access drug prescribing information, safety data, and other clinical content at the point of care. The company, which is an athenahealth, Inc. subsidiary, describes itself as the number one medical reference app for over a decade.

The scale is significant. More than one million active, prescribing clinicians is a substantial authenticated audience. Those clinicians generate hundreds of thousands of daily drug reference interactions, creating a stream of intent signals that closely reflects the clinical decision-making process. A drug lookup in epocrates is not an ambient signal - it is a clinician actively checking dosing, contraindications, or prescribing guidelines immediately before or during a patient encounter. That behavioral specificity is what makes the inventory attractive to pharmaceutical brands, which typically pay premium prices to reach verified HCPs in contextually relevant environments.

The challenge until now has been access. epocrates' advertising inventory was not connected to standard programmatic infrastructure. Campaigns within the platform had to be managed through direct or managed-service arrangements, which limited which brands could buy it, how efficiently they could do so, and how easily it could be combined with other supply in an omnichannel campaign.

How the partnership changes the technical setup

According to epocrates and DeepIntent, the partnership creates the first programmatic access to the epocrates environment through a DSP integration. DeepIntent, which describes itself as the leading healthcare demand-side platform, connects advertisers to the epocrates inventory through its existing programmatic infrastructure.

The technical capabilities unlocked by the integration include reaching verified HCPs within their natural workflow, leveraging real-time contextual signals including drug lookups and clinical activity, activating campaigns within a logged-in, brand-safe environment, and engaging audiences at moments when prescribing behavior may be directly influenced.

The phrase "logged-in environment" carries weight in programmatic contexts. Much of the open-web programmatic ecosystem depends on probabilistic identifiers that are increasingly unreliable following browser privacy changes and the deprecation of third-party cookies. A platform where clinicians log in to access clinical content provides deterministic identity - the user is known, verified, and authenticated. This makes audience matching more accurate and reduces the risk of reaching non-HCPs in a campaign intended for clinicians.

According to epocrates, the platform's model is built around clinical utility, real-time intent, and deterministic HCP identity. That stands in contrast to much of the point-of-care advertising market, which has historically been defined by place-based media - screens and placements physically located in clinical settings such as waiting rooms or exam rooms. epocrates represents an in-workflow model: the clinician is using the tool as part of their practice regardless of physical location.

"For years, healthcare programmatic has focused on where care happens - not how decisions are made," said David Minkin, President and General Manager of epocrates. "Together with DeepIntent, we're changing that. This partnership brings programmatic access directly into the clinician workflow, enabling engagement at the moment clinical decisions are happening."

DeepIntent's position in the healthcare DSP market

DeepIntent was founded in 2016 by former data scientists from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with an explicit focus on healthcare advertising. The company describes its platform as purpose-built to unite media, identity, and real-world clinical data for privacy-safe, omnichannel marketing across every screen.

The business operates across both HCP and patient segments. Its technology reportedly includes patented methods for audience quality measurement and script lift - meaning it can track whether a campaign correlated with changes in prescribing behavior, which is the core metric pharmaceutical brands care about most.

In March 2026, DeepIntent launched a product called Helix, a HIPAA-compliant healthcare marketing cloud that opened its core data infrastructure - covering more than 3.7 million healthcare providers and over 240 million patient lives - to third-party partners. That product launch indicated a shift in strategy toward becoming an infrastructure provider, not just a DSP operator.

The epocrates partnership fits within that broader framework. By accessing high-intent, authenticated supply, DeepIntent can offer advertisers something its platform previously could not: in-workflow clinical inventory connected to real-time drug lookup behavior.

"Healthcare marketers have long sought more meaningful ways to engage clinicians in their day-to-day workflow and in the most trusted environments," said Nicole Alfonso, VP, Media Partners at DeepIntent. "Our partnership with epocrates unlocks a powerful new channel - bringing real-time clinical intent into programmatic buying for the first time - and expands DeepIntent's unique access to critical endemic inventory for our clients."

The signal specificity argument

The healthcare advertising industry has debated for years whether contextual signals available through digital channels are sufficient proxies for clinical intent. Display campaigns reaching HCPs through general audience buys or even through verified HCP networks do not necessarily catch those clinicians in relevant moments. A cardiologist seeing a banner ad while reading general news is a different proposition from the same cardiologist looking up a drug interaction within their clinical workflow.

According to epocrates, the platform's daily drug reference interactions create exactly that second type of signal. A drug lookup in the epocrates app is tied to a specific therapeutic area, a specific moment in clinical practice, and a verified clinician identity. When a campaign can be activated against that signal in real time, the advertiser is not relying on audience-level inference. The system knows the clinician is actively considering clinical decisions involving specific therapeutic categories.

This type of signal has been called "real-time intent" by both companies. The term is borrowed from search advertising terminology, where query-level signals indicate immediate purchase or research intent. Applied to healthcare, the concept suggests that a drug lookup functions somewhat like a search query - it is an explicit act of information-seeking about a specific clinical topic.

Life sciences brands have historically struggled to operationalize this kind of contextual signal at scale because the clinical workflow has been siloed from advertising technology. Electronic health records (EHR) and clinical reference tools have not, until recently, opened programmatic access to their inventory.

Competitive context in the point-of-care programmatic market

DeepIntent is not the first or only DSP pursuing this category. PulsePoint, owned by WebMD Health Corp., has made significant moves into point-of-care programmatic inventory. In May 2025, PulsePoint announced it had multiplied its point-of-care HCP reach by 10x through new EHR partnerships, gaining access to over 700,000 prescribers across ambulatory and health system settings. In January 2026, PulsePoint secured an exclusive EHR programmatic partnership with Flora Health, which at the time made it the only DSP with access to Flora Health's connected health system network.

DeepIntent's response appears coordinated. The epocrates announcement on May 26, 2026, was followed within days by a partnership with OptimizeRx and then a third deal with Lane4.io, announced May 28, 2026. Lane4.io is described as the first supply-side platform (SSP) purpose-built for EHR and health media advertising. That third deal adds reach across six EHR systems and 158,000 unique doctors, with NPI-level trigger-based messaging capability new to the DeepIntent platform.

NPI refers to the National Provider Identifier - the standardized identification number assigned to US healthcare providers. NPI-level targeting allows a campaign to reach a specific, named clinician at the moment a defined clinical event occurs, such as writing a prescription within a particular drug class. The capability represents a meaningful increase in targeting precision compared to broad HCP segment buys.

The three announcements within a single week are not standard practice for a DSP. They signal a deliberate push to establish DeepIntent's inventory offering as comprehensive across the point-of-care spectrum - covering an authenticated clinical reference tool, an EHR-integrated network, and purpose-built supply-side infrastructure.

The competitive dynamics within healthcare programmatic have broader implications for digital advertising. PPC Land has previously reported on how Google's own policy adjustments in late 2025 - including deprecating the Restricted Medical Content label for prescription drug ads while maintaining certification requirements - reflect the growing complexity of pharmaceutical advertising across digital platforms.

What the partnership means for healthcare marketers

For pharmaceutical brand teams and their media agencies, the partnership opens a previously inaccessible inventory type within a familiar programmatic workflow. Campaigns in DeepIntent's DSP can now include epocrates as a placement - meaning media planners can incorporate in-workflow clinical inventory alongside other digital channels through a single buying interface.

According to DeepIntent, the integration combines epocrates' exclusive access to in-workflow clinical moments with DeepIntent's healthcare-specific demand, privacy-safe targeting, and omnichannel optimization capabilities. The combined offering creates what the companies describe as a new category of programmatic opportunity.

The privacy-safe framing is notable. Healthcare advertising operates under regulatory constraints that do not apply to consumer categories. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs how patient-level health information can be used, and healthcare DSPs are required to demonstrate compliance frameworks that consumer-focused platforms do not need. The logged-in, authenticated environment at epocrates means campaigns can be targeted using deterministic HCP identity rather than patient health data, which sidesteps some of the more sensitive HIPAA constraints.

DeepIntent's broader data infrastructure - which it began opening to third parties through its Helix platform in March 2026- spans real-world clinical data as well as media data, giving the company the ability to measure outcomes in terms that healthcare marketers care about most: whether campaigns correlate with changes in prescribing behavior, a metric referred to in the industry as script lift.

"The future of healthcare marketing lies in aligning with real clinical decision-making moments," said Minkin. "By partnering with DeepIntent, epocrates is extending its role as the decisive decision platform into real-time programmatic activation - unlocking a new level of precision and performance for endemic media."

Roadmap signals

According to epocrates, the partnership represents a foundational step in a broader innovation roadmap. The company says it plans to continue expanding how programmatic advertising can support more precise and contextually relevant engagement with healthcare professionals. No specific product milestones or timelines beyond that were disclosed in the announcement.

For DeepIntent, the integration with epocrates is part of a visible push to build out what it describes as the industry's richest marketplace of point-of-care and endemic inventory. The company has also expanded into connected television and audio over the past year. In September 2025, DeepIntent launched its HealthFirst Audio Package, which added premium digital audio inventory from iHeartMedia and SiriusXM and positioned the company as the first major healthcare DSP to unify CTV and audio under a single suite.

The momentum across supply, identity, and measurement reflects a healthcare ad tech sector that is consolidating quickly around a small number of platforms capable of offering both scale and compliance. Whether the epocrates inventory delivers the prescribing-behavior outcomes that life sciences brands expect will take time to assess - the deal was announced weeks ago and campaign data at scale has not yet been reported publicly.

Timeline

  • 1998 - epocrates founded; begins providing clinical reference tools to healthcare professionals
  • 2016 - DeepIntent founded by former data scientists from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • 2020 - DeepIntent launches the healthcare industry's first programmatic Connected TV Marketplace
  • May 2025 - PulsePoint multiplies its point-of-care HCP reach by 10x through new EHR partnerships, gaining access to over 700,000 prescribers
  • August 21, 2025 - DeepIntent announces HealthFirst FAST Package for healthcare streaming ads
  • September 30, 2025 - DeepIntent launches HealthFirst Audio Package, partnering with iHeartMedia and SiriusXM, unifying CTV and audio for healthcare advertising
  • January 22, 2026 - PulsePoint announces exclusive EHR programmatic partnership with Flora Health, becoming the only DSP able to access Flora Health's connected health system network
  • March 19, 2026 - DeepIntent launches Helix, a HIPAA-compliant healthcare marketing cloud covering 3.7 million healthcare providers and 240 million patient lives
  • May 26, 2026 - epocrates and DeepIntent announce their partnership, making epocrates' clinical inventory programmatically accessible through a DSP for the first time
  • May 28, 2026 - DeepIntent announces partnership with Lane4.io, completing a set of three point-of-care deals within the same week; PPC Land covers all three deals together

Summary

Who: epocrates, an athenahealth, Inc. company, and DeepIntent, a healthcare demand-side platform founded in 2016.

What: A first-of-its-kind programmatic partnership that makes epocrates' clinical advertising inventory accessible through a DSP for the first time. DeepIntent becomes the first DSP to activate campaigns within the epocrates environment, enabling advertisers to reach over one million active, prescribing clinicians using real-time contextual signals such as drug lookups and clinical activity.

When: Announced May 26, 2026.

Where: The integration operates within the epocrates app and platform, used by clinicians across the United States at the point of care. DeepIntent is headquartered in New York.

Why: Clinical advertising inventory within in-workflow platforms like epocrates has historically been siloed from programmatic infrastructure, available only through direct or managed-service arrangements. The partnership addresses a structural limitation in healthcare marketing by connecting high-intent, authenticated HCP inventory to standard programmatic buying workflows - allowing pharmaceutical and life sciences brands to reach verified clinicians in real-time clinical moments through the same DSP infrastructure they use for other digital channels.

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